Governors have a vital role to play in the running of schools. They can make an important contribution to the management of the establishments with which they become involved - particularly the practical aspects of it.

However, being a governor also involves keeping a careful and knowledgeable eye on standards of education and discipline. Although head teachers and their staff are the experts in that field, they cannot always be relied upon to get it right all the time. In fact, sometimes a teaching team can get things badly wrong.

If the first the governors know about that failure is a damning Ofsted report which takes them by surprise, then clearly something is adrift with the system. They should be sufficiently in touch to know when all is not well and be able to offer their help and wisdom to tackle the problems.

Councillor David Ward, executive member for education, is right to be calling for the "beefing up" of governing bodies through improved training to enable them to detect serious weaknesses in the leadership of schools. Governors need to be able to spot developing problems and have the confidence to ask necessary questions.

That is not to suggest that governors should be forever on confrontation alert. Ideally they, the head teacher and the rest of the staff should be pulling together for the good of the school - and in most cases that is what happens.

But it is right that governors should be trained to a level at which they feel able to challenge the head teacher if their school seems to them to be in danger of losing its way.