Buckinghamshire Council Resources

New Headteacher and Governor Handbook

Each year Buckinghamshire Council publishes a ‘New Headteacher Handbook’, which this year has been extended to also cover new governors. The Handbook includes sections on:

• The statutory role of the local authority
• The Side by Side model for school improvement
• Details of all the key services, provided by Buckinghamshire Council, for Buckinghamshire schools.

A copy of the 2022/23 Handbook will provide you with the key contact details for each of the services within Buckinghamshire.

Buckinghamshire New Governor Welcome Package

We are committed to ensuring newly appointed governors are up to speed and effective in their roles as quickly as possible. We, therefore, provide welcome support to all new governors, delivered through BESST (Buckinghamshire Education School Support & Training).

We run various training courses that are particularly suitable for new governors, including an introduction to safeguarding, and introduction to schools finance and new governor drop in sessions. The course ‘Being Strategic, What Good Governance Looks Like’ provides a thorough overview of the role of governors and enables governors to meet representatives from the Bucks Association of School Governors.

Governor training can be booked ad hoc, or your board can sign up for a training package.

Go to the Governor Training Page for more details.

Corporate Director Briefings for new Chairs of Governors

Buckinghamshire Council hold a Corporate Director Briefing each term and all headteachers, chairs of governors and clerks are invited to attend. 

The Corporate Director briefings are an opportunity to hear about strategic developments in the Children’s Services directorate at Buckinghamshire Council and how these will affect schools across the county.  There is plenty of opportunity to ask questions of the Corporate Director for Children’s Services, Richard Nash and the Service Director for Education, Simon James.

For academic year 2022/23 these briefings will remain online.  Dates of these briefings will be circulated in School Improvement newsletters to all headteachers and chairs of governors and can also be found.

 Go to Governors Zone - Corporate direct or briefings

Child Protection

The statutory guidance, Keeping children safe in education, places requirements on all governing boards and as a new governor, reading this guidance and understanding your responsibilities must be one of your immediate priorities. Boards must ensure their schools have effective safeguarding policies and procedures in place that take into account local risks, any statutory guidance issued by the Secretary of State, any LA guidance, and locally agreed on inter-agency procedures. Below are links to safeguarding resources for school governors. In addition, BESST offer a comprehensive training package for governors, including an introduction to safeguarding.

Safeguarding toolkit

Safeguarding toolkit governor resources (includes a safeguarding checklist for new governors).