Report to:	County Consultative Committee
Date of meeting:	19^th May 2022
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 10 February 2022, 10 local authority governors were nominated for appointment, all were approved for a 4 year term of office.  Of the 10, 9 were reappointments and 1 was a new appointment.

Emma Creffield	Cross In Hand Church of England Primary School	Reappointment
Angus Scott	West Rise Junior School	Reappointment
Carol Feltwell	Catsfield Church of England Primary School	Reappointment
Stuart Ford	Harbour Primary and Nursery School	Reappointment
Ian Green	Forest Row Church of England Primary School	Reappointment
Anne Franklin	Ringmer Primary and Nursery School	Reappointment
Emile Tambeh	Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School	Reappointment
Peter Lilja	Ninfield Church of England Primary School	Reappointment
Linda Pannell	Grove Park Primary School	New Appointment
Debbie Aggett	Motcombe Community School	Reappointment

2.2       Of the 95 local authority governor places in East Sussex maintained schools, there are currently 11 vacancies, we are working with the relevant boards to recruit governors for these vacancies. This is a vacancy rate of 9.3%. The overall vacancy rate for all types of governors in East Sussex is currently 14.8%%. 169 new governors, including Associate Members, have been appointed since 1^st 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 campaign, 101 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 their training programme online and have also developed a comprehensive networking and briefing programme for governors. Between 1^st September and 31^st August 2021, 2675 governor and clerking training places have been accessed in over 147 training, briefing and networking sessions. Since 1^st September 2021, 1990 training places have been accessed in over 128 training, networking and briefing sessions. For the academic year 2022/23 we will be delivering a mixed blend of training, with the re-introduction of some face-to-face network 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

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