Leadership and Governance Audit Pack (2025)

Evaluating school leadership and governance requires structured reflection and evidence-based review. This pack provides editable tools to help headteachers, senior leadership teams and governors assess strategic leadership, governance practice and oversight with confidence. Inside, you’ll find:

☑️ A 37-page Leadership and Governance Audit document
Your core self-evaluation tool, with reflective prompts and structured questions across six key areas of leadership and governance. Includes space to capture strengths, identify development needs and draw together supporting evidence. The six sections are:

• Strategic leadership and capacity to improve
• Strategic oversight of core functions
• Responsible bodies, including trustees and governors
• Engagement with parents, carers and the community
• Staff well-being and workload
• Evaluating impact and continuous improvement

The audit also contains an alignment map that shows how leadership oversight links to deeper evaluation in other audits, such as curriculum, safeguarding and behaviour. It helps leaders and governors plan a cohesive self-evaluation strategy.

☑️ Leadership and Governance Action Plan template
Helps you prioritise actions, agree practical next steps and track progress over time.

☑️ Document checklist
Provides ideas for the leadership, governance and compliance documents that will strengthen your audit by having a robust base of evidence.

☑️ Comprehensive question bank
Editable questions to support evidence gathering from staff, pupils, parents, governors and trust leaders.

☑️ One-page summary template
Summarises your findings for easy sharing with SLT, governors or trustees.

☑️ Auditing your provision guidance

11-page PDF guidance to help you plan out and consider the audit process before you begin to make it as efficient and effective as possible.

All resources come in editable Word format apart from the PDF guidance. A free update will follow when the final Ofsted 2025 framework is published in September.

Strengthening leadership and governance is rarely the work of one person alone. This audit pack is for those with responsibility for strategic leadership, oversight and governance across the school.

It will be most useful for headteachers, executive heads, principals, deputy heads, senior leadership teams and those serving as governors, trustees or local board members. Trust leaders overseeing multiple schools will also find it valuable for building a shared approach to reviewing leadership and governance practice at scale.

Rather than a simple checklist, it is designed for collaborative use, helping leaders and governors bring together insights from different roles, evaluate strategic capacity and identify where leadership and governance can be strengthened further.

If you are planning self-evaluation, preparing for Ofsted, reviewing staff well-being and workload, or ensuring responsible governance in maintained schools, academies or multi-academy trusts, this audit provides structured questions and evidence prompts to guide honest, practical review.

This pack is based on the best practice in schools and the structure and themes from the draft 2025 Ofsted School Inspection Toolkit. The final version is expected in September 2025. As soon as the final framework is published, we’ll review and update this resource to ensure full alignment.

If you’ve already purchased the pack, you’ll receive the updated version for free – no need to buy again.

Will the updated version be very different?

This all depends on the outcomes of the consultation but at the moment, the pack reflects the key areas and language in the consultation draft. However, we’ll make sure any structural or wording updates from Ofsted are carefully reflected.

Can I still use the pack now?

Yes, definitely! It’s been designed to help schools reflect, plan and take action without waiting. All the audit questions and themes are grounded in best practice and real school priorities, so you can use the pack confidently as part of ongoing self-evaluation, curriculum reviews or preparation for inspection.

Do I need to do anything to get the updated version?

No. Once the resource is updated, we’ll send you a product update email which will give you instructions to redownload. You can also log into your account on our website at any time to re-download the latest version from your order history.

If you’re reviewing strategic leadership, governance and oversight, these resources can help you plan effectively, build capacity and ensure a consistent approach across the school.

Ofsted Phone Call Preparation Pack

Practical prompts and editable templates to help headteachers and senior leaders prepare for Ofsted leadership and governance conversations with clarity and confidence.

School Budget Management Pack

A comprehensive set of tools to support strategic financial oversight, align budget decisions with school priorities and strengthen governance of resources.

Link Governor Audit Support Pack

Editable templates and guidance to help link governors carry out focused audits, report findings effectively and support strong governance practice.

Have a look at what's in the pack here: Leadership and Governance Audit Pack