Current trends, issues and themes around governance and trusteeship and their relevance

Yesterday (14th November) it was the NCVO/BWB Trustee Conference in London which I attended. There was of course a huge range of briefings, talks and discussions at the event. So what were the key themes and issues that were discussed?

The overall theme of the conference was “Good Governance in Action”. One keynote speech made the point that getting our governance right – ‘good’ governance is not about doing it for the sake of it, but to ensure our charities and voluntary sector organisations do the right things for the right reasons. It’s not about just putting better processes in place or improving policies or documentation. It’s much more than that. Our organisations play their part in making the world a better place – in our communities and for our beneficiaries. The better governed our charities are, the better our impact can be.

Two key documents were explored during the conference:

The recently re-launched “Charity Governance Code”. Endorsed across the sector this provides us all with a workable framework to analyse our governance approaches and to improve them. More about the code here.

A major investigative report from the Charity Commission – “Taken on Trust” launched at the start of Trustees’ Week and exposing the status of governance across the sector. Highlights were the positive value of perhaps £3.5bn worth of volunteering on committees and boards that the sector enjoys, or the more negative problems with the real lack of diversity across charity boards. Read the report here.

Another very key theme of the conference was around Data Protection. The keynote speaker was from the Information Commissioners office and with the new GDPR regulations arriving in May 2018 (which we all have to comply with), a key theme is getting the legalities right around the management of data and personal information.

Other themes throughout the conference were covered through each of the briefings and workshops. Extra themes included:

• Getting the culture of the organisation right and dealing with ethics.
• The skill set of those trustees who run charities.
• Dealing with technology and the digital world.
• Getting the basics right so that every trustee understands their role.
• Keeping legal and understanding your obligations.
• Tackling diversity on the board – not just age, gender etc, but diversity of outlook or opinion.
• Dealing with mergers, partnerships and collaborations.
• Being radical and challenging the ways we traditionally operate as boards.
• Asking difficult questions about the finances for your organisation.
• Getting risk management right.
• Looking at real impact assessment beyond the outcomes and stories.
• Planning for Brexit realistically.

I’ll be sharing details and thoughts about all of these in due course on our AboutGovernance blog (www.vanel.org.uk/aboutgovernance). (or follow me on Twitter @aboutgovernance)

Do any of these themes resonate with you? Do you lose sleep over any of these or at least feel your charity/organisation should be making improvements in these areas? I’d like to know (and you can discuss them over at AboutGovernance if you are a member of the VANEL Trustee Network. Or simply get in touch with me.

Extras:

If you’re starting to think about using the Charity Governance Code (and you really should), then Rosie Chapman (chair of the committee overseeing the development of the Code) has published a couple of checklist Word documents to help you as you start to assess yourself against the code. You can find them here. They’re basic but useful.

And if you want support in using the code then please contact me at VANEL to help you work through it.