Governor Skills Audit: How to Run One and What to Do With the Results
A governor skills audit is a structured review of the knowledge, experience and capacity a board needs to govern effectively. Governors assess themselves against relevant areas, add evidence and identify development needs. The board combines the results to plan training, recruitment and succession; a completed form alone does not improve governance.
Why boards audit skills
This guide and its original Edvance template are for governing bodies, trust boards and local committees in England. Use the version of your responsibilities that applies to your structure. A local committee should audit against its delegated work, rather than score itself against every function retained by the trust board.
The maintained schools governance guide, sections 4.1–4.2 and 6, discusses board composition, capability, training and evaluation. Section 6 recommends regular skills audits aligned with the school’s strategic plan to identify gaps and inform recruitment and development. The academy trust governance guide, sections 4.2.2 and 4.8, connects board capability with effective governance and evaluation.
The purpose is collective coverage. A board may have several capable people but still lack the knowledge to challenge a significant risk. It may also have expertise concentrated in someone whose term is about to end. An audit helps identify these issues before a vacancy, major decision or external review makes them urgent.
Skills are not the whole picture. Attendance, capacity, independence, conduct and understanding of strategic boundaries matter too. A professional qualification is useful evidence, but it does not automatically mean a governor can apply that expertise to school governance. Equally, a governor without a specialist background may develop strong oversight skills through training and experience.
When to run the audit
The National Governance Association recommends an annual skills audit and completion by new governors or trustees on joining. The NGA also publishes a widely used skills audit. Its recommendation supports recruitment and training planning; it is not a universal statutory deadline for every board.
An annual cycle can fit with the board’s development plan and succession discussion. Ask new members to complete the audit during induction, then revisit their response after they have participated in meetings and training. They may understand their own development needs more clearly after seeing the board’s work in practice.
Consider another review when responsibilities or circumstances change materially: joining a trust, changing delegation, taking on an estate project or preparing for several governors to leave. Use a proportionate update rather than repeating a long form without a clear reason. The audit should serve a decision the board needs to make.
Agree the completion date, who will collate results and which meeting will consider the outcome. Explain how individual information will be used and stored. A supportive introduction encourages honest ratings and reduces the temptation to treat the exercise as a performance competition.
Skill areas to cover
Start with the school or trust’s priorities and the board’s actual responsibilities. The following areas are written by Edvance; they do not reproduce the NGA questionnaire or scoring system.
Include the ability to interpret school performance information and ask useful questions about improvement. Consider safeguarding assurance, financial oversight, inclusion and the application of legal and policy requirements. For trusts, reflect trust-wide responsibilities; for local committees, identify what is delegated and the information they send to the trust.
Include practical board skills: reading papers, identifying missing evidence, understanding conflicts of interest, contributing to fair discussion and checking that agreed actions happen. A board needs people who can translate information into constructive challenge, not only people who recognise terminology.
Review experience relevant to current risks, such as premises, procurement, workforce or digital resilience. Distinguish specialist advice the board may need to commission from skills it needs among governors. Having an architect or accountant on the board does not remove the need for appropriate professional advice or segregation of responsibilities.
Finally, consider capacity and continuity. Record willingness to take committee or link responsibilities and any development needed before doing so. A person may have strong knowledge but insufficient time for a proposed role. That should inform the plan without being treated as a negative personal score.
How to score the audit
Use a simple four-point scale and agree its meaning before circulation. In this Edvance template, 1 means introductory knowledge, 2 means some understanding with support, 3 means confident contribution with relevant evidence, and 4 means strong experience and ability to support others. These are planning descriptions, not a certification of competence.
Ask for an example beside each rating. Examples might include a completed course, a board discussion in which the governor scrutinised relevant evidence or professional experience applied appropriately to governance. Keep the evidence concise and avoid inserting confidential pupil, personnel or complaint information into the audit.
Self-ratings vary between people. One experienced governor may score cautiously while another scores generously. The chair or development lead should use discussion and evidence to understand the results, rather than compare numbers as though they were a standardised examination.
Do not create an overall league table. Examine coverage of important areas and whether several governors can contribute. A high average can hide a gap in safeguarding knowledge or dependence on one financial specialist. Note uncertainty and agree training where needed, rather than forcing a confident-looking score.
Free copyable skills-audit template
Copy the table into a document or spreadsheet and complete one row per area. Add school-specific areas where useful. The blank fields deliberately invite evidence and a development action, rather than a tick alone.
| Area | Statement | Self-rating 1–4 | Evidence | Development need |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| School improvement | I can question performance information and connect it with improvement priorities. | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Safeguarding assurance | I understand the board’s oversight role and can scrutinise assurance appropriately. | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Finance | I can interpret budget reports and challenge risks, assumptions and value for pupils. | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Inclusion | I can ask informed questions about access, SEND and equitable outcomes. | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Governance authority | I understand which decisions belong to this board and which are delegated. | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Policy oversight | I can check approval, review and publication evidence against applicable requirements. | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Workforce oversight | I understand strategic workforce risks and the limits of my governance role. | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Premises and digital risk | I can scrutinise relevant assurance and identify when expert advice is needed. | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Meeting contribution | I prepare, question constructively and respect interests and confidentiality. | ___ | ___ | ___ |
| Leadership continuity | I can identify preparation needed for future committee or chair responsibilities. | ___ | ___ | ___ |
Add the governor’s name, completion date and relevant role above the table. Use a separate capacity note if needed. Store individual responses with appropriate access controls and use a summarised board view for collective discussion.
Turn results into training and recruitment priorities
First, identify gaps that affect decisions already on the calendar. A governor who will scrutinise a budget soon may need timely financial training; a new safeguarding link governor may need preparation before undertaking that role. Prioritise these actions over a generic list of interesting courses.
Second, identify gaps best addressed collectively. A briefing on delegation, interests or how to challenge performance data may benefit the whole board. Individual training and shared learning can work together. Ask trained governors to explain relevant lessons without turning them into operational consultants or the board’s only source of assurance.
Third, consider recruitment and succession. If an important capability is absent or concentrated in a departing governor, use that finding when planning vacancies and role development. Do not reduce recruitment to a single technical skill; consider diversity of perspective, commitment, behaviours and capacity alongside expertise.
The governor training requirements guide helps distinguish requirements from recommended development. The governor development plan turns priorities into actions with owners and review dates. The audit should feed that plan, not sit as a detached annual form.
For each priority, record the gap, proposed response, responsible person, intended timing and evidence of progress. After training, ask what changed in the governor’s contribution or in the board’s ability to scrutinise the issue. Course attendance is useful evidence of activity; it is not the same as improved oversight.
Record the outcome in minutes and review progress
The board’s minutes can record that the audit was considered, the collective gaps identified and the training, recruitment or succession actions agreed. Individual scores and sensitive personal information do not normally need to appear in ordinary minutes. Keep the detailed audit securely and use an appropriate summary for board discussion.
Avoid an uninformative minute such as “skills audit completed”. A more useful record identifies the decisions: which development priorities were agreed, who will organise them and when progress returns to the board. Record any recruitment implication through the applicable appointment process.
Review progress at the agreed point and update the development plan. If a governor leaves or delegated responsibilities change, revisit the relevant coverage. The value of the audit is the board’s improved ability to govern, rather than the percentage of forms returned.
Frequently asked questions
How often should governors complete a skills audit?
NGA recommends an annual skills audit and completion by new governors or trustees on joining. Boards can also update the audit when responsibilities, membership or strategic needs change.
What should a governor skills audit include?
Include the knowledge, experience and capacity needed for the board’s actual responsibilities, with a clear rating scale, concise evidence and development needs. Consider collective coverage rather than ranking governors by total score.
What happens after a skills audit?
The board agrees training, recruitment and succession priorities, assigns owners and review points, records the decisions in minutes and checks whether the actions improve its ability to govern.