External Review of Governance

In December 2024, the Search & Governance Committee appointed the Association of Colleges (AoC), to conduct an External Review of Governance (Leader Reviewer – Marina Gaze). A scoping meeting was held in February 2025 to agree the review approach and timeline. The External Review of Governance focused on Board composition, structure, and interaction, following the standard governance framework.

The External Board Review concluded that “Governance at Derwentside College is Strong. Although some Board members are new, the Board is already highly effective with the capacity to improve further. The Board has made significant progress addressing the areas for development identified in the 2022 External Board Review.”

The report found strong evidence of the Board’s positive impact on the college’s strategy, effectiveness, and outcomes, and highlighted the introduction of the Senior Independent Governor role and the Board Assurance Frameworks as examples of best practice. The External Board Review report is available here: External Board Review Report

An action plan is under development to address the areas for improvement identified in the report:

Board Composition

1. Consider other Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) factors e.g. how many Board members attended further education colleges, were adult learners, care experienced etc to help the Board consider how their backgrounds and experience may inform their perspective and approach and understand how reflective of the college’s learners and staff they are.
2. Continue the efforts to recruit a Governor with experience of Ofsted within the further education sector.
3. Strengthen student representation in decision making at Board level.

Board Structures

1. Continue to involve all Board members in developing Strategy. Make use of options papers when helping them make decisions about the new Strategic Plan.
2. Ensure that all governance reports are aligned to risk management and Board Assurance Frameworks, so there is a joined-up approach which quickly highlights the issues and feeds these into the parent documents quickly and easily.
3. Consider introducing a single tracker which highlights all decisions made by committees, financial consequences and impact on risks and Board Assurance Frameworks.

Board Interaction

1. Continue to provide opportunities for members to get to know each other and for new members to evolve in their roles and develop their understanding of the college and their focus on strategy.
2. Students are considered in decision making but not party to it. Continue to focus on succession planning for the Student Governor role.
3. Continue to encourage all Governors to be highly engaged in college activities outside of meetings.