Report to:

County Consultative Committee

 

Date of meeting:

 

13th October 2021

By:

Clare Cornford

Title:

Local Authority Governor Update for Councillors

 

Purpose:

To update Councillors on the nomination for appointment of local authority governors and governor vacancies

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

1) For information

11        Background

1.1       The local authority has a statutory duty to approve nominations for local authority governors. Once nominated, schools then appoint local authority governors onto their governing board. 

1.2       This report provides a summary of local authority governor applications approved for nomination, and information about the level of governor vacancies across the county. 

2          Supporting information

2.1       Since the report sent to Councillors on the 18th March 2021, 13 local authority governors were nominated for appointment, all were approved for a 4 year term of office.  Of the 13, 6 were reappointments and 7 were new appointments. The governors in italics were placed as a result of the East Sussex Governor Recruitment Campaign.

Peter Chowney

New Application

Sandown Primary school

Vicky Harries

Reapplication

Ditchling (St Margaret's) Church of England Primary School

Alan Brundle

Reapplication

The Pioneer Federation

Yvette Aeberhard

New Application

Alfriston Primary School

Jonathan Nay

Reapplication

Bourne Primary School

Sally Domingo-Jones

Reapplication

Iford and Kingston Church of England Primary School

Stuart Scott

Reapplication

St Pancras Catholic Primary School

Helen Hoffman

New Application

Ticehurst and Flimwell

Mark Weeks-Pearson

New Application

St Richards Catholic College

Linda Turton

New Application

Icklesham Primary School

Martin Holley

New Application

Hankham Primary School

Nabil Zakher

Reapplication

St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School

Noah Curthoys

New Application

Priory school

 

2.2       Of the 102 local authority governor places in East Sussex maintained schools, there are currently 12 vacancies, which we are working with the boards to recruit governors. This is a vacancy rate of 12.3% The overall vacancy rate for all types of governors in East Sussex is currently 17.59%. We would expect for vacancies to be slightly higher in September and October as boards have their first meetings of the academic year and may not yet have made new appointments. 30 new governors have been appointed since 1st September 2021.

 

2.3 Further information on the governor vacancies across East Sussex, by type of governor is shown in Appendix 1.

2.4       Information on governing boards and governors is accessed through the governors online database. This is a database maintained by the local authority; clerks to governing bodies for local authority maintained schools are responsible for updating the information on their governors and governing boards. The governor and clerking service conduct regular checks of the data to highlight inaccuracies and missing data. Clerks have dedicated training through the clerk network meetings and training sessions on using and updating the database.  The local authority does not hold governor information for academy schools.

2.5       The Governor and Clerking Service (GCS) supports governing boards in a number of ways to recruit governors. The launch in January 2020 of the new, more localised recruitment campaign where the GCS match potential governors directly with schools has been a success. Since the launch of the new expression of interest form, Since the launch of the campaign, 91 people have expressed an interest to become a governor. All applicants are matched with a school and very few have not resulted in an appointment.

 

Governor Training

2.7       Since September 2020, GCS moved the training programme online and have also developed a comprehensive networking and briefing programme for governors. Between 1st September and 31st August 2021, 2675 governor and clerking training places have been accessed over 147 training, briefing and networking sessions.

 

Clare Cornford
Project Officer: Governor and Clerking Service

Contact Officer: Clare Cornford
Tel. No. 01323 466885
Email: clare.cornford@eastsussex.gov.uk

 

 

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

None