Forum Blog

chairmen of governors

consistent approach by all LSCs   clarity and predictability  improved communications by actually responding to points raised in a timely manner  - danger in present approach is that by the time an outcome is reached the crisis has moved on   regional information needs to be gathered and cascaded down to colleges   huge mistrust in the LSC funding promises that do not come into fruition

• Honesty and self-awareness - an open culture
• Too many agendas and too many masters - lack of clarity and focus
• Clash between the need for competition and collaboration - funding independence needed

THE LOCAL CONTEXT HAS TO BE THE KEY DETERMINaNT

Q B1 LSC should be more decisive in driving though necessary change

LSC should be clearer and more consistent in its communications and its actions

• Identified current lack of diversity within current Governance
• Identified diverisity is centered in specific areas
• Skills must be forefront

1. Student apathy 2. Funding limitations & prioritisation 3. The actual ability of the student to influence the rest of the Board 4. Lack of awareness of current issues 5. Student timetables. 6. Student out of hours working requirements 7. Student governors may not be truely representative of the majority. 8. Suitable people from short courses are potentially excluded from ‘long-term’ involvement.

How to overcome these.

1. Make sure a relevant member of staff who can have a meeting of minds with the students acts as the go between. 2. Rearrange timetables to suit. 3. Pay governors to do the job. 4. Specific training & development in advance of the academic year 5. Consider sabatical years for student governors.

Trust

Clear frameworks/paramaters/policy/steer

Steamline/simplify/reduce duplication all regulation

Colleges should be equal patrners in design and implementation

One source of validation

Lighter touch

Consistency

Clarity

Timely - sticking to timetable writing only to principals could write to chairs also (cc’d).

Volume of paperwork - if cc’d would not read due to time available to devote to college business - need to keep high level strategic view.

? any value in joint training with LSC staff - yes if right calibre! Incidents of local LSC invited to training not attending

recognise that modern governors are more skilled than the old image - need to target training at skill levels - governors are more professional now and need to be recognised as such

idea - commission a training video on good governance

ROLE OF LOCAL AUTHORITY SHOULD BE AS ENABLER