Staffing: our position | National Governance Association

Those governing will usually be the legal employer of their staff or will exercise employer responsibilities on behalf of another organisation like the local authority. This establishes a series of responsibilities around recruitment, renumeration and wellbeing. Boards will work most closely with their organisation’s executive leader – the CEO or headteacher depending on their structure – but should have mechanisms in place for engagement with the whole staffing body.

In appointing the CEO or headteacher, the governing board sets the scene for the day-to-day leadership and management of the school. Governing boards need to be properly trained to ensure that they are equipped to make this most vital of decisions, and should take external support when appropriate.

Governing boards have a clear strategic role to play in appointments at senior leadership level (CEOs/headteachers, deputy/assistant executive leaders and school business manager), but all other appointments should be delegated to the CEO/headteacher. Having set out its vision for the trust or school, put in place a strategy of how this will be achieved and appointed a CEO/headteacher to deliver the strategy, the governing board should then trust the CEO/headteacher to make other appointment decisions for the school without the involvement of trustees or governors. Those governing do have an important role in ensuring proper recruitment procedures are in place, so that schools and trusts recruit in an objective and transparent manner.

Similar principles apply to the performance management of staff and pay awards. Boards will only directly manage and agree pay awards for executive leaders, trusting their leaders to handle the management of more junior staff. They will, however, put in place clear policies for their organisation’s approach to pay and appraisal, and scrutinise the application of these policies, as part of the board’s responsibilities as the employer.

With their over-arching responsibility for the financial well-being of the trust or school, trustees/governors must ensure that there is appropriate financial expertise within the staff of the trust or school. They should seek to appoint a properly qualified/trained CFO or business manager to help to ensure that their finite resources are used in the most effective way possible. As trusts get larger, they will increasingly bring additional expertise in house too, such as HR, estates and governance itself.

NGA is concerned about the sector’s ongoing challenges with the recruitment and retention of staff, from leaders to teachers and support staff. Causes include the erosion of real-terms pay and concerns around workload as part of the ever-growing demands on our schools. NGA calls on the government to address these challenges with a long-term people strategy for the sector.

NGA is also keen to ensure that executive leaders appreciate the role of governance, and so are ready to work constructively with their boards. To achieve this, we continue to work with the government so professional development frameworks, e.g. NPQs, include sufficient governance content.