Governing boards are made up of skilled, committed professionals giving their time freely to improve outcomes for children. They deserve a system that makes their contribution visible, their evidence navigable and their impact demonstrable. The Governance Assurance Framework is that system.
Ask a headteacher how they know their governors are effective. Then ask how they know their Maths department is improving. The difference in those two answers is not about the people - it is about the system. Every part of school improvement has evolved systems for structure, standardisation and demonstrating quality. Governance, shaped by trust, service and professional judgement, developed differently - and is now operating in a far more formal accountability environment.
“They care. They challenge. They’re committed. They want the best for the school.”
How most headteachers describe their governors.Every word of that is true. Governors are committed, experienced professionals - many bringing expertise from medicine, law, finance and education that few organisations could attract voluntarily. The issue is never the people. It is that governance is the only part of school life that has never been given the structural framework that everything else takes for granted.
When Ofsted asks how the governing board knows the school is improving, it has become a systems-level question - yet governance has not historically been provided with systems equivalent to those used elsewhere in education. That is what the Governance Assurance Framework provides: the infrastructure that allows great governors to do what they already want to do and to show that they are doing it.
This framework does not assess the quality of governors as people. It provides the infrastructure to make strong governance visible, transferable and defensible.
Governors bring extraordinary expertise to their schools - freely, voluntarily and often without recognition. The Governance Assurance Framework does not change the people. It gives them the structure, the tools and the shared language that makes their contribution visible, their challenge meaningful and their assurance demonstrable.
Every governor knows what they are responsible for, what questions to ask and what evidence to look for. The headteacher gains a board that can answer the question every inspector asks. The chair leads a shared system - rather than carrying it alone.
Start your self-assessment - freeGAF is a progressive framework. Boards move from compliance foundations through to embedding continuous assurance and building governance that withstands change.
Is the board properly constituted, legally compliant and operating its basic functions reliably? The foundations without which no assurance is possible.
How does the board know the school is improving in the right areas, at the right pace, for the right pupils? This stage connects monitoring to systematic evidence of impact.
Will governance remain effective under pressure, change of personnel, or leadership transition? Continuity is the highest level of governance maturity.
The eleven framework sections
Assurance is a by-product of disciplined execution. If evidence cannot be located predictably, it does not exist.
SIP identifies what the board monitors this term
Governor monitors activity linked to that priority
Filed by what it assures, not when produced
Board considers what accumulated evidence shows
Evidenced questions to school leadership
Decision recorded on the official record
Every board wants Ofsted training. Most want a cheat sheet for the big day. The real question is not how to prepare for an inspection - it is how to govern in a way that makes preparation unnecessary.
This training reframes inspection readiness as a governance outcome, not an event. Boards that govern well all year do not scramble when Ofsted arrives. They open their evidence, answer the questions and move on. That is what this session builds toward.
Enquire about this training →Why Ofsted preparation the night before is the wrong model. What inspectors actually ask. Why most boards struggle to answer it - and why that is never about the quality of the people in the room.
How the Governance Assurance Framework makes inspection readiness a by-product of how you govern every week. Practical, structured and immediately actionable.
The self-assessment is free. Understanding where your board stands costs nothing. The services that help you act on what you find are where we work together.
Complete the full 47-element governance self-assessment at your own pace. Understand exactly where your board stands across all three stages of the framework.
The report identifies your gaps and makes the next steps obvious. From there, you choose whether to act independently or with our support.
Begin self-assessment →For boards that want structured support to act on their self-assessment results and build a governance system that works year-round.
All services are enquiry-based at this stage. Pricing is discussed once we understand your school's context and needs.
Enquire about services →A small cohort of schools working directly with Joshua Mangas to implement the full framework, build their governance system and help shape how this develops nationally.
Subject to suitability and a genuine commitment from the school and board. Places are limited.
Express interest →The External Review of Governance is a valuable process - but it is periodic, commissioned and point-in-time. The Governance Assurance Framework provides structured, continuous assurance that works alongside or instead of it.
GAF is designed to work alongside the External Review of Governance, not against it. NGA recommends an annual self-review between ERGs - GAF is the structured framework to do exactly that. Boards using GAF arrive at an external review with a year of documented, evidence-based assurance already in place.
The Governance Assurance Framework was built by someone who has sat on both sides of the table - as a school leader, as a chair of governors and as a specialist who has worked alongside hundreds of boards. It is not a theoretical model. It is a practical response to what schools and boards actually need.
Joshua Mangas has over 20 years of educational experience across Post-16, primary and secondary settings, including time as a secondary senior leader. He has spent a significant part of his career working alongside governing boards across the Northwest of England - supporting governance training, board development and assurance across nearly 500 schools.
“Working across nearly 500 schools in Lancashire supporting governance training, board development and assurance. That’s a lot of schools and you begin to see patterns everywhere. What good governance looks like. What not-so-good governance looks like. The same weaknesses showing up in different places, the same strengths in others. The same gaps between how governance should work and how it actually works in practice.
However, from what I have learnt, none of this is ever about the good intentions of the people. Governors are some of the most incredible people you’ll ever meet. It’s the actual operating model that needs fixing. For a function that exists to challenge, it rarely challenges its own.”
Joshua Mangas - Founder, The Governance Assurance FrameworkThe Governance Assurance Framework is the product of that experience - a structured response to the patterns observed across hundreds of boards, designed to give governance the same operational rigour that every other part of school improvement already has.
“What began as an attempt to bring structure to governance monitoring has become something every school needs: a systematic way to know that governance is actually working.”Joshua Mangas - Founder, The Governance Assurance Framework
Healthcare has CQC. Finance has the FCA. Manufacturing has ISO. Governance has nothing. The Governance Assurance Framework is the first step toward changing that - a structured evidence-based standard for school governance that any board can access, use and demonstrate.
Get in touch →Whether you want to join the pilot, enquire about training, or discuss licensing - get in touch directly.