12 RECONSTITUTION OF THE WESTCLIFFE AND PRIORY LANE FEDERATION – The Director: Learning, Skills and Culture submitted a report seeking approval of the instrument of government to allow the governing body of The Westcliffe and Priory Lane Federation to be reconstituted to be effective from 1 February 2021.
At the full governing body meeting of The Westcliffe and Priory Lane Federation held on 19 November 2020, the governors voted to reconstitute the governing body in line with the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012 and the School Governance (Constitution) (Amendment) Regulations 2014.
The above regulations set out the options available to schools in terms of the overall number of governors, the categories of governor and the guiding principles for the constitution. The regulations gave the governing body more flexibility with their constitution and stated that they should be no bigger than they needed to be to carry out their statutory duties. The regulations stipulated the categories and number of governors for maintained schools as follows:
· 2 parent governors
· 1 Local Authority governor
· 1 staff governor
· 1 Headteacher
· As many co-opted governors as necessary to fulfil the skills requirements. Up to a maximum of one third of governors can be staff members.
The constitution of each governing body was laid down in a document known as the instrument of government. A governing body may at any time request changes to their constitution, in accordance with the regulations, by varying their instrument of government.
Where changes are proposed, a maintained school’s governing body must prepare a draft instrument of government and submit it to the local authority for approval.
Resolved – That the new instrument of government for The Westcliffe and Priory Lane Federation be approved.