 | | Question: If parents are unhappy with the performance of a governor within a school, what steps could they take to have him / her removed?
Joan Sallis replies: In general I would say there is almost nothing that a disapproving group outside the governing body can do about their feelings other than voicing them, and I would consider this fair, given that governing bodies have been democratically composed. If it is a parent governor I would think critical words from parents would be more effective than criticism in other cases but even here there are no legal sanctions - except not voting them in again which is a sort of sanction.
Parents have no special status in relation to other categories of governor and this is surely right when currently (in community schools at least) they themselves may well have the largest number of representatives. The governing body itself has some sanctions in that there is a procedure for a governing body as a whole to suspend a governor for a period for seriously inappropriate behaviour, a clear message that once a member is elected, discipline is up to the group. But there is also automatic suspension for a governor who misses meetings without having made apologies and had them accepted.
This may seem an unsympathetic reply, but compared with governing bodies when I began campaigning for reform, today’s are pretty representative of all stakeholders, so that there has to be some limit to the right to sanctions when people disagree with them. Comment of course is always free.
August 14, 2006
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