There is advice available on GovernorNet and on the National Governors' Association website which you may wish to look at in addition to this information.
The setting of SATS is a statutory requirement and therefore should be undertaken. The responsibility for undertaking this statutory requirement rests with the Headteacher. Failure to undertake the statutory requirement would be a breach of the statutory requirements on the part of the Head.
The Governing Body must advise the Head of the statutory requirement and that they would be in breach of their legal duty were they to fail to undertake the requirement. The Governing Body must ask whether the Head intends to boycott the provisions and where this is seen to be the case to ask whether some other competent person in school could undertake the requirements.
It is not appropriate that Governing seek to undertake the administration of the SATS themselves.
We are advising that without the co-operation of the head, it is probably inappropriate and very difficult to find a ‘competent person’ who can administer the tests.
Governors should seek to determine how parents are to be informed where the SATS will not be set by the Head.
Governing Bodies should not be seen to be supporting the action of the Head in not complying with the statutory requirement - Governing Bodies should not approve an unlawful act.
It has been suggested that action can be taken against those Heads that do not comply with the requirement. The difficulty with this will be that Heads may not be administering SATS but are otherwise still engaged in their normal duties. If any action along these lines is proposed, it must be proportional.
We are cautioning Governors against taking any action against their headteacher because of the possible, largely unknown, consequences of such action.
Because the advice from the DCSF, some LA’s and the NGA is not straightforward and in some instances even contradictory, Governors will have to make a very difficult decision. However, it is their decision to make, and they should take into account their school’s individual circumstances when doing so.
This guidance was last updated in May 2010.
Call GovernorLine on 08000 722 181 or you can e-mail us from this site.
