GovernorLine is a fully independent service managed by Worklife Support on behalf of the Department for Education.

Telephone calls and emails are dealt with by professional advisory staff at FirstAssist Services, a leading provider of advisory services in the UK. All of these advisers are currently serving as school governors.

These staff are dedicated to GovernorLine. It is a requirement of their contract of employment that they continue to serve as school governors and undertake all training that would be required in the course of their duties as a school governor. There are currently four advisers dedicated to the service.

The team is supported by a wider advisory team, made up of legal, employment and health and safety advisers. This team also includes several current school governors. In addition, there is access to members of the counselling team to assist with issues that may require such support (e.g. conflict situations).

There has been both initial and ongoing training of the team on all matters of concern to school governors. The manager at FirstAssist also ensures that the team has access to all up-to-date support material available from DfE, local authorities and other areas of expertise. Furthermore, the team leader receives regular briefings on all news and issues within the education sector.

FirstAssist Services Limited is one of the premier providers of 24-hour telephone-based advisory services providing professional advice on legal, education, employment and personnel issues.

It is a leading provider of employee assistance programmes and counselling services within the UK, a fact recognised by the wide variety of major UK-based companies, NHS trusts, trade unions, local authorities and affinity groups who have chosen FirstAssist as their provider.