Vice-chair: role and responsibilities
Get to grips with what it means to be a vice-chair with our downloadable role description, and see examples of responsibilities from a school and a local authority.
Download our role description
If your governing board is recruiting for a vice-chair, use it to let candidates know what's expected of them. Alternatively, if you're the vice-chair, you can use this to clarify your role.
It's based on the duties found in:
- Section 4.3 of the Governance Handbook (on the role of the chair)
- Regulation 7(7) and Regulation 8 of The School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) (England) Regulations 2013 (for maintained schools)
- Article 86 of the Department for Education's (DfE's) model articles of association (for academies)
- 'Leading governors: the role of the chair of governors in schools and academies,' non-statutory guidance published by the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL)
- DfE guidance on governance structures and roles (page 17 for maintained schools, and page 16 for academies)
As vice-chair, your role is to work closely with your chair so you can step into their role at any time. You'll likely also take
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