Much of the information is covered in the governance guides for maintained schools and academies.
We've chosen to continue to refer to the framework in this article. Even though it has been withdrawn, it still offers a useful structure for the competencies required.
Your board’s governance professional
Your governance professional (clerk) supports your board to be as effective as it can be. This is set out in section 4.8.1 of the governance guide for maintained schools and section 4.5.1 of the governance guide for academy trusts.
They will:
Use our role description
Use our role description when you're recruiting a governance professional.
It's based on pages 9 to 14 of the now-withdrawn clerking competency framework, which still provides a useful structure for what's required.
If you're recruiting, find out what interview tasks you can set the candidate and what questions you can ask.
Examples and guidance
Torbay Council has a 'clerks toolkit', with guidance on recruitment and key responsibilities.
Find example job descriptions and person specifications in our article on governance professionals' pay and hours.
The rules on who can be your governance professional
- Maintained schools: the governance professional must not be a governor or the headteacher (see section 4.8 of the governance guide for maintained schools)
- Academies: the governance professional must not be an academy trustee, a senior executive leader of the academy trust or a principal of one of the trust’s academies (see section 4.5.1 of the governance guide for academy trusts)
As long as an individual isn’t in 1 of these categories, then they can fill this post. If you’re an academy, double check your articles of association just in case they specify something different.
What if the governance professional is absent from a meeting?
You can appoint a governor/trustee to undertake the role for the purpose of that meeting.
This is set out in section 4.8 of the governance guide for maintained schools and section 4.5.1 of the governance guide for academy trusts.
The governance professional can be a member of school staff
But bear in mind:
Individuals working as both a governance professional and a member of staff should also have separate contracts for each role.
This is because:
- The governance professional's contract should be on the school's administrator pay scale, and clearly set out the role description and the expected time commitments
- The governance professional is answerable to the governing board, rather than the headteacher
- They should be contracted separately to make it easier for the governing board to appraise their performance in that role
Education experts Jaqueline Baker and Keith Clover gave us the advice in this section.