Parent governors - new regs on constitution??

[MoonHare]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a publicly available copy of what are apparently "new regulations" on the constitution of governing bodies which now limit the number of parent govs to a max of 2.
The most recent statutory guidance on the constitution of governing bodies that I can find is from Aug 2015 and states "at least 2 parent govs".
Thanks all!

[vikingorigins]

Can't find it, but this article seems to cover it?

[BarbaraTheIncredible]

I don't think there would be statutory guidance yet as still part of the white paper referenced in the link above?

What's not clear to me in anything I've seen to date whether people with the requisite "skills" who also happen to be parents will still be limited to 2. I'm assuming not?

[MoonHare]

The white paper proposes removing the requirement to have parent govs from academies but doesn't mention maintained schools, which ours is.
We've been told by chair of govs that the local authority have said there are new regulations which mean reconstituted Gov bodies are limited to 2 parent govs. I don't want to call them liars but I can't find 'new regulations' anywhere and they haven't responded to my request to show govs to the new regulations.
Barbara - I assume not too since white paper implies Gov bodies can still have parent govs if they want.
In my experience parent govs are the ones most willing to fulfil the expectation to ask questions and provide challenge.

[NynaevesSister]

I am a school governor and we have not been asked to reconstitute. We were asked to reconstitute last year but there was no change to the number of parent governors. We have more than two.

[th081]

There must be a minimum of 2 parents governors, there is no maximum but the governing body have decided on the minimum hence the two.

The link below has some more info on size etc

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/459032/The_Constitution_of_Governing_Bodies_of_Maintained_Schools_Stat_Guidance....pdf

[th081]

There must be a minimum of 2 parents on governing bodies there is no maximum but your governing body have decided to go with a smaller body.

The link below has more info re sizes

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/459032/The_Constitution_of_Governing_Bodies_of_Maintained_Schools_Stat_Guidance....pdf

[th081]

There is a minimum of 2 parents on governing bodies and no maximum but your governors have decided to go with a smaller body hence 2 parents

[th081]

There is a minimum of 2 parents on governing bodies no maximum, but your governors have decided to go with a smaller body hence the 2 parents

More info on link below

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/459032/The_Constitution_of_Governing_Bodies_of_Maintained_Schools_Stat_Guidance....pdf

[neolara]

Additional parents can be appointed as co-opted governors if the GB wants.

[th081]

Sorry re multiple posts, ipad kept crashing

[bojorojo]

I think where schools have parents queuing up to be governors, only having 2 out of a GB of 15 may seem a bit light. However if the GB has had parent vacancies for years (and I have known this where 5 were required) it seems sensible to reduce to 2 so that other people can become Governors and the GB can recruit the skills it needs. The key issue is skills in the latest Regulations, not where the governors come from or who elects them. Two Parent Governors can be very sensible because a school must develop other ways of engaging parents and reliance on a large number of Parent Governors is not sensible or desirable as they are not delegates.

[prh47bridge]

The School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012 require a minimum of two parent governors for a maintained school that is not part of a federation. They do not specify any maximum. The 2016 amendment to the regulations does not alter that.

The School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012 require the governing body of any federation to have at least one parent governor - again, no maximum. The 2016 amendment to these regulations increases that to two parent governors.

The 2016 amendments are in the School Governance (Constitution and Federations) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 which can be found at legislation.gov.uk.

Your chair of governors has misunderstood (or is lying). The 2016 changes do not limit the number of parent governors. For maintained schools they make no difference at all.

[MoonHare]

I have my answer. The March 2016 regs state in federations - which our school is - that reconstitute - which ours is because another school is joining - after sept 2016 - which it seems ours will be - then "parent governors will be 2". Not at least 2 or a minimum of 2, just says 2. No hint whether there's any discretion.
There will be 3 schools involved and only 2 official parent govs. We have 4 currently across 2 schools.
It appears there's no way around it!!! Am feeling pretty horrified at the overt way parents are being kept out of schools. Parents are certainly held in contempt by most of those involved in school governance from the government down.
I am a school governor.

[FanSpamTastic]

There is definitely a drive to move away from stakeholder governors - parents and staff - towards governors with a skills profile. That is not to say that those governors cannot also be parents or staff at the school. But it gives the governing body more flexibility to recruit for the skills they need. Co-opted governors need only be interviewed by the governing body and are not subject to an election.

[prh47bridge]

I'm afraid you have misunderstood. It is an understandable misunderstanding if you haven't read and understood the regulations in full but the regulations do NOT mean there can only be two parent governors.

The original regulations stated that there must be 7 governors which must include:

(a) one parent governor
(b) the head teacher of each school in the federation
(c) one staff governor, and
(d) one LA governor

You will not that this only adds up to seven governors if there are four schools in the federation. That's because these are minimums. There can be more than one parent governor, more than one staff governor and more than one LA governor.

The new regulations INCREASE the number of parent governors required to two. They do NOT impose a maximum of two. You are NOT breaking the current rules by having four parent governors. You will NOT be breaking the new rules by continuing to have four parent governors.

[prh47bridge]

Parents are certainly held in contempt by most of those involved in school governance from the government down

As per my last post the 2016 regulations INCREASE the number of parent governors required for federations. It is hard to see how that squares with the allegation that the government holds parents in contempt.

[prh47bridge]

You will not

Sorry - typo. That should have said "You will note..."

[MoonHare]

Just popped back to say rather than relying on the email from our clek I decided to look up the full regs and original 2012 regs for myself and I discovered exactly what you have pointed out prh47.
Our Chair is totally trying to pull the wool. Oh dear I feel a war of words coming on...

[MoonHare]

By that I mean I discovered it before seeing the other comments. Thank you prh47 for referring me to legislation.gov.uk. And in terms of feeling "held in contempt " all I can say is it's been a trying year on our governing body.

[cluelessclaudia]

I don't think that's right prh. Where you can have more than one the regulations say 'at least'. So the constitution regs 2012 say one staff gov, one LA gov and at least two parent govs. If they are all minima why do the regs not say 'at least' for LA and staff?

[cluelessclaudia]

Ah sorry I see you're talking about federations but even so I don't agree that they are minimum numbers.

[MoonHare]

Interesting.
Cluelessclaudia why don't you agree they are minimum numbers?

[cluelessclaudia]

OK I have now read this thread a bit more fully.

PRH I definitely disagree with you I'm afraid.

The 2012 Federation Regulations stipulate in Part 4, 21 (3) (a) "one parent governor elected or appointed in accordance with regulation 14 in respect of each school in the federation".

So in a federation of 3 schools you would have 3 parent governors at the moment (but OP you say you have 4?)

The 2016 amendment to the 2012 regulations states ' For regulation 21(3)(a) substitute— “(a) two parent governors;” and adds an explanatory note saying "Regulation 3 amends the Federations Regulations 2012 to provide that the governing body of every federation must include two parent governors, to be elected by parents of any federated
school or appointed by the governing body of the federation"

I think this does mean that if you have more than 2 PGs at the moment in a federation, you can only have 2 in future. What is not specified as far as I can see is how the 'surplus' ones will be dealt with. In the absence of any specific instruction, I'd say the existing ones can serve out their term of office but then they would not be replaced, leaving you with 2 PGs eventually.

Many federations only have 2 schools, therefore only have 2 PGs at the moment, which is more straightforward, and the only effect is that in future it is 2 across the whole federation, not one per school.

The reason I don't believe the stated numbers are minima is that if this is the case, the regulations will state 'at least'. So in the 2012 Constitution Regulations, 12 (3) (a) (which apply to maintained schools not in a federation), it says 'at least two parent governors' But for LA and staff it just says 'one'. Not 'at least'.

The emphasis of this government is indeed on skills as another poster has said. Parents can become co-opted governors if the GB is willing to appoint them in the belief they have the right skills.

[bojorojo]

The 2012 Regulations also state that it is one governor per school in the Federation. I cannot see where, in 2016, it has been changed to just two regardless of how many schools are in the Federation. There can be 4 or 5 schools in a Federation. Any surplus governors can be co-opted if they have the desirable skills.

[cluelessclaudia]

Bojo have a look here p3, the bit that starts 'Regulation 3...'.

So in a nutshell, now - it's one PG per school in the federation (one, NOT 'at least' one). From September it will just be two PGs per federated GB. That's how I read it.