Question for governors please

[BlueCaravelle]

I took up a parental governor role in my child's academy school this year.

Now I have been appointed lead health and safety governor, I was not consulted about If i felt up to that role, I was just appointed to it. I was hoping to find my feet first and learn more about the role before I took on lots of responsibilities.

What are legal implications for me if something goes wrong? I'm not sure I'm happy in a role that possibly(?) holds legal ramifications if some bad happens as I'm just a volunteer and it's not a field I have worked in.

You're not expected to be an expert in health and safety to be the H&S governor. All you are expected to do is to have oversight of the H&S arrangements and check that site inspections are being done, etc.

You may wish to ring your local authority Governance team and have a chat to them about duties, courses and responsibilities. They should be able to re-assure you.

I'm sure you can do a Google search yourself but try these sites :-
Here, here and here.

Thanks for helping your school community I hope you enjoy it.

If you take up a parent governor role you have to be prepared to pitch in and do your bit - governance is no place for people who just want to sit back and spectate, especially in this day and age when Ofsted are focussing on the effectiveness of Governance like never before.

That said, hopefully they made the nature of the role clear to you before you put your name forward.

Your Chair of Governors (or whatever academies call it) has been a bit crap - we generally divvy up responsibilities between us after discussions as to who feels best suited to what. Our H&S governor does a site visit with the head every so often to see what's what.

Your local authority training courses may only be open to you if your academy has purchased them, otherwise the academy should sort you out with appropriate training

You have obviously not been given any guidance from your Chair of governors otherwise you would not be asking on MN. If you have now been appointed lead for H&S presumably you are responsible immediately, from day one. I would seek an urgent meeting with your Chair of Governors and school head to discuss the ramifications for you and the H&S procedures at your school. Don't wait until the next scheduled governors' meeting. You need to be fully informed for this role.

If the school is part of a multi academy trust (MAT) then it is likely that your governing body is a local governing body which won't have legal accountability in the way LA maintained school governing bodies do. In MATs legal accountability usually lies with the trust's board of trustees. Therefore as an individual governor you have no legal accountability. A local governing body is there to provide local oversight, scrutiny, support and challenge to the school.

In terms of practical advice for getting to grips with the role, ask the clerk for a role description, ask for a meeting with the HT /Chair to ascertain what they expect from you in the role and find out who is responsible for health and safety on the school staff and arrange to meet with them as soon as possible.

I think it's a bit odd too. We all opted into our named governor roles eg overseeing safeguarding, attendance, SEN, LAC etc according to our skills, interests and availability. At our primary, it works out as roughly one role per governor, on top of monitoring responsibilities and committee memberships. I can't imagine appointing another governor, let alone a new one, to a role without their consent. But we're not an academy so maybe that's the difference. I think your best option is to have a chat with the chair to find out what's expected.

That is a bizarre way of managing things.
On our GB all governors are expected to take on such roles, but there would always be discussion. And newbies are often given 6 months to a year before taking on additional roles.

I suspect you've just been allocated the role that the outgoing govenor had performed.

Many Governing Bodies are quite small now and waiting 6 months to 1 year is very luxurious when work needs to be done. A new Givernor should have had an induction into the GB and undertaken training so doing H and S is not that much at the moment. The school should have details of any outstanding H and S work so this should be the focus of inspections. It is also necessary to do an annual report. Whilst it is important, there are much more onerous things!

You need to establish where liability lies if something goes wrong.

Because other roles might be more onerous, but do not carry the potential for unlimited fines or imprisonment.

Taking up a role for which you have no qualification, but which could land you with a severe penalty should there be an avoidable incident, is not something to be done lightly.

It seems odd that you've just been told that you're dealing with this rather than being asked. Agree that you'll have to step up and do something and that it's not uncommon for it not to be your absolute first choice BUT it should be something you're comfortable doing. Just to check, is it H&S or also Safeguarding?

You really should not be appointed to a role without being asked first and I would expect a governor carrying out this role to have some form of general experience in this area. You will not be liable individually for anything and, certainly in our area, all governing bodies are covered by liability insurance by the local authority - although it may be different since you say it is an academy school. Our H & S governor goes round with the site manager and fills in a check list each term, then raises any concerns with the Head.

It is rare, but not impossible, for a governor to be found individually liable.

It's not a requirement to be trained for the role, but it is definitely good practice.