Structured governance assurance for UK school governing boards.

Quality Standard · Compliance

Compliance: the foundation everything else rests on.

The legally sound foundation every governing board needs: properly constituted, meeting its statutory duties and running its core business reliably. Without it, nothing else holds.

Start the free self-assessment and see where your board stands.

The Audit Hub in the SGAF portal: a completed Governor Induction Audit marked secure, with checks delegated to colleagues and a review status

In plain terms

What the Compliance stage means

Compliance is the legally sound foundation of school governance. It asks a simple question: is the board properly constituted, meeting its statutory duties and running its core business reliably? Clerking, terms of reference, delegation, financial oversight and an up-to-date policy schedule all sit here. Without this foundation, nothing else the board does can be relied on.

Who it is for

Every governing board, from day one. If your board is newly formed, recently reconstituted, or simply wants to be sure the basics are watertight before it looks further, this is where the standard begins.

What your board has at the end

  • A clerked, searchable record of every board decision
  • Terms of reference and a scheme of delegation on file
  • A live policy review schedule, with dates against every policy
  • Financial oversight evidenced, with the SFVS submitted
  • A register of interests kept current for every governor

When the foundation is solid

Have your Compliance stage independently verified

Self-assessment is free and open from day one. When your foundation is solid, an independent practitioner can verify it through External Validation, so your position is proven rather than self-declared.

Validation External Validation · £295 per stage · a verified foundation you can show to parents, the diocese, an academy trust or an inspector

Part of the Quality Standard →

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See the whole system with your own school's data in front of you, then decide.

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