Background
In general (see the Guide to the law for school governors for circumstances where this does not apply):

• The local authority (LA) is the employer of the staff in community and voluntary controlled schools, but the governing body and head have separate and particular responsibilities for selecting and managing staff.
• The governing body are the employer in foundation and voluntary aided schools and have employer responsibilities under employment law.

Decisions about staffing are both important and complex, and governing bodies will want to make sure that they make full use of the advice available to them.

Responsibilities
The governing body has overall responsibility for staffing matters at a school and decide the number of staff (both teaching and support staff) and when to appoint them:

• the normal expectation is for the headteacher to lead the process of making staff appointments outside the leadership group. The governing body should delegate this function to the headteacher unless there are good grounds not to do so.
• governors lead the process of making appointments to the leadership group. The governing body must set up a selection panel for appointing a headteacher or deputy headteacher.
• depending on the type of school, the governing body may be responsible for ensuring that applicants are suitably qualified, registered with the GTC, and where appropriate have been checked against List 99 and have applied for Criminal Records Bureau checks.

Guidance

• Chapter 9 of the Guide to the law for school governors provides detailed information on procedures for appointing staff and on the role of the General Teaching Council. It also provides information on induction and on avoiding discrimination in appointment and during service. Follow the link in Background below.
• The following GovernorNet articles provide additional details (follow links in Background below):
  • Appointing a Headteacher
  • Checking Applicants
  • Equal Opportunities
  • Flexible Working
  • Looking for a Bursar
  • Staffing
• When appointing headteachers, governors should be aware of new Regulations which come into force on 1 April 2004 which require anyone applying for their first headship post in a maintained school or non-maintained special school to hold the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH), or be working towards it. Further guidance on the mandatory requirement to hold NPQH is available from the link in the further reading section below. The Education (Head Teachers' Qualifications)(England) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/3111) are found under weblinks and guidance is available in Background below.

Good practice
TeacherNet provides examples of job descriptions for deputy head, head of year, SENCO and teaching assistant (link below).

The law
The main staffing functions of the governing body of a community school are set out in the Education (School Staffing) (England) Regulations 2003. These regulations are made under sections 35 and 36 of the Education Act 2002. Statutory guidance on staffing functions under these provisions has also been produced and must be considered by any party undertaking staffing functions. These regulations and statutory guidance provide for the appointment of a headteacher and deputies, other teachers, and support staff and advice from the LA and headteacher on appointments.