LB Hillingdon Advice and Guidance

The London Borough of Hillingdon provides statutory school governance duties to all Maintained schools.

The following statutory activities will be provided to maintained schools at no charge:

Advice and guidance to schools requiring a legal change to their formal constitution (Instrument of Government).
Procedures, advice and guidance to community and voluntary controlled schools on parent governor elections.
Procedures, advice and guidance to community and voluntary controlled schools on staff governor elections.
Recruitment and nomination of LA governors.
Advice and guidance on the removal of LA governors.
Provision of information to new governors.

Maintained Schools must:

Contact the LA to trigger statutory support as described above.
Update the LA on all changes in Governing Body membership and contact details on a termly basis, along with confirmation if no changes have taken place.
Share the minutes of each Full Governing Body meeting with the Local Authority.
Schools must publish information about their governing body and its committees,
What maintained schools must or should publish online - GOV.UK

Additional Training and Development for Maintained School Governing Bodies

School leaders are encouraged to ensure that all governors have access to quality training to support the effectiveness of governance practice in schools. This aspect of governance improvement and development is not provided within the LA statutory duty. Schools and Governing Bodies are therefore free to choose any commercial national or local provider to support the development of their Governing Body.

Governors must confirm each year that they have read the updated Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE). Boards are to ensure that all governors and trustees receive appropriate safeguarding and child protection training as part of their induction, which is regularly updated, recommended that this is on an annual basis.

Below is the link to Keeping children safe in education 2025 Statutory guidance for schools and colleges and the DfE updated RSHE guidance on gender-questioning children.

Keeping children safe in education - GOV.UK

Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education guidance

See below the updates for 2025, produced by the NSPCC and a video from LGFL

Keeping children safe in education - updates from 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025

Safeguarding for governors | LGFL

LB Hillingdon School Governance Guidance and Best Practice for Maintained Schools Guide

School_Governance_Guidance_and_Best_Practice_for_Maintained_Schools September 2025 (PDF, 393 KB)

LB Hillingdon Maintained School Governance Contact Details

Please feel free to contact the Council for any queries regarding governance duties, support or development at schoolgovernance@hillingdon.gov.uk