Governors' and trustees' codes of conduct: models and examples
Cover all your bases with our model code of conduct. It sets out what you can expect from governors and trustees, from core responsibilities to expected behaviours.
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The Department for Education (DfE) withdrew the Governance Handbook on 7 March 2024, and replaced it with 2 separate new governance guides for maintained schools and academies.
Take a look at our summary for what you need to know about the changes.
We’re in the process of updating our articles to reflect the new guides. Select ‘save for later’ at the top of the page to be notified when this article has been updated.
Download our model code of conduct
Our model code of conduct:
- Is approved by Forbes Solicitors
- Is designed so you can adapt it to your school's context
- Takes account of relevant requirements and good practice
Tailor the document to reflect:
- How you delegate responsibilities
- Any school/local authority policies that you must follow (e.g. social media and IT policies)
- Whether your instrument of government sets out specific requirements for governance procedures and conduct
Make sure all governors read and agree to the code of conduct, alongside any other relevant documents or requirements.
Updates to our model policy
We've reviewed the current version of the Governance Handbook and made the following updates to our model policy so the documents are more aligned. These are not essential, but if you want to update your policy to reflect these too, the changes are as follows:
- Section 3: added a new reference to promoting equity and diversity
- Section 6: clarified what is meant by ‘relevant interests’
- Section 6: added a sentence about collecting diversity data and clarified that, if governors have already provided this information, they are able to request it be removed from any reporting
- Section 7: clarified that breaches of the code of conduct can lead to the suspension or removal of governors
- Appendix 1: clarified that breaches of the code of conduct can lead to the suspension or removal of governors
- Appendix 1: clarified that a failure to undertake training appropriate to the role is also grounds for the suspension of a governor
- Appendix 1: clarified that undermining fundamental British values can be viewed as a cause for suspension rather than removal
Review annually
Although there's no required review frequency, Forbes Solicitors recommends you review and agree the code of conduct annually, upon significant changes to the law, or as needed. Your full board should ratify it.
Check that your chosen review frequency doesn't contradict anything in your constitutional documents.
Examples
Birmingham City Council includes a model code of conduct as part of its suite of useful documents and templates for governing boards.
Woodford County High School for Girls in Redbridge has a governors' code of conduct that includes sections on collective responsibility, confidentiality, and the 7 principles of public life. You can download it from the school's policies page.
We updated the 'social media' section of our model codes of conduct to reflect the need to be more flexible around accepting friend requests from parents, as there may be times where this is appropriate. The line we have included states that governors/trustees will:
- Carefully consider how appropriate it would be to accept any friend requests from parents or to join any parent/carer groups associated with the trust or any of our schools
- Addressing problems with your chair
- Facebook 'cheat sheet' for governors
- Governor meetings: attendance and absence
- How to approach a difficult conversation with another governor
- How to deal with difficult behaviour from governors or trustees
- How to manage confidentiality on your board
- How to respond to current events
- The Nolan principles