Governor code of conduct

Where the expectation comes from

No statute says a governing board must adopt a code of conduct. The expectation comes from the Department for Education's guidance, which for years sat in the Governance Handbook. That handbook was withdrawn on 7 March 2024, and GOV.UK now points to two separate documents, both first published on 19 November 2025 and updated in July 2026: the maintained schools governance guide and the academy trust governance guide. If your code still cites the Governance Handbook, that reference is out of date.

The maintained schools guide says: "Effective governing bodies create and maintain a code of conduct which is agreed by all governors." In an academy, the code is the trust board's: the academy trust guide expects the board to set high expectations for the conduct of "its committee members including any local committees", and says a breach of the code "could result in the trust or appointer removing a trustee or individual on a committee, including a local committee." Both guides say that everyone involved in governance "is expected to know about and follow" the Seven Principles of Public Life, and the maintained schools guide says a breach could result in a governor's suspension or, in more severe cases, removal.

Underneath the code sit duties that are law, not guidance. In maintained schools, regulation 6(2) of the School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) (England) Regulations 2013 requires school governors, as the maintained schools guide puts it, to "act with integrity, objectivity and honesty and in the best interests of the school" and to be open about their decisions and prepared to explain them. Regulation 16 requires a governor with a conflict of interest to disclose it, withdraw and not vote, and regulation 17 makes a breach of the duty of confidentiality a ground for suspension. In an academy, a local committee's role comes from the trust: the academy trust guide says the scheme of delegation "must set out the structure and delegated remit" of the trust's committees, including any local committees, and a local governor's code sits within that remit. A code of conduct does not create those duties; it tells governors in plain words how the board expects them to be met.

The seven principles of public life

The Seven Principles of Public Life, often called the Nolan principles, apply to anyone who holds public office, which the government's own statement says includes those in education. Governors hold office in publicly funded schools, and most model codes open with the principles. The wording on GOV.UK is short enough to quote in full:

• Selflessness: "Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest."
• Integrity: they "must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships."
• Objectivity: they "must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias."
• Accountability: they "are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this."
• Openness: they "should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing."
• Honesty: they "should be truthful."
• Leadership: they "should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour and treat others with respect. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs."

In a school, integrity is the principle behind declaring interests; objectivity is the one behind deciding a staff dismissal appeal or an exclusion review on the evidence; accountability and openness are why the minutes exist and why they are available to the public; and leadership is why a chair who lets poor behaviour pass in a meeting has a problem of their own. A code that simply lists the seven words and moves on has missed the point of including them.

What a governor code of conduct should cover

There is no prescribed form. The maintained schools guide points to model codes from the National Governance Association (NGA), with separate versions for maintained schools and academy trusts, and from the Catholic Education Service, for Catholic schools and academies. In an academy, the code that applies to a local committee is the one the trust board has adopted, so start from that and use a model only to test it. The NGA's model is organised around the principles, the governor's role and responsibilities, commitment, relationships, confidentiality and conflicts of interest, and the NGA says it should be adapted to your own context. Whatever the model, a code that works in practice covers:

• The role. The board's core functions – defining the vision, ethos and strategic direction, holding the headteacher to account for educational performance, including their performance management, and overseeing the proper use of the school's money – and the difference between governance and management: governors oversee the school, they do not run it. The maintained schools guide's own example is that a governor with financial skills "should scrutinise the school's accounts but not help prepare them". A local committee in an academy has the remit the trust's scheme of delegation gives it, which may be advisory only.
• Collective responsibility. Decisions are the board's, not an individual's; once made, every governor supports them in public even if they argued against them. No governor acts alone on the board's behalf unless the board has delegated the power.
• Commitment. Preparing for and attending meetings, serving on committees, and taking part in induction and training. Both DfE guides say a governor who persistently fails to attend training "may be in breach" of the code.
• Relationships. Working with the headteacher and staff professionally, raising concerns through the chair and the right procedures, and not pursuing individual complaints from parents as a governor.
• Visits to the school. How visits are arranged, what they are for (the board's monitoring priorities, not individual lesson inspections) and how they are reported back.
• Confidentiality. What is confidential, including matters about named staff and pupils and items the board has agreed to treat as confidential, and that the duty continues after a governor leaves.
• Interests. Declaring business and pecuniary interests for the register, and declaring and withdrawing when a conflict arises at a meeting. Our conflict of interest guide covers the register and the procedure.
• Information and publication. That governors' details and interests will be published on the school's website and on Get Information about Schools; the maintained schools guide suggests boards make this clear in the code, and says a governor who fails to provide the information may be in breach of it.
• Communications and social media. How governors communicate with each other and with the school, what may not be discussed in personal messaging groups or posted online, and who speaks for the board.
• Breach. What happens if the code is broken, from an informal conversation with the chair to the statutory procedures for suspension and removal.

Adopting, signing and publishing it

The NGA recommends that "Boards should review and approve their code of conduct annually, normally at the first meeting of the autumn term", and that boards publish it on their school or trust website. New governors should agree to follow the code as part of their induction, before their first meeting rather than at it.

Whether every governor must physically sign it is a question boards often ask. No law requires a signature. What matters is that the board can show each governor agreed to the code: a minute recording that the code was reviewed and adopted by the board, with the names of those present, and a note in each new governor's induction record that they received and agreed to it, is enough. A signed copy is a reasonable addition; a code signed in 2019 and never reviewed is not a substitute for either.

Adopting the code is also the natural moment to re-read it. Check that it names the current guidance rather than the withdrawn handbook, that it matches the board's scheme of delegation and committee structure, that it says something about personal messaging and social media that reflects how governors actually communicate, and, for a local committee, that it is the trust board's current code and fits the remit the scheme of delegation gives the committee.

When a governor breaches the code

Most breaches are resolved informally. The maintained schools guide gives the chair the job of "having honest conversations with governors, associate members and committee members who are not committed to or are ineffective in their role", and a conversation, recorded in a short note, is usually the right first step. Formal action exists for the cases where it is not.

In a maintained school, regulation 17 of the Roles, Procedures and Allowances Regulations 2013 lets the governing body suspend a governor by resolution "for a fixed period of up to 6 months" on four grounds only: that a governor paid to work at the school is subject to disciplinary proceedings; that the governor is subject to court or tribunal proceedings that may lead to disqualification; that the governor "has acted in a way that is inconsistent with the ethos or with the religious character of the school and has brought or is likely to bring the school or the governing body or the office of governor into disrepute"; or that the governor "is in breach of the duty of confidentiality to the school or to any member of staff or pupil at the school". The matter must be on the agenda, the proposer must state the reasons at the meeting, and the governor must be allowed to respond before withdrawing. A suspended governor still receives the papers.

Removal is different for each category of governor, under Part 4 of the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012. The governing body can remove co-opted governors, and since 2017 elected parent and staff governors too, by a resolution with reasons given and a chance to respond, confirmed at a second meeting at least fourteen days later, with the removal on the agenda both times; the statutory guidance says elected governors should be removed only in exceptional circumstances. Local authority governors can be removed only by the local authority, and foundation governors by the body that appointed them.

In an academy, a local governor's position depends on the trust. The academy trust governance guide says a trust board may, in line with its articles, "appoint and remove people on local committees", and that in trusts with church academies the Diocesan Board of Education, archbishop or bishop may also have the right to appoint people to them. Removing a local governor is therefore a decision for the trust board or the body that appointed them, under the articles and the scheme of delegation; the local committee chair's part is the informal conversation and a clear report to the trust.

Every step needs a record, because the procedure is the protection. The agenda item, the reasons given, the governor's response, the vote and the confirming resolution all belong in the minutes, and the evidence of the conduct complained of belongs on file. A suspension or removal that cannot show its procedure is open to challenge by the governor concerned.

The governors' group chat

Codes of conduct are mostly broken in writing, and mostly in the same place: the governors' messaging group on personal phones. It is set up to share parking arrangements for the Christmas fair. Within a term it carries a parent's complaint forwarded with the child's name in it, a governor's view of a named teacher's performance, a heated exchange about the headteacher before a pay committee, and a decision that "we're all agreed then" on something that was never on an agenda.

Each of those engages the code directly: confidentiality, collective responsibility, relationships with staff, and the rule that governors act as a board at a meeting, not as individuals between them. And when the board has to act on a breach, the evidence is in a group the school does not hold. The governor who breached the code has it, the chair has it, and a governor who has since resigned has it; the board has only what someone chooses to screenshot.

The fix is not to forbid governors from talking to each other between meetings; boards that cannot reach each other function worse. It is to give those conversations a home the school or trust holds, with the same expectations as the meeting. ComplyChat provides a channel for the governing board, with everyone added told that it is on the record and able to object or leave. A mobile number verified by SMS is an identity on it, which matters for governors, who rarely have a school account. On paid plans the lasting record files into the school's or trust's own Microsoft 365 once the tenant is connected, under its own retention rules. It is not a board portal or a minute-taking tool, and it does not make informal decisions valid; decisions still belong in a quorate meeting or a properly used chair's action. ComplyChat Free is personal messaging with one private group, direct messages and three calendar months of recent history, with no Microsoft 365 archive; upgrading cannot restore expired history.

A question for the next full governing board meeting, when the code is adopted: does our code say anything about how governors message each other, and if a governor breached it in a message tomorrow, where would the board find the evidence?

Official guidance and your next step

The primary sources are the DfE's maintained schools governance guide and academy trust governance guide, the Seven Principles of Public Life, and for maintained schools the School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances) (England) Regulations 2013 and the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012, Part 4. Local governors in an academy should read the trust board's code of conduct and scheme of delegation, and the academy trust guide's section on local committees. The NGA model code is free to download. Quotations are from those sources as published in September 2026.

This guide is a practical starting point for school and trust boards in England, not legal advice about an individual governor or a disputed suspension or removal. Before taking formal action, the chair should take advice from the governance professional and, where appropriate, the local authority, diocese or trust.

Then do one thing: ask the clerk to put the code on the agenda of the first meeting of the autumn term, with the current model beside it, and to minute its adoption by name. If your code still cites the Governance Handbook, that is the first line to change.