Author : Al Kingsley @AlKingsley_edu
It’s one of the staple items that every governing body or trust board should undertake annually as its the only way to generate an effective plan of training for the year ahead around those topics your governors feel less secure with.
Naturally, Ofsted will look to see this as part of your overall effectiveness and competency as a governing body. In January 2017, the DfE released a new Competency Framework for Governance, structured around the DfE’s newly identified “6 features of Effective Governance”. The guidance is that Governing Bodies should carry out regular audits of the skills they possess in the light of the skills and competencies they need, taking on board the guidance within the Competency framework for governance”.
You can download the NGA skills matrix here from the NGA, it’s quick and easy to send to all governors, get them to complete and then aggregate results to highlight strengths and areas for development.
I’d argue that just as importantly, when looking to recruit new governors, the results of your skills matrix should also shape the skills you are looking to add to your governing body, so the exercise has double value in completing.
You can access a copy of the Governance handbook and Competency framework from here.
The Key also provides plenty of examples and links for tools to audit the skills of governors. They also and refer to resources that allow you to create online questionnaires. You can access those here.
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