Strong Stewardship: Deploy Assurance Governance

The governance assurances set out below are also available as a downloadable exemplar checklist/ self-review document: See‘Step 3′ of the ‘Three Steps Model‘ section of this website.

An Assurance Governance Approach

Strong ‘Stewardship’ is delivered through good governance practice; in this case, an ‘Assurance Governance’ approach is recommended.

Assurance Governance (first developed in 2011 by Andrew Read and fully revised & updated every year since – see governor.org.uk), is a simple but powerful approach to equipping governors and trustees with the confidence and ability to offer supportive challenge to executive leaders through effective questioning.

Every governor or trustee needs to be able to give confident consideration to all aspects of school life in a way that reflects the school’s embedded Christian character, serving those of all faiths and none, and, in this case, that includes the implementation of a powerful technology such as AI.

For all governors or trustees to collectively apply, questions can be identified that provide a concise way to test whether AI use remains vision-led, safe, ethical and effective. Two complementary sets can be used: A ‘short’ set of ten questions for regular board use and a more detailed set for a dedicated named governor/ trustees or working group with AI oversight.

Both the short questions and the longer, more detailed questions draw on the vision, assurances and principles set out in this website: Both provide supportive challenge, test alignment with the school’s Christian vision, and monitor whether AI is being used safely, ethically and effectively.

Top 10 questions for regular board meetings…

For routine governing board discussion, the following ten questions provide a concise way to test whether AI use remains vision-led, safe, ethical and effective.

1. How is our use of AI advancing our Christian vision and strengthening human dignity, rather than simply improving efficiency?
2. What are our current priorities for AI use, and where have we decided not to use it?
3. How are AI-related safeguarding risks being identified, monitored and acted upon?
4. What assurance do we have that personal data is protected and that high-risk AI tools are subject to proper review?
5. How do we know AI is supporting, rather than replacing, professional judgement, pastoral care and authentic pupil learning?
6. What are pupils being taught about AI literacy, truth-testing, honesty and safe use?
7. What staff training has taken place, and how are leaders checking that guidance is understood and applied consistently?
8. What evidence do we have that AI is improving outcomes, inclusion or workload without creating new harms or dependencies?
9. How are AI incidents, concerns or near misses recorded, reviewed and learned from?
10. What reports or assurance information should governors receive next so that we can govern this area well?

Detailed Questions for a ‘named’ AI governor/trustee or working group…

It is also good practice to appoint a named governor with oversight for AI, or establish a small working group when initially implementing it. These more detailed assurance questions are downloadable from the Three Step Model set out on this web resource.

If you are interested in other areas covered by the Assurance Governance approach, or how AI might feature in any one of the ‘IQs’ and Ofsted areas, then visit https://governor.org.uk or https://academytrustee.org.uk.