Colleges are at the heart of what we do, so by supporting colleges achieve their missions colleges are helping us achieve ours.  Colleges are incredible social enterprises, delivering enormous public benefit helping individuals, their families, our communities and our country to develop.  We believe that strong, effective governance helps colleges be the best they can be.  We recognise the critical role of Governors alongside Senior Leaders, and we see Governance Professionals as key actors in supporting good governance.

Stone King is the only truly national law firm top ranked in both education and charities.  We are committed to using our strength as a leading law firm to support Governors, Governance Professionals and Senior Leaders.  One of the ways we do that is through our governance support services.  Combining the expertise of our leading education and charity lawyers with outstanding practising governance professionals and the best researchers in the field, we are uniquely positions to support colleges in strengthening their governance.

Support we offer

Our approach is based around our own firm’s core values of trust, respect, understanding, specialist and talented. We admire the commitment of Governors, Governance Professionals and Senior Leaders and we want to play out part in helping them and their colleges be their best selves.  Our ethos is that everything we do needs to have impact, adding value and being both supportive and developmental.  We are a trusted advisor.  We do not inspect, we are not judgmental.  We help in difficult situations, we back positive practice and we assist in identifying where further gains can be made in the interests of the learners we all serve.

Examples of our governance support include:

  • Confidential responsive support for Governance Professionals and Chairs navigating situations.

  • Board support on a full range of issues.

  • One-to-one professional developmental support and mentoring for Governance Professionals and Governors.

  • Board training sessions on relevant topics targeted at the specific audience.

  • Policy and process review, conducted by practising Governance Professionals with the backing of our education and charity lawyers.

  • External governance effectiveness reviews, scoped on an individualised basis to ensure impact.

The law and practice referred to in this article or webinar has been paraphrased or summarised. It might not be up-to-date with changes in the law and we do not guarantee the accuracy of any information provided at the time of reading. It should not be construed or relied upon as legal advice in relation to a specific set of circumstances.