Funding and recruitment major governor concerns

Funding, staff recruitment and the government’s performance on education are the major issues facing governors of state-funded schools, according to the School Governance in 2018 survey by the National Governance Association (NGA) and Tes.

Three quarters of respondents gave a negative verdict on the government’s performance in education over the past year. 71 per cent of respondents said funding is the main issue facing the school they govern.

When asked about the single action they want the Department for Education to take in the next year, 48 per cent of respondents asked for increased funding.

The survey found that 47% of respondents have cut support staff and 30% have reduced the number of teaching staff in response to funding pressures.

Teacher recruitment and retention is also a key issue for governing boards, with 38% of respondents saying they find it difficult to get good candidates for headteacher positions and 48% saying their school finds it difficult to recruit to teaching posts.

Schools with a ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating find it more difficult to recruit overall, though it is unclear if this is a cause or a consequence of their Ofsted rating.

Governing boards are finding it challenging to recruit to core subjects, with maths and physics selected by 62% of respondents respectively as the most difficult subjects to recruit to.

Despite the difficulties in recruiting staff, only 13% of governing boards have introduced incentives to retain teachers.

Teacher workload was recognised as an issue by 67% of respondents, and despite some governing boards trying to take action on this issue, respondents said their ability to do make a difference is impacted by funding constraints.

Almost half of governors and trustees responding to the survey said that their school provides additional services for families in need, including washing school uniforms, meals outside of term time, food banks and emergency loans. 38% are providing financial support with purchasing school uniforms.

The underrepresentation of people from ethnic minorities and young people on governing boards continues to be a major concern with the survey indicating that not enough governing boards are actively considering the issue. There are vast regional differences in the degree to which governing boards are ethnically diverse: in London, 82% of governors and trustees responding to the survey gave their ethnicity as white, in comparison to the North East where 98% of governors and trustees responding to the survey gave their ethnicity as white. This compares to 86% of the adult population being white according to the Census 2011. Overall, recruiting volunteers to govern schools is increasingly challenging with the number of governing boards reporting two or more vacancies rising to 38% in 2018.

5,218 school governors and trustees took part in the survey, which is an annual survey by NGA and Tes.