Exploring governance in Bexley schools
Creating a governor survey to give an overarching view of governance in Bexley is underway in the Workforce Development, Succession Planning and Governance sub-group. At its meeting on the 28th November 2019, members thought about risks in the system following the academisation process.
In recent years there have been significant and substantive changes to the roles of governing bodies and to their lines of accountability, as well as to the role of the professional clerk. With the added responsibilities now assigned to governors and the increased time commitment of the role, some schools are finding it difficult to recruit and retain new governors. The Local Authority’s awareness of all the risks is less keen than it has been previously as multi-academy trusts’ lines of accountability go through the Regional Schools Commissioner and they are not required to share information with Bexley.
The survey will be finalised at Governor Executive Forum in January 2020 and will go to all chairs of governing bodies including chairs of trustees in MATs.
Members also learnt that a governor handbook is being produced which will set out the governance models operating in Bexley and detail all of the support that is available.
