The foundation to any consultancy input on school governance matters – and the most valuable item in my “governance consultancy tool kit” is the ERG – that is, an “External Review of Governance”.
The ERG lets us identify and evaluate the “as is” status of governance in the school (both strategically and also via the operations of the governing body itself and its committees). From that we can develop a “target” version of how the school would aspire to develop, improve and ultimately restructure its governance.
Then, it’s just a matter of (a) separate the strategic and the operational elements of the (revised/new) governance model for the school and (b) implement the requisite action plan to prioritise and achieve the intended objectives. Simple really…….
Governors play a critical role in school improvement – and the ethos of an ERG is to provide governors with (a) a rigorous external perspective of how that process is progressing and (b) concrete recommendations of specific actions that are needed to achieve the desired improvements.
If appropriate, I can continue my involvement by having an active role in supporting the governing body through their implementation of the enhanced governance model. More often however, I find myself having the (relatively informal) supporting role of merely guiding governors as they “self-manage” the process of implementing an “action plan”.
To get the DfE perspective on what is expected from an ERG, click here to read their guidance notes.
I will generally recommend (regardless of whether an ERG had been called for by Ofsted or was undertaken at the initiative of the governors themselves) that a subsequent review is undertaken to measure progress towards achieving, and the impact of, an enhanced governance model.
For more details on an ERG (or indeed, for a basic and more general chat about what I do) please contact me by email on jack@jackminto.com – or by telephone on 07514 499238.
