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Governing board roles

Role descriptions for governors and trustees

Use and adapt our role descriptions to support board induction, recruitment and ongoing development.

Tools & templates
08/04/2024

Effective governing boards have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities. We therefore recommend that all boards adopt role descriptions to support governor and trustee recruitment, to include in induction packs, and as a tool for ongoing development.

Our model role descriptions refer to all the main roles and responsibilities and can be adapted to suit the context of your governing board.

The role descriptions cover:

  • the purpose and functions of governing boards
  • governing board strategic responsibilities
  • monitoring an evaluating school performance
  • panels and committees
  • contribution to the governing board
  • expenses

These role descriptions have been updated to take account of the Department for Education (DfE) new governance guides.

Maintained school governor role description

MS Word download

Trustee role description

MS Word download

MAT local governor role description

MS Word download

More governing board roles

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Role description for governing board chairs
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The staff governor role
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The parent governor role

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