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Banking experts fill vacant school governor roles
A team of high-level staff from Lloyds Banking Group has been volunteering as governors with schools in the Yorkshire and Humber area as part of the bank’s StandingOut programme.
They have been lending their expertise to heads, teachers and existing governors to help improve school performance.
Lloyds now plans to replicate the success of the Yorkshire and Humberside pilot elsewhere in the UK.
Dr Tom Dobson, from the university’s Carnegie School of Education, led the evaluation. He said: “Over the last ten years, schools in England have faced a number of changes, particularly with the increase of schools choosing to become academies.
“This has fundamentally altered not only how schools are funded, but also how they operate, having withdrawn from local authority support.
“Arguably, some of the biggest changes and challenges have concerned the role of, and responsibilities placed upon, the governing body.
“Good governance is no longer seen as sufficient. The skills of those on governing bodies need to be on par with professional organisations; running a school should now be viewed in the same way as running a business.
“However, for some schools, especially those in areas of socio-economic disadvantage, recruiting governors with professional skills can be challenging.”
Academics at Leeds Beckett’s Carnegie School of Education carried out an 18-month evaluation of Lloyds’s StandingOut project. The pilot programme aims to improve school performance through good governance and is part of the banking group’s wider ‘Helping Britain Prosper’ initiative.
It involves recruiting and supporting Lloyds executives who volunteer as either school governors or non-executive directors of a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), with the aim of improving the governing body’s decision-making and confidence in dealing with financial matters.
Since 2013, Ofsted has had in place a robust and demanding framework for inspecting the performance of governing boards.
To meet Ofsted’s criteria, school governing bodies require individuals with legal knowledge and expertise in finance, management and leadership.
Leeds Beckett’s research into the programme focussed on school performance, increased skills and knowledge of governing bodies and leadership teams, and improved business practices within schools.
Lloyds’ StandingOut programme has several strands but the main part of the programme involves placing different types of governors in schools, including full governors, non-executive directors and E-governors, who work remotely with schools, helping resolve the issue of recruiting professional governors in disadvantaged and remote areas of the county.
The Leeds Beckett evaluation tracked 18 volunteer governors from the start of their journey on the StandingOut programme to about one year into their governance role.
It found that most Lloyds’ governors made contributions to meetings from the outset, with some acting as business mentors to headteachers, chairs and school business managers.
The main on-going challenge participants encountered was that of time. The E-governance worked best for colleagues who had a degree of flexibility and autonomy over their working patterns, although some schools were not equipped technologically to support e-governance.
It was clear that schools preferred a more conventional governor who could physically attend meetings at least some of the time.
During the pilot, many participants had taken on additional specific roles and responsibilities and one was even elected chair of governors.
Overall, participants were highly valued by their schools, especially for their impartiality, professionalism and commitment. All chairs and headteachers felt that the Lloyds governors had either met or exceeded expectations, and that they would recommend the programme to other schools.