Skip to content
Latest updates

New ethical audit tool to support boards and leaders available

News
07/05/2021

To support governing boards and school leaders through a reflective ethical audit, the National Governance Association (NGA) has today (7 May) released a new interactive e-learning module.

Joining the suite of resources to help schools and trusts embed ethical leadership into practice, this module introduces the idea of the Framework for Ethical Leadership in Education and allows boards and the leadership team to plan how they can further the impact and influence of the Framework on the children and young people in their setting. It contains over 100 examples of effective actions pathfinders tested in embedding the Framework into the everyday life of their school/trust.

The module, available through Learning Link, will help boards and other school leaders to:

  • Be able to identify how the school or trust embeds the ethical leadership principles in practice
  • Identify which principles need further development and establish ways of measuring the success of this development over time
  • Be able to use reflective practice and develop examples as a leadership team as evidence of ethical leadership

The RAG (red-amber-green) rated audit tool creates a printable version which can be used as a reference document for the future.

The module builds on the Framework for Ethical Leadership in Education, which NGA has endorsed and promoted since its inception in 2019. NGA’s recent ‘Paving the way for ethical leadership in education’ report records and shares how the Framework was used in practice in different school contexts, phases and types by pathfinders.

Commenting on the publication of the module, Emma Knights, chief executive of the National Governance Association said:

“Ethical governance is one of the three pillars of good governance alongside effective governance and accountable governance. The Framework for Ethical Leadership in Education gives confidence to governing boards and leaders who face difficult decisions or are setting a culture of ethical debate and practice across their school and trust. The ethical leadership pathfinders highlighted the importance of taking stock of ethical practice and many found NGA’s audit a useful catalyst for boards and leadership teams to reflect on what this meant. I am pleased that we have now developed an interactive e-learning version of that audit which can underpin the work of schools and trusts, formulating a statement of intent to which governing boards may hold themselves.”

Login or subscribe to Learning Link to take the module