Do We Need a Code of Conduct?

Maintained schools

The Department for Education (DfE) has published statutory guidance on the constitution of maintained school governing bodies.

The constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools

Paragraph 16 on page 8 of the document says:

A code of conduct should be maintained and communicated to all prospective governors to set clear expectations of the governors’ role and behaviour.

Explicit agreement to the code of conduct will mean there is a common reference point should any difficulties arise in the future.

As this guidance is statutory, maintained school governing bodies must follow it unless they have good reason not to

Academies

The recommendation to maintain and communicate a code of conduct is also set out in section 4.1.2 of the DfE's Governance Handbook; (DfE Governance Handbook see pages 30 / 31) a document aimed at both academies and maintained schools.

Although the Governance Handbook is not statutory, and therefore academies are not required to have a code, it is considered good practice for them to do so.