Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 3.30 of Educational excellence everywhere, Cm 9230, when she plans to amend the academy articles of association models to remove the requirement for new academy trusts and school governing boards to elect parent governors; and if she will take steps to enable existing academies to make that change.

The model articles of association give multi-academy trust (MAT) boards the freedom to appoint a local governing body. The board is also free to decide on what, if any, governance functions they delegate to subsidiary governance structures at the level of either individual schools or clusters of schools. Whatever arrangements MATs use, they must set out and publish on their website their chosen arrangements in a clear scheme of delegation.

The White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere outlines our intention to place a new expectation on all academies to put in place specific arrangements to engage with all parents in a meaningful way to listen to their views and feedback. To enable a move to fully skills-based governance, the White Paper also announces an end to our requirement on new and existing trusts to reserve places on the board for elected parents.