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 13 Our recommendations and their implementation
[pages 103 - 109]

13.1 In the preceding chapters, in addition to many observations which we hope will be heeded by all those concerned with school government in the future, we have made a number of recommendations about the establishment and composition of governing bodies, the functions of local education authorities, governing bodies and head teachers, and various procedural and other incidental matters. Taken together, our recommendations constitute a new approach to school government which in our view will solve the main problems of the present arrangements, will encourage and carry forward the progress already being made and will set school government on a firm footing for many years to come. The essential features of this approach are the full and equal involvement of the four interests mainly concerned in school government; the definition of a direct line of responsibility running from the local education authority to the governing body and through the latter to the head teacher and staff; and, as we propose in this chapter, the replacement of individual schools' instruments, rules and articles of management and government by a general framework of national legislation and local ordinance.

13.2 The implementation of our recommendations will be a matter for everyone concerned in school government. It will be for the Secretaries of State, after the usual consultations, to decide the general lines of national policy, to frame and put before Parliament the legislation needed to ensure that national policy is followed in its broad and essential aspects and to keep the working of the system under review. As the Secretaries of State will no doubt wish these consultations to be as wide as possible, we suggest that consideration might be given to the production of an abridged version of this report for use in this connection as appropriate. We discuss later in this chapter the basis on which legislation and monitoring should be put in hand.

13.3 It will be for local education authorities to decide how the broad outlines of the new approach should be filled in so as to provide the best arrangements for their own areas. Those who have already made substantial progress in the recommended directions will be able to offer the benefit of their experience to those who have further to go. All authorities will wish to discuss the position with local organisations of teachers and parents before formulating firm proposals. They will, we hope, as a matter of high priority set about making arrangements for training all those who will in due course be concerned. The teachers' organisations at national and local level, and the staff of each school in their particular context, will need to consider the implications of the new approach for themselves and especially its implications for the form and character of staff representation in the new governing bodies. Parents' organisations, where they already exist, will find many questions to which they will need to address themselves and which they will wish to discuss with heads and staffs of schools. Where such organisations do not exist, we hope that individual parents and others with an active concern in promoting wider participation in school government will come forward to stimulate local interest and action. Throughout the community, voluntary organisations - both those specially concerned with education and those with more general interests - will have an opportunity of taking an active part in the development, in practical local form, of the general ideas we have put forward. We foresee a lively period of activity by all concerned, at every level.

13.4 The cornerstone of the new structure, in legal and administrative terms, will be the provision made in new legislation. We think the time has come to dispense with the complex and involved requirements of instruments and articles or rules for each school, at least as far as county schools are concerned. Many, if not most, local education authorities have always made these in standard form for all their schools. In our view there would be advantage in replacing them by a general order made, and given wide publicity, by the local education authority specifying the arrangements for the government of all its county schools, or at least for each broad group of schools such as all the primary, and all the secondary, schools in its area. This would at the same time ensure both that those features of school government which the local education authority regarded as essential were carried into effect in every school; and that all those concerned were aware of the local education authority's general requirements.

13.5 We do not think it would be appropriate, however, to leave the making and the content of these general arrangements solely to the discretion of the local education authority. There are certain requirements which we consider so essential to the successful implementation of the new approach to school government that they should, we consider, be laid down by statute or statutory regulations made by the Secretaries of State.

13.6 We RECOMMEND that a statutory duty should be imposed on every local education authority to make, by order, arrangements conforming to the following requirements for the government of county schools in its area, to publicise them and to make them known to all concerned:

1. Establishment and functions of governing bodies

A separate governing body should be set up for each primary and secondary school, to which the authority should delegate the exercise of such of its own functions as may be prescribed in regulations made by the Secretaries of State and, in addition, such other functions as the local education authority considers appropriate, having regard to its own responsibility for the running of the schools in the area.

i. The governing body should consist, in equal numbers, of local education authority representatives, school staff (including the head teacher ex officio, and with first priority given to teachers), elected parents (and eligible pupils) and representatives of the local community.

ii. Rules and procedures for the election of parent governors should be drawn up, and their implementation supervised, by the local education authority.

iii. The present 'minor authority' requirements having been removed, elected members of statutory local authorities in the area served by the school should be eligible for appointment as local education authority or community representatives.

iv. There should be a prohibition on the appointment of any person to the governing body of a school catering for children in an age group served by any other school of which he is already a governor.

Provision should be made, to the satisfaction of the governing body, for the head teacher to consult his teaching staff on day to day matters with opportunities for discussion among staff and the expression of collective views; for supporting staff to be consulted likewise and to be kept informed of the governing body's work; and for supporting staff to have opportunities to submit their views and proposals to the governing body and the head teacher on any matter of special concern to them.

Parents should be permitted at any time to set up an organisation based on the school and be given facilities for their activities within the school.

Adequate arrangements should be made in the school, to the satisfaction of the governing body, to inform parents, to involve them in their children's progress and welfare, to enlist their support, and to ensure their access to the school and a teacher by reasonable arrangement.

i. The governing body should be given the responsibility for determining the particular aims of its school, for considering the means by which they are pursued, for keeping under review the school's progress towards them, and for deciding upon action to facilitate such progress, and for making and reporting briefly to the local education authority a first general appraisal of the school's progress within four years of its formation.

ii. The governing body should have the responsibility for formulating guidelines on behaviour and for making the necessary school rules and sanctions regarding pupil's behaviour.

Provisions should be made corresponding to those in the 1945 model articles regarding the preparation and submission of estimates for all secondary schools; these provisions should be extended to primary schools as soon as the local education authority considered it practicable.

i. 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 and for a member of the latter's education committee to serve as chairman with a casting vote if necessary.

ii. The selection of deputy heads and other staff should rest with the governing body.

i. Provision should be made for initial and in-service training courses for governors.

ii. All governors should be required to undertake a short period of initial training as soon as this is practicable and to attend in-service training courses regularly.

i. There should be provision for each governing body to elect as its chairman any member who is not one of the paid staff of the school, for ordinary meetings to be held at least twice in the school term, for the agreement of one third of the members to be required for the convening of a special meeting, for copies of minutes of all meetings to be sent to all members and to the local education authority.

ii. The local education authority should make the membership of each governing body known to parents and others concerned.

iii. The payment of attendance allowance in respect of school governors' duties should be prohibited (1).

13.8 Provision on these lines would lend itself to both local and national review and amendment from time to time without the need for further main legislation. At the national level we RECOMMEND that the Secretaries of State should, within five years after the legislation comes into effect call for reports from local education authorities on the working of the new system and in the light of these reports issue such further guidance as may be thought desirable and also, if need be, amend the regulations. We assume that if at any time the situation in a particular area appeared to call for the intervention of the Secretary of State appropriate action would be taken. In order to provide a comparative and synoptic view for consideration together with the local education authority's reports, we RECOMMEND that the Secretaries of State should arrange for the progress and problems to be monitored and reported, and to be studied from an early stage by an independent agency such as a university research group, working in close association with local education authorities and the Department of Education and Science.

13.9 We have given very careful consideration to the extent to which the implementation of our recommendations by local education authorities might require administrative control by central government departments in addition to the general requirements set out in the legislation which we have recommended. There are, of course, major problems in exercising effective control over the actions of authorities in such matters. It is difficult for a central government department to ascertain and assess the local circumstances which must be an important, if not the decisive, consideration in relation to a proposed departure from some general pattern. Indeed the desirability of trying to preserve such a pattern, extending beyond the essential features we have set out above, is open to question. We have also been informed that the detailed scrutiny and discussion of individual authorities' arrangements would impose a severe burden on the limited manpower available in the Departments concerned and would divert substantial effort from other important educational purposes. We recognise, too, that central control can never do more than prevent developments which might be undesirable. It cannot ensure that desirable developments will take place.

13.10 We believe that the impetus towards the full implementation of our recommendations must come from local sources, acting within a broad framework laid down by the Secretaries of State. There may be occasions, hard to foresee and to guard against in general terms, when a particular authority may make changes in its school government arrangements which give rise to controversy or even dismay. The Secretaries of State already have power to call for information and to intervene where a local education authority are in default of a duty or are acting (or propose to act) unreasonably. Even granting that the circumstances in which the latter powers can be used are, rightly, very limited, there seems no need to subject the school government arrangements of all authorities to a detailed control which might be needed, if at all, only for a few and on rare occasions. In such cases, as indeed in all others, the most potent instrument is the pressure of public opinion.

13.11 In some areas there has already been significant movement in the direction we advocate. These advances could be carried further without greatly increased resources. Where the need for change is greatest, the opportunities are available to take now those steps which the more progressive authorities have already been able to take without special encouragement. Immediately there is only one statutory barrier in the way of the full implementation of the substance of our recommendations in any area. This is the requirement (in section 18 of the 1944 Act) for minor authority representation on the managing bodies of certain primary schools, which could prevent the implementation in those schools of the 'four equal shares' principle. Otherwise the present statutory requirements regarding instruments, rules and articles do not prevent the implementation of our recommendations. Their administration could be made less onerous by the Secretaries of State giving general approval to the making or changing by any local education authority of articles of government for any county secondary school during a transitional period, so that authorities would be free to move on the lines of our main recommendations in advance of the introduction of general requirements to do so. Local education authorities should ensure that appropriate changes in the composition of governing bodies accompany or precede any changes in their functions. We hope that the period of transition will be short. In our view, even in an area where very little progress has been made in the direction we recommend, not more than five years should be needed to undertake the local consultations and make the practical arrangements necessary for having in effective operation a system of school government of the kind we propose.

13.12 A start can be made by progressively replacing the 'grouping' arrangements which still exist in some areas by establishing separate managing/governing bodies for each school with members drawn from the school's parents and staff and the local community. Such an approach would permit the provision of training on whatever scale was practicable in the locality, and could be accompanied by general encouragement of the school's staff and parents bodies to equip themselves for participation in school government as we propose. All governing bodies could, in close cooperation with the heads and staffs of their schools, begin the process of defining the aims and objectives of their schools and bringing into being the information systems which will be needed as a basis for some of their main functions. Many of our other recommendations - for example, those relating to the use of premises - could be put into effect on a similar basis.

13.13 Thus it would not be unrealistic to expect that within five years there would have been sufficient progress to permit easy compliance with the statutory requirements we have recommended. To provide a clear objective and to ensure proper momentum towards it, the eventual position and the date for its achievement should in our view be laid down in legislation from the outset.

13.14 We RECOMMEND accordingly that legislation should be initiated as soon as possible to give effect within five years to Recommendation 86 (paragraph 13.6) and, immediately, to Recommendations 3 (paragraph 3.24); 7 (paragraph 4.10) and 60, 61, 62, (paragraph 9.18).

13.15 We are aware that the implementation of our recommendations will involve significant resources of money, manpower and time. Much, though by no means all, will be additional to the resources already employed in this field. For example, on the basis of one local education authority's present costs it could be estimated that twice-termly meetings of separate governing bodies for every primary and secondary school will involve annual administrative expenditure by local education authorities of £4.3m. On the assumption that 10 per cent of members will be eligible to claim financial loss allowance of - for illustrative purposes - £4 for each meeting, additional expenditure of £0.55m will be required for this purpose. Some basic training for all members of the new governing bodies can be provided, on one local education, authority's estimate, for £1 a head, a total of £0.23m. Judging from one local education authority's recent experience, elections for parent governors throughout England and Wales would cost at least £0.1m, with an additional £0.5m for any postal delivery required. None of the estimates we have mentioned, however, can be more than a very rough indication of the order of cost that might be involved. It will vary widely according to the accounting procedure adopted (whether, for example, account is taken of facilities already available which could be used without additional provision) and according to the speed with which these developments are pressed forward. We believe, however, that the increased effectiveness of school government, and the increase in the educational efficiency of our schools which we would look for as a consequence, will justify a significant diversion of resources whenever and wherever the opportunity can be seized.

13.16 More significant, perhaps, than the financial implications of our recommendations are their implications for the involvement in school government, on a new basis and on a scale different from anything experienced in the past, of people whose interests in school education derive not from their engagement in it as a professional or political pursuit but from their personal concern with it in relation to their children and their social concern in relation to the community in which they live. We have no illusions about the difficulties there will be in making this wider involvement an effective and constructive reality. It will require many thousands of people to take on new responsibilities and to give up substantial amounts of their time. It will also require a major effort of accommodation on the part of those who have hitherto borne these responsibilities. Nevertheless we believe that the approach which we have recommended is a direct and logical development of a tradition in which this country has led the civilised world - and has now a further contribution to make in respect of school government - a tradition of local democracy, community cooperation and individual freedom, a positive view of the relation between the school and the society which it serves and, above all, a care for the well-being of every individual child. We are confident that the problems of the new approach will be met and overcome and that it will help to carry forward the best features of our school system for at least a generation to come.

Footnote

(1) We have recommended in paragraph 11.19 that the local education authorities should be empowered to pay financial loss allowance to governors in respect of proved loss of earnings and should be provided for, to pay governors' travelling and incidental expenses in accordance with arrangements made by the local education authority with the object of securing that no individual should be debarred from membership of a school governing body by reason of the cost of attending meetings.