Reviewing the board

Effective governance is achieved by reviewing the attributes of existing governors, writes Nick Sladden

The recent trend has been for governing bodies of schools to have fewer governors. As a result, it has now becoming even more crucial to ensure that all the required skills and experience are held within a board.

The starting point in achieving the requisite expertise on the governing body is to review the attributes of existing governors. This has two benefits: existing governors may possess a range of skills or knowledge that may never have been identified or used previously; and it helps to identify any skills shortages. An effective process to assist this review is a “skills audit”.

Making it happen
For the review to be a success it is essential to nominate an individual (typically a governor, the chair, bursar or head) to co-ordinate the process. Alternatively, a formal or informal group (such as a governance working party, committee or nominations committee) could be used. Before initiating the skills audit, it is advisable to review the exact requirements of the school’s legal constitution or governing document. Typically, this would be the Articles of Association or the Trust Deed. This is a particularly important consideration if the skills audit is likely to result in a recruitment initiative as there may be restrictions on governor numbers and, in some cases, the ability to appoint new governors may rest with third parties.

It is customary for the skills audit to take the form of a questionnaire that can be sent to all existing governors to complete. This involves the nominated person or committee sending a list of suitable questions with an explanatory note (as to the purpose of the exercise). The questionnaire can be used electronically, but if the traditional postal service is preferred it is usually a good idea to provide a self-addressed envelope to assist governors in a timely return of the completed form. Providing a deadline for governors to return the documentation also helps the process to run smoothly.

There are more questions than answers
Questions to include in a skills audit should obtain basic information to give an appreciation of the existing diversity of the board or other information that could help with future governor recruitment. These issues, including gender, geographic location, ethnicity and disability, could typically be as follows:

• governor name;
• ethnic group;
• age;
• disabilities;
• areas of the school’s work you have a particular interest in and/or would like to become more involved in? and
• what motivated you to become a governor of the school?

However, the significant part of the questionnaire is a list of every desirable area of expertise (if possible) that could possibly be expected of a governor. The areas of expertise need to be carefully considered and should be tailored to the particular needs of the school. However, it is always useful to include final questions as being “Other – please give details” or “What other experience or skills do you feel you offer?” to allow governors the opportunity to identify any areas that may have been omitted from the initial list. This part of the questionnaire could take the following form:

• what kind of expertise do you consider you bring to the Board? (include a scoring mechanism here – see below);
• academic;
• administration;
• finance;
• media/PR;
• property;
• retail;
• other (please give details); and
• what other experience or skills do you feel you offer?

When determining the different types of expertise required, the board should be mindful of the strategic direction of the school. In that context, it is essential to ensure that any skills needs are incorporated into the questionnaire.

Governors are asked to score whether they possess each individual area of expertise. Inevitably, for some areas governors will inevitably not possess any skills or experience. In these instances governors would not provide a score. Where some skill or experience does rest with an individual governor then it is a good idea if the governor scores their relative level of expertise on a scale (say, 1 to 5 where 1 would be a “limited degree of expertise” and 5 would be “expert”).

The article in this series will appear in the January 2008 edition of Funding for Independent Schools and will look at what happens once all the replies have been returned (and hopefully completed!).

Nick Sladden is a partner in Baker Tilly and head of their Charities and Education Group in the South.

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