National Leaders of Governance (NLG) evaluation report

The NLG programme has been running for a decade and was reformed last year to include a wider range of experts paid to undertake reviews of governance to improve the quality of governance boards in schools and trusts.

A total of 66 designated NLGs were employed across English regions in 2021-22 to support long-term requires improvement schools, or those given the rating during the academic year.

The evaluation of the first year of the reformed programme has resulted in suggestions as to how to improve the system further:

• Expanding the eligibility criteria for maintained schools to include those rated good or outstanding to support a more preventative approach
• The DfE to consider if current targeted timescales for the deployment of NLGs, reports and action plans were realistic and appropriate with nearly 60 per cent of plans delivered between four and six months after the NLG’s deployment as opposed to three months
• Potential regional and local sufficiency issues were reported with the North of England and South West having the highest number of referrals but among the lowest number of NLGs able to work in these regions.

The National Governance Association (NGA), which runs the scheme, has reported that it has recruited 13 additional NLGs subject to approval by the DfE, eight of which are in the North and three of which are in the South West. This will bring the total of NLGs available across the 15 local authorities of the South West Region to 12.