England's 300,000 school governors are being advised to take out insurance to protect themselves against litigious parents and the growing demands of government policy.

The most vulnerable are likely to be at schools that are following ministers' orders to stay open late and offer out-of-hours activities, experts say.

They are warning governors to seek independent legal advice on whether they could be sued, rather than assume that local authorities will support them in the event of a problem.

Taking out insurance would cost each school hundreds of pounds a year and could deter people from volunteering. There is already a national shortage, with more than one in ten of the 350,000 places unfilled.

Phil Revell, chief executive of the National Governors' Association, said that the role of governor had changed from community support to proper leadership with accompanying risks.

He said this week: “With more control comes more liability and we are concerned that governing bodies - including the new teams of supergovernors being put into failing schools - may be unaware of their full legal powers and responsibilities and ill equipped, particularly financially, to defend legal claims.”

Examples of where governors have faced legal action include a girl who broke her ankle at an after-school sports club run by a charity. A well-meaning teacher intervened but made the injury worse. In another case, the parents of a young man tried to sue his former school for failing to diagnose learning difficulties.

Mr Revell said that governing bodies should not rely on being covered by council insurance policies.

The association said that academies and trust schools would also be vulnerable, as these were run independently from local authorities so their governors had no safety-net insurance policy provided by councils.

The Government also wants all schools to be open between 8am and 6pm by 2010, providing sporting or cultural activities. Clubs staffed by volunteers may leave schools open to being sued if a child has an accident.

There have also been increasing numbers of legal actions over uniform and religious and sex education. The association said that local authorities had a “variable history” in supporting schools during such cases.

One insurance broker said: “Most state school governors think their backs are covered but that isn't always the case. There are gaps.”

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, began a review of school governing bodies in May, with the aim of making them smaller and more effective.

Case study: 'High-handed' head who sued

A new head teacher - Mr B - was appointed 18 months ago to a successful community high school. He came with excellent qualifications and references, including one from the local authority’s senior adviser (Nicola Woolcock writes).

Almost immediately the governors encountered problems in their dealings with Mr B, claiming that he had a high-handed and arrogant approach to governors and staff.

Six months into his appointment the governors approached the local authority and raised their concerns with the senior adviser. The governing body was advised to allow the head to “bed in”.

Three months later a child protection issue at the school was handled by the head without reference to the governor responsible, and without guidance from the social worker attached to the family, counter to published procedures. The child attempted suicide, and was taken into care. No criticism of the school was made during the subsequent social services investigation, but governors felt that Mr B’s actions had delayed support being offered to the child and family.

At the end of that term the governors wrote clear targets for improvement into the head teacher’s performance management review.

Mr B’s union representative complained about these targets to the local authority, which carried out an investigation. That report made some criticisms of governing body procedures, but revealed deep antipathy towards the head in the senior management team and on the governing body.

The local authority proposed mediation and mentoring for the head. The governors agreed to this in principle, but wrote to the head insisting that the performance management process be completed. Mr B resigned and brought a constructive dismissal action against the governing body.

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