2. Strategic leadership

An overview of strategic leadership for maintained schools.

Strategic leadership involves clearly:

  • setting and defining the school’s strategic direction, including its vision and strategic priorities
  • setting and modelling the school’s culture, values and ethos

When setting the school’s vision, it is vital that the governing body is both connected and responsive to pupils, staff, parents and carers, and its communities through effective engagement.

Schools with a religious character

Governing bodies must set the school’s vision:

  • in line with the school’s mission, which is set by the relevant religious authority
  • jointly with the relevant religious authority
  • in accordance with any trust deed, as applicable

The governing body should ensure that it fulfils its functions in line with the mission set.

2.1 Establishing a positive culture

An effective governing body:

  • sets and safeguards high expectations for the school community, including:
    • the expected behaviours, progress and attainment of all pupils
    • the conduct and professionalism of its staff, the governing body and its committee members
  • promotes its vision, culture, values and ethos across the whole school and ensures that is reflected in its policies and its practices
  • supports a whole school approach to safeguarding and child protection, ensuring all systems, processes and policies operate with the best interests of the child or young person at its centre

The school’s culture must:

The governing body must not discriminate against a person based on a protected characteristic which is covered within Equality Act 2010 and includes the public sector equality duty (PSED). Further information is available in the Equality Act 2010: guidance.

Everyone involved in governance is expected to know about and follow The Seven Principles of Public Life, also known as the ‘Nolan Principles’.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has published a Framework for Ethical Leadership in Education. This was supported by the National Governance Association who launched a pathfinder project to examine ethical decision making and help school leaders understand the decisions they make.

2.1.1 Governor conduct and behaviour

Effective governing bodies create and maintain a code of conduct which is agreed by all governors.

Various organisations produce a model code of contact, which may help governing bodies in drafting or updating its code. Some examples include the:

Breaching the code of conduct could result in the governor suspension, or in more severe cases, the removal of a governor.

Legislative procedures for the suspension or removal of governors must be followed. More information is available in The School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) Regulations 2013 - regulation 17, and The School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012 - part 4.

2.1.2 Equality, diversity and inclusion

Equality, diversity and inclusion should be an integral part of the governing body’s strategy. It is important that this includes not just legal or regulatory obligations but also how equality, diversity and inclusion is championed and embedded throughout the school.

Schools must abide by the Equality Act 2010. It applies to all maintained schools as providers of education to their pupils and to those who have applied for admission as pupils. Where the governing body is also the employer, it must also be aware of its responsibilities under the Act.

Guidance from the Government Equalities Office on positive action in the workplace for employers is available. Governing bodies may find this helpful.

In schools with a religious character, the governing body may have the right to use its own judgement when making employment decisions relating to staff. For further information, read the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, section 58 and guidance on managing staff employment in school, chapter 6.

Equality Act 2010: advice for schools provides information for schools, including general exceptions and special issues for protected characteristics.

Public sector equality duty (PSED)

Under the PSED, governing bodies must have due regard to:

  • eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act
  • advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
  • fostering good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not

Governing bodies must:

  • ensure that equality objectives are published and that they can demonstrate compliance with the PSED
  • comply with the duty to make reasonable adjustments to help alleviate any substantial disadvantage to a disabled person, which will vary in each case

Further information is available on the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) guidance on the PSED.

2.2 Setting strategic direction

The governing body ensures the school has a clear vision set out in a specific written statement, which includes its ambitions for:

  • delivering an excellent education for current and future pupils
  • the school’s relationship with other schools (or dioceses and diocesan families of schools and other organisations and partnerships within the education sector, where relevant)

It draws on, and ensures the school is connected and responsive to its pupils, parents and carers, and local communities it serves.

An effective governing body puts in place a strategy for achieving the vision, focusing on the significant strategic challenges. It provides a robust and costed framework for:

  • setting priorities
  • implementing and ensuring accountability
  • monitoring progress in achieving the school’s vision
  • addressing the strategic challenges and managing risk

The detail of all school improvement actions does not form part of the governing body’s strategy. These will be recorded in a separate school improvement plan (SIP) or school development plan (SDP) developed by the school leadership.

When setting direction, the governing body is encouraged to consider staff workload and wellbeing, in particular, how the school can foster a supportive working environment where:

  • workload is managed
  • wellbeing is prioritised
  • action is taken to support all staff

Making data work: Teacher workload advisory group report can help with understanding how to remove unnecessary workload linked with data management.

2.3 Decision making

The governing body is accountable for all strategic decisions made but can delegate governance functions to committees or, in some cases, to individuals. Operational matters are delegated to school leaders.  

However, as the legal entity, the governing body cannot delegate responsibility and must retain overall control for all decisions made.

School leaders operate within the autonomy, powers and functions delegated to them by the governing body.

 In making strategic decisions the governing body:

  • must act in the best interest of the school and its pupils
  • must act in accordance with its governing documents including any trust deed, where applicable
  • is well informed by the available evidence of what works or is likely to be effective
  • considers the impact on staff workload and wellbeing
  • fully understands the cultural and religious diversity of the school and the community it serves
  • welcomes open debate from a diverse range of individuals, views and experiences
  • considers the views and needs of the religious body, where appropriate
  • considers the views of the school’s key stakeholders, particularly parents and carers

The governing body can decide whether governors will have a focus on certain areas to support in strategic decision making, often referred to as link or lead governors. However, all governing bodies should have governors to take specific strategic lead responsibility on behalf the governing body for its:

  • safeguarding arrangements, including the Prevent duty
  • SEND arrangements
  • careers education, in secondary schools or federations that contain secondary schools

Additional guidance on these roles is available from other organisations, including:

2.4 Managing conflicts of interest

Managing conflicts ensures the governing body meets its duty to act in the school’s best interest and can prevent negative consequences for the school and its governors.

Governors, associate members and governance professionals must declare their interests to ensure that transparent strategic decision making can take place. Where governors, associate members and governance professionals may have a conflict between their own interests and the interest of the governing body or committee, the governing body or committee will need to hold a fair hearing.

Where there is reasonable doubt about the individual being able to act impartially, or where they are attending a meeting where the subject of the interest is due to be discussed and they have a pecuniary interest, they must:

  • disclose their interest
  • withdraw from the meeting
  • not vote on the matter

This is in accordance with regulation 16 of The School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) regulations 2013.

Where a person is working or doing voluntary work at the school where they are a governor, they need to:

  • ensure the role being undertaken is separate from their governance role
  • give assurances that their lines of accountability are clear and do not become blurred
  • avoid or manage any conflicts of interest appropriately

The School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) (England) Regulations 2013 (regulation 16 and Schedule 1) provides further details.

The Charity Commission has published guidance on managing potential conflicts of interest.

Further information is available in the Schools Financial Value Standard checklist guidance (section A.4 under Governance).

2.5 Managing risk

Managing risk is essential to ensure the school is meeting its key objectives and to protect its funds and assets.

An effective governing body manages risk by:

  • overseeing a whole school approach to risk management
  • having a risk management framework for identifying, managing and recording risks and incidents
  • making sure risk assessments are in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils, staff and visitors
  • reviewing all risks regularly including those associated with strategic priorities and SIPs or SDPs

2.6 Legal liability of the governing body

A governing body has legal responsibility for the conduct of its school (or schools) as outlined in the Education Act 2002 s21(1).

Governors are generally protected from personal liability, provided they act honestly, reasonably and in good faith (see section 50(7), of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998). Any liability will fall on the governing body and should be covered by the school’s insurance policy.

Schools must have adequate insurance cover to comply with its legal obligations or be a member of the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) for schools, DfE’s alternative to commercial insurance. Not all risks are covered in the RPA and schools should read the membership rules for full details of cover.

2.7 Engaging with parents and the community

Governing bodies have a statutory duty to have regard to any parental views.

An effective governing body builds relationships with parents, the local community, including the church community and diocese where relevant, to create a sense of trust and shared ownership of the school strategy and its vision. They make sure its school (or schools) has systems and process in place to communicate regularly with parents and carers, helping them to understand:

  • the structure of the school
  • how the school operates
  • how they can support their child’s education
  • how they can put forward their views

The governing body ensures that:

  • schools regularly seek and consider the views of, and feeds back to, parents, carers, pupils, staff, the local community and employers
  • parental and community views influence and inform its decisions
  • decisions are communicated clearly to pupils, parents and carers, staff and communities

Guidance and training on building better partnerships with parents is available through ParentKind.

Read more about engaging with parents and carers from the National Governance Association.

2.7.1 Parent councils

Certain foundation schools must have a parent council, as set out in the Education Act 2002, section 23A.

Other types of maintained schools can choose whether to establish a parent council and to determine its membership in line with The School Governance (Parent Council) (England) Regulations 2007.  

It is the governing body that must establish the parent council. Arrangements for the structure, role and support of the parent council are set out in the above parent council regulations.

Parent councils allow parents to put forward their views to the governing body and school leaders. These include matters relating to the conduct of the school and the governing body’s powers to provide community facilities (see Education Act 2002 section 23A).