EFFECTIVE CHAIRS – Summer 2025
2024/25 Academic year final term, let’s catch up with the key changes…
1.The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has completed its progress through the commons and is now with the Lords. The key changes are detailed in the guidance.
2.Ofsted reform continues, the new proposed framework is out for consultation until the end of April, a consultation report will be published in the summer, they are running pilots of the new framework and it will be introduced into schools in November 2025. Report cards to judge schools on up to 11 areas and toolkits for each:
Each of the new areas will be rated using a five-point, traffic light system:
All inspections will be ‘full’ inspections, no more ungraded inspections. One red and schools will be put in a category and monitoring will continue until all areas are secure. Would you like to hear direct from Ofsted about their reforms? Then book your free place at the DAG Ofsted online seminar on Wednesday 9th July 2020 at 6.00pm [email protected]
3.The curriculum and assessment review has presented interim findings and considers the present architecture of key stages is broadly working well and intends to recommend retaining it along with national assessments and qualifications. However, the review panel has identified four areas it will focus on in the next phase, where it sees the greatest opportunities and need for improvement:
A phased programme of work in different subjects or subject areas will allow reforms to be made incrementally in a way that does not destabilise the system. See the report for more information.
4.RISE. Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams have now been appointed. Based on the findings of Ofsted report cards from September 2025, schools will be placed into one of three categories and the RISE teams will support schools in the first two:
SEND and AP: £1 billion will be used for SEND and alternative provision (AP). The Treasury predicts it is likely that local authorities (LAs) will use additional funding to reduce their own in-year deficits. This is likely to eradicate around £865 million from councils’ SEND deficits next year, but this is only a quarter of the total of local authority deficits within High Needs Funding.
Teachers Pay Rise: £450 million needed to make up the full cost of this year’s teacher pay rise.
School Cost Pressures: After the above, this will leave around £850 million left for other cost pressures.
Extra Nurseries: The Budget confirmed £15 million already announced to create 3,000 new or expanded nurseries.
Capital Funding: The DfE will get £6.7 billion in capital funding next year. Of this, £1.4 billion is to deliver on the existing School Rebuilding Programme, which was announced in 2020. This extra cash also includes £2.1 billion for school maintenance, an increase of £300 million compared with this year. £740 million from this pot will create more specialist places in mainstream schools to become more accessible to pupils with SEND.
Other spending commitments: This includes £3 million to expand the Creative Careers Programme, which will help school children learn more about creative career routes.
Employers’ national insurance contributions will increase from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent from April 6 2025. The government has announced that it will provide more than £1 billion in funding for schools to cover the rise in employer national insurance contributions.
Free School Meals Auto Enrolment: Currently, many children eligible for FSM in Devon are not registered, meaning they miss out on both free meals and additional support given to their school through Pupil Premium funding. To address this, Devon are implementing an auto-enrolment process, where early years, primary and secondary school students will automatically be registered to receive free school meals unless families choose not to participate. No immediate action is required from schools at this stage. They will share further details in the coming weeks and appreciate schools’ support in ensuring eligible pupils benefit from this initiative.
DAG played a key role in bringing this initiative forward and worked closely with DCC colleagues to encourage its adoption. Alex Walmsley, DAG committee member and vice chair of Devon Education Forum said “this is a great example of DAG representation making a difference for the benefit of all our schools and young people. We are grateful to our colleagues at DCC and school leaders for supporting the introduction of auto enrolment, which should provide substantial additional funding for our schools in the coming years.”
If you would like to know more about Free School Meal Auto Enrolment, please have a look at the DAG Briefing Paper on this subject.
The 0.5% block transfer: If this is new to you, it’s worth noting because it may affect your budget. Devon Local Authority is still running with a very significant overspend of the SEND High Needs Block and is now part of the ‘safety valve’ scheme to reduce the deficit driven by SEND demand. Devon schools were consulted at the end of last year on the transfer of 0.5% between council funding blocks for 2025-26. 164 schools (82%) disagreed with the transfer from the schools block to the high needs block. The Schools Forum (DEF) therefore rejected the transfer, but in February the DfE made the decision to approve Devon County Council’s request to override the decision made by DEF in January. Members of DEF, including governors and trustees will now hold Devon to account for how it spends the transferred funding.
Would you like to be a DEF representative? Would anyone within your board consider becoming a governance representative on The Devon Education Forum (DEF) where schools debate and directly challenge the local authority? If you would like more information please contact Amanda Blewett on [email protected]
Further reading:
And lastly, the Procurement Act took effect from 24th February 2025. There is training available.
Boards to consider: Does our school have well trained finance governors/trustees and does the board provide full accountability for the funding it receives as evidenced by up to date statements on the school website?
Review Board vision and strategic plan: Summer term is when most boards review their vision and their strategic plan as one of the core functions of governance. Your vision should be supported by your three or five year strategic plan that plots your path to achieving your vision. Does your school vision contain measurable aims? If it does, your board will find it much easier to check whether your strategic plan is on track to deliver your vision in a timely way.
Board to consider: Do you review your vision and strategic plan, can you use your minutes to provide evidence of your board regularly acting strategically?
Appraisal: Headteacher: Are your headteacher appraisal governors trained, is the training up to date? Is the external adviser booked? All actions for this term to support the appraisal next term.
Clerk/Governance Professional: Does your board have an annual process for the chair to appraise the clerk/governance professional? Templates, toolkits and job descriptions are available to support boards to carry out this function. Have a look at DAG Busy Governance Guide to Clerk’s Appraisal. For those that subscribe, see ‘Clerk/Governance Professional Appraisal Guidance and Toolkit’ at Devon Education Services and the National Governance Association along with other subscription providers.
Governors/Trustees: Many boards have a basic appraisal system in place to appraise board members. Even if your board doesn’t have an appraisal process it could be worth setting aside some time as chair (or delegating this to your vice chair) to talk to each governor or trustee individually to find out how they are doing. This type of conversation could address what each governor or trustee might need or find helpful to better support them in their role, it may also give you information on who may be considering standing down next term.
Succession Planning for key roles: Next term most boards will be electing their chair and vice chair. Are you considering continuing in your role as chair or are you stepping down? It is important that leadership of the board and committees is discussed and planned to support effective governance for the next academic year to avoid any unwelcome surprises!
Boards to consider: Is there a plan for the leadership of the board and other key roles from the next academic year and are all board members aware of what that plan might be?
Impact: Does your board produce an impact statement at the end of the academic year? Many boards have an ‘impact’ question at the end of their agenda to provide a statement of the boards’ decisions during the meeting and how they will impact on pupils. Consider gathering these statements together over the year to provide a written annual statement of how your work has had an impact on the outcomes of pupils, this can then be circulated to stakeholders, it may even encourage more people to consider becoming a governor if they can see governors making a real difference.
Boards to consider: How can you prove to stakeholders and Ofsted that you really make a difference to the pupils in your school?
Climate and Nature in Education: Interactive Workshop on 5 June 2025 9:30 am – 4:00 pm at Sandy Park, Exeter EX2 7NN. Devon Schools Leadership Service (DSLS) DAG and Climate Ambassadors are providing an interactive workshop to support all schools, no matter what stage they are at in implementing their sustainability and climate change strategy. The focus will be on leadership/governance as well as behaviour change and climate action planning. Two free delegate places to each school setting, with additional places available at the subsidised rate of £50 + VAT subject to capacity. Booking essential so speak to your leadership team to Reserve your place now.
Complaints: DSLS AHead service is running an ‘Effective Complaints Handling’ session on 14 May 1.30 pm – 3.30 pm. This is a free, online MS Teams event and governors and trustees are welcome to attend. Iain Grafton MBE, a Chair of Governors himself will be delivering this session with legal input from Victoria Hatton of Browne Jacobson LLP. Book your place here
Food: A whole school approach to food: Online training on the school food guidance for governors with free to access training from NGA.
Prevent in education, training for governors and trustees. The training package has been designed by DfE for school governors to understand their responsibilities and the importance of the Prevent duty. Thursday 3 July 2025, both 5pm to 6.15pm register here, book early as sessions sell out quickly.
Attendance is still a big issue for all schools ‘Working together to improve school attendance came into effect from August 2024 and is statutory. Governors and trustees need to engage with their responsibilities around this educational priority, see the DfE School Attendance Guidance Training Webinar, Effective governance that supports stronger attendance.
Service Pupils in Schools, Non statutory guidance to help schools understand and address the needs of service pupils.
Narrowing the digital divide: £45 million has been pledged to improve digital connectivity in schools to close the digital divide over the next year. This includes £25 million for wireless networks and £20 million for fibre upgrades. The government is setting a long-term ambition for all schools and colleges to meet six core standards by 2030. These include broadband internet, wireless networks, network switches, digital leadership, filtering and monitoring and cyber security. While the 2030 target seems far away, there’s help available now. Use the government’s Plan Technology For Your School tool to assess your current tech infrastructure.
Flexi-schooling on the rise and Ofsted are worried by it, does your school provide flexi-schooling? Do you know what is involved in elective home education and part time timetables? Have a look at the DAG Busy Governance Guide to Elective Home Education for more information.
Grants for schools on the Devon County Council website page ‘Grants for schools’ over sixty links to grants available. Also remember to stay up to date with general grants available from your local district council, many provide weekly email updates, have a look at their websites for further information.
Music: All schools should have a music development plan, as set out in the national plan for music education and are now expected to publish a summary of their music development plan on their website and then update the summary in the summer term.
Workplace Recycling: From 31st March all workplaces in England, including schools must separate their waste before it’s collected, including any waste produced by employees, customers and visitors. See guidance for further details.
AI: This is definitely not going away. Generative AI tools are to be trained to help teachers create lesson plans and mark homework under a new project announced by the government. Need help understanding this area, then have a look at the presentation on our website: ‘The challenges and benefits of AI in education and governance’ from Julia Adamson MBE – Managing Director for Education and Public Benefit for BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.
Clerking Handbook. Have you seen the free clerking handbook guide from the National Association of Governance Advisory services (NAGAS)? A practical guide for governing board clerks and governance professionals in maintained and academy schools. Advice, examples and resources to support this key role within governance. Download a copy at www.nagas.org.uk
Boards to consider:
How do we ensure that we stay up to date and aware of what is happening within the education sector both locally and nationally?
DAG Supporting Your Governance
In addition to over 150 articles each year and bespoke resources supporting more informed governance, all free to DAG members, we support members coming together online to discuss the latest issues affecting governance. Have you considered our community networks?
DAG Community Networks – Chairs: Support for chairs each term from across the Devon local authority to come together in a free interactive session. Those who attend are chairs of governing boards, chairs of academy trusts and chairs of local academy bodies.
DAG Community Networks – Governance Professionals/Clerks: DAG supports clerks and governance professionals each term to come together in a free interactive hour-long session recognising the key role clerks have in delivering effective governance.
DAG Community Networks – Governors/Trustees: DAG supports all governors and trustees to come together in a free interactive hour-long session to consider key responsibilities.
Each forum has a theme and is facilitated by DAG board members or associate members with considerable governance experience, dates for this term will be available soon.
Board to consider: Are all opportunities being taken to upskill the board, share experiences and concerns and support all board members and the clerk?
06-05-2025