Agenda Items Checklist - Autumn 2017
AGENDA ITEMS CHECKLIST - AUTUMN 2017
This list is designed to help you plan the work of your governing board. It is intended as a prompt and a briefing. Some items must appear on the agenda of every meeting e.g Declaration of Interests, but others may be undertaken at other times of the year or delegated to committees, individuals or the headteacher. Delegated items must still be reported to the next governing board meeting
Business / Standard Items1. / Apologies for absence
i)to receive any apologies for absence
ii)to consider whether or not to give consent to any absence
Governors’ minutes should record whether or not the governing board consents to absences. Governors can be disqualified if they fail to attend meetings for a continuous period of six months without the consent (i.e. acceptance of apologies) of the governing board.
Clerks’ Update: Wednesday 13th Sept 2017, 4.00 – 6.00pm, Kensington Town Hall
2. / Declaration of Interests / Revision of Register of Interests
i) to receive declarations of interest in any item on the agenda.
ii) to update the register of business interests.
In the interests of fairness and financial probity the School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) Regulations 2013 require governors, associate members and headteachers to declare an interest, withdraw from the relevant part of the agenda and not vote in the following circumstances:
- where there may be a conflict between their interests and the interests of the governing board
- a fair hearing is required and there is any reasonable doubt about someone’s ability to act impartially
- a person has any pecuniary interest, direct or indirect in a matter under discussion. An indirect interest is where someone is an associate, nominee, spouse or relative of a person with a financial or other interest.
- during discussion of their own appointment, suspension or removal as a member of the governing board. This includes the election of the chair and vice-chair, where candidates must withdraw even if they are the only person standing
- pay or appraisal of persons working at the school – a member of staff other than the headteacher must withdraw from any discussion of the pay or appraisal of any other member of staff
Strategic Financial Management: Thursday 8th March 2018, 6.30 – 8.30pm, Venue to be confirmed;
3. / Election of Chair and Vice – chair
i) to elect a chair of governors for the period ….. to ……….
ii) to elect a vice-chair for the period …….. to ………
The 2013 Roles, Procedures and Allowances Regulations require that prior to the election of the chair and vice-chair, the governing body must determine the date on which their term of office will end. There is no upper or lower limit, but most schools have a pattern of holding annual elections at the first meeting of the school year. Candidates must withdraw and not vote. It is important to keep a record of the procedures which apply in your governing body. A model set of Standing Orders is available on the website.
Chairs’ of Committees and New Chairs Induction: Thursday 30th Nov 2017 6.30pm -8.30pm (Kensington Town Hall).
4. / Governing Body Membership
i) to note any appointments / elections and welcome new governors
ii) to note any resignations
iii) to decide on any co-opted governor, LA Governor, associate member appointments
iv) to update the skills audit to assist the GB to make best use of the skills already present and assist in recruitment to vacancies.
- Induction: Please ensure that new governors have appropriate school based induction arrangements and register for the Local Authority Welcome to New Governor’s Induction programme.
- DBS and other checks: Since 1 September 2016 all governors have had to undertake an enhanced DBS check. New governors should be asked to:
- sign a declaration that they are not disqualified from serving as a governor. A model pro-forma is on our website.
- Are asked for evidence of identity
- sign a declaration that they are still not disqualified from serving as a governor. A model pro-forma is on our website.
5. / Governing Body Roles, Procedures and Allowances
i) to note the principles and procedures set out in the 2013 School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) Regulations or Articles of Association as appropriate.
ii) to review the delegation of functions to committees, individuals and to the headteacher
iii) to adopt a set of standing orders which records the local procedures agreed by the governing body
iv) to review and adopt a Code of Practice which is consistent with the regulations and good practice. We strongly recommend that governing bodies ask all governors to sign it.
v) to review / adopt a governor’s Allowances policy for the reimbursement of legitimate expenses
vi) To approve a finance policy (for maintained schools)
Commentary
- School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) Regulations apply to all LA maintained schools. They are intended to provide more freedom for governing bodies to decide how to operate while reinforcing clear principles about roles, relationships and conduct. There is a requirement for the GB to “have regard to advice from the clerk on the nature of its functions” and provision for “approval of alternative arrangements for a governor to participate or vote at meetings including by telephone or video conference”.
- Delegation of Functions review - The School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) Regulations and Academy Articles of Association/Schemes of Delegation, allow most of the functions of the governing board to be delegated to a committee, any governor or to the head teacher.
- The governing board must review annually the exercise of functions it has delegated. This includes
ii) delegation to committees and individuals, in particular:
- staff appointments– the governing board may delegate to the headteacher, a single governor or a group of governors the responsibility for staff appointments outside headteacher / deputy head appointments
- standing committees – e.g Resources, Standards, Parent, Pupil and Community. The terms of reference, membership, chairing / clerking arrangements all need to be agreed by the full governing board.
- statutory function committees to carry out functions such as headteacher appraisal, pupil exclusions, complaints, staff discipline / dismissal, pay and admissions
- appeal committees to hear appeals against initial decisions on issues such as appraisal, pay, disciplinary sanctions, dismissals etc
- appointment of individual governors e.g oversight of special needs, child protection /safeguarding, health and safety etc
- governor visits* – to agree arrangements for the coming year
The Local Authority Audit Unit have advised that the budget must be scrutinized by the relevant (Finance/Resources) Committee and approved by the Full Governing Board in maintained schools.
iv) Collaboration with other schools – if your school has to deal with staffing issues, appeals or complaints you may need to convene panels of impartial governors. Sometimes it is difficult to find enough governors and you can call on governors from elsewhere if you have an arrangement to collaborate. To set this up in advance schools should make an arrangement with a partner school and each governing board adopt the following or similar wording, to be recorded in minutes and associated documentation:
Collaboration with ……………… school
The governing board of ………….. School agrees reciprocal arrangements to collaborate with ………………. School over staffing, appeals and complaints and other matters from ………….. onwards. In accordance with the School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) Regulations 2013 this will allow governors from either school to participate in staffing,complaints and appeal panels if requested.
Action: We recommend that GB’ adopt a set of Standing Orders to record local practice and delegation arrangements. A model is available on our website.
Governors’ Hearings – Getting it Right: Thursday 2nd Nov, 6.00 - 8.00 Lilla Huset Centre, H&F
6. / Minutes of Previous Meeting and Matters Arising
i) to confirm the minutes of the previous meeting as an accurate record
ii) to consider any matter arising which does not appear elsewhere on the agenda.
Commentary
- Confidentiality and public access: schools and academies need to be aware that they must make available for public inspection agendas, signed minutes and any paper considered at a meeting. This includes the headteacher’s report. However confidential items are excluded. These include any material relating to named employees or prospective employees, named pupils or prospective pupils and “any other matter that, by reason of its nature, the governing body is satisfied should remain confidential” . General governing board and committee papers and reports should not contain sensitive information about staff, pupils, parents or others who are either named or can be identified from the detail provided. Governing boards should agree any item which they wish to remain confidential and record it separately.
- Storage: Once agreed the chair of governors for that meeting should sign and date the minutes. Best practice is for each page also to be initialed. The signed minutes are the formal permanent record of the governing board meeting and decisions and should be stored in a secure but accessible place in the school.
7. / Reports
To note reports from any individual or committee with delegated authority e.g
i) chair’s report on any decisions / activities on behalf of the governing board
ii) committee reports
iii) visiting governor reports
and consider any recommendations made.
Persons / committees with delegated authority must report back to the governing board. To save time unless a decision is required reports could be circulated in advance and simply noted.
8. / SATS/GCSE/A Level/Ebacc outcomes
To receive a report from the Headteacher on 2017 test/examination outcomes and progress
9. / School Development Plan
Governors should review and agree the School Development/Improvement Plan and SEF. It is good practice to create a school development plan over a three-year period.
10. / Headteacher’s report* with monitoring information and commentary.
The items suggested below might alternatively be separate agenda items or discussed in committees
- Standards and progress report with commentary and any proposals to address issues e.g
- SAT’s outcomes with commentary e.g area / LA / national comparative data / comparison with targets and trends over three years; gender / BME / SEND / pupil premium, sports premium and vulnerable groups analysis
- Secondary schools, public examination results with area / LA / national comparative data / comparison with targets and trends, gender / BME / SEND /pupil premium and vulnerable groups analysis.
- value added analysis of results where possible (from baseline to end of KS1, KS1 to end KS2 etc) and pupil progress – percentages working at ARE or greater depth progress measures and performing below expectation.
- analysis of key details if available.
- quality of teaching – with commentary e.g SLT / H/T observation monitoring cycle, pupil progress meetings, tracking systems
- achievements of pupils and other members of the school community
- outcomes of any review of curriculum areas
- report on the Local Authority’s categorisation of the school
- Financial account with commentary on significance / impact on teaching and learning / actions and proposals to address any issues
- Staff update – appointments, resignations, vacancies, changes in allocation of responsibility with commentary on significance / impact on teaching and learning / actions and proposals to address any issues
- Performance management report
on the operation of the performance management policy, the effectiveness of the policy, teachers’ training and development needs with commentary on any significance / impact on teaching and learning / budget / actions and proposals to address any issues - Premises and resources report e.g maintenance and improvement with commentary on significance / impact on teaching and learning actions / actions and proposals to address any issues
- Health and safety report e.g emergency evacuation arrangements, approval of proposed off-site visits and emergency arrangements
- School specific items e.g Children’s Centre update
- Policy monitoring and review – according to arrangements specified in individual policies and an overall plan which allows governors to monitor policies over a 3 – 4 year cycle
- Proposals for school term dates
- The headteacher’s report might also cover the items set out in the Specific Issues section below or these could be separate agenda items
New to being a SEND Governor: Weds 11th Oct 2017 6.00 – 8.00pm
Lila Huset Professional Development Centre
11. / Chair’s Forum
To receive a report back from the Chair on the information from the Forum since the last governing board meeting.
The next/last meeting is/was on Wednesday 4th October 2017 at 6.00pm.
12. / Governor Development
i) Governors to attend appropriate training linked to role, responsibilities and school priorities in the School Development Plan and SEF, for the following year
ii) to receive a report on any training attended by governors
13. / Forward Planning / dates of meetings
i) to agree the main focus and objectives for governing board work and agendas for the year linked to school development plan and SEF. Agreeing an annual work plan is good practice.
ii) to confirm an annual schedule of meeting dates for full governing board and committee meetings
14. / Any Other Urgent Business
This should be used only as a notice-board item and not for detailed discussion or decision. The Governing Board standing orders should detail the process for this item.
See Model Standing Orders
Specific Issues
New Code of Conduct
The NGA has updated their code of conduct. This has been widely consulted o and we would recommend governors use this and adapt it for the schools’ specific circumstances.
New Statutory Exclusions Guidance
The DfE has issued revised Statutory Guidance for Exclusions. There are subtle changes to the guidance that are generally factual but they could have significant impact for schools. The aim is to provide clarity for Headteachers and governors. They do not change the rights of, or requirements on, schools, children or parents. It came into effect on 1 September 2017.
Any permanent exclusions issued last term, or appeals, still to be heard, must be dealt with under the previous statutory guidance.
- The Governing Board can either:
Direct reinstatement of the pupil immediately or on a particular date
- The SEN expert’s role is to advise the review panel, orally or in writing or both, impartially, of the relevance of SEN in the context and circumstances of the review.
- Annex B summarizes the requirements for headteachers.
- A fixed-period exclusion can also be for parts of the school day.
- Beyond reasonable doubt means the headteacher should accept that something happened if it is more likely that it happened than it did not happen.
- Must be lawful, reasonable and fair
- Must be in response to a serious breach or persistent breaches of the school’s behavior policy and where allowing the pupil to remain in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of the pupil or others in the school.
New Data Protection
From 25th May 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force which will have an impact on every UK organization that processes the personal data of EU residents, including schools which process staff and student data. It will replace the Directive on Data Protection that is currently in place in the UK. The following link gives a full explanation.
Finance Issues
Pupil Premium Grant (PPG)
The PPG per pupil for 2017 to 2018 is as follows:
Disadvantaged pupils / Pupil premium per pupilPupils in year groups reception to year 6 as recorded as Ever 6 FSM / £1,320
Pupils in years 7 to 11 recorded as Ever 6 FSM / £935
Looked after children (LAC) defined in Children Act 1989 as one who is in the care of, or provided with accommodation by, an English local authority / £1,900
Children who have ceased to be looked after by a local authority in England and Wales because of adoption, a special guardianship order, a child arrangements order or a residence order / £1,900
Service children / Pupil premium per pupil
Pupils in year groups reception to year 11 recorded as Ever 6 service child or in receipt of child pension from the Ministry of Defence / £300
The pupil premium grant for 2017 to 2018 will include pupils recorded in the January 2017 school census who are known to have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) since May 2011, as well as those first known to be eligible at January 2017.
Children adopted from care or who have left care
The pupil premium grant for 2017 to 2018 will include pupils recorded in the January 2017 school census and alternative provision census who were looked after by an English or Welsh local authority immediately before being adopted, or who left local authority care on a special guardianship order or child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order). These are collectively referred to as post-LAC in these conditions of grant.