Categories of governors
In brief, the different categories of governors are:
- Parent governors: Selected by election/appointment if insufficient people stand for election and drawn from parents and carers of children at the school
- Staff governors: Selected by election from teaching and support staff paid to work at the school
- Co-opted governors: Appointed by the governing board because of specific skills / experience they bring
- Local authority (LA)/LA citizen governors: Nominated by the local authority
- Foundation governors (not community schools): Appointed by the school's founding board, church or other organisation named in the school's instrument of government
- Partnership governors (foundation schools only): Replace foundation governors if the school does not have a founding body, church or other organisation
- Associate members (not governors): Appointed by the governing board to attend committee meetings and/or full governing board meetings due to their particular skills or experience. As they are not governors they are not recorded on the Instrument of Government and do not have full voting rights.
Local authority (LA) governors
In Ealing all LA governor nominations need to be approved by Ealing governor services prior to appointment by the governing body. It's key is that all LA governors need to live and/or work in Ealing borough and meet the general criteria outlined in the application form. All LA governors should complete the LA governor application form.
Upon receipt approval will be sought from the director, school planning and partnerships and the councillor for Fairer Start, and the clerk will be notified when this has taken place. The reason for this is that if necessary only the LA can remove a LA governor from a governing board, so we would want to have sight of who was filling a vacancy.
LA governor complaint/removal process
- LA governors’ complaint/removal process (pdf) * login required
Asterisk (*): Please note an EGfL user account is required to view this document, please email egflwebteam@ealing.gov.uk to register for an account.
Where a concern or complaint is raised that has not been satisfactorily dealt with through informal means this new procedure should be used.
Whilst these documents refer to LA governors we would recommend that all GBs have clearly agreed processes in place for the election/ appointment of all other governors. These documents can be adapted and further tools can also be found in out toolkit section.
We also recommend that you review your complaints policy to ensure the process for complaints against the GB is also clearly outlined.
