Our thanks to education experts, Keith Clover, Brendan Hollyer, Vicky Redding and Fiona Stagg for their help with this article.
Co-chairing is allowed
As long as you keep your board’s leadership clear to everyone, you can appoint more than 1 person to the role of chair.
- The maintained schools governance guide (section 4.5.2) says the role can be shared if it's in the best interests of the school
- The academy trust governance guide (section 4.4.1) says that the chair can be a shared role but neither chair can be an employee of the trust
If you’re on a local governing body (LGB), check with your trust first to make sure it will let you do this. Even if your LGB is responsible for electing its own chair, err on the side of caution and make sure your trust permits co-chairing.
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