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Guidance

Maintained schools: governance guide

Guidance on the strategic leadership and governance of local-authority-maintained schools.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

This non-statutory guidance is a reference document for those involved in local-authority-maintained school governance.

It brings together essential information from a range of sources on the governing body’s roles and legal responsibilities.

Updates to this page

Published 19 November 2025
Last updated 15 July 2026 Show all updates
  1. We have updated the governance guide to reflect new duties which come into force from 1 September 2026, and other recommendations. We have outlined the changes in the ‘What has changed – July 2026 update’ section.

  2. First published.

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