Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve communications from her Department to (a) secondary schools and (b) boards of governors on changes to governors boards regulations.

The Government is committed to providing excellent communication with secondary schools and boards of governors across the UK. Through the ‘Get Information About Schools’ site on GOV.UK, schools and trusts are required to provide the Department with up-to-date contact details. The site is available at: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.

The Department uses this information to routinely inform governors of any changes that may affect them, such as changes to model articles. The Department issues a quarterly ‘Governance Update’ email, which is sent directly to over 100,000 individual governors, as well as being published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-governance-update.

Governor board regulations have not changed for maintained schools since 2016.