Governor qualification and disqualification criteria

A governor must be aged 18 or over at the time of their election or appointment and cannot be a registered pupil at the school.

A person cannot hold more than one governorship at the same school.

As part of any appointment process governors must read the Governor qualification and disqualification criteria (word)* and confirm that they are not disqualified from serving as a school governor.

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Safeguarding

All governors are required to apply for an enhanced DBS check.

An enhanced DBS check searches the police national computer for spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands etc including information held by local police that is considered relevant to the position being applied for (of school governor in this instance).

The regulations specifically state:

From 1 April 2016, all maintained school governing boards to apply for an enhanced criminal records certificate for any newly appointed governor within 21 days of appointment.

As identified in Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), academies must carry out a section 128 check for all new governors / trustees.

Guidance recommends that maintained schools should also carry out these checks for all governors, because a person subject to one is disqualified from being a governor.

Please note a DBS enhanced check for position of a school Governor would not include a barred list (L99) check. A governor is not in regulated activity and thus should not be checked against the children’s barred list until they also do tasks defined as regulated activity (i.e. work unsupervised with children). DfE regulated activity definition can be found in Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE).