Is It Time To Invest In School Clerks And Governance?
Neil Collins highlights the underpayment and undervaluation of school clerks and governance professionals who play a crucial role in managing school finances and advising governing boards, calling for fair wages and recognition of their skills and experience, particularly considering the increasing complexity of their work.
Felicity Jackson is a highly experienced clerk who has for years advised her school’s governors on the intricacies of staff pay, absence hearings and financial reporting. And yet she’s paid just £11.59 per hour – barely £1 an hour over the National Living Wage.
Clerks like Felicity are privy to high-level sensitive and confidential knowledge of school finances and complaints, among much else. Apart from the Head and Chair of Governors, they are often the only other person who has knowledge of – and is advising on – these issues.
Felicity has to keep up with fast-changing legislation and policy, changes in government bills and Ofsted requirements, as well as be ready to advise the Governing Board on a wide range of issues. There are up to 10,000 Felicitys across the country. The vast majority – 90% – are women, many of whom have caring responsibilities they are juggling alongside work.
They go largely unnoticed in our schools and Trusts, partly because they tend to work part-time and from home, advising governors and trustees, whose meetings tend to take place during the evening.
These clerks and governance professionals are a vital part of the infrastructure of our education system and deserve to be paid a fair wage for the increasingly complex work they do. It’s standard now for a clerk to be expected to have an excellent grasp of the legal, financial and regulatory aspects of running a school and to coordinate pupil exclusion and complaints panels.
Why then are we paying them so little?
An online survey we have conducted at GovernorHub of school clerks and governance professionals has found that some say they are on the minimum wage, or even less, and many others are paid for only some of the hours they work.
GovernorHub analysed the pay of 1,298 school governance professionals across England. We discovered that, in some cases, they were earning as much as £18,000 less per year than they would be in comparable roles in local government or the charity sector.
There are approximately 8 to 10,000 school clerks in England. This group, who made up the biggest group of respondents, feel their pay has “silently fallen through the cracks”, despite current calls for fairer wages for classroom teachers and those in senior leadership roles in schools.
We found that the average pay for clerks, £25,000, is well below what it would be in a comparable role in the charity sector or local government. In these sectors, some could command almost £34,000.
The same is the case for more senior school governance professionals – sometimes known as governance coordinators. They are paid £32,000 on average, but could be earning more than £40,000 – £8,000 more – each year in a local government or public sector services role. The most experienced school governance professionals are paid on average £42,500, but could be on £60,000 – or just under – in an equivalent position in local government or public sector services.
We know that there is a significant squeeze on school resources and senior leadership teams are under more pressure than ever. However, it’s essential that schools, local authorities, Trusts and other employers don’t see this experienced, often hidden workforce as simply women who need flexible work.
Organisations must start to annually review and benchmark the pay of their clerks and governance professionals so that it is commensurate with their skills and experience.
Equally, clerks and governance professionals need reminding that they aren’t a volunteer workforce and should feel emboldened to demand a fair wage.
We know that governance professionals are one of the most female-dominated professions in the education sector and this should focus our attention more keenly on fair salaries.
Some 90% of those in the clerking role are women and the vast majority work part-time. They argue their role has become increasingly demanding in recent years with so many changes to the education sector and they are expected to have an excellent grasp of the legal, financial and regulatory aspects of running a school to ensure governing bodies are complying with their duties.
Clerks and more senior school governance professionals are a silent, invisible infrastructure holding up many schools and many are not receiving salaries in line with equivalent roles in other sectors, which is affecting recruitment and retention.
It’s important that school governance professionals are recognised and rewarded appropriately so we can encourage people from all walks of life to enter, and remain in, the profession – not just women seeking flexibility in their working life.
Recommendations:
For employers:
- Use annual appraisal meetings for governance professionals at all levels as an opportunity to review and benchmark pay
- Take action to reduce your organisation’s gender pay gap by following government guidance on how to effectively address these issues
For self-employed individuals:
- Negotiate hourly rates, and hours assigned to each task, where possible
- Make sure your minimum hourly rate is aligned with a benchmarked permanent equivalent role
For anyone working in governance professional roles:
- Set a schedule which details expectations for when and how you will be contacted in relation to your work with a board, and agree and communicate this with board members
- Join a union that can help give you a voice and support you in your career. Unions such as GMB, the National Education Union, UNISON and Unite have all confirmed they’re happy to accept membership applications from clerks and governance professionals
Neil Collins is the Managing Director and one of the founders of GovernorHub. The organisation supports more than 100,000 governors, trustees and governance professionals. Neil has been a school governor and academy trustee for nearly 20 years and is currently a trustee at a specialist school for young people with autism in Norfolk.
