New maintained schools and academy schools governance handbook

The Department of Education (DfE) has just published the latest governance handbook in two versions, one for maintained school governors and one for academy trustees.

These new non statutory guides do not include any new governance expectations, but replace the 2019 governance handbook.

The role descriptors and competency frameworks that accompanied the former handbook have been archived.

Both guides are shorter and more concise compared to the previous handbook and now incorporate a list of statutory DfE policies, rather than procedures and remind boards to delegate policy approval where possible.

The maintained schools’ governance guide reminds headteachers to report information to the board, relating to delegated duties, operational advice and compliance. This handbook has a section on chair’s action, something boards wrestled with during COVID.

The academy trust governance guide provides guidance for trust boards. Again there are no new governance expectations. The guide distinguishes between governance in academy trusts and maintained schools and summarises the trust board’s role in relation to legislative and contractual requirements.

The academy trust governance guide is structured around the new Trust Quality Descriptions and the Academy Trust Handbook.

The handbook refers to ‘diocesan strategy’ which can be found in updated Church of England model articles and outlines their approach to academisation and trust governance.

References to the core functions of governance have been removed and replaced by the new definition of the purpose of trust governance as defined in the Academy Trust Handbook:

• Strategic leadership
• Accountability and assurance
• Strategic engagement

Local governing boards are now referred to as local committees, reflecting the fact that they are committees of the trust board.