September 2022

All schools and academies can benefit from an External Reviews of Governance at any stage in their journey.

Fee can help you ensure that you are not only looking at your own effectiveness but encouraging you to ensure that your clerk is an integral part of the governance team.

The main outcomes of a review are

• an action plan focused on your key areas for development
• a report summarising key findings
• increased board confidence 
• sharing knowledge and highlighting areas for training and development.

Fee works to ensure that Reviews are "done with you not to you" and that everyone has the chance to talk.  One of the most important aspects of an ERG is coaching and mentoring and as a DfE Women Leading in Education coach Fee is able to support chairs and heads as appropriate. 

What is an ERG?

ERG are an excellent way to assess your current governance model and to help you prepare for the future. ERG are powerful tools and will help you shape your practice, develop an action plan, identify strengths and weaknesses and are an opportunity to talk about underlying issues in confidence. You can choose to have an ERG at any time and many outstanding schools are taking the opportunity to have a review led by an external reviewer. In such cases Fee does Health Checks.

Part of an ERG is the use of a 'facilitated toolkit' which will help your Governing Board identify priorities for improvement, identify clear boundaries between the strategic and the operational, identify roles, responsibilities and expectations, and support Governors in their key role in school improvement and improving pupil outcomes. Fee has been trained by the NCTL to undertake ERG and uses her experience as a governor, trustee and clerk to help sharpen practice.

If you have had an ERG it is often worth revisiting the outcomes later in the academic year - these reviews are known as Performance and Impact Reviews. Fiona or one of her colleagues are happy to help you with PIR.

Fee has also developed a focused approach to ERG which means that you can commission a review in stages. Please do get in contact and she will be happy to share the methodology behind this Staged Approach.

To find a NLG reviewer there is a published list here 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/reviews-of-school-governance#find-a-reviewer

I look forward to talking to you - fiona@sbwgovernance.co.uk