HC Deb 10 March 2004 vol 418 cc1518-9W
Mr. Jenkins

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how his Department has improved the way in which it assists school governors in(a)making decisions and (b)assessing budgets. [160069]

Mr. Miliband

My Department has given school governing bodies greater freedom to take decisions through removing unnecessary restrictions on delegation under new arrangements deregulating governing body procedures introduced last September. The new arrangements allow governing bodies to decide for themselves whether the majority of decisions need to be taken by the whole governing body, a committee with delegated powers, or an individual governor or the head teacher. This will enable governing bodies to operate more flexibly, make better use of available expertise and speed up decision making.

Alongside this, we have improved information and communication arrangements so that governors have greater access to the information they need to take well informed decisions. Governors have access to up to date information across the full range of their responsibilities through Governor Net, our governors' portal; the Governors' Guide to the Law, which we can now keep up to date on GovernorNet; GovernorLine, an independent advice line backed up by a legal advice service which all governors can access free of charge seven days a week; and our termly Newsletter for School Governors which is available in hard copy for all governors. The Newsletter is used to raise governor awareness of current issues, which should improve governing body decision making. In addition, our National Training Programmes for New Governors and Governing Body Clerks should improve the ability of new governors to contribute at an earlier stage as well as governing body decisions to be better documented. A new programme for anyone chairing governing body meetings or committees "Taking the Chair" and a joint programme for head teachers, governing body chairs and other school leaders "Leading Together" will both be available in the autumn.

The Department has commissioned the National College for School Leadership and KPMG to design, develop and deliver a varied menu of support and guidance to help schools' budget management. This includes a dedicated website and helpdesk, which is available to all school governing bodies. There are also workshops for schools in those LEAs eligible for targeted transitional support, in the period January to March 2004. A team of two from each school can attend the workshop, which could include the chair of governors or the chair of the finance committee.

Mr. Jenkins

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many school governor places in England are vacant; and what percentage this represents of capacity. [160078]

Mr. Miliband

There are approximately 350,000 school governor places at maintained schools in England. At any one time, across the country, around 12 per cent. of these places are vacant.