How to review your committees

You should review your committees every year. Read our 3-step process for how to do this effectively.

Last reviewed on 3 July 2023
School types: Maintained, AcademySchool phases: AllRef: 5598
Contents
  1. Requirements
  2. Step 1: meet with other committee chairs 
  3. Step 2: discuss these plans with your committee 
  4. Step 3: bring the plans to the full board for approval 

Requirements

You must review the constitution, membership, and terms of reference for your committees each year. It's for you to decide which committees to have, who sits on them, how big they are and what they cover. 

This is set out in the The School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) (England) Regulations 2013 for maintained schools, and in article 101 of the Department for Education's (DfE's) model articles of association for academies (do double check your own in case they differ from the models). 

Step 1: meet with other committee chairs 

Meet with the chairs of any other committees and the chair of governors to make sure you're all clear on what to look at during your reviews. 

Are meeting times convenient? Is each committee taking on the right kind of work? In the case of committees that have more than 1 area of responsibility, for example the finance and premises committee,