Taylor (1977)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Preface, Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Present arrangements for school government
Chapter 3 A new approach to school government
Chapter 4 Membership of the new governing bodies
Chapter 5 Communication and cooperation
Chapter 6 Curriculum
Chapter 7 Finance
Chapter 8 Appointments
Chapter 9 Other functions
Chapter 10 Training the new governors
Chapter 11 Procedural arrangements
Chapter 12 The government of voluntary schools
Chapter 13 Recommendations and implementation
Summary of recommendations

Notes of extension and dissent, minority report

Appendix A Evidence
Appendix B History of school managers and governors
Appendix C Visits
Appendix D Education Act 1944: selected extracts
Appendix E Administrative Memorandum No 25 (1945)
Appendix F Letter to parents
Appendix G Aims into practice

Index

Report of the Committee of Enquiry appointed jointly by the Secretary of State for Education and Science and the Secretary of State for Wales under the chairmanship of Mr Tom Taylor CBE

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1977
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Chapter 8 Appointments
[pages 71 - 75]

8.1 In county schools staff are the employees of the authority even though, as is frequently the case, they are appointed to serve in a particular school. The model articles lay down fairly detailed procedures for the appointment and dismissal of the head teacher, assistant teachers and non-teaching staff. These procedures are reproduced in Appendix E.

8.2 At present the extent to which rules of management or articles of government provide for managers or governors to be involved in the appointment of staff varies fairly widely with the nature of the school and the attitude of the local education authority. The latter determines the size of the staffing establishment in all maintained schools but managers and governors are often empowered to make proposals concerning the designation of posts carrying additional remuneration for special responsibility, within an overall structure determined by the authority.

8.3 In drawing up rules of management and articles of government many authorities have followed the model closely. Others have sought to minimise the role played by governors in the exercise of these functions. For example, in the case of head teacher appointments governing bodies are sometimes given no part in the shortlisting of candidates or are involved only to a limited extent at this stage through consultation by the chief education officer with the chairman of the governors. In addition, some authorities have weakened the part played by the governing body in the final decision by reducing or eliminating its representation on the joint committee appointed to select a candidate to fill the vacancy, or dispensing with such a committee.

8.4 There are similar variations in procedures for the appointment of deputy heads. In the case of the appointment of teachers below this level there are even wider differences of practice. In some areas, for example, the arrangements for the filling of vacancies are entirely in the hands of the authority's education committee and the governors are able to make recommendations only about promotions of staff already employed in the school. During the years when teachers were in short supply some authorities argued that it was not always practicable to involve the governors in first teaching appointments, or other appointments to lower scale posts, because of the need to act quickly when applications from suitable candidates were received. They pointed out that where a large number of interview meetings had to be held to fill such vacancies the involvement of governors had sometimes caused delays, good candidates had been lost and much professional and administrative time had been wasted. These arguments are recognised to have less force now that the balance of teacher supply and demand has changed but they are still felt to be relevant for certain subjects, such as mathematics, where there continues to be a limited supply of well qualified teachers.

Evidence

8.5 A few witnesses argued that the appointment of teaching staff should be left entirely to the local education authority. Others expressed the view that only members of the teaching profession were equipped to take on this responsibility. Most, however, of those who submitted evidence suggested that the governing body should play a part in the procedure, so as to help ensure the selection of candidates best suited to meet the needs of their school. There was, however, a range of views on the extent to which the participation of the governing body was desirable, with most support for their direct involvement in the appointment of the head, the deputy head and the senior staff. The appointment of the head was frequently mentioned as being of special importance in the life of the school and it was widely held, particularly by some of the local authority organisations, teachers' associations and voluntary bodies, that responsibility for this should be shared between the local education authority and the governing body.

8.6 In general less emphasis was placed by witnesses on the need for the local education authority to be directly involved, through the participation of elected members, in the appointment of teachers other than the head, although we received some suggestions that the authority should be given the ultimate right to veto a selected candidate on educational grounds. Our evidence points to a fairly wide recognition of the concern of governors in all teaching appointments, but many people thought the inclusion of the head, and, where appropriate, heads of departments in the selection process was important. There were suggestions that decisions on appointments to junior posts might be left entirely to the head or that the interests of the governing body might be safeguarded by a right to veto the appointment of the candidate selected by the head, or by arranging for the head and the chairman of the governors to act together.

Appointment of the head teacher

8.7 We shall discuss separately the appointment of the head teacher, because he has a key position in the school and, under our proposals, will have a vital part to play in the activities of the governing body itself. It is obviously essential that the head teacher should be generally acceptable to all the interested parties. We conclude that this appointment should not be made without regard to the views either of the local education authority or of the governing body.

8.8 The interest of the local education authority in the appointment of a head teacher derives in a large measure from their statutory responsibility for ensuring educational standards. The need to appoint a new head arises infrequently in any particular school but the local education authority's concern with all the schools in their area gives them considerable experience in such appointments; they can call on expert advice and see candidates against a broad background.

8.9 The governing body also has a distinctive interest in this matter. The needs of particular schools vary considerably and are affected by, for example, their size, locality and the social nature of the areas they serve. The general character of the school can also have a bearing on its particular needs. These needs, as seen by the governors, ought to be a very important consideration in the appointment of the head teacher.

8.10 We RECOMMEND that the procedure for the appointment of heads should provide for a small selection committee consisting equally of members of the governing body and representatives of the local education authority. The governors should elect their own representatives to serve on the selection committee but we consider that the retiring head teacher should not be among them; he should take no part in the appointment of his successor because he cannot have any responsibility for the latter's future actions.

8.11 We assume that local education authorities will wish to ensure that their representatives on the selection committee include members of the education committee. We RECOMMEND that one of the latter should be elected by the selection committee to serve as its chairman and should, if necessary, have a casting vote. The selection committee should itself determine the extent to which it wished to be involved in the arrangements for advertisement and in the short listing of candidates. In making its selection the committee should make the greatest possible use of professional guidance and advice from the chief education officer and his staff. In particular, we believe that it would be helpful if the selection committee could count on having available to it the experience and knowledge of the school acquired by the authority's advisers. There might also be circumstances when it could benefit from advice from professionals outside the authority's service.

Appointment of other teachers

8.12 These arguments for involving the governing body in the appointment of the head teacher apply also in our view to appointments of deputy heads and higher scale posts. Since the post of deputy head can be regarded as in part a training post for further advancement there is a case for involving the authority in this appointment in a similar way. However, on balance we RECOMMEND that the selection of deputy heads and other teachers should rest with the governing body, who should give due weight to the professional advice made available through the local education authority and in particular to the responsibility of the local education authority to find suitable posts for teachers whose schools are closed or reorganised.

8.13 So far as appointments at the other levels are concerned, we recognise that candidates often have to be interviewed at short notice and that difficulties might arise in arranging for members of the governing body, other than the staff members, to be present on all occasions. Nevertheless we believe that the responsibility for choosing - the formal appointment is, of course, for the local education authority - should be vested in the governing body and that the latter should itself settle the procedures by which it would discharge this responsibility. It will probably arrange for the chairman or his nominee(s) normally to undertake the interviewing with the head teacher and appropriate members of the teaching staff and the authority's professional advisers. It is important, however, that the governing body should retain the power to change these arrangements for delegation and play a more active role if at any time they had reason for disquiet about how the procedure was working.

8.14 For the reason set out in paragraph 8.10 above, we consider that it would be inappropriate for any member of staff to be involved in the appointment of his or her successor. If a teacher governor finds himself in this situation we would expect him to withdraw from the proceedings.

Dismissal of teachers

8.15 Teachers' conditions of service are generally similar throughout the country and model agreements generally adopted by local education authorities include provision for termination of appointment (usually on two or three months notice) and for suspension, on lines similar to those laid down in articles of government and rules of management. A teacher is normally given the right to be present, accompanied by a 'friend' if desired, at any meeting of governors, managers or local education authority at which his dismissal is to be considered (although the teacher involved need not be present when the question of suspension is initially raised), and must be given seven days notice of the meeting and a written statement of any complaint or charge. The Employment Protection Act 1975 requires that if dismissed he must be given a written statement of the reasons, and under the Trade Unions and Industrial Relations Act 1974 he could complain to an industrial tribunal if he thought his dismissal unfair.

8.16 In general the existing procedures relating to the dismissal of teachers seem to be working satisfactorily. Nonetheless difficulties exist. First, information on the procedures is not always readily available (1). We RECOMMEND that every governing body should have access to a copy of the Local Education Authority's conditions of service relating to teachers. Second, there remains the problem of the professionally incompetent teacher. Such teachers have never numbered more than a small proportion of the total of the profession but where they exist they are an embarrassment to their colleagues, cause anxiety to parents and are an impediment to the progress of their pupils.

8.17 All teachers have a period of probation after completing their initial training when their performance is assessed by their local education authority. Some local education authorities in addition have a period of probation for all teachers appointed to a new post - not necessarily their initial teaching post - and this is supervised by the local education authority inspectors (or advisers). Unfortunately a minority of teachers either fall into a borderline category and do not live up to initial expectations or actually regress after a period of satisfactory service and find it difficult to meet their professional obligations. We think that one means of overcoming this problem in the longer term would be the closer involvement (which we suggested in chapter 6 (2)) of the governing body in the promotion of in-service training, and career development of their school's teachers. We have not felt that the conditions of service of teachers fall within our remit. Nonetheless, we believe that some governing bodies may find the problem an obstacle to fulfilling the duties we have proposed for them. Accordingly we RECOMMEND that the Secretaries of State should initiate discussions on the subject with the local education authority and teachers' associations as soon as possible.

Appointment and dismissal of supporting staff

8.18 The model articles include the following provision:

'The non-teaching staff shall, subject to any general directions of the Local Education Authority, be appointed by the Governors, after consultation with the Head Master, to the service of the Authority and shall be dismissed by the Local Education Authority upon the recommendation of the Governors'.

Footnotes

(1) As Mr Auld's report makes clear, this can have serious consequences for the efficient conduct of a school.

(2) See paragraph 6.30.