Sustainability & Climate Action Hub Governance

Governance Code

Governors’ Council and the National Governance Professionals have been working with AoC to carry out a ‘light touch’ review and update of the AoC Code of Good Governance for English colleges. AoC recognises that the recently published white paper will have implications for governance.

However, as there is an increasing focus on college boards, it is essential to ensure the Code is providing the appropriate standards and expectations for college corporations and other relevant entities in the sector.

This work has focused on three main areas:

• To incorporate a stronger focus on equality, diversity and inclusion (with the help of AoC EDI Steering Group) and environmental sustainability (with the help of the FE Climate Commission) within the code
• To streamline the code reducing repetition, ensuring that more guidance is moved to appendixes or referenced to external sites
• To update links to key policy document and information to ensure that these are as current as possible

AoC Consultation

The consultation period will close at 12:00pm on Friday, 7 May 2021 and a summary of results and responses will be published shortly after.

During this period of consultation please feedback to us via email to governance@aoc.co.uk. if there are any issues or concerns arising from the amendments.

In your email, please:

• use the subject: ‘AoC Code Consultation 2021’
• state the college (or organisation) you represent
• outline the amendment(s) you propose or feedback or you would like to provide (feel free to provide general or specific comments)
• state whether you would like your feedback to remain anonymous

There is a more substantive review of the code planned in 2022, once the implications of the Skills for Jobs White Paper on governance within the sector are clear. We plan to conduct a more extended consultation for this review, in line with the potential changes to the code.

For more information on our work please visit the governance webpage.