Younger, and more diverse, governors needed for North East schools

Having a strong and effective board of governors in a school can make a real difference to the life chances of young people. That’s why the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has formed partnerships with national organisations and programmes, including Inspiring Governance, to support employees from North East businesses to become governors. The North East LEP’s Neil Willis explains more.

School governors are the single largest group of volunteers in the UK. Over a quarter of a million people help improve outcomes for children and young people by volunteering as part of a school’s governing board. But we still need more governors – and a more diverse range of them – here in the North East.

Here at the North East LEP, 11 members of the team, including myself, are school governors. This has increased from two since we became the first LEP in the country to sign the School Governor Champion Charter, which supports staff members to become governors in local schools.

It’s a rewarding role and, as well as giving back to their community, people can improve their own skillsets in things like leadership and project management, so it’s an opportunity for personal and professional development too.

We recently commissioned some research from the National Governance Association, based on their 2021 Annual Governance Survey, into the picture in the North East. Nearly two thirds of respondents in our region find it a challenge to fill their governor vacancies. What’s more, 63% of governors who participated in the survey are aged 50 or over, and we’d love to see more young people taking on the role.

And of course we also want governing boards to reflect the communities they serve, so it was good to see that only 2.6% of respondents to the survey said their board didn’t reflect the makeup of their local community at all – although I’d love to see this number reduce to zero.

Governors can have a positive impact on careers education and guidance, and it’s recommended that boards identify a governor with the responsibility for taking a strategic interest in the school’s careers programme. It was encouraging to see that governors across the North East draw on their local employers and local employer partnerships, such as the LEP or Chamber, when developing their careers education strategy.

In many cases, this is a great opportunity for representatives from local businesses, who can bring their sector knowledge to the role. For a business that supports their employees to volunteer on governing boards it can be a great way of connecting with the community and developing your team’s professional skills.

While many individual volunteers and businesses are clearly involved with school governance in our region, it’s something we can build on, and we can do that by supporting a wider range of people, with a wider range of skills and experience, to get involved with their schools in the region.

It’s a myth that you need to know a lot about education to be a governor, and all sorts of skillsets are needed to make an effective governing body. There is a lot of support, professional development and training available to those who volunteer to ensure governing boards are effective in their core functions.

You can find out more about becoming a governor here, or email [email protected].