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Volunteers’ Week 2025: You Make Governance Work

Celebrating Volunteers’ Week 2025. A heartfelt thank you to the thousands of governance volunteers driving improvement, ambition, and opportunity in our schools and trusts.

Blog
02/06/2025

I want to take the opportunity of Volunteers' Week to express NGA’s sincere thanks for the incredible work you undertake in governing and supporting our schools and trusts across the country. 

As volunteers, you are part of a remarkable, city-sized community of approximately 230,000 dedicated individuals who generously give your time, energy, and expertise to ensure the best possible education for children and young people. I very much hope you don’t need me to tell you this, but I am passionate about making sure you all know, so I will tell you anyway - your role is crucial. School and trust governance stands at the very heart of the sustainability and transformation that is integral to defining the sector’s investment in our future generations.  Crucial not only in shaping strategic direction, but in setting the ambitions for your school communities that can ignite possibility and hope, ensuring leaders meet those aims, and in doing so, unlocking potential.  

I will take every opportunity to remind you, and all those involved in the education sector, how crucial you are, as the ripple effect of your decisions makes you powerful architects of opportunity; only possible because of your drive and the aspirations you carry for children and young people. 

A role that reaches beyond the school gates

While we all know governance is demanding, as so many of you tell us again and again, it is also deeply rewarding. Good governance and the ethical decisions you make deliver a profound impact that extends way beyond what happens in individual schools.  You play an essential part in establishing the culture in your schools, overseeing financial stewardship in the especially challenging times that emerge around us. 

  • "I will take every opportunity to remind you, and all those involved in the education sector, how crucial you are, as the ripple effect of your decisions makes you powerful architects of opportunity"

    In holding school leaders to account for the educational provision and its impact, you actively reflect and respond to the vast and varied needs of your local communities. Our Annual Governance Survey last year showed us how much your commitment helps ensure that our schools and trusts are inclusive, effective, and ambitious places of learning that are doing ever more to meet the increasingly complex needs of pupils and families. 

    Your time and energy make a difference

    We know this commitment doesn’t come without cost to you as individuals.  Our time to govern research highlights both the hours and the activities you undertake in support of your schools and trusts.  Whilst it is hard to quantify the monetary value of your combined contributions, a 2014 report, ‘The State of School Governing in England’, estimated this would translate to a financial contribution in excess of £1billion, and this wasn’t using today’s levels of pay and neither did it come close to the level of remuneration non-executives receive on other boards. Nonetheless, the research and engagement we carried out in 2023 conclusively found that renumeration was not something that particularly interested you, with more arguments against than for, including the case that payment could undermine the altruistic motivation of volunteers.   

    Research from NCVO’S Time Well Spent report 2023 suggested that volunteering numbers are generally dropping across sectors. So, I cannot express enough how privileged I am, as the Chief Executive of the sector body for governors and trustees, that I get to work, day in day out, with such a devoted volunteer-force, motivated mostly by simply wanting to give something back and improve the educational experiences of children and young people. 

    Working together for a stronger education system

    Let me finish by simply reminding you that at NGA, we deeply value your engagement and collaboration. Your feedback, participation, and insights allow us to provide the resources, guidance, and support you need to carry out your roles effectively. What you tell us directly informs the conversations we have with policy makers and ministers in both gaining recognition for the critical work you do, and in advocating for any changes needed to better the English state education system for the children it serves. 

    We remain committed to working alongside you, listening to your experiences, and continually improving our services, so that together we can support schools and trusts in achieving excellence.

    Emma Balchin

    Emma Balchin

    Chief Executive

    Emma has over 25 years of experience in education, leadership and school improvement and in leading professional development services. Emma has also governed and chaired across maintained schools, academy trusts and local academy committees.

    View Emma's full profile

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