Ofsted director calls for 'radical changes' to the role of school governors

Speaking at an education select committee evidence session on the role of school governing bodies, Mike Cladingbowl said the schools governance system needed “radical changes” to ensure that high standards are achieved across the country.

Cladingbowl argued that new “advanced skills governors” could help spread best practice between governing bodies, under plans to “look at different structures” and be “more creative” with the way in which governance services are delivered. He said such changes could mean that fewer school governors are needed overall.

“You could ensure that expertise in one governing body is deliberately and directly shared with another – a kind of advanced skills governor,” Cladingbowl said.

“You could have a smaller group of governors looking after a larger group of schools, either through a federation of schools or a federation of governors. It is possible to have a small number of governors who know what they’re doing. You don’t need large numbers, you just need key people”.

Neil Calvert, head teacher at Long Eaton School in Derbyshire, who also gave evidence to the committee, insisted that smaller and more professionalised governing bodies would only work if members were recruited from the local community.

“I’m wary,” he said. “It is possible for a governing body not to be rooted in the community and still be close to the community – by governors being involved in day-to-day events such as being part of panels reviewing fixed-term exclusions. But that’s hard if they’re not from within the community and there’s only a small number of them.”

From September last year, Ofsted introduced changes to schools inspections that included an increased focus on the role of schools’ governing bodies.