The School Governance (Constitution and Federations) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 ("The Amendment Regulations 2014") (as amended), which come into force on 1st September 2014, require that governing bodies of all maintained schools in England must be reconstituted under The School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012 (or for federations, The School Governance (Federations) (England) Regulations 2012) (collectively referred to as "the 2012 Regulations") before 1st September 2015.

As part of the reconstitution process, and even for schools which are already constituted under the 2012 Regulations, governing bodies must review their membership, in light of the requirements in terms of size and composition, contained in the 2012 Regulations, but also must ensure that they are no bigger than they need to be to have all the skills necessary to carry out their functions. The 2012 Regulations have been amended so as to require that governors must have, in the opinion of the person/body appointing them, the skills required to contribute to the effective governance and success of the school.

Given the requirement for governing bodies to be no bigger than they need to be to have the skills necessary to carry out their functions, and the emphasis on skills and experience, governing bodies are required to carry out 'skills audits' to assess the existence and standard of skills and experience across the governing body. To help schools achieve this aim, the CES has produced a model skills audit for use by Catholic schools which incorporates the skills, knowledge and experience which is mandatory or desirable for governors of a Catholic school. The CES model skills audit can be accessed below.

Schools are strongly encouraged to seek guidance in respect of the requirements for reconstitution from their Diocesan Education Service.