This section gives an overview of the legal framework in which governing bodies of maintained schools and the board of an academy trust must operate. The regulations and documents listed in this guidance provide the legal requirements that the school’s governance arrangements must comply with, particularly in relation to how the membership of the board is decided, how meetings will be held and how decisions will be made. If you are ever in doubt about a procedural aspect of governance, the answer will often lie in one of these documents; if you need some help in locating them, your clerk should be able to point you in the right direction. This page gives an overview of the purpose of each of the documents, and explains their key applications in practice.