Question: In a recent one of your answers (here) you say that school staff cannot chair governor committees. This certainly used to be the case. But we think is no longer so. Certainly we can find no mention of this in the procedures regulations.

Joan Sallis replies: I promised to return to the issue of staff chairing governors’ committees, where my advice had been questioned by a friend dealing with governor issues in an LEA. I apologise for giving misleading information. The latest Guide to the Law (up to date to 9/05) makes it clear that the chair of the governing body cannot be someone who is employed at the same school. However, the same does not apply to committees. Regulation 20(4) of The School Governance (Procedures) (England) Regulations 2003 (which replaced the 1999 regulations) states 'A chair shall be appointed annually to each committee by the governing body or elected by the committee, as determined by the governing body.' Guidance made available to local authorities at the time the regulations were published states that there are no restrictions as to who can chair a committee but does not give any advice about good practice.

My only defence is that it apparently does not now say anywhere that staff and head teacher governors may chair committees. The change is indicated only by absence of advice that they can’t . Also I still think it would be very unwise of a governing body to make the head or any staff member chair of a committee or of a staff member to take it on. The issues where there could be a conflict are many and they could make the individual’s position very difficult as well as putting the governors’ decisions in question. There seems to me no point in inviting such difficulties. I also think that in any case the distinction between committees and the whole governing body is illogical, given that committees can now have such extensive delegation of power.