Governing bodies and proprietors of academies are required to have in place various policies and other documents to satisfy their statutory duties and to assist them in fulfilling their statutory obligations.

The DfE has produced extremely helpful non-statutory advice for governing bodies and school leaders entitled "Statutory Policies for Schools", which covers the legal requirements for maintained schools, maintained special schools, academies, sixth-form colleges, FE colleges with 16 to 19 provision and non-maintained special schools (amongst others). The advice sets out the type of policies and documents required, which types of schools must have such policies, the review period, the level of authority required for sign-off of the policy and the legislation which stipulates the requirement for that policy. You can access the advice via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statutory-policies-for-schools.

Catholic schools and academies are, additionally, required to use the CES model employment documents as mandated by the Bishops of England and Wales. This requirement is set out in the Bishops' Memorandum on Appointment of Teachers to Catholic Schools which can be accessed by clicking here. As a vital part of their role as governors of a Catholic school, governing bodies must ensure that the CES models are adapted, where appropriate, consulted upon and then adopted and communicated to staff and any other interested parties.