Governance in the UK Public Sector: the Involvement of the Governing Board
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.0033-3298.2005.00439.x |
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| Author | Catherine M. Farrell |
Public Administration Vol. 83 No. 1, 2005 (89–110)
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2005, 9600 Garsi ngton Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street,
Malden, MA 02148, USA.
GOVERNANCE IN THE UK PUBLIC SECTOR: THE
INVOLVEMENT OF THE GOVERNING BOARD
CATHERINE M. FARRELL
Governing boards are a prominent feature of many public sector organizations
today. These boards have been modelled on the private sector board of directors.
Like company boards, one of their main functions is to provide strategic leadership
and policy direction for the organization. The role of managers and chief executives
is to implement this. This paper examines the extent of involvement of one public
sector board, the school governing body, in strategic activity. Using empirical
evidence from a number of semi-structured interviews conducted in schools, its
findings indicate that governing bodies are not involved at a high level in strategy
within schools. Rather, headteachers are more likely to be undertaking this activity.
Reflections are made about the relevance of the ‘board of directors’ model for both
governing bodies and the public sector more generally.
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, there has been much interest in the governance of UK and
American companies and their boards of directors. This has developed as a
result of a number of publicized cases of irregularities, including problems
around the composition of boards and alleged unfairness in the processes of
appointment to the company board. ‘Corporate governance’, concerned
with the structure and processes of the management of company boards and
their relationships with shareholders and other stakeholders, is widely
researched in the private sector literature. Much of this literature is directed
at improving the governance of companies (see, for example, Hanford 1995;
Daily et al. 2003). In the context of t he public sector, while this literature is
not as developed, there is an increasing interest in the governance of public
sector organizations and the role of boards within this. This is an important
development as public sector governance and its operation are central issues
in the public sector as many public sector bodies now operate on the of the
private model where boards are charged with making key strategic deci-
sions in the management of organizations.
In the public sector, the relevance of corporate governance can be traced
back to the application of ‘New Public Management’ during the 1980s and
1990s which brought with it contracting out, the introduction of quasi-
markets, a proliferation in the number of quangos and the establishment of
executive agencies in many areas of the civil service. In health care, NHS trusts
Catherine M. Farrell is a Principal Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at the University of
Glamorgan.
90 CATHERINE M. FARRELL
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2005
were established. In local government, a number of responsibilities were
transferred to quangos, such as the Further and Higher Education Funding
Councils, Housing Associations, the Funding Agency for Schools and the
Urban Development Corporations. Local authorities and their elected mem-
bers lost direct control of these service areas. Rhodes (1999) describes the
change in local government as a move away from the traditional bureau-
cratic organization to fragmented service delivery systems. His view is that
‘New Public Management’ and its new forms of organization established a
shift from government to governance. The key characteristic of the move
from government to governance is weakened political involvement and as
a consequence of this, increased management by public sector boards.
Cornforth (2003) argues that the shift to board control raises serious
questions about the democratic legitimacy of governing boards and their
effectiveness. Skelcher (1998) also raises questions about the shift into
governance and the implications of this for good government. Greer and
Hoggett (1999) point out that public sector boards are almost entirely non-
elected and have huge responsibility for the delivery of public services and
policies. Issues about the appointment of board members, their representa-
tion and their activities are therefore important.
Board control is now prominent in a range of public sector services and
organizations. Skelcher (1998) highlights that across these boards, there is
insufficient knowledge about how they operate, member activities inside
and outside meetings or interaction with the managers of organizations, for
example. He contrasts this with the wealth of information which exists
about the operation of decision making in elected local government. The
different types of board which exist across public organizations should also
be recognized. In health care, the model adopted is one in which there exists
both executive and non-executive directors on the board. In the manage-
ment of schools, that is governing bodies, the model is predominantly one in
which all board members are non-executives. There are many questions
about the operation of the different types of boards and the extent to which
they involve themselves in strategic activity which are not yet addressed in
the literature.
In an attempt to focus on some of these questions, this paper examines the
operation of governance in one public sector body – the school governing
body, which over the last 25 years, has seen an enormous increase in its
powers. The governing bodies of individual schools have been significantly
empowered by a range of education reforms since the mid 1980s, including
the Education Acts of 1986 and 1988. Governing bodies now have major con-
trol for all aspects of school activity, including strategic leadership, resour-
cing decisions, the employment of professional staff and the development of
key policies within areas, including the school curriculum and disciplinary
policies. With their new powers, there are also ‘considerably greater expect-
ations laid upon them’, including accountability to parents and local educa-
tion authorities (Tomlinson 1993, p. 140). The capacity of governing bodies
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