Should Governors Be Paid? Your Views…

There’s been some interesting discussion of this on the Facebook page since I posed the question over a week ago. Here’s some of what people have been saying:

Geoff commented:

There was a time when MPs, then Councillors were not paid – society’s values changed and a decision was made to remunerate them, partly so as to avoid these positions remaining the domain of the independently wealthy.

Non-executive directors in large businesses are paid, although many smaller business do not not. Trustees of charities are now able to be paid.

So why is it that those of us with responsibility for £multi-million budgets (to say the least) are expected to do the job for free in our ‘spare’ time and without compulsory training?

He suggested that a first step would be the paying of chairs, as they shoulder the bulk of the burden of a governing body.

Pooky wondered if having a paid governing body and specifically the interview process that went with it would scare off some types of governors from applying – particularly parent governors who might become excellent governors with time. She agreed with Geoff that paying the chair would be a good first step, or even having professional paid governors in the LA positions.

Michelle added the interesting point that freedom from payment gives governors a freedom in their beliefs. She also wondered whether paying governors would actually increase their calibre, or whether it would just increase the number of people just looking for something to put on their CV.

James entered with the following. It’s a sentiment that I personally agree with, and I may well do a post about it in the coming days.

There is I think a clear tension between the need of GB’s to represent stakeholder interests and to professionally oversee the School. The former needs people involved (parents, school staff, community) and the latter professional skills (accountancy, management and HR etc).

As more and more responsibility has been given to GBs for example in finance and HR then the balance tips in favor of a more professional GB but this risks becoming detached from stakeholder views. Of course some GBs do a good job in both areas. It might be over time there is a need for two bodies a smaller professional body much more like a company board with non-exec representation and a stakeholder forum.

Rachel rounded off the discussion asking if governors, even just the chair, could ever be paid sufficiently to reimburse them for their time? She agreed with some of the other commenters in asking whether it would actually increase the calibre of governors and in being concerned that it might scare off more nervous parent governors.

She had two alternative suggestions. Firstly having a properly funded expenses system which people actually claim. In her school (as in mine) claiming expenses isn’t the done thing, and I can imagine as she said that this represents a significant issue for people with childcare costs etc. Her other suggestion was to pay governors to train, and that this, along with an annual training plan, would raise standards.

Thanks to all the contributors – some really interesting discussions. If you’d still like to contribute, you can by visiting the Facebook page here.

There was a time when MPs, then Councillors were not paid – society’s values changed and a decision was made to remunerate them, partly so as to avoid these positions remaining the domain of the independently wealthy.
Non-executive directors in large businesses are paid, although many smaller business do not not. Trustees of charities are now able to be paid.

So why is it that those of us with responsibility for £multi-million budgets (to say the least) are expected to do the job for free in our ‘spare’ time and without compulsory training?

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