The Local Authority actively promotes and supports high standards of governance in Buckinghamshire schools. To do so, Buckinghamshire Council will:

• Be the champion of high-quality school governance;
• Help to ensure that governors have access to support and training in order to develop the right skills to execute their role; and
• Implement appropriate monitoring arrangements to identify signs of failure in relation to governors’ oversight of finance, safety or performance standards in maintained schools.

Buckinghamshire Council has a statutory duty to provide the following elements of school governance in the academic year 2022-23:

• Approve Local Authority governor appointments in maintained schools
• Checking instruments of governance (compliance) for maintained schools Oversee the appointment of Parent Governor representatives to Local Authority committees
• Establish Interim Executive Boards and shadow governing bodies in maintained schools and intervene where appropriate in cases of under performance
• Oversee administrative changes to school status
• Maintain a database of Chairs of Governors
• Provide access/signposting to high quality training
• Provide mandatory information such as policy updates and model documents

In addition to its statutory duties, Buckinghamshire Council will offer additional support for school governance during the academic year 2022-23. Some additional support will be freely provided and some will be offered as a traded service branded as BESST – Buckinghamshire Education School Support and Training. Additional services will include:

• Scheduling and organising key meetings such as Corporate Director (DCS) briefings, termly governor priorities briefings and the Governance Consultative Board
• Memberships to digital tools and external online resources
• High quality training for governors delivered by local experts
• Partnership working with the Bucks Association of School Governors