Careers with NGA
Why work at the National Governance Association?
At NGA, we believe that excellent school governance is the foundation of a fantastic education. By joining our team, you become an integral part of a dedicated, forward-thinking charity that directly influences and supports thousands of school governors, trustees, and governance professionals across England.
Here is why our staff love doing what they do, and why you will too.
We aren't just an organisation; we are a movement for educational excellence. Every piece of advice we give, every training session we deliver, and every campaign we run helps school leaders make better decisions for children and young people. Working here means knowing your daily efforts contribute to a brighter future for the next generation.
Explore our latest annual report to see what we’ve achieved, the impact we’ve made and how our work is helping strengthen governance for every school.
NGA's work is deeply meaningful to me. By supporting governors, trustees and governance professionals to be informed, skilled and effective, NGA helps ensure that children and young people across the country receive the education, opportunities and support they deserve.
Working at NGA brings together everything I have believed about education throughout my career. For more than 30 years, I have worked in education in a variety of roles, including teaching, supporting schools to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for children and young people, and contributing to school improvement services. Across all these roles, one consistent lesson has stayed with me: strong governance matters.
Throughout my career, I have seen first-hand the difference that effective challenge, support and accountability can make to children and young people's lives. When leaders are appropriately held to account for the quality of education, safeguarding and pupil outcomes, schools are more likely to maintain high standards and ambitious expectations for every learner. When this does not happen, it is often the most vulnerable children who suffer the consequences. Standards can slip, ambitions can be lowered, and opportunities for the next generation can be lost.
My conviction about the importance of governance was shaped early in my own governance journey. My first governance experience was in a Pupil Referral Unit that had been without a substantive headteacher for 18 months. The impact of this instability was evident. Incidents requiring the involvement of A&E services or the police were common, and the provision was struggling to meet the needs of the young people it served. However, I also witnessed the transformative power of governance. Governors stepped up, asked difficult questions, made courageous decisions and remained relentlessly focused on safeguarding and securing the best outcomes for children. The needs of the young people were placed above all else, and the unit and the futures of the young people in it quickly transformed.
That experience reinforced my belief that governance is not simply about oversight; it is about creating the critical conditions in which every child can succeed, particularly those facing the greatest challenges who deserve no less.
NGA's work is therefore deeply meaningful to me. By supporting governors, trustees and governance professionals to be informed, skilled and effective, NGA helps ensure that children and young people across the country receive the education, opportunities and support they deserve.
We practice what we preach. Just as we advocate for good governance and well-being in schools, we prioritise it within our own organisation.
We are a close-knit, passionate team that values diverse perspectives, open communication, and mutual respect.
NGA is deeply committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring every voice is heard and valued.
I am extremely grateful to work for an organisation like NGA whose culture genuinely recognises that people can give their best at work while also having important responsibilities and commitments outside it.
I am extremely grateful to work for an organisation like NGA whose culture genuinely recognises that people can give their best at work while also having important responsibilities and commitments outside it.
Given where I live, the flexibility to work from home, combined with the opportunity to work compressed hours in four days a week, has made a big difference to the balance between my professional and family life.
As the parent of a disabled son, that flexibility is particularly valuable, giving me greater capacity to be there for my family without compromising my commitment to my job.
I feel trusted to manage my time and responsibilities effectively, and that trust encourages me to be every bit as committed and productive in return.
It’s also given me a quality of working and family life that would be very hard to achieve in a less flexible organisation.
For me, this just shows how a supportive and adaptable workplace culture can benefit both employees and the organisation they work for.
Professional growth and development
We want you to thrive. The NGA is a learning organisation, and we actively invest in our people. Whether it is through attending conferences and events, or internal cross-department projects, we provide the tools and opportunities you need to progress in your career.
Each new opportunity has felt like an acknowledgement of what I had already developed and, at the same time, an opportunity to stretch myself a little further.
While I’m approaching half a decade at NGA, it can often feel like no time has passed at all. Much of this is down to the evolving career I’ve had at the organisation which has afforded me new opportunities for personal growth and development.
I joined NGA as a graduate on the advice team where I spent two years absorbing the wealth of knowledge from the service and applying what I had learned to real world governance queries from our members. I describe it as governance 101 – familiarising myself with the language of legislation, documentation and procedures that underpin the work of those governing and considering how best practice can be upheld in cases where lines are often blurred. Governance is, after all, people-centred business and it’s rarely the case that putting articles of association or governance regulations into practice is as straightforward as the government imagines.
Meanwhile, my interest in education policy developed and I was lucky enough to be given opportunities to support outputs that aligned with these interests relatively early on in my career. The room and flexibility I was given to explore the different aspects of the organisation ultimately validated my decision to pursue a Masters in Education while I continued to work part time. It was around this point that my role began to evolve too, as I moved towards more policy-facing work. The Masters gave me the space to step back and interrogate some of the bigger questions surrounding education, while my work at NGA kept those questions grounded in the realities facing schools and those governing them.
After completing my Master’s, I returned to full-time work as a Senior Policy and Impact Officer and soon found myself taking on another new challenge: line managing a graduate. Having joined the organisation as a graduate myself only a few years earlier, there was something particularly meaningful – as well as slightly daunting – about suddenly being responsible for supporting someone else at the beginning of their career. It was unfamiliar territory, but one I was keen to embrace, and it pushed me to develop a different set of skills around leadership and creating space for someone else to grow.
Looking back, I’m particularly grateful that my development at NGA hasn’t been limited to my professional interests or technical expertise. The qualities I bring as a person have also been recognised and trusted along the way. Each new opportunity has felt like an acknowledgement of what I had already developed and, at the same time, an opportunity to stretch myself a little further. Perhaps that is why five years can feel both substantial and strangely brief. When I think about the graduate who joined the advice team, learning the language of governance for the first time, and compare that with where I am now, an enormous amount has changed. There have been new roles, new academic perspectives, new responsibilities and plenty of challenges along the way. Yet, because each step has grown quite naturally from the one before it, somehow half a decade has passed in the blink of an eye.
Work-life balance & benefits
We understand that you have a life outside of work, and we want you to enjoy it. We offer a competitive and progressive benefits package designed to support your well-being:
Life
Pension
Employer contribution of 7%.
Employee contribution of 1%.
Family friendly leave
8 weeks full pay, 8 weeks half pay for those on maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
Health
Annual leave
25 days + 8 days bank holiday + 3 days Christmas closure.
Additional length of service days after 3 and 6 years service.
Medicash
A health cash plan designed to help our employees look after their everyday health and wellbeing.
Reimbursement for everyday health costs including standard dental check-ups, dental treatments, eye tests, glasses, contact lenses, and prescription charges.
Growth
Linkedin Learning
An online platform providing all employees with unlimited access to thousands of expert-led video courses spanning business, technology, and creative skills.
Development culture
Unlock your potential through direct ownership of meaningful work and continuous skill-building.
Environment
Hybrid/Remote working culture
We spend 2 days a week together in the office to spark creativity, share ideas, and build team spirit. The rest of the week is yours to tackle deep-focus work from your home office.
Fully remote schedules are tied to specific job requirements and location.
Boutique office
Enjoy a vibrant, office in Birmingham City Centre complete with an on-site gym, roof top terrace to enjoy the sun, and endless free coffee to fuel your day.
