Secondary head Alison Banks is unequivocal about the value of her school governors. They are worth their weight in gold to her.

“I believe they save me at least Pounds 50,000 a year - equivalent to two full-time members of staff - and that is a conservative estimate,” says the head of 1,800 pupil Beacon Community College in Crowborough, East Sussex.

But it is not just the wealth of professional experience brought to the school by its elected governors - who include an architectural surveyor, a professor and a social services senior officer - to which she refers.

Levels of commitment from all the members are high. Each governor on average spends 100 hours on school business each year: “The chair probably spends around 400 hours working with us,” she says.

“And one is 90-years-old and has been a member of the governing body for 34 years, 13 as chair. We are very fortunate and we know it.

“Our governors bring an objective dimension and a long-term view to the running of the school. They review what our senior management team is doing from a different perspective; it is one way of checking our management - if there is a flaw it will be spotted.

“The phrase ‘critical friend’ really sums up their role and how they perceive themselves. It is easy to say this but very difficult to fulfill in reality - they strike the right balance and I think it is their achievement.”

Since the late 1980s the governing body has worked through three committees: staffing and curriculum; finance and general purpose; and community education. Smaller numbers have been drafted on to statutory panels dealing with exclusions; personnel and disciplinary matters; delegated services and the requirement to consider opting out.

There is also a complaints working party which monitors objections by parents and how quickly they are resolved. Two others handle the principal and vice-principal’s salaries, and the appointment of the vice-principal.

Parent governor John Windebank, who helped set up its complaints procedure two years ago, now monitors the process through a log book. The format, outlined in every governors’ report, aims to give feedback to parents and help staff identify whether certain issues frequently re-occur.

Instead of “hi-jacking” certain governors with their concerns, parents now take their complaints through a hierarchy, initially contacting the person concerned. “If this fails they contact the headteacher who will investigate and give them a written response by a set time. If they are still dissatisfied they can contact the chief education officer and finally go to the local government Ombudsman.”

Five per cent of complaints last year centred on policy matters which were of concern to governors, such as the number of GCSEs a child could take, or A-level provision, says Mr Windebank.

One of the governing body’s great strengths is its ability to anticipate the need for change - it is currently streamlining its committee structure - and the speed with which it responds to school issues.

At a recent meeting a parent asked governors to outline their objectives for the forthcoming year. Now they are in the process of drawing up a list of targets, including the proposed structure changes which will be publicly available at a later date.

The chairman Professor John Head has agreed with eight other self-selected governors to set up a strategic planning sub-committee - a “visionary” panel which will look five years ahead at ways to best develop the college.

They plan to merge the curriculum and staffing committee with community education to reflect more accurately the college’s community status and simultaneously reduce duplication in some curriculum areas. They are also examining how to reduce the over-load on the finance and general purposes committee.

And they are no less exhaustive in their monitoring role, delegating governors to specific curriculum areas, such as special needs.

Janie Hooper, a parent governor with a special interest in the area, says staff are responsive to parents’ needs. She spends a lot of time with the special needs co-ordinator in the half a day that she’s in the school every week. “I try to see all the departments and get feedback about the kind of assistance they need and how they feel their needs are being met. This overview is enormously helpful when we go through the process of bidding for support. ”

The linking scheme, though not yet fully in place, builds upon much of the work already done by governors, says Professor Head. Now there are proposals to affiliate governors to departments and to school houses. “But it is our concern that though our monitoring should be constant, it should not be seen as threatening by staff.

“One of the major factors for the governors of Beacon is that almost all of us have or have had children here and we feel we have been very well served by the school.

“We all felt we wanted to be able to put something back. I am delighted to feel the headteacher values us in this way - though I believe if the time we spent in school was costed up we would be worth even more than her Pounds 50,000 estimate.”