Using this guidance

What you need to know about legal requirements and resources from third parties.

In this guidance:

  • must聽is a legal or regulatory requirement or duty which must be complied with
  • should聽is the minimum good practice which should be applied (unless it can be demonstrated that an alternative approach is more appropriate)

Where neither a must or should is used, the content refers to the generally held view of high quality governance.

Additional governance expectations or arrangements may be in place for specific groups of schools, for example by diocesan authorities. This guide refers to these where relevant but does not aim to cover them comprehensively.