Recruiting Governors

Inspiring Governance is a free, online service that connects schools and trusts in England with skilled volunteers in your area who are interested in becoming a school governor.

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We work with employers, professional networks and universities to find individuals interested in becoming school governors. Our volunteers come from a wide range of professions and sectors, with skills and expertise in areas such as finance, human resources, law, marketing and education.

Our remit covers state-funded schools in England. If you are in another part of the UK, or you are an independent school please see more information here.

Download our Recruiter User Guide.

Finding school governors

Our online technology lets you quickly search for volunteers based on skills, experience and location. You can then directly contact as many as you like, and invite them to have a conversation with you about the vacancy and what it entails. You can recruit for vacancies in a single school, or across multiple schools.

Find volunteers interested in becoming school governors or trustees
Find skilled volunteers interested in becoming school governors via our easy-to-use online platform

Take a look at our two new helpful videos that will help you in your search for new Governors

Video 1 – Creating a Vacancy

Video 2 – Recruiting Volunteers

When you find and appoint volunteers through Inspiring Governance, we will provide an induction guide to help newly appointed governors feel confident in approaching the role. Together with your own board’s planned induction process and training, this will ensure they have the essentials to become an effective governor.

Each new Inspiring Governance appointee will receive:

  • A complimentary copy of the induction guide Welcome to Governance, produced by the National Governance Association.
  • Access to our resources page with handy links to key documents, research and resources from the NGA, Education and Employers and the DfE designed to support the governance role.
  • If aged under 40 then matched volunteers are able to join the National Governance Association’s Young Governor Network.

It is expected these will compliment your own governing board’s induction programme which is likely to include access to a local or national training offer provided by your local authority, diocese, academy trust or the NGA. You may also want to consider providing a buddy scheme, pairing new governors up with a more experienced governor for their first term in role.

Ready to start recruiting? Download our User guide for Inspiring Governance, which shows you step-by-step how to find and message volunteers interested in becoming school governors, and post your vacancies on the Inspiring Governance site.

Please note: We do not arrange Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for volunteers. See the Safeguarding page for more information.

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