Governor Skills and Knowledge Audit Toolkit

A practical Governor Skills Audit and Development Tool designed to help governing boards identify collective strengths, gaps in knowledge and priorities for training and development.

Rather than simply completing an annual skills audit, this resource helps schools turn governor responses into useful board-level information. Governors complete a simple Microsoft Forms questionnaire and the results can then be transferred into the accompanying Excel workbook. The automated dashboard collates responses, calculates board-level scores and highlights areas for further development.

The resource covers 32 governance competencies across eight key areas:

• Strategic leadership
• Safeguarding
• Finance and resources
• SEND and inclusion
• Educational performance
• Statutory responsibilities and compliance
• Stakeholders and culture
• Board effectiveness

Governors use a four-point scale to assess their current knowledge and experience, with an additional ‘Don’t know / not enough experience to judge’ option. This allows new or less experienced governors to respond honestly without artificially affecting the board’s average scores.

The downloadable resource includes:

• Governor Skills Audit and Development Tool – an Excel workbook with automated analysis and a board development dashboard
• Microsoft Forms Setup and Clerk Guide – including all 32 statements, response options and step-by-step instructions for creating the questionnaire and transferring responses
• Information for Governors – a ready-to-use explanation that can be circulated alongside the questionnaire link

The dashboard identifies areas of existing confidence alongside potential high, medium and lower development priorities. Results can be used to inform governor training, board development discussions, allocation of roles, recruitment and succession planning.

The resource has been designed to be straightforward for clerks and governance professionals to administer. Governors do not need to use Excel or have access to the dashboard: they simply complete the online questionnaire created by their school.

The audit is intended as a development tool rather than an assessment of individual governor performance. It supports governing boards in using their annual skills audit as the starting point for meaningful discussion and planned development.