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Supporting school governors

The work of Blackpool governor services team is to empower school governors by providing tailored personal support, training and guidance in order for them to confidently and effectively conduct their roles.

This includes:

  • Professional clerking services provided through our traded offer
  • A range of training and development opportunities through an annual training programme 
  • A dedicated website which is provided free of charge to all subscribing schools through the Governorhub website. This provides access to comprehensive national and local updates for governors, links to on-line and face to face training opportunities, as well as providing a wide range of resources to support new and experienced governors alike 

Blackpool governor training, support and clerking services

We work with all educational establishments to secure highly effective governance.

This is done through the provision of a professional clerking service, advice, guidance and training to support governors and leaders within Blackpool as well as offering services to other institutions outside Blackpool who wish to access this valued service.

Premium level clerking

This level of service provides a professionally trained clerk to governors to support meetings and committees as required. Benefits from this service include:

  • Administering and advising the governing board on preparation of agendas and preparing the annual plan of the work of the board
  • Attendance at all meetings and committees of a governing board to take the minutes, and to advise the board on its statutory and procedural responsibilities, to ensure compliance with legal and Ofsted requirements
  • Professional support and advice will continue to be made available after meetings and will continue throughout the year both individually and corporately to enable all members to be equipped with the knowledge required to fulfil their statutory obligations and to be confident in the discharge of their duties
  • Provision of regular skills audits and further guidance on training needs and opportunities to all board members and support recruitment
  • Maintaining statutory governing board records, including information required to be published on the website
  • Support in the establishment of different models of governance

Basic level clerking

Where governing boards have their own clerk (within legal requirements), the service can provide:

  • Regular briefing meetings to advise clerks on the business to be put to governing boards at their termly meetings and forthcoming training opportunities
  • Provision of draft agendas and accompanying model documents for the termly governor’s meetings
  • Free access for the clerk to all centrally provided training and special events
  • Advice and guidance from us to executive leaders, governors and clerks on all aspects of clerking and to demonstrate the board’s ability to support the school leadership team in raising standards
  • Administrative access to Governorhub enabling the clerk to maintain the database and produce reports in accordance with the needs of the board

Training

This service provides to all board members:

  • Access to a comprehensive termly programme offering a wide range of face to face and e-learning training opportunities related to governance
  • Bespoke in-house governing board training on request (one session per year may qualify to be delivered free of charge)
  • Specific relevant courses focusing on current key educational issues and initiatives

GovernorHub

GovernorHub is a set of online tools designed to help governors and academy trustees manage their work, bringing together the key things needed by the board:

  • Education news locally and from around the country
  • A private area for the governing board to exchange messages and emails
  • Confidential storage of documents online so they are all in one place, accessible by all board members
  • A shared calendar of meetings which can be seen on the web and syncs to governors’ smartphone, work or tablet calendar
  • Links to DfE and Ofsted data about the school
  • Tools especially designed for clerks to help them track membership, roles, committees and easily organise meetings
  • A governing board health check questionnaire to help with self-evaluation
  • iPad, iPhone and Android apps which can be used to download documents to use if there’s no internet access

Further details and pricing structure are available on request.

Jaki Currey

Governor services manager
Telephone 01253 476513