This comes as Damian Hinds has joined with the Institute of Directors to call on more than 30,000 leading British businesses to encourage their employees to lend their expertise and commitment in the running of schools and colleges.

There are around 250,000 experienced governors and trustees across the country – including many parents – selflessly providing their time, energy, and guidance to support schools to provide the very best education for children.

The Education Secretary will announce that the budget for training and support for this “army of volunteers” will be doubled to £6 million up to 2021 to ensure more school leaders have access to popular training courses that build on their existing skills and will help raise education standards even further.

He will also set out plans to bear down on Academy trusts that pay excessive salaries and hand out lucrative contracts to family and friends in a clampdown to make them more accountable for the money they spend. These announcements will build on the clear rules already in place to provide transparency over academy finances. The measures include:

• a requirement for academy accounts to detail staff earning over £100,000 and the percentage of teaching time those individuals undertake; and
• a requirement, from April, for all related party transactions to be declared to the Education and Skills Funding Agency and for academy trusts to seek approval for any transaction over £20,000.

Thanks to the hard work of teachers and the government’s reforms, there are now 1.9 million more children in good or outstanding schools than in 2010. Today’s commitments will raise the bar even further, strengthening the expertise within the systems that govern our schools and colleges.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds is expected to say:

How would we run our schools without this army of volunteers? I want to do everything I can to help boost governor recruitment and retention. Because, quite simply, we need more great people.

So today I’m issuing a call to arms…appealing to people up and down the country to take on this vital role – to play their part in helping the next generation to thrive.

I want to urge people from different backgrounds, different professions, to come forward – offer up your time, your energy, your skills, your expertise… I’m also making an appeal to the nation’s employers today.

Because of course to become a governor, people with full-time jobs will need their employer’s support. I believe businesses can make a contribution to society here – and it’s not just schools either. Governors of Further Education colleges are key to providing the skills and training businesses need, and will play a pivotal role delivering our new T Level qualifications.

That’s why I’m writing to the 30,000 members of the Institute of Directors, urging them to encourage employees to take on this role, and give them the time it needs.

Stephen Martin, Director General of the Institute of Directors, said:

Good governance doesn’t just apply to business, it is also crucial to the way we run our schools. Indeed many of the skills acquired in corporate directorship roles are directly transferable to the education sector. IoD members know this first-hand and many are already actively involved with the schools system, but there are so many more company directors who could be using their expertise and experience for the benefit of their local communities.

That’s why the Institute of Directors and the Department for Education are today issuing a call to business leaders and their employees to become a school governor or academy trustees. This will help drive up standards and increase opportunities for our young people, and ultimately help tackle the skills gap and boost business productivity.

The role of a governor or trustee can involve developing a school strategy, making sure budgets are properly managed and holding headteachers to account for a school’s performance.

These are important and respected roles in local communities and, according to the Institute of Directors, becoming a governor or academy trustee gives businesses first-hand involvement in their local community and provides valuable skills for employees. The Institute of Directors and some of Britain’s leading businesses like Rolls Royce and Lloyds Banking Group already recognise the leadership development benefits that the role brings to their employees.

Many of Britain’s leading businesses are represented on academy boards through the government-funded Academy Ambassadors scheme, which has introduced more than 950 business professionals from companies such as BT, HSBC, Northern Powergrid, PwC and Slaughter & May to governing board roles since its launch in 2013.

The joint letter from the Secretary of State and the Institute of Directors has been sent to IoD members and will look to build on these existing relationships between schools and businesses.

To bear down on pay, in recent months Academies Minister Lord Agnew has been working with Eileen Milner, CEO of the Education and Skills Funding Agency, to challenge 117 academy trusts across the country paying a salary of more than £150,000 to ensure they are clear that pay must be justifiable and based on a transparent process.

Following a series of correspondence and meetings with these trusts, so far 18 have confirmed they no longer pay a salary over £150,000, and many more have indicated they will work to revise high salaries and prevent unjustified salary inflation in the future.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds will continue:

I want to make sure that every pound of public money for our schools is used in the best possible way for the good of our children and society. That means taking a tough approach…

This includes a new more robust process to manage related party transactions made by academy trusts. I think pretty much everyone would agree that a situation where board members could hand out unjustified contracts to companies that they or their friends and business associates have an interest in is not okay…

We also want to be clear about our expectations on high pay – which applies to all schools not just academies. There is no doubt that our school system has many great leaders – and for large and complex organisations, pay must reflect the scale of the task.

However, pay needs to be proportionate – and pay rises for non-teaching staff should not exceed that awarded to teaching staff. And where salaries aren’t justifiable – we will say so.

These announcements come as the NGA launches its campaign ‘Everyone on Board’ to increase the diversity on school boards, with a particular focus on younger and BAME governors who are currently under-represented.

Emma Knights OBE, Chief Executive of the NGA said:

The call by the Secretary of State and Institute of Directors for employers to support their employees to govern schools is most welcome. Governing boards need skilled volunteers and a good mixture of perspectives and experience around the table in order to effectively support and challenge school leaders, making decisions in the interest of all pupils.

Being a school governor or trustee is very rewarding; while the pupils in our school will benefit from the time and expertise that committed volunteers can offer, employees will also learn and develop.

83 areas will share £30 million to boost the immediate support available to people living on the streets and help them into accommodation Housing Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP confirmed today (9 June 2018).

Councils across England with the highest numbers of rough sleepers will receive a share of this funding to significantly increase the support they are able to offer people now and also those at risk this coming winter.

Funding will be used to provide an additional 1,750 additional bed spaces for rough sleepers and an additional 531 dedicated homelessness workers. The funding will also help improve the co-ordination of services available to those in need and at risk.

Howard Sinclair, Chief Executive of St Mungo’s, said:

Given how dangerous it is to sleep rough, we are pleased that ministers have recognised that urgent action is needed to support people off the street and out of danger, as well as to prevent people ending up on the streets in the first place.

Effective outreach services are a crucial part of this along with sufficient emergency accommodation and assessment and support for people with mental health and substance use problems.

While this money is a welcome first step, we hope that the government will provide sufficient funding alongside its forthcoming rough sleeping strategy to achieve the Prime Minister’s goal of halving rough sleeping in this parliament and ending it within 10 years.

Among the projects this funding will cover:

• Camden – will receive £870k for a significant expansion of their outreach team to deliver targeted street interventions focusing on hot spot areas, as well as new staff to support rough sleepers to keep their own accommodation
• Cornwall – will receive over £430k for crisis hostel accommodation, cold weather provision and support for the most disengaged rough sleepers with chronic needs
• Manchester City Council – will receive £418k to fund specialist staff to work with young rough sleepers and offenders and provide additional night shelter beds and supported hostel beds

Councils will be supported by the government’s new Rough Sleeping Initiative Team consisting of experts from the sector with a proven track record of successfully helping rough sleepers and preventing those at risk from becoming homeless.

Housing Secretary Rt Hon. James Brokenshire MP said:

No one should ever have to sleep rough. I am determined that more people living on the streets and those at risk this coming winter get the help they need now.

That’s why I am making £30 million available that will help councils boost the immediate support they are able to offer. Whether this pays for more beds or more outreach workers this will make a real difference now.

Many challenging factors lie behind rough sleeping, from mental health problems to addiction and our long-term strategy to be published this summer will outline how we plan to tackle them and eliminate rough sleeping for good.

This funding builds on significant government action already taken including the new Housing First Pilots announced last month to get people into stable and affordable accommodation. In April the Homelessness Reduction Act was introduced which will ensure more people are provided with the support they need sooner. In total the government is investing more than £1.2 billion to tackle all forms of homelessness.

Next month government will publish its long-term Rough Sleeping Strategy that has been developed in partnership with charities and local government. It will set out a comprehensive plan to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminate it entirely by 2027 by ensuring those sleeping rough have appropriate routes away from the streets – and prevent them from sleeping rough in the first place.

This latest funding will help local authorities using tried and tested methods in their area such as:

• Brighton – will receive just under £0.5 million for new outreach staff, psychological support and temporary accommodation for rough sleepers
• Camden – will receive £870,000 for a significant expansion of their outreach team to deliver targeted street interventions focusing on hot spot areas, as well as new staff to support rough sleepers to keep their own accommodation
• Cornwall – will receive £437,000 for crisis hostel accommodation, cold weather provision and assertive outreach, which targets the most disengaged rough sleepers with chronic support needs, offering a range of support to end their homelessness
• Leicester – will receive £265,000 to increase outreach provision, create a Rough Sleeper Co-ordinator role and establish an innovative “Housing Led” scheme enhancing options for those sleeping rough in the city
• Lincoln – will receive £376,000 to increase outreach and specialist support provision; the funding will also provide 15 bed spaces for rough sleepers with complex needs and create a Rough Sleeper Co-ordinator post
• Manchester City Council – will receive £418,000 to fund specialist staff including staff who will work with young rough sleepers and offenders, additional night shelter beds and supported hostel beds
• Plymouth – will receive £363,000 to develop a multi-agency team to deliver bespoke interventions for rough sleepers as well as temporary accommodation and housing coupled with support for rough sleepers
• Westminster – will receive over £534,000 to deliver new Housing First units, to support rough sleepers with complex needs get off the streets into stable and affordable accommodation; the funding will also provide for 18 staff including mental health specialists, bed spaces for women and couples and extended night shelter provision

This latest announcement builds on government action to date, in the efforts to halve rough sleeping by 2022 and end it altogether by 2027. This includes:

• £1.2 billion investment in a number of programmes, including protecting core funding of £315 million to local authorities for their work on homelessness, and an additional £617 million in Flexible Homelessness Support Grant funding, which councils can use to work more strategically to prevent and tackle local homelessness pressures
• piloting the internationally-proven Housing First approach – last month Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and the West Midlands received the go-ahead from government to launch new pilot projects worth more than £28 million to support rough sleepers with complex needs get off the streets into stable and affordable accommodation
• introducing the Homelessness Reduction Act – the new Act came into force in April 2018 and is the most ambitious legal reform in decades; it places new duties on councils to prevent and relieve homelessness, including for single homeless people who are at greater risk of sleeping rough
• a cross-government homelessness and rough sleeping taskforce supported by a panel of homelessness experts, charities and local government that is driving forward a new national strategy to be published in July that will make life on the streets a thing of the past
• investing £9 billion to build more affordable housing, including new council homes
• up to £135 million of investment in housing for vulnerable people including those most at risk of homelessness or rough sleeping; the funding from dormant assets will be directed to Big Society Capital for them to deploy; the first investment opportunities in this programme will be launched in the autumn

Further information

A full list of the individual allocations for 2018 to 2019 for local authorities with high levels of rough sleeping is available here:

Funding allocations

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The Rough Sleeping Initiative Fund was announced on 30 March 2018.

The Rough Sleeping Team based at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is made up of rough sleeping and homelessness experts, drawn from, and funded by government departments and agencies with specialist knowledge across a wide-range of areas from housing, mental health to addiction.

The Homelessness Reduction Act came into effect on 3 April 2018. Read more on the Homelessness Reduction Act.

AbleChild Africa, Humanity and Inclusion, British and Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group, Orbis Charitable Trust and Deafkidz concentrate a lot of their work on people with disabilities who can be marginalised by society.

They work with people of all ages in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Afghanistan where people with disabilities are often the most vulnerable in society.

Many of these charities work in health and education to ensure people with disabilities are getting the support they need including; eye care services in hard to reach areas, support to deaf communities and where possible helping people with disabilities find suitable employment.

These grants come in the second round of funding from UK Aid Direct, announced by the Department for International Development. In total, 30 small and medium sized civil society organisations, who work on a wide range of issues throughout the developing world will benefit. As well as projects focussed on disability inclusion, funding will also be provided to projects working on food security and nutrition as well preventing violence against women and children.

UK Aid Direct has already reached more than 3 million people, through 147 grants, across 31 countries.

Announcing the latest round of funding, Secretary of State for International Development, Penny Mordaunt said:

An estimated 800 million people with disabilities live in developing countries. Many of these people continue to face appalling levels of stigma, discrimination and abuse, and all too often miss out on the opportunities that are the right of every person.

Small and medium sized charities offer a wealth of experience, expertise and skills essential to our mission to find innovative new solutions to complex development problems.

Many of these charities represent the best of British expertise and I am extremely proud that through UK Aid Direct, we are strengthening our great partnerships with them to improve the lives of those living in extreme poverty.

The UK government will co-host its first-ever Global Disability Summit in London in July alongside the International Disability Alliance and the Government of Kenya. The summit will bring together leaders from the private sector, governments, donor agencies and charities to raise awareness of this under-prioritised issue and show our commitment to transform the lives of people with disabilities. It will secure ambitious commitments to make a tangible difference to the lives of millions of people around the world.

Lauren Watters, Head of Programmes at AbleChild Africa said:

The UK government is leading the way for disability inclusive development and we are tremendously excited that it has identified the need to empower Youth with Disabilities in Rwanda through UK Aid Direct. Our project will facilitate meaningful youth involvement tackling the multiple barriers this group face and supporting their full inclusion into society.

Steve Crump, Founder of Deafkidz:

It is extremely gratifying that the UK government has acknowledged our important mission to help deaf children around the world live safely and without fear through the UK Aid Direct scheme. Our work is vital, not only to provide vulnerable children with the ear and hearing care they need, but also to change the dangerous stigmas they face each day.

Notes to Editors

There are 30 Aid Match Direct grants being announced with a total funding of £28,968,130

Further information and the full list of recipients of the latest UK Aid Direct grants are available here: www.ukaiddirect.org/news/

UK Aid Direct is a five-year; £150 million programme currently changing the lives of over 3 million of the world’s poorest people with UK aid from the UK Government.

Funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), UK Aid Direct was established in 2014 as a successor to the Global Poverty Action Fund (GPAF), which was created in 2010.

UK Aid Direct is a challenge fund designed to support the UK’s commitments to achieving the Global Goals.

Funding rounds will continue until 2020.

The UK Government will co-host its first ever disability summit later this year that will focus on four central themes:

• tackling stigma and discrimination
• inclusion in education
• routes to economic empowerment
• harnessing technology and innovation

On 9th June 2018, Sr Imelda Poole, IBVM was made Member of the Order of the British Empire in The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018, for her achievements and services to end modern slavery.

On the announcement of the award, the British Ambassador to the Holy See, Sally Axworthy, said:

I am delighted to learn that Sr. Imelda Poole has been awarded this honour by Her Majesty The Queen.

It is well-deserved recognition of Sr. Imelda’s outstanding service in combatting human trafficking and modern slavery, through the European religious sisters’ anti-trafficking network RENATE which she leads, and through and Talitha Kum, the religious sisters’ worldwide anti-trafficking network.

Sister Imelda is a key ally in Her Majesty’s Government’s campaign to eradicate modern slavery. It is wonderful to see such a distinguished friend of this Embassy honoured in this way.

Note for editors:

· Read more about Sr. Imelda Poole in the case study written by HM Ambassador Sally Axworthy to mark 2017 International Women’s Day.

Follow @SallyAxworthy @UKinHolySee

The Queen’s Birthday Honours List recognises the achievements of a wide range of extraordinary people across the United Kingdom.

Marking the achievements of the recipients from Wales, Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns said:

It is with great delight that I congratulate those who have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

These honours acknowledge the incredible achievements of outstanding individuals who work tirelessly to improve the lives of others and inspire those around them.

I am proud to see people from all walks of Welsh life being recognised for their achievements and I am grateful for their commitment and dedication to their communities. Congratulations to you all.

Notable names from Wales in the honours list include Chief Constable of North Wales Police Mark Polin and Welsh sports stars Jessica Fishlock and Menna Fitzpatrick.

Congratulating Mark Polin, who received an OBE for services to policing, Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said:

During his long and distinguished policing career, Mark Polin has provided excellent leadership and exemplified his very deep commitment to community policing at every turn.

He has been a credit to North Wales Police and is held in the highest regard not just by his colleagues, but across the range of partners that the Force works with and the communities that it serves. My sincerest congratulations to him on this very worthy honour.

Congratulating Welsh international football star, Jessica Fishlock on her MBE for services to women’s football and the LGBT community, Alun Cairns said:

From becoming the first Welsh player of any gender to make 100 appearances for their country, to league titles and player of the year awards for her clubs in Melbourne and Seattle, the accolades have been coming thick and fast for Jessica over recent years. That roll of honour is bolstered again today as she is named among the Queen’s Birthday Honours recipients.

She is a great sportswoman, an enduring role model and an inspiration to all. My warmest congratulations to Jessica – a worthy recipient of this honour.

Congratulating Welsh Winter Paralympics GB multi-medallist, Menna Fitzpatrick, Alun Cairns said:

There were few performances at this year’s winter Paralympic Games that captured the imaginations more than those exemplified on the slopes of Pyeongchang by Menna Fitzpatrick. Together with her guide Jennifer Kehoe, Menna displayed the sheer grit and determination needed to bring home a haul of four medals – including a gold – and secured the title of Britain’s most successful Winter Paralympian.

Today, and at just 20 years old, she takes her rightful place on the honours list as the youngest recipient. My congratulations to Menna on this worthy accolade and I wish her every success for the future.