Parent Governors
THE LAW
School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2007 – the “Constitution Regulations”.
LEGAL GUIDANCE
Guidance to the Constitution Regulations can be found on:
• Guide to the law for school governors – on CD ROM. Provided free to all school governors.
• GovernorNet
1. Excerpt from Guide to the Law for school governors, chapter 2 – January 2010 edition:
PARENT GOVERNORS
4. Parents (including carers) of registered pupils at the school are eligible to stand for election for parent governorship at the school. In the case of MNS, any parent (or carer) of a child who is making use of the service provided by the nursery is eligible to stand for election for parent governorship at the school. Parent governors are elected by other parents at the school. If insufficient parents stand for election, the governing body can appoint parent governors.
“Parent” is defined for the purposes of the Constitution Regulations as including “any individual who has or has had parental responsibility for, or cares or has cared for, a child or young person under the age of 18”. It includes a person who the child lives with and who looks after the child, irrespective of what their relationship is with the child. The reference in the definition must be to someone involved in the full-time care of the child on a settled basis.
5. For community, community special and VC schools, and MNS, the Local Authority (LA) has the responsibility for arranging the elections, though it can delegate this to the headteacher.
6. For foundation, foundation special and VA schools, the governing body has the responsibility for arranging the elections, though the governing body can agree with the LA for it to make the arrangements (again, the LA can delegate to the headteacher).
7. Schools must make every reasonable effort to fill parent governor vacancies through elections. If insufficient parents stand for election the governing body can appoint:
• a parent of a registered pupil at the school, or if that is not possible;
• a parent of a former pupil at the school, or if that is not possible;
• a parent of a child of, or under, compulsory school age.
This also applies to community special schools and foundation special schools, but for these schools the appointment criteria are:
• a parent of a registered pupil at the school, or if that is not possible;
• a parent of a former pupil at the school, or if that is not possible;
• a parent of a child of or under compulsory school age with special educational needs for which the school is approved, or if that is not possible;
• a parent with experience of educating a child with special educational needs.
8. A person is disqualified from election or appointment as a parent governor of a school if they are an elected member of the LA, or if they work at the school for more than 500 hours in any consecutive 12-month period (at the time of election or appointment). If a serving parent governor subsequently starts to work at the school for more than 500 hours in a consecutive 12-month period, they would serve out their term of office.
2. Excerpt from GovernorNet (Background Article)
Parent governor (Regulation 4 and Schedule 1 of the Constitution Regs)
• Parents, including carers, of registered pupils at the school are eligible to stand for election by other parents or carers at the school.
• Parent governors do not have to stand down if their child leaves the school during the period they serve, though they may do so if they wish. They may stand for re-election at the end of their term of office if they still have a child on the school roll.
• If not enough parents of registered pupils at the school stand, then a parent of a former registered pupil at the school, or of a child under or of compulsory school age may be appointed by the governing body.
• A person is not able to be a parent governor if, at the time of the election or appointment, they are an elected member of the LEA or work more than 500 hours a year at the school (from 1 August-31 July). Once elected, if a parent governor then becomes an elected member of the LEA or works more than 500 hours a year at the school, they are still entitled to serve out their term of office.
• The governing body may remove an appointed parent governor from office, but an elected parent governor cannot be removed unless they come under the disqualifications stated under Regulation 20 and Schedule 12 of the Constitution Regulations. The ISCG publication, A Manual for Governing Bodies and their Clerks 2003, has a useful Good Practice for Parent Governor Elections section.
• The number of Parent governors depends on the Instrument of Government and the category of school:
- Community, Foundation and Voluntary Controlled schools – at least one-third of governors
- Voluntary Aided schools – at least one, but enough to make up at least one third of the membership of the governing body when counted with foundation governors who are eligible for election or appointment as parent governors
ROLE OF A PARENT GOVERNOR at IMMANUEL
In addition to their generic role as a school governor, parent governors are, together with the appointed foundation parent governors, representatives of all parents / guardians / carers of pupils at the college.
Note:
Elected governors are ‘representatives’ NOT ‘delegates’. The difference is that they:
• listen to the views of those they represent,
• convey them to the governing body
• and report back (omitting matters graded as confidential or anything damaging or disrespectful of colleagues),
BUT are not required to act/vote in accordance with those views if they do not agree with them.