The prime minister recently lauded volunteers because they care passionately about the places they live. No one represents that philosophy better than the biggest volunteer workforce – school governors and trustees that include more than 220,000 citizens across England. They volunteer to give back to their communities and to help ensure local children get the best possible start, but so far no support has been offered to them by Keir Starmer’s government. In her introduction to Starmer’s speech this week, Jade Botterill MP suggested the government had to provide for those who give to their communities. I hope that message reached the Department for Education. Rhetoric needs to be meaningful and lead to action. There is an even more fundamental question facing England’s school system as there is with other public services – a political question. How can local people have more of a say in – and thereby feel some ownership of – their local school? The discussions with educationists are understandably about improving the standards of education, technocratic in nature. The bigger question But they miss the bigger question: the governance question. Who has the power and who makes the decisions? Has the sector been entirely captured by the new elite – trust executives whose pay puts them in the top 2 per cent of earners and who are sometimes perceived to become more and more distant from their schools’ communities as their trusts grow. Is the status quo truly legitimate? What does change here look like? There are some obvious measures that could help straight away in the current crisis of disengagement and distrust. First, local governance within MATs should be mandated without more delay. The consultation promised in February’s white paper could simply ask parents and the public whether they believe schools should have governors. That would be bold and decisive – and I predict definitive. Governments have been dancing around this for years. The proposal also appeared in the Conservative 2022 white paper but was buried by a DfE review group packed with trust executives. The argument that “one model doesn’t fit all” is spurious and can be taken apart by those of us who have seen and influenced the development of good MAT governance over the past 15 years. Extending trust membership Second, extending the membership of trusts to include parents and others with a community interest. Members are the guardians of the trust, holding its board of trustees to account. Opening this up would need to be done carefully so that everyone involved understood the role, but it would pay dividends – not the kind seen in other companies but in building trust. It also prevents trust membership from being oligarchies. Third, the geographic sprawl and size of MATs must be contained. It’s universally held that schools are important local civic institutions, part of community infrastructure and fundamentally different from larger hospitals and universities. Trusts and trustees need to relate to the places served by their schools and seen to do this. Making geographic coherence a priority has not achieved noticeable change. More courage is needed. Schools or a geographic group of schools could be given the right to leave a MAT in particular circumstances. Fourth, the government’s warm words on locality and partnerships need to be coupled with a specific expectation that all schools in a place work together, as many do already. This does not in any way undermine the status of MATs as organisations, but just allows their schools to also work with others locally. Such change may be seen by some as revolution. But it really isn’t. Looked at through the lens of the current electoral turmoil, it in fact risks being perceived as mere tinkering or – using one of the words of the week – merely “incremental”. Last week’s council election results highlighted how deeply many people feel let down by their government, even as they remain divided over what kind of change would make a real difference. Schools are a vital public service that cannot expect to remain untouched as the social contract around them frays. The country is searching for its soul and education has to play its part.