Electing governors and trustees
Guidance and model documents for governance professionals
Governance professionals have an important role in the election of governors and trustees. Depending on your job description, this will be either or both:
- To advise and support the board to ensure that elections are conducted in line with the relevant procedures and good practice.
- To organise all or part of the election process. For instance, requesting nominations and conducting the count of ballot papers.
Download guide to electing governors and trustees (PDF)
Whatever the nature of your role, this guide will help you to fulfil it effectively. The guide covers:
- knowing your procedure
- establishing your role in the process
- being prepared
- running an informed election
- voting and secure voting
- an outline process
- a post-election checklist
Model election documents
Our model election documents can be used to construct the letters and forms which are part of the parent governor and trustee election process.
Download model election documents (MS Word)
The documents include:
- model nomination letter
- qualifications and disqualifications to serve as a trustee
- qualifications and disqualifications to serve as a maintained school governor
- model nomination form
- model ballot letter
- model ballot paper
Online voting methods
It is good practice for governance professionals to keep election procedures under review so that they can assure their boards that the procedures remain fit for purpose and up to date. This might lead to you proposing that procedures are updated to include online methods, such as voting by email.
Download information on online voting methods (PDF)
How to support the election process: e-learning module
Our How to support the recruitment, appointment, election and retirement of governors and trustees e-learning module is part of the Learning Link Introduction to Clerking programme. It provides a practical overview of how the governance professional supports the processes and can take on more responsibility for succession planning and helping find suitable board members.
Find out more about Introduction to Clerking e-learning
Further reading