As a procurement professional, your expertise is urgently needed on school and trust boards. A critical aspect of governance is ensuring that public funds are spent effectively, and with your experience, you can provide invaluable oversight. Your skills will help support schools to make informed decisions, ensuring that every penny of public money is used to benefit the students in their care.
In 2024-25, the total funding allocated to schools for 5-16 year old pupils, was £7,690 per pupil. Schools and Academy Trusts manage multi-million pound budgets to deliver an education system that ensures all children reach their potential. To ensure this money is well spent, they need procurement skills on their boards.
CIPS and the Government Commercial Function are keen to engage more people with this skilled-volunteering opportunity and are working with Governors for Schools, the governance recruitment charity, to match you with vacancies on school and trust boards.
Governors for Schools are a leading education charity, working with state funded schools across England and Wales to address the shortage of school governance volunteers. They appoint over 2,000 volunteers just like you every year, providing ongoing support to help them have the greatest impact in their roles. Your skills and experience are directly relevant to the governance role, and you’ll also need the passion and drive to improve the prospects of children.
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School governors and Academy Trustees are unpaid, but incredibly important, volunteers who have 3 main responsibilities:
By developing a strong and supportive relationship with the leadership team, governance volunteers challenge existing processes to drive school improvement.
Volunteering as a school governor or academy trustee takes about 7 hours per month. Although taking on the role requires drive and commitment, you’ll enjoy many professional and personal rewards, including career development opportunities and the chance to support young people’s futures.
School governors offer strategic guidance to schools. They sit at board-level, ask questions and provide challenge to the senior leadership.
When it comes to the role of a school governor, they’re not operational. This means they offer suggestions and provide oversight on the school’s strategic direction, budgets, and decisions of school leaders – rather than being the ones who make the decisions themselves.
Unsure whether you want to take on the role? Want to find out more about why you should consider volunteering your time?
From career advancement, to the self-fulfilment gained from helping the next generation thrive, there are many benefits of becoming a school governor. This blog, created as part of our ‘School Governors:’ blog series explains them in more detail.
We’re proud to have been finding school governors, and helping schools build exceptional boards for 25 years.
In this time, we’ve developed a process that ensures you’re placed into a school that’s right for you. This page explores the application process, and how our dedicated recruitment teams work to find you a school in your local community.
If you’re ready to start your governance journey, please don’t hesitate to apply online today. We’ll process your application as quickly as possible.