The Governance of Inclusion: why it matters

By Steve Barker, Head of Governance Services at Strictly Education

The theme of National School Governors' Awareness Day 2024 is The Governance of Inclusion. We decided on this focus as we firmly believe that governors and trustees play a crucial role in ensuring that schools are inclusive in all that they do, reflecting the diversity of their communities and offering fair, equal and meaningful opportunities to all. At Strictly Education, we understand the significance and impact of supporting an inclusive environment where every pupil, staff member, and parent and carer feels valued, supported and most of all included.

School governors and academy trustees help shape the culture of their schools and trusts through ensuring the policy framework and day-to-day procedures support inclusion for all members of the school community. They are responsible for making decisions that impact the entire school community, from setting the school's vision and ethos, to monitoring the impact of policy and seeking feedback from stakeholders.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, or EDI as it is frequently referred to, has become a well-versed phrase in many organisations, in both the private and public sectors. For many this has been a rather narrow focus on ensuring that the diversity of the workforce is recognised and celebrated and whilst this is a crucial element, I firmly believe that in schools and colleges, governance is first and foremost about ensuring our settings are inclusive in all that they do and set out to achieve. Inclusion should be a mindset that focuses sharply on firstly establishing an accurate understanding of context, so that we can appreciate how diverse our schools and colleges are in terms of pupils, staff and the wider community. This in turn enables us to drive equality and equity for all, resulting in a truly inclusive school community.

How to Approach Inclusion

The values that guide our schools and colleges should drive our approach to Inclusion; they should reflect a commitment to equality and equity, a curiosity to fully understand the composition, in all its facets, of our school communities, and a continued drive to ensure everyone is not only included but also feels included.

Many schools have over the years embraced the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Rights Respecting Schools Award, which aims to ‘create safe and inspiring places to learn, where children are respected, their talents are nurtured, and they are able to thrive’. Governance has played a key role in supporting schools in agreeing values that are underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child, and has celebrated the impact this has had in their schools and trusts. The challenge in 2024 is for governance to embrace these principles and values that drive our commitment to children and extend them to all members of our school communities. Doing so will enable our schools and trusts become beacons of equality and equity where diversity is celebrated, and everyone experiences that same sense of belonging that comes in truly inclusive schools.

Knowing Our School Community

Governance is characterised by effective challenge from governors to school leaders. Challenge should be a positive characteristic and one that is used to expand our understanding of the diversity of our individual school’s context, deepening our knowledge of the groups of children and young people, with their individual needs and experiences, who make up our schools. We should also reflect on the diversity within the staff body of our schools and trusts and the characteristics, both protected through the 2010 Equality Act and others. Knowledge of context in all aspects of school

Life is essential and must be considered if we are to ensure, as governing boards, that we demonstrate through the policies and actions of the school, that every individual is valued for what they are, what they do, and what they may become.