Chair’s guide to changing your board’s structure

If your board isn’t working as well as it should be, it might be time to consider organising your board differently. Find out where to start, how to put a proposal together and what you'll need to consider along the way.

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on 3 February 2025
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 45051
Contents
  1. Step 1: know when restructuring is the answer
  2. Step 2: decide on a governance model
  3. Step 3: think about the logistics
  4. Step 4: propose your plans to the board
  5. Step 5: get your documents organised

This article is aimed at restructuring maintained or trust boards. If you’re looking for advice on changing your whole trust governance structure, see our other article.

Step 1: know when restructuring is the answer

When your board isn’t working as effectively as it should, make sure you’ve ruled out other options first, as they may be easier to implement. Consider:

Your board isn’t working as effectively as it could be Workload isn’t evenly distributed You don’t have enough governors/trustees on the board to run a lot of committees Feedback from external sources (Ofsted, external reviews of governance etc.) has suggested that your governance needs improving You have a lot of newer governors/trustees who need support to fulfil their duties effectively You feel that there is untapped skills and expertise amongst your board members that could be used better in