Local Authority, UK
Coaching-Chairs: growing governance
Context
A large, dispersed local authority faced a growing shortage of school governors: vacancies were increasing in parallel with the time-to-fill them, and rates of early attrition. Focus groups and surveys pointed to a simple lever: support from an experienced Chair, acting as a coach, not a fixer, boosted confidence, connection and long-term engagement. We designed and built a Chair-to-Chair Coaching Network, with an aligned Sustainability Strategy encompassing employer engagement, community development and high-trust communications.
‘This work has given us a sustainable strategy to share the expertise of our experienced Chairs across the county…it has also been instrumental in creating partnerships with employers.’
LA Governance Adviser
Confidence in coaching
We trained experienced Chairs in practical coaching skills. The programme was structured to include a high proportion of audiovisual material – films of coaching in action, real world examples, and case studies. The focus was on confidence in skills (practising in pairs and triads) and understanding coaching change impact. A small proportion of the cohort were Governance Advisors - we were keen to also utilise the training as an opportunity to deepen relationships between the Chairs and Local Authority Governor Services, supporting programme sustainability. Coaches earned co-badged micro-credentials and had access to dedicated support throughout.
Coaching community
We created regional Action Learning Sets (ALS) - small, mixed-school groups meeting monthly to share experiences and discuss a themed coaching-skills focus. Additional online weekly ‘catch ups’ further cemented development of the Coach network.
Communications
Chairs’ experiences of the coaching training, and their perspectives of the impact of good governance on schools were shared via local radio and community podcasts.
We worked with senior educational leaders, Headteachers, local private and public sector organisations to unpack the benefits of governance. From here, we held a series of events and visits to showcase the CPD benefits of governance for both individuals and employers.
A digital hub was created, housing a curated library of coaching and learning resources. Access to the hub was shared with all governors.
Impact and next steps
87% of Chairs said they would recommend the coaching programme. Over a period of 12 months, the programme positively impacted on all key measures:
The average time to fill a board vacancy decreased from 15 to 8 weeks
The confidence of new Chairs who engaged in coaching was +31%
New governor 12-month retention improved from 63% to 82%.
Subsequently, the Local Authority embedded the programme in Governor Services with an annual intake; opened discussions regarding micro-credentials with a local university; and launched an employer toolkit.
