By East Riding Governors For East Riding Governors

The East Riding Association of Governing Bodies (ERAGB) held its inaugural meeting at Bishop Burton College on Saturday 16 July 2005. The formation of the Association was the culmination of a process which had started some 18 months previously.

The idea had been developed following discussion in the Governor Development Steering Group (GDSG). This standing group comprising representatives of governing bodies and members of the local authority (LA) responsible invited Neil Davis, the Chair of the National Governors Council (NGC), to the East Riding to discuss the prospects of creating a local governors association.

• 2004 Governors of all schools were invited to attend a series of meets with Neil Davis, LA officials and the GDSG. These resulted in a proposal to all Governing Bodies to formally consider the formation of a local association: to decide whether or not they would wish to support an association and its affiliation to the NGC: to give their views on representation across the East Riding.

• 2005 The Spring edition of Governor News reported that 60% of governing bodies had supported the formation of a local association and that no fewer than 28 governors had volunteered to consider a draft constitution and affiliation with NGC.

• Saturday, July 16th 2005 the inaugural meeting of ERAGB took place at Bishop Burton College. The meeting, attended by representatives of 65 governing bodies, was addressed by the LA Director of Children, Family and Adult Services and the draft constitution was adopted.

The independence of the Association was established immediately as LA representatives left meetings allowing association members to consider a variety of subjects such as Foundation status, Funding levels within the East Riding and the Children’s Agenda.

• 2006 ERAGB established a database of members and began ensuring they were well informed with regular bulletins, NGA updates, briefing reports and summaries of government legislation. Debates on fair funding, remodeling of the workforce; special educational needs; governor awareness and effectiveness and represent the governors views to the LA continued.

• 2007 It was clear that the LA were taking the association seriously with ERAGB being consulted in the selection process for the LA appointment of Director of Children’s, Family and Adult services and the School Network Adviser (with responsibility for governor training and development). Half-termly meetings with the Director were established and a wide range of issues including the appointment of SIPS, restructuring of the School Improvement Service, revision of redundancy and other HR policies were discussed.

Joint development started on documents to assist governors in their own self-assessment. In particular to tackle the challenging question “Are we are doing what we are supposed to be doing” and to gather evidence to support their answer. The LA recognised the importance of the guide and generously agreed to meet the cost of distributing the guide to 2500 East Riding school governors.

• 2008 Continuing development of the Association’s relationship with the LA saw the first Jointly organized Governors’ Conference. New governors induction packs were introduced and work began on an ambitious project to support the Every Child Matters Agenda.

Surveys indicated that most governors were aware of this agenda, resulting from the Children Act 2004, but were not as aware of their implementation responsibilities outlined in the Education and Inspections Act 2006. The project aims are to produce a 6-part resource pack to help governors consider the implications of the act.

• 2009 Will see continued development of the ECM pack; of plans for a future conference; development of information packs and means to improve communication between ERAGB and its members.

ERAGB Constitution