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Local Authorities are ultimately responsible for the provision of education and services for all the children and young people who live in their area, so they are clearly stakeholders in their schools. That is why they appoint some governors, who are known as Local Authority governors. The vision of governing bodies is that they are teams of stakeholders, working in partnership to provide an excellent school.
Local Authority governors are not elected. They are appointed directly to a particular school by the LA. In Stockport they are nominated by the political party groups that have councillors elected to Stockport Council. Each party group has a representative who is responsible for coordinating the nominations. Anyone nominated to serve as a Local Authority governor is considered by the Area Committee for the area of the school, and it is the Area Committee who approves the nomination. In Stockport the process is documented and you can read the relevant documents at www.stockport.gov.uk/services/councildemocracy/democracy ; go to Online Committee Papers and search for your Area Committee.
Like any other kind of governor, LA governors, once appointed, are part of a corporate body. That means they don't have any power to act on school business unless they have been properly delegated to do so. So party politics is out. Governors work together and for all of them the school comes first, always. Sometimes for LA governors that means they may have to go against the group which nominated them. All governors can have this dilemma, though, because governing bodies have to make decisions, and it is impossible to satisfy everyone all of the time!
So what is distinctive about being an LA governor? Every governor is there to bring a particular perspective to the work of the governing body. For an LA governor the perspective they bring is about how the school fits into the wider provision of education. They are not there to promote the LA's policies, since the school comes first, but it is their job to point out how decisions the school makes might impact on other schools, or how it may not fit with the LA's current priorities. They can often help governors to take a wider view.
Staff and parents clearly have a huge emotional involvement with their schools, and it is right that they have strong representation on governing bodies. Community governors may also have personal engagement which makes it difficult to be objective. LA governors can sometimes bring a more measured view.
LA governors can feel a bit isolated on a governing body. They may feel that everyone else knows the people and the school better than they do. They can face quite a challenge in getting to know their school from an outside position. They also face a steep learning curve if they haven't been involved in the education world before. While parents and staff know quite a lot about how schools work, LA governors may have to find out. If they are to bring the wider perspective this means not just finding out about one school, but about LA provision and a bit about how their LA's policies fit with wider national strategies. Being a governor isn't easy, and being an LA governor has its own particular challenges.
Your clerk will know about legislation and something about education policy and local strategies, but it isn't the clerks job to join in the discussion and decision –making process. So you can ask your LA governor(s) if they think your decisions will affect or be affected by the LA's operations. If they don't know, they are probably well-placed to find out for you.
What of the future? Nobody is suggesting doing away with school governing bodies. The discussion is all about how to make them more effective. It seems that the stakeholder model is here to stay for the time being. And for as long as we have Local Authorities responsible for the oversight of education we will have LA governors.
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