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Have you registered your governance professional yet?
The Department for Education (DfE) is recognising the developing role of the governance professional, by including their details on Get Information About Schools (GIAS) – the national governance database for schools and other educational establishments.
Governance professionals play a vital role in schools and trusts, yet many have felt like they’re on the periphery of governing boards—struggling to get the information they need. That’s why the Department for Education (DfE) has now made it possible for them to be added to Get Information About Schools (GIAS).
We recently spoke to Dawn Samwell, policy adviser at the DfE, to understand more about this update and what it means for governance professionals and boards.
Why is this change happening now?
This change has been anticipated for quite some time now. When the DfE was looking at the role of the governance professional a few years ago, one issue kept coming up - governance professionals often struggled to access the key information that they needed.
They told us that they felt on the periphery of governing boards and an example they gave was they were not captured on GIAS. So, one of the things we proposed was to get them included on GIAS and that's where it really started.
What does being on GIAS bring for governance professionals?
It means we can now send them information directly which is important for their advisory role on governing boards, whether that’s in a trust or a maintained school.
It will be the same information that chairs and headteachers are getting but it'll land in their inboxes in a timely way so they're not having to chase up for that information.
Sometimes it's these seemingly small changes that can make a real difference, and that was the feedback we had received from the profession.
What do schools need to do to update GIAS?
Whenever the school is doing an update to the GIAS governance information, it would be really helpful if they would update the governance professional details.
Updating GIAS to include a governance professional isn’t a mandatory requirement, but it’s something the DfE is encouraging all schools to do. We had just under a thousand entries in the first week with limited publicity and have seen that number rise steadily, but we’d like to be able to reach many more governance professionals.
How will it work for governance professionals who’re employed via an agency or service?
If your governance professional is provided through an external service, the system doesn’t currently allow the name of the service provider to be listed. However, schools can still add the name of the individual professional who is supporting them on a regular basis.
What is the wider aim here?
The initiative is part of the broader effort to recognise the role and professionalism of governance professionals. A few years ago, the department stopped referring to those supporting governance as clerks and started calling them governance professionals.
Sometimes it's these seemingly small changes that can make a real difference, and that was the feedback we received from the profession.
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