Case Study 4

Please note that the case study below is fictititious and does not necessarily represent correct procedures as noted in the regulations. It has been designed purely to provoke and stimulate discussion.

The governors of St. Dewi High School decide to suspend a parent governor for asking too many questions. He is deemed to be a troublemaker. He receives a letter in the post informing him not to turn up to meetings for the next nine months. He raises concerns with the chair who has not spoken to him before, other than in governing body meetings. He feels totally isolated and doesn’t know where to turn.

The Government of Maintained Schools (Wales) Regulations 2005
Part 8, Regulation 49

1. Subject to paragraphs (2), (3) and (4), the governing body may by resolution suspend a governor for all or any meetings of the governing body, or of a committee, for a fixed period of up to 6 months on one or more of the following grounds—
   – (a) that the governor, being a person paid to work at the school, is the subject of
   disciplinary proceedings in relation to his or her employment;
   – (b) that the governor is the subject of proceedings in any court or tribunal, the outcome of
   which may be that he or she is disqualified from continuing to hold office as a governor
   under Schedule 5;
   – (c) that the governor has acted in a way that is inconsistent with the ethos or with the
   religious character of the school and has brought or is likely to bring the school or the
   governing body or his or her office into disrepute; or
   – (d) that the governor is in breach of his or her duty of confidentiality to the school or to
   any member of staff or to any pupil at the school.
2. A resolution to suspend a governor from office does not have effect unless the matter is specified as an item of business on the agenda for the meeting of which notice has been given in accordance with regulation 45(7).
3. Before a vote is taken on a resolution to suspend a governor, the governor proposing the resolution must at the meeting state his or her reasons for doing so, and the governor who is the subject of the resolution must be given the opportunity to make a statement in response before withdrawing from the meeting in accordance with paragraph 2 of Schedule 7.
4. Nothing in this regulation is to be read as affecting the right of a governor who has been suspended—
   – (a) to receive notices of, and agendas and reports or other papers for, meetings
   of the governing body,
   or
   – (b) to attend a meeting of the governing body convened in accordance with regulation 30
   to consider his or her removal from office,
   during the period of his or her suspension.
5. Nothing in this regulation is to be read as preventing a governing body from suspending a governor who has been suspended under paragraph (1) for a further fixed period or periods, whether or not on the same ground as that of the original suspension, and paragraphs (1) to (4) apply in relation to each suspension.
6. A governor is not disqualified from continuing to hold office under paragraph 5 of Schedule 5 for failure to attend any meeting of the governing body while suspended under this regulation.

Is there a mentoring system for new governors?
Governor training?
Exploration of “challenge” and “critical friend”
Click here for Fact File The Critical Friend

Click here for Case Study 5