Bath Research

Overloaded, overcomplicated and overlooked - that’s the state of school governance according to the largest ever study of the subject.

The Bath University report presented at a Business in the Community conference in October highlights worrying areas of poor performance:

Too many governors (60 per cent) get involved with operational matters
Some governing bodies shy away from challenging headteachers (only 72 per cent really probe into a school’s performance)
A fifth (18 per cent) do not plan strategically for the long or medium term
A quarter (25 per cent) do not review their own performance regularly

The Bath research was commissioned by Business in the Community and carried out in a very short time frame over the summer. The NGA assisted with the research, both in terms of the questionnaire design and with the promotion of the exercise to governors and governing bodies.

The Bath researchers used a web survey to canvass the views of governors. This part of the exercise caused some headaches for the NGA. The website did not function well for some would-be respondents, and NGA headquarters fielded quite a few complaints; but 5000 governors did puzzle their way through the questions, making the Bath survey the largest survey of governor opinion for some time.

Bath’s researchers also interviewed 43 key ‘stakeholders’ - including members of the NGA Board - and 42 headteachers.

The Bath study emphasises that school governance generally works well: 86.4 per cent of respondents thought that their body worked very effectively. Headteachers were a little less positive - 75 per cent agreed with this view. These figures are broadly comparable with Ofsted’s judgments of governance over the years.

But there are clearly problems to be addressed, and the bulk of the blame is pinned on the uncontrolled growth in workload. Governing bodies, the research found, have too many responsibilities; their work is complex, difficult and demanding; and the importance of their role and the work that they do has received insufficient recognition.

Both the University of Bath study and the Business in the Community report agree on some fundamental proposals:

The responsibilities of governors should be reduced
Their role should be simplified
There should be greater public recognition of their work.
Professional clerking is essential. To raise their status, training for the job should be mandatory
Induction training for new governors and chairs should also be mandatory

NINE WAYS TO ENSURE BETTER GOVERNING BODIES

A Business in the Community report following the Bath research recommends nine measures for the Government to consider.

Clarify and simplify the role of the governing body, with a focus on forming strategy for its school;
Relax the stakeholder model, to allow more recruitment on the basis of skills that governors might have;
Skills audits and self-assessment to be mandatory
Professional clerks, with accredited training
Better recruitment methods for new governors
Quicker placement of volunteer governors to schools
Mandatory induction training for new governors and chairs
A national recruiting campaign, in part aimed at employers
Greater public recognition and celebration of the work of governors

Download the full Bath research report >here<

The full BITC report, which is a very large PDF file, can be found >here<

Stephen Adamson's full article in The TES on this issue can be found >here<

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