GOOD committees can be the key to a successful governing body and every year governors are required to review how they delegate work.

All governors should understand their committee arrangements, have an opportunity to contribute and have access to all the information. This means making sure you are abiding by the rules and have a system that is open to all but not too burdensome or bureaucratic.

The essence of effective delegation is to have trust and confidence in colleague governors who are working on your behalf. Such trust will only be fostered and maintained within a transparent system. Confirming the arrangements for committees, including membership, must be agreed by the full governing body, so allow good time on the agenda for what can be a weighty item.

Some committees must be set up by law. There must be a staff dismissal committee and a pupil discipline committee with responsibilities for pupil exclusions.

Ideally set these up at the start of the year as part of your committee review rather than wait until you need them. Appeals committees are also required for both, with different governor members to ensure they have not been involved in the original case.

Governing bodies which are also the school’s admissions’ authority must have a statutory committee to fulfil this responsibility (see the Education (School Government, England) Regulations 1999). Although it is not strictly a committee, a nominated group of governors should also be established to handle the performance review of the headteacher.

Delegating some of the workload to non-statutory committees is common practice. These are usually linked to key policy areas such as finance, premises, personnel, curriculum, pastoral care and health and safety. It is worth considering combining responsibilities where it makes sense, such as finance and premises, perhaps including health and safety.

Some governing bodies combine finance and staffing, although decisions about the latter must not be dictated by financial rather than curriculum priorities. Curriculum matters can often be included in the wider school development planning responsibilities and can form the focus for a committee, although many governing bodies now prefer to have a regular item on the main agenda under school improvement and development.

Each committee should have clear terms of reference including membership, voting rights, arrangements for chair and minutes and delegated powers. Statutory committees need a formal clerk who is not a governor or the head - any committee member can act as clerk to non-statutory committees.

All governors should have the opportunity to contribute to committee work - it is a particularly good way to involve new governors. It is also possible to include non-governors as co-opted committee members to bring in outside experience and expertise when needed.

Because responsibilities are delegated to a committee - and decisions taken on behalf of the governing body - minutes of meetings should be produced quickly and be accessible to all governors.

Minutes should be formally received by the full governing body as soon as possible but this is not an opportunity to rehearse or revise decisions already taken. Committees must be trusted to exercise delegated authority and decisions should only scrutinised by the full governing body when a committee has acted beyond its powers.

It is good practice to set up an annual cycle of work with scheduled meetings for committees, noting matters that might need attention each term. Setting dates for meetings in advance helps, but never hold them just for the sake of it.