Issue - meetings

As detailed in the report.

Councillor Eastwood introduced the report and explained that Current council policy provided that the Elected Member(s) of the electoral Ward where a school was located could nominate a person(s) to be a Local Authority (LA) Governor. The policy, however, only provided for nomination. The statutory duty to accept or decline the nomination was a decision of the governing body.

The Government of Maintained Schools (Wales) Regulations 2005 (the

Regulations) prescribed how ‘stakeholder’ groups were elected or appointed to

governing bodies and provided the discretion for a local authority to determine its

own process for confirming LA governors to its governing bodies.

The Cabinet Member for Education, Welsh Language, Culture and Leisure and the Chief Officer (Education and Youth) subsequently authorised the appointments through the Council’s delegated powers having first been assured that the eligibility criteria to be a governor under the regulations had been met.

A summary of the revisions was:

1. That the current procedure which required elected Members to find

and nominate persons to LA governor positions is removed

2. That it be replaced with an automatic consideration for that Elected

Member to be nominated as an LA Governor to a vacancy in a

school in their Ward should they wish (subject to the regulatory

requirement that no governor could be a governor at more than two

schools and subject to acceptance by the Governing Body)

3. That in all other positions the Governing Body be asked to nominate

to their LA governor positions based on their own identified skills

and experience needs in membership. This nomination can include

elected Members (subject to the regulatory requirement that no

governor can be a governor at more than two schools)

4. That Governing Bodies must duly notify the Chief Officer (Education

and Youth) of their candidates as approved by the Governing Body.

5. That the Chief Officer (Education and Youth) under delegated

powers, duly confirms the appointment subject to the regulatory

checks on the eligibility criteria to be a governor.

RESOLVED:

That the proposed revisions be approved.