Blogmas 2022 Day 2 : Clerking with Confidence – Hints & Tips

Welcome to day 2 of Blogmas 2022 in collaboration with Governors’ Virtual Office (GVO)!

Find out how to get involved with our Blogmas Bingo giveaway here and don’t forget to download your Blogmas Bingo card!

(Use this to mark your response or simply send in a list of answers, for example: Day 1: name of symbol, Day 2: name of symbol etc. to contact@proclerking.co.uk between 16th December and 11th January to be in with a chance of winning!)

Here’s today’s symbol to note down:

Clerking with Confidence – Hints & Tips

If you’ve been around Pro Clerking for a while you will already be familiar with our main tagline – “Clerking with Confidence” – because at the heart of it, that’s what Pro Clerking is really about – equipping, enabling and empowering YOU as Clerks (or Governance Professionals or Company Secretaries!) to undertake your role with the confidence you have statutory obligations covered, the ability to support and advise on governance in your school and have a community of like-minded peers to fall back on for advice, resources and support.

With that in mind, I wanted to share some hints and tips about how YOU can truly “Clerk with Confidence”:

1. Three steps to compliance

If you don’t know where to start or you’re not sure if you have all your statutory bases covered – the best thing I find is to go back to basics and check your main compliance areas. A simple way to do this is to use Pro Clerking’s 3 steps to compliance:

• Safeguarding – DBS, SCR, training, KCSIE, policies, eligibility, confidentiality
• Online – website, GIAS, Companies House (Academy Trusts only)
• Governance Books – see item 2 below….

2. Get your ducks (aka governance books) in a row

To help you get started with your governance books – here’s a link to Pro Clerking’s Compliance Checklist. This will also help you prepare for Ofsted!

3. Create systems that work

Having a simple and effective filing system is paramount not only to saving time but also to help give you the confidence you have everything you need in place. Here are some top tips:

• If you work on documents saved on your harddrive – remember to save / upload documents to your online governance platform (Office 365, GVO or GovernorHub etc.) If you are saving everything to your desktop or My Documents and your computer goes caput then bye bye hours of hard work.

• Keep it simple! There is nothing worse that knowing you have created something then not being able to find it!

• Try to keep one copy of a document – rather than having versions 1 to 100000000 (!) Try to keep one copy of a working or final document – even if you have an archive folder to store the rest in case you need to reference an older version. Did you know you use hyperlinks within Office 365 to add documents that are already on the system to ensure the same piece of work gets updated? This is also a huge plus point in GVO!

Find more tips from my Business Health & Home blog post here.

4. Setting expectations and boundaries

Something as simple as setting an automatic email reply stating you are part-time or your usual availability can help not only set expectations for those trying to get in contact with you but also help you set boundaries of when you are (and aren’t!) willing to work.

Think about the boundaries and expectations you want (and need) to have a positive working relationship with your peers – and always remember my two motos – “I can do anything, not everything” and “under promise, over deliver”.

Find more tips from my Business Health & Home blog post here.

5. Regular check-ins

Do you have a regular check-in with your Chair and / or senior leader? A termly catch-up can do wonders for everyone feeling informed and organised. Also consider having a check-in with yourself – How are things going? What could be improved? What could be simplified? What areas do you need / want support with?

6. Seeking support

Who is in your support network? Could you buddy up with another Clerk? Have you joined the Pro Clerking online community? Can you find time for our termly Clerking with Confidence Workshops to connect with your peers? What support do YOU need in place?

As always – please don’t hesitate to get in touch if there is anything we can help or support you with – get in touch at contact@proclerking.co.uk or for GVO specific queries email support@thegvoffice.com.

Coming up in Day 3 of Blogmas – Sharing is Caring

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All my best

Ellie

In collaboration with Governors’ Virtual Office