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Governor Support Team

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The core purpose of the Governor Support Team (GST) is to provide information, advice, support and training to school Governing Bodies and individual governors to help them fulfil their statutory responsibilities for strategic governance. The GST provides training in the generalities of governance, as well as more tailored support to meet specific needs and/or new legislation.

We offer four key service components:

  1. Administration - provided by our Governor Support Assistants (GSAs), that includes:

     

    • Support for the Governors Development Programme
    • Vetting and barring checks with the Criminal Records Bureau. All governor appointments are subject to the completion of a self-declaration that the governor is not disqualified from working with children and is appropriate to work as a governor. At the time of writing, the Department for Education (DfE) is expected to confirm the details of changes to these requirements, with all Governors expected to require registration with the Independent Safeguarding Authority.
    • Maintaining a county Governors' Database - this information is not shared with any third party.
    • Advise on and issue ‘Instruments of Government’ - the document that sets out how many governors are on the Governing Body and the proportion in each category.
    • Liaison with the district council Local Area Committees that appoint Authority governors. (Please note that Authority governors are not appointed by the GST.)
  2. Information and guidance - on issues relating to School Governing Body procedures and statutory responsibilities, as well as offering examples of good practice.

  3. Training programme - provided by the Governor Development Officers (GDOs). This includes training events that vary from induction courses for new governors, and support for those that carry out key roles for the Governing Body e.g. chairs, clerks, link governor. These are offered to any governor at venues around the country; Associate Members and clerks are also welcome to attend.

  4. Tailored support and consultancy - open to an individual school or cluster of schools that wish to take advantage of the expertise of the Governor Development Officers (GDOs) on a wide range of governance matters. This service includes the Team Building Review and the Governing Body Self Review (GBSR).