Why removing the obligation to elect parent governors has given schools an important freedom
Schools need to make sure that their governors are the best people for the job – whether they have children or not, says Janet Scott
- by Janet Scott
Earlier this year, Nicky Morgan made the controversial announcement that parent governors will lose their guaranteed places on school governing bodies. Opponents argued that the move was an ‘attack on parents’, undermining their views and voices.
The change is certainly a significant one. It marks an end to 30 years of protected roles for parents on each and every governing body. But is the backlash justified? After scores of complaints, David Cameron stepped forward to defend the decision, denying that it would mark the end of parent governors. So what, then, is the point of the change?
At SGOSS we’ve been recruiting governors for 16 years. We think this change reflects how far schools have come in parental engagement, and how much further they will have to go to face the challenges of the education sector.
Engagment issues
Parents haven’t always been part of governing boards. Prior to the 1970s, many parents rarely communicated with their children’s school beyond attending parents’ evenings and sports days. The line between home and school was clearly defined. In some cases there was even a literal line at the school gate, which parents were instructed not to cross.
A new movement to engage parents with teachers saw campaigners argue for the benefits of having parents involved in schools, showing that it led to better results educationally and behaviourally. Schools began including parents on governing boards for the first time in the 1970s, and following successful school improvement they were made compulsory for every school in 1986.
Our culture is no longer one where it’s normal for parents to only speak to their child’s teacher once a year. At the other end of the spectrum, we now have the common stereotype of the middle class ‘pushy parent’, badgering their school to improve. Cooperation between schools and parents is a challenge, but no longer a crisis. On this point, at least, the role of parent governors has been a big success.
Freedom to choose
With the requirement for parent governors removed, will we see an end to parents on governing boards? The answer is a clear no. One reason is the cultural change described above. Parents are not going to drop their stake in their children’s education now that the lines of communication are so clearly established.
A second reason is that schools will still be able to set their own requirements for parent governors. The government’s decision wasn’t to scrap parents as governors altogether; rather, it gives schools the choice to keep the parent governor roles or open them up to a wider range of applicants. Many schools and multi-academy trusts will still opt to require parent governors, but they will also be able to choose not to.
The removal of the requirement to elect parent governors doesn’t mean parent governors will stop being elected. It means schools can exercise more freedom when deciding on the best people to govern them.
This is an important freedom, given the challenges faced by school governors – improvement targets, shrinking budgets, receding local authorities and keeping up with the pace of academisation. Governors are being asked to take on increasing responsibility, and schools need to find the best people for the job, by searching both inside and outside the school community.
Skilled support
At SGOSS, we’re seeing more demand from schools for skilled governors. Three quarters of schools now come to us asking for volunteers from a specific business background – usually financial, legal, or HR.
We target our governor recruitment at business partners, who supply us with talented people who want to give something back to the education sector. Crucially, this doesn’t exclude parents. A quarter of our volunteers have school-age children. Mums and dads with valuable work experience, on top of a personal stake in their school, are an asset to education.
Recruiting from businesses has helped us open up governance to a new source of valuable volunteers – young people. School governance has traditionally been a club for parents, experienced staff, and retirees. According to the NGA/TES survey 2015, 88% of school governors are aged 40 or over. Just 12% fit in the 22-year age bracket down to 18, the minimum age to be a school governor.
In comparison, half of the volunteers we recruit at SGOSS are under 40. 44% are aged 18-35. Most are young professionals looking to give back to the education sector, having benefited from a good education themselves. These dedicated and talented volunteers have a great deal to offer, as well as a great deal to learn from older, life-experienced colleagues on their school’s board.
The end of mandatory parent governors marks schools’ success in engaging parents. It also marks a new era of challenge for schools. It will be down to each governing board to use this freedom wisely, recruiting the best governors from a wide range of backgrounds, businesses, and age brackets.
Janet Scott is CEO at SGOSS – an independent charity dedicated to recruiting volunteers to serve on school governing bodies across England. For more information, visit www.sgoss.org.uk or follow @schoolgovnet
