Clerk to governors responsibilities: what the role requires

The rule: every governing board must appoint a clerk

Every governing body of a maintained school in England must appoint a clerk. Regulation 6(3) of the School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) (England) Regulations 2013 says “The governing body must appoint a clerk with a view to ensuring their efficient functioning and must have regard to advice from the clerk as to the nature of the governing body's functions.” The DfE's Maintained schools: governance guide puts it as “The governing body must listen to the independent advice the governance professional provides and have regard to that advice when exercising its functions.”

Academy trusts reach the same place by a different route. Paragraph 1.48 of the Academy trust handbook 2026, effective from 1 October 2026, says “The academy trust must appoint a governance professional to support the board of trustees, who is someone other than a trustee, principal or chief executive of the trust.” Article 81 of the DfE's academy model articles of association (June 2021) says “The Trustees must appoint a Governance Professional”, and the 2021 models note that “The term 'clerk' has been replaced with 'Governance Professional' across the model.” Trusts on older articles may still say clerk.

The DfE's guidance on the role is in that guide and the Academy trusts: governance guide, which replaced the Governance Handbook when it was withdrawn on 7 March 2024. The DfE calls both “non-statutory guidance”: the duties come from the 2013 Regulations, the handbook and the articles. The guides were last updated on 15 July 2026 (the academy trusts guide also on 20 July).

This guide covers England. Regulation 1(2) says the 2013 Regulations “apply in relation to England only”, and regulation 1(3) applies Parts 2 to 6, which hold every provision on the clerk, only to maintained schools. Maintained schools in Wales follow the Government of Maintained Schools (Wales) Regulations 2005: regulation 42 requires the governing body to appoint a clerk who is not a governor, a non-governor member of any committee of the governing body or the headteacher, and regulation 43 lists the clerk's functions.

What the clerk to governors does: the five responsibilities and the statutory duties

The DfE gives the role five parts, in almost the same words in both guides (section 4.8.1 for maintained schools, 4.5.1 for academy trusts, which says “board” where the maintained guide says “governing body”). “The role of the governance professional is to:”

• “provide independent governance advice, guidance and effective administrative support to the governing body”
• “support the governing body to meet high standards of governance, including fulfilling legal or regulatory requirements and decision making”
• “help the governing body to understand its role and legal duties”
• “support the chair to facilitate strategic debate and decision making”
• “promote the flow of information throughout the governance structure”, to which the academy trusts guide adds “including between the board, its committees, local committees and members”.

The law is narrower. In a maintained school, the 2013 Regulations give the clerk these duties:

• Convening meetings. Under regulation 13(2), “Meetings of the governing body are to be convened by the clerk to the governing body”, and the clerk must comply with any direction from the governing body, or from the chair so far as the chair's direction is not inconsistent with the board's.
• Notice, agenda and papers seven clear days ahead. Regulation 13(4) makes the clerk give written notice of the meeting, a copy of the agenda and any reports or other papers at least seven clear days in advance to each governor, the headteacher (whether or not a governor), any associate member, and the local authority where an agenda item involves a change of school category. The chair may direct a shorter period where matters demand urgent consideration (13(5)), but not for a meeting that will consider removing the chair or vice-chair, suspending a governor or serving notice to discontinue the school (13(6)).
• Meetings the governors call. “Any three members of the governing body may requisition a meeting by giving written notice to the clerk to the governing body, and the clerk must convene a meeting as soon as is reasonably practicable” (regulation 13(3)).
• Minutes. Regulation 15(1) says the clerk “must ensure that minutes of the proceedings of a meeting of the governing body are drawn up and signed (subject to the approval of the governing body) by the chair at the next meeting.” The clerk makes the record; the chair signs it once the board approves it.
• Receiving notices. A governor may resign “by giving written notice to the clerk to the governing body” under regulation 19(1) of the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012, and the chair or vice-chair may resign that office by written notice to the clerk under regulation 7(4) of the 2013 Regulations.

In an academy trust on the DfE model articles, the governance professional convenes trustees' meetings (article 109), gives each trustee written notice and a copy of the agenda at least seven clear days before the meeting (article 111), and records and keeps the minutes, which the person chairing signs, subject to the trustees' approval, at the same or the next meeting (article 99). Unlike regulation 13(4), article 111 does not require the papers to go with the notice.

Around those duties sits the work a clerk to governors job description usually lists: agreeing the agenda with the chair and headteacher, sending papers, taking minutes and tracking actions, keeping membership and terms of office up to date, recording attendance and training, and advising on procedure in the meeting.

Who can be the clerk, and who the clerk answers to

Regulation 10(2) of the 2013 Regulations says the governing body must ensure that the clerk is not “(a) a governor; or (b) the head teacher of the school.”

A governor can stand in, but only for one meeting. Regulation 10(3) says that “if the clerk fails to attend a meeting”, the governing body may “appoint any one of their number (who is not the head teacher) to act as clerk for the purposes of that meeting”. In an academy trust the academy trusts guide says “A trustee can undertake the role for a specific meeting if the governance professional is unable to attend”, and model article 81 lets the trustees appoint “any one of their number or any other person” for that meeting; check the trust's own articles.

The governing body appoints the clerk and “may remove the clerk to the governing body from office” (regulation 10(4)). Where a maintained school has no delegated budget, the local authority may remove the clerk and appoint a substitute after consulting the governing body (10(5)).

A maintained school can employ its clerk directly, contract with one or buy into a local authority's governor services, the maintained schools guide says; a trust that does not employ its governance professional “may choose to use a traded service or someone who is self-employed”, and model article 81 adds that the governance professional “may, but need not be, the appointed company secretary of the Academy Trust.”

The clerk answers to the board. Both guides say the governance professional receives direction from, and is accountable to, the governing body or board: “This will normally be through the chair.” The maintained schools guide recommends the chair carries out the clerk's appraisal and says “The chair is usually responsible for the line management of the headteacher and the governance professional for their governance role where they are employed directly by the school”; the academy trusts guide lists “the performance review of the governance professional in their governance role within the trust” among the chair's responsibilities. We read the words “for their governance role” as covering a clerk who also holds another post in the school, such as office manager: whoever manages that job, the guides put the clerking under the board's direction, normally through the chair. The chair of governors guide covers the same relationship from the chair's side.

Clerks have interests to declare too. The maintained schools guide says “Governors, associate members and governance professionals must declare their interests”, and regulation 16 applies its conflict rules to the clerk as well as to governors, so a clerk with a conflict on a matter at a meeting must disclose it. The guide summarises the rule as disclose, withdraw and not vote, but regulation 16(4) says a person acting as clerk to the meeting need not withdraw unless their own appointment, pay or discipline is being considered; where they would otherwise have had to withdraw, they must act only as clerk.

Pay and training are the board's responsibility too: both guides say the board ensures the governance professional receives appropriate remuneration, and supports their training and development.

The records the clerk keeps

Most of what a board can later show about its own decisions, it shows from the clerk's records.

• Agendas, signed minutes and papers. Under regulation 15(2), a maintained school's governing body must, as soon as reasonably practicable, make available for inspection by any interested person a copy of the agenda for every meeting, the signed minutes and any report or other paper considered. Regulation 15(3) lets it exclude material about a named person who works or may work at the school, a named pupil or candidate for admission, or any other matter it is satisfied should remain confidential; the exclusion is the board's choice, not a requirement.
• Notices of resignation and removal. The written notices that reach the clerk – a governor resigning, a chair or vice-chair resigning that office, or an appointing body removing a foundation or local authority governor (regulations 19, 20 and 22 of the 2012 Regulations, and regulation 7(4) of the 2013 Regulations) – are the evidence of who held office, and when.
• Attendance. The maintained schools guide says a school's governance web page should set out “attendance records for each governor in the governing body and at committee meetings over the last academic year”. For an academy trust it is a requirement: paragraph 1.55 of the handbook says the trust must publish attendance records for each trustee at board and committee meetings, and for each local governor at local governing body meetings, over the last academic year.
• Interests. Paragraph 1.51 of the handbook says “The trust must keep a register of any relevant business and financial interests, for (as a minimum) members, trustees, local governors and senior employees, serving at any point over the past 12 months”, and paragraph 1.55 has the trust publish the register for members, trustees, local governors and the accounting officer.
• Get Information About Schools (GIAS). The maintained schools guide says schools must provide up-to-date information about their chair and governors on GIAS, as required by section 538 of the Education Act 1996, and notes that “A recent update to GIAS now allows for the inclusion of governance professionals on the service.” The DfE's GIAS governance guidance explains how to update the details.

How long each is kept is in how long to keep board minutes, how to write minutes in minute taking, a new governor's first records in governor induction, and a trust's full set in academy trust governance documents.

Skills, training and the withdrawn clerking competency framework

The DfE's Clerking competency framework (2017) is no longer current. It was withdrawn on 7 March 2024, with the Governance Handbook, and the DfE's withdrawal notice says “Information relating to governance is available in the maintained school governance guide or academy trust governance guide.” Several pages that rank for clerk to governors responsibilities still cite the 2017 framework, so a board recruiting or appraising a clerk should check what it is copying.

The maintained schools guide now points elsewhere for the skills and standards of the role. It says “The Chartered Governance Institute's competency framework can support with evaluating the performance of the governance professional” and that “The National Association of Governance Advisory Services produces a handbook for clerks and governance professionals.” The DfE's Working with governance professionals (clerks): resources collects links to role descriptions, including for lead governance professionals in multi-academy trusts, a clerking handbook and guidance on appraisal.

Training starts with induction and safeguarding: the maintained schools guide includes the governance professional in induction and asks the board to ensure “that all governors and the governance professional have read and follow part 2 of keeping children safe in education guidance”.

In a multi-academy trust, a local governing body is a committee of the trust board set up under the trust's articles, so its clerk works to the articles and the scheme of delegation, not the 2013 Regulations. The local governing body guide covers what an LGB may decide.

The messages that never reach the clerk

The regulations assume board business reaches the clerk in writing. Between meetings, much of it now travels another way. The chair sounds out governors about an urgent decision in a group chat on their own phones; a governor mentions an interest in a reply; someone announces they are stepping down in the group rather than writing to the clerk.

Those messages are part of what the board did, and requests for information can reach them. In November 2024, answering a freedom of information request about its governing board's membership and resignations, Longhill High School in Brighton said: “A WhatsApp group has only been set up in the last couple of weeks, so there are no messages regarding resignations on that chat as yet.” (Longhill High School's reply on WhatDoTheyKnow) Our reading: the school treated the governors' chat as a place where the answer could have been held.

The clerk can minute only what reaches them. A declaration made in a group chat, the reasoning behind an urgent decision, or a notice sent to the wrong place may never come to the clerk at all, and then it is neither in the minutes nor in any system the school runs.

A question the clerk can put to the next meeting: when a governor needs to tell the board something between meetings – an interest, a resignation, a concern – where do they send it, and would it be part of the board's record?

Where ComplyChat fits, and where it does not

Start with what it is not. ComplyChat is not a clerking service, it does not write minutes or hold board papers, and it is not a governor management system for terms of office, training records or GIAS returns. If your board does its business in meetings and in email the school or trust holds, you may not need it.

It is built for the conversations between meetings that today sit in a governors' group chat. A school or trust can run a channel for its governors or trustees and its clerk, and because a mobile number verified by SMS is the identity, governors with no account on the school's systems can join without one. Everyone added to a channel is told it is on the record and can object or leave, and messages are recorded on the server as they are sent, not gathered from phones afterwards. On a connected paid plan, conversations are kept in the school's or trust's own Microsoft 365 subscription, under the retention schedules it already runs. ComplyChat replaces the WhatsApp group; it does not capture or archive WhatsApp. It is working towards Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001 certification and holds neither yet; our Why us page says so.

Free is for personal conversations: one private group channel, direct messages and up to 25 people, three calendar months of recent history and no Microsoft 365 archive or Replay, so it cannot meet a retention duty.

Questions people ask

What are the main responsibilities of a clerk to governors?

The DfE lists five: independent governance advice and effective administrative support to the board; supporting high standards of governance, including legal and regulatory requirements; helping the board understand its role and legal duties; supporting the chair to facilitate strategic debate; and promoting the flow of information through the governance structure (maintained schools governance guide 4.8.1; academy trusts guide 4.5.1).

What are the typical responsibilities of a clerk?

In a maintained school in England the law makes the clerk convene governing body meetings, send each governor and the headteacher written notice, the agenda and papers at least seven clear days before a meeting (shorter if the chair decides a matter is urgent), and ensure minutes are drawn up for the chair to sign at the next meeting (regulations 13 and 15 of the 2013 Regulations). Under the DfE model articles, an academy trust's governance professional convenes trustees' meetings, gives seven clear days' written notice with the agenda, and records and keeps the minutes, which the chair signs at the same or the next meeting.

Can a governor be the clerk to governors?

No. Regulation 10(2) of the 2013 Regulations says a maintained school's clerk must not be a governor or the headteacher, though a governor other than the headteacher can act as clerk for a single meeting the clerk misses (regulation 10(3)). In an academy trust the governance professional must not be a trustee, principal or chief executive (Academy Trust Handbook 2026, paragraph 1.48); model article 81 lets the trustees appoint “any one of their number or any other person” for a meeting the governance professional misses.

Who does the clerk to governors report to?

The governing body or board: both DfE governance guides say the governance professional receives direction from, and is accountable to, the board, normally through the chair. The DfE recommends the chair appraises the clerk in a maintained school, and lists the governance professional's performance review among the chair's responsibilities in an academy trust. Under regulation 13(2) of the 2013 Regulations, a maintained school's clerk takes directions on convening meetings from the governing body or the chair.

How much does a clerk to governors get paid?

Neither the 2013 Regulations nor the DfE's governance guides set a pay rate or hours for the role. The maintained schools guide says the governing body is responsible for ensuring the governance professional receives appropriate remuneration that reflects “the skills, experience and advice they bring”, and the academy trusts guide says the same of the trust board.

Is the DfE clerking competency framework still current?

No. The DfE withdrew the Clerking competency framework (2017) on 7 March 2024; its guidance is now in the two governance guides, and the maintained schools guide points to the Chartered Governance Institute's competency framework for evaluating a clerk's performance.

Where to read the official guidance

The law for maintained schools in England is in the School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) (England) Regulations 2013, chiefly regulations 6, 10, 13 and 15. For academy trusts it is paragraph 1.48 of the Academy trust handbook 2026 and the trust's own articles, which for many trusts follow the academy model articles of association. The DfE's Maintained schools: governance guide (section 4.8) and Academy trusts: governance guide (section 4.5.1) describe the role. In Wales, read regulations 42 and 43 of the Government of Maintained Schools (Wales) Regulations 2005. Quotations are from the pages named as published on 3 November 2026; the Longhill High School reply in section 06 is from WhatDoTheyKnow, as captured for our evidence pack, and is that school's reply on its date.

This guide covers England, with a pointer for Wales, and is not legal advice; a trust should read its own articles before relying on the model's wording.

Then do one thing: read your clerk's job description and check that it cites the 2013 Regulations or your trust's articles and the current governance guide, not the withdrawn 2017 framework. If it does not, that is the first line of the next review.