Leadership and Governance Resources

Dealing with complaints - whether from parents, carers or community members - can be one of the most challenging aspects of school leadership. With vexatious complaints against schools and the number of instances of parents complaining on the rise, headteachers and SLT need ways of managing complaints and, crucially, preventing complaints from occurring when possible.

This checklist is designed to do exactly that and allows school leaders to review their processes in order to prevent complaints from parents but also to manage legitimate complaints carefully. It covers the following key areas:

• Complaint prevention
• What to do following the receipt of a school complaint
• Complaint investigation
• Complaint resolution
• Managing persistent, serial and vexatious complaints

Use the checklist to evaluate your current position when it comes to school concerns and complaints, such as how effectively you build and manage relationships with parents/carers and your use of communication to maintain a culture of mutual respect in school. This can help you to identify areas to develop to bolster your efforts in maintaining strong relationships and addressing concerns before they develop into a bigger issue, thus helping to prevent complaints from forming.

When complaints do occur, the checklist can support you to think about your processes in order to listen, investigate and respond to complaints in order to find a resolution for all parties. It also allows you to consider your complaints policy and whether the details in it support you, as a school leader, to deal with complaints, including complaints that are persistent, serial or vexatious. 

In a busy school environment with pressing priorities, accessibility can easily slip down the list. But making sure your environment, provision and processes are accessible and inclusive for everyone matters, and it's one of the seven principles of inclusion your inclusion strategy must address when setting out how you plan to spend the inclusive mainstream fund (IMF).

Designed to support school leaders to audit their current approach and evaluate their strengths and next steps, this 19-page editable School Accessibility Audit template will walk you through the following key areas:

• Leadership and governance
• Curriculum and learning
• Communication and parent engagement
• School entrance and the outdoor school site
• Rooms, corridors and lighting
• Stairs and lifts
• Toilets and changing areas
• Fire exits
• Website and information sharing
• Equality adjustments 
  

Use the audit template collaboratively with key members of your team, such as your health and safety governor, premises caretaker or site manager, special educational needs and disabilities coordinator (SENDCo) and office staff to gather a picture of accessibility and inclusion in your school or college.

Once you've completed the audit, the template also includes a handy action plan, allowing you to document your plan for improving your facilities, processes and provision for all. 

🔄 Updated for 2026 in line with KCSIE

Supporting your safeguarding link governor effectively takes structure, clarity and the right tools. This pack gives you this with four fully editable resources designed to strengthen safeguarding governance in your school, whether your link governor is new to role or needs more support to be highly effective.

You'll get:

☑️ Safeguarding Questions for Governors and Trustees – 13 pages of structured questions to support meaningful collaboration between the safeguarding link governor and key school staff such as the DSL or headteacher, plus a triangulating evidence section and an action plan template to document next steps

☑️ Safeguarding Spot Check Questions for Governors – a focused set of questions that can be asked of teaching staff, support staff and further roles for safeguarding link governors to use during school visits, covering the key areas of safeguarding culture, policy and day-to-day practice

☑️ Safeguarding Report to Governors Template – a clear, structured template covering safeguarding data and commentary, giving the full governing board the insight they need

☑️ Safeguarding Link Governor Roles and Responsibilities – an editable outline of the safeguarding governor's key responsibilities, ideal for onboarding a new governor or bringing clarity to an existing role

All resources are fully editable so you can adapt them to reflect your school's context and needs.

🔒 Fully aligned to the 2026 School Inspection Toolkit

Help your governors walk into the Ofsted governor meeting with the lead inspector ready to answer with confidence.

This 38-page editable document is a structured rehearsal tool for governing boards, organised around all nine evaluation areas of the 2026 School Inspection Toolkit.

You'll get:

☑️ Inspector-style questions across all nine evaluation areas – safeguarding, inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, leadership and governance, early years and post-16 provision – phrased as inspectors are likely to ask them in the governance meeting

☑️ "What the inspector is exploring" column – grounded in the expected standard descriptors from the 2026 toolkit, so governors understand the purpose behind each question, not just the question itself

☑️ Tips for answering – practical guidance on how to approach each question, including which governor role or committee is most likely to hold the relevant knowledge

The template is a fully editable Word .docx so you can adapt it for your school's specific context.

Ideal for headteachers leading governor preparation sessions, chairs of governors and governance professionals preparing boards for a Section 5 inspection.

👉 This template is also available in the Governors Ofsted Inspection Preparation Bundle, which also contains a ready-made governor update PowerPoint and governor guidance to help your governing body feels prepared for Ofsted inspection.

Assess health and safety provision across your school with this comprehensive audit toolkit designed for school leaders and premises managers.

This pack gives you everything you need to evaluate H&S compliance, identify risks, and ensure your school is a safe environment for pupils, staff and visitors.

You'll get:

☑️ Full editable audit tool (28 pages) – comprehensive questions across 16 key areas of health and safety provision, from risk assessment and fire safety through to premises maintenance, security and crisis management

☑️ Health and safety action plan template – structured document to capture findings, prioritise actions and assign responsibilities with clear timescales for implementation

☑️ 7-page health and safety audit guidance document – clear instructions on planning your audit, who to involve, what evidence to gather, and how to use your findings to strengthen H&S provision and meet your legal duties

🔎 Want a closer look? Click here to preview the audit pack🔗 

👉 This audit pack is part of our Complete School Leadership Audit Set, which includes eleven audits in one purchase, saving you money whilst ensuring you can evaluate your entire school provision across all Ofsted evaluation areas plus plus three essential good practice audits.

🔄 Updated for 2026 in line with KCSIE and the Ofsted Framework

Supporting your attendance link governor effectively takes structure, clarity and the right tools. This pack gives you all three – with three fully editable resources designed to strengthen attendance governance in your school, whether your link governor is new to role or needs more support to be highly effective.

You'll get:

☑️ Attendance Questions for Governors and Trustees – 12 pages of structured questions to support meaningful collaboration between the attendance link governor and key school staff, plus a triangulating evidence section and an action plan template to document next steps

☑️ Attendance Report to Governors Template – a clear, structured template covering attendance data and commentary, giving the full governing board the insight they need

☑️ Attendance Link Governor Roles and Responsibilities – an editable outline of the attendance governor's key responsibilities, ideal for onboarding a new governor or bringing clarity to an existing role

All resources are fully editable so you can adapt them to reflect your school's context and needs.

🔄 Updated for 2026

Supporting your finance link governor effectively takes structure, clarity and the right tools. This pack gives you all three – with three fully editable resources designed to strengthen finance governance in your school, whether your link governor is new to role or needs more support to be highly effective.

You'll get:

• ☑️ Finance Questions for Governors and Trustees – 12 pages of structured questions to support meaningful collaboration between the finance link governor and key school staff such as the SBM, headteacher or administrators with responsibility for the school budget, plus a triangulating evidence section and an action plan template to document next steps
• ☑️ Finance Report to Governors Template – a clear, structured template covering finance data and commentary, giving the full governing board the insight they need
• ☑️ Finance Link Governor Roles and Responsibilities – an editable outline of the finance governor's key responsibilities, ideal for onboarding a new governor or bringing clarity to an existing role

All resources are fully editable so you can adapt them to reflect your school's context and needs.

🔄 Updated for 2026

Supporting your GDPR link governor effectively takes structure, clarity and the right tools. This pack gives you all three – with three fully editable resources designed to strengthen data protection governance in your school, whether your link governor is new to role or needs more support to be highly effective.

You'll get:

☑️ GDPR Questions for Governors and Trustees – 10 pages of structured questions to support meaningful collaboration between the GDPR link governor and key school staff such as the DPO, headteacher or administrators with responsibility for data protection, plus a triangulating evidence section and an action plan template to document next steps

☑️ Data Protection Report to Governors Template – a clear, structured template covering GDPR data and commentary, giving the full governing board the insight they need

☑️ GDPR Link Governor Roles and Responsibilities – an editable outline of the GDPR governor's key responsibilities, ideal for onboarding a new governor or bringing clarity to an existing role

All resources are fully editable so you can adapt them to reflect your school's context and needs.

🔄 Updated for 2026 in line with KCSIE and the Ofsted Framework

Supporting your behaviour link governor effectively takes structure, clarity and the right tools. This pack gives you all three – with three fully editable resources designed to strengthen behaviour governance in your school, whether your link governor is new to role or needs more support to be highly effective.

You'll get:

☑️ Behaviour Questions for Governors and Trustees – 13 pages of structured questions to support meaningful collaboration between the behaviour link governor and key school staff such as the headteacher, DHT, behaviour lead and pastoral lead, plus a triangulating evidence section and an action plan template to document next steps

☑️ Behaviour Report to Governors Template – a clear, structured template covering behaviour data (including exclusions, suspensions and bullying) and commentary, giving the full governing board the insight they need

☑️ Behaviour Link Governor Roles and Responsibilities – an editable outline of the behaviour governor's key responsibilities, ideal for onboarding a new governor or bringing clarity to an existing role

All resources are fully editable so you can adapt them to reflect your school's context and needs.