Hampshire Governor Services

Quality of Service Questionnaire 2016/17 County Wide

Hampshire Governor Services
Quality of Service Questionnaire Outcomes 2016/17
Overview
The survey was conducted in the Autumn term of 2016 with 23% of governing bodies (GBs) making a return. 97% of the returns expressed satisfaction with the overall service provided, with 54% very satisfied, 43% satisfied, 3% dissatisfied and 1% very dissatisfied.

As in previous years the levels of performance remained consistently high across all areas of the service. The highest rated areas were:

Website information and advice - 97%
Information is helpful –97%
Information is presented in a way that is understandable to all - 97%
Information is accurate - 96%
Staff treat everyone courteously, fairly and with sensitivity -95%
Website overall usefulness –95%
Governors’ and Clerks’ e-newsletter - 95%
Governor Services’ Fortnightly Update - 94%
Information and advice is available at times suitable for governors - 93%
Training provision provides value for money for your governing body -92%

79% of the respondents felt that governor training had had a positive impact on their practice (19% partial impact), 74% stated that it had contributed to school improvement (24% partially contributed) and 80% recorded that advice and guidance had improved governance at their school (18% felt it had partially helped).

There was one criterion where over 10% of GBs were less thansatisfied by the service offered and one where over 5% of GBs had concerns, these were:

How far the training provision met the needs of governing bodies –11%
Does the training provision provide value for money for your governing body - 6%

The overall customer satisfaction rating wasdown 2% points to 97%from last year, but the very satisfied rating remained the same at 54%.

Overall the results remain very positive and it was good to see that the development work on the website has resulted in improved very satisfied ratings across all 3 website criteria. The revisions to the annual training development programme and termly training programmealso had a positive impact on these ratings.

It was disappointing to see that whilst the overall satisfaction rating for the ‘Staff treat everyone courteously, fairly and with sensitivity’ criterion remained very strong at 95%, the very satisfied rating fell by 7% points to 65%. There has been a higher than average staff turn over in the period covered by this review resulting in governing bodies dealing with different staff across the year. The Service has also introduced a help desk so this may have impacted on this criterion as again governors who are used to having a designated admin officer are now speaking to whoever is on the help desk when they call. There is a customer relationship management system in place to ensure all contacts with GBs are recorded to help improve communications and consistency in the advice provided to governors.

There were also drops in the satisfaction ratings around appointment processes and guidance on constitutions. This is probably to be expected as the last return covered a period where a lot of support had been given to GBs in these areas as they needed to reconstitute to meet statutory requirements.

The training provision is constantly kept under review but the two areas identified above as causing the most concern will be looked at again to see what further action can be taken to address these issues.

The Governors’ and Clerks’ e-newsletter also had a fall in its overall satisfaction rating so the Service will look to make amendments its content and format to better meet the needs of governors.

Issues raised by the outcomes from the questionnaire

Training

The comments in this section continue to focus on the availability of places on certain popular courses, including induction. Induction is run 26 times in the year across the County and at differing times. One of the issues for the Service is that in 2016/17 166 governors who were booked onto Induction did not attend; this is the equivalent of 4 courses. As with all of our courses, governors who cannot make a session should notify us in case there is a waiting list and we can book someone else in their place. This is at anytime before the session runs as we have been able to get governors onto events with one day’s notice.

If events are full we would still ask that governors contact us to let us know they want a place as we do run waiting listsand if there is sufficient demand we will endeavour to put on an additional course.

In terms of value for money, on average in 2016/17, based on the Pay As You Go charges, each subscribing governing body accessed £750 more training than covered by their annual charge. This is without taking into account that the annual subscription also provides each GB with the Services’ advice and support package, which includes its e-learning modules, which are added to each year to meet governors’ development needs.

Governors’ and Clerks’ e-newsletter

There were a number of comments about the amount of information now included in the termly e-newsletters making it less accessible. Every effort is made to ensure that articles are limited to those topics that impact on governance. However, with the educational landscape evolving so rapidly this still means there is a lot of information to be covered.

In order to try to improve the situation the e-newsletter will in future include section headings on the first page which when clicked on will take governors directly to the area of most interest to them. We will continue to review its content to make sure we are not duplicating information already circulated in the Governor Services’ Fortnightly Update. However, there are times when we do use the e-newsletter to provide additional advice and guidance relating to legislation or statutory guidance flagged up to governors through the fortnightly update.

There were also some comments about resuming hard copy versions of the documents issue by the Service, unfortunately, in line with the Council’s drive to keep down costs all regular communications with customers have to be electronic.

We will also remind all governors and clerks that the suggested agenda items for full governing body and committee meetings, previously included at the back of the
e-newsletter, are now available on the website. They can be accessed via the Annual Planner Topic Area in the A – Z index, in the resources section of this part of the site. This change was made to ensure that everyone was accessing the most up to date version of the suggested items.

Governor Services

Quality of Service Questionnaire
2016/17 results for the County
Out of 481 governing bodies in the County, 109made a return, this equates to a response rate of 23%.
The breakdown of the responses in terms of phase of school were:
Primary 88%
Secondary 10%
Special 10%
Academy 2%
The following information has been compiled from the completed questionnaires.
Scores are indicated using the following:
1 = Very Satisfied 2 = Moderately Satisfied 3 = Moderately Dissatisfied
4 = Very Dissatisfied 5 = No Experience of this criterion

The percentages are expressed as a percentage of the number of questionnaires returned, including those respondents who had no experience of that aspect of the service.
The results from the previous four years, as a % of the total number of returns, have been included in the table below to allow for comparisons to be made over time and to identify any firm trends that might need addressing. under the current years results in the following order:
2016 Whole county in black (total returns 109 – return rate 39%)
2015 Whole county in pink (total returns 182 – return rate 39%)
2014 Whole county in black (total returns 180 – return rate 39%)
2013 Eastern in red(total returns 139 – return rate 66%)

2012 Western in blue (total returns 120 – return rate 63%)

Section 1 – Information & Advice
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / NR
1. Information is accurate
2016 / 55% / 41% / 2% / 0% / 2%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 54%
58%
55%
51% / 45%
41%
40%
48% / -
1%
1%
0% / -
0%
0%
1% / 1%
1%
0%
1% / 4%
0%
2. Information is helpful
2016 / 52% / 44% / 2% / 0% / 2%
2015
2014
2013 / 57%
54%
57% / 42%
45%
40% / -
0%
1% / 1%
1%
0% / 1%
1%
0% / 2%
2012 / 52% / 48% / 0% / 0% / 1% / 0%
3. Information is provided in a way that is understandable to all
2016 / 46% / 51% / 0% / 1% / 2%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 46%
42%
48%
44% / 52%
55%
50%
54% / 1%
1%
1%
0% / -
1%
1%
0% / 1%
1%
0%
2% / 1%
0%
4. Information and advice is available at times suitable for governors
2016 / 44% / 49% / 2% / 1% / 4%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 49%
37%
44%
46% / 49%
58%
49%
51% / 1%
2%
3%
3% / 0%
1%
1%
0% / 1%
1%
1%
1% / 1%
0%
5. Support and Information for Clerks
2016 / 43% / 25% / 2% / 0% / 30%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 48%
42%
55%
43% / 37%
32%
27%
38% / 1%
0%
1%
0% / -
0%
1%
1% / 14%
26%
13%
14% / 3%
3%
6. Website Online booking
2016 / 52% / 33% / 1% / 0% / 14%
2015
2014
2013 / 50%
46%
49% / 41%
40%
40% / 3%
1%
3% / -
0%
0% / 6%
13%
9% / 0%
2012 / 46% / 40% / 1% / 2% / 10% / 1%
7. Website overall
Usefulness
2016 / 37% / 58% / 1% / 0% / 4%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 33%
32%
32%
27% / 61%
59%
62%
67% / 3%
4%
4%
2% / 1%
1%
0%
0% / 2%
3%
1%
5% / 0%
0%
8. Website information and advice
2016 / 37% / 60% / 1% / 0% / 3%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 32%
37%
37%
28% / 59%
53%
55%
65% / 5%
5%
6%
4% / 1%
1%
1%
0% / 4%
4%
1%
4% / 0%
0%
9. Termly Governors’ and Clerks’e-Newsletter
2016 / 52% / 43% / 2% / 0% / 3%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 62%
57%
50%
49% / 35%
40%
47%
48% / 2%
1%
2%
3% / -
1%
0%
0% / 2%
1%
1%
2% / 0%
0%
10. Hampshire Governor-Magazine
2016 / 30% / 58% / 3% / 0% / 9%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 33%
34%
27%
34% / 55%
58%
54%
64% / 1%
2%
4%
3% / -
1%
1%
0% / 11%
6%
9%
1% / 4%
0%
11. Fortnightly update
2016 / 48% / 46% / 2% / 0% / 4%
Yes / No / NR
13. Does the variety of ways in which we provide information and advice meet your needs?
2016 / 85% / 2% / 13%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 88%
86%
92%
95% / 1%
2%
3%
3% / 11%
11%
4%
3%
Yes / No / Partially / NR
14. Has the Support and guidance you have received from Governor Services helped to improve governance in your school?
2016 / 80% / 2% / 18%
2015
2014
2013 / 82%
79%
71% / 2%
2%
2% / 15%
18%
24% / 2%
Section 2 - Customer Care
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / NR
1. Speed of response to telephone enquiries
2016 / 44% / 33% / 1% / 0% / 22%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 49%
52%
54%
55% / 37%
36%
32%
23% / 1%
0%
3%
1% / -
0%
0%
0% / 13%
12%
9%
4% / 3%
1%
2. Speed of response to
e-mail enquiries
2016 / 50% / 39% / 2% / 0% / 9%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 52%
49%
48%
55% / 39%
41%
39%
33% / 1%
2%
4%
1% / 1%
0%
0%
1% / 8%
8%
6%
10% / 3%
1%
3. Staff treat everyone courteously, fairly and with sensitivity
2016 / 65% / 30% / 0% / 0% / 5%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 72%
67%
69%
72% / 23%
30%
24%
26% / 1%
0%
2%
0% / -
0%
0%
0% / 4%
3%
1%
2% / 4%
0%
4. The service meets the needs of governors with special requirements
2016 / 25% / 8% / 1% / 0% / 62%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 16%
13%
14%
28% / 12%
14%
12%
18% / 1%
1%
1%
0% / -
1%
0%
1% / 71%
71%
63%
51% / 10%
5%
Yes / No / NR
5. If you have a complaint do you know how to pursue it?
2016 / 77% / 23%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 80%
76%
76%
81% / 20%
24%
21%
20% / 2%
0%
6. Is there anything in the way in which we deliver our services which creates a disadvantage for any of your governors in relation to a protected characteristic?
2016 / 2% / 98%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 5%
2%
6%
6% / 96%
98%
90%
91% / 4%
3%
7. Are you clear about the standard of service you can expect from us?
2016 / 89% / 11%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 95%
95%
86%
88% / 5%
5%
12%
10% / 2%
0%
8. Would you like more information about the performance targets / results for the service?
2016 / 15% / 85%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 9%
14%
20%
16% / 91%
86%
78%
81% / 2%
0%
9. Do you think the ways we consult you are effective?
2016 / 95% / 5%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 94%
95%
92%
89% / 6%
5%
4%
9% / 3%
2%
Section 3 - Governor Training
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / NR
1. How useful is the annual e-training directory
2016 / 47% / 40% / 2% / 1% / 10%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 41%
44%
53%
41% / 53%
50%
42%
49% / 3%
2%
4%
6% / 1%
1%
0%
1% / 3%
3%
1%
3% / 1%
0%
2. How useful is the termly e-training programme
2016 / 47% / 38% / 3% / 1% / 11%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 46%
40%
58%
46% / 50%
48%
37%
48% / 2%
8%
4%
5% / -
1%
0%
2% / 2%
3%
1%
0% / 0%
0%
3. How useful are the training reports available to DTGs via the GS website
2016 / 33% / 44 / 1% / 1% / 23%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 29%
30%
29%
32% / 49%
44%
49%
43% / 2%
2%
0%
4% / 1%
1%
0%
1% / 19%
23%
22%
20% / 1%
2%
4. Does the training provision meet the needs of your governing body
2016 / 27% / 59% / 11% / 1% / 2%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 30%
29%
38%
33% / 60%
58%
42%
53% / 7%
9%
11%
11% / 2%
2%
2%
3% / 1%
2%
0%
0% / 6%
0%
5. Does the training provision provide VFM for your governing body
2016 / 43% / 49 / 5% / 1% / 2%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 46%
43%
55%
41% / 48%
49%
35%
49% / 4%
3%
4%
5% / 1%
2%
1%
3% / 1%
3%
0%
0% / 5%
0%
6. Has the training attended by your governors had a positive impact on your practice / Yes / No / Partially
2016 / 79% / 2% / 19%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 85%
73%
81%
75% / 1%
2%
0%
2% / 14%
24%
17%
23% / 2%
1%
7. Has the training attended governors contributed towards school Improvement?
2016 / 74% / 2% / 24%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 83%
71%
79%
79% / 2%
2%
0%
1% / 15%
27%
18%
39% / 3%
1%
Section 4 - Recruitment and Recognition of Governors
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / NR
1. Guidance on appointment / election procedures
2016 / 30% / 58% / 3% / 1% / 8%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 44%
37%
47%
47% / 44%
47%
45%
42% / 2%
2%
4%
3% / -
1%
0%
1% / 10%
13%
4%
8% / 1%
0%
2. Guidance on constitution issues/recruitment strategies
2016 / 30% / 57% / 3% / 0% / 10%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 47%
42%
37%
37% / 43%
47%
42%
35% / 4%
0%
3%
3% / -
1%
0%
1% / 6%
10%
15%
18% / 3%
0%
3. New Governors' Welcome Programme
2016 / 33% / 53% / 4% / 0% / 10%
2015
2014
2013
2012 / 37%
39%
39%
43% / 49%
46%
47%
46% / 3%
2%
6%
3% / -
1%
1%
1% / 11%
11%
4%
6% / 2%
0%
Section 5 - Overall level of satisfaction
County 2016 / County 2015 / County 2014 / Eastern 2013 / Western 2012
Very satisfied / 54% / 54% / 56% / 44% / 49%
Satisfied / 43% / 45% / 42% / 53% / 49%
Dissatisfied / 3% / 1% / 1% / 1% / 1%
Very dissatisfied / 1% / 1% / 1% / 0% / 0%
NR / 0% / 0% / 0% / 2% / 1%
Total returns / 109 / 182 / 180 / 139 / 120