Governance weekly for 4th May

Just a few bits of news this week.

Very importantly the Charity commission has announced a new, streamlined Welcome Pack for new Charity Trustees. Read about it here. Also read this introductory news story here.

This is a major step actually. The new pack will be emailed out to all new trustees by the Commission and is published on the Commission’s website so that existing trustees can use it. So when you get a new trustee on board they will be getting a copy of this guide. Although this new pack has been through a testing stage, but the Commission will still be asking for feedback.

I’ve certainly met many, many trustees who’ve joined their board but are still yet to read something like “The Essential Trustee” to properly understand their role. That’s acknowledged as a problem and this step from the Charity Commission to proactively make sure trustees are shared a guide is very welcome.

Go read it now and share it with any of your newer trustees. Worryingly they indicate that they will email it to the new trustee at the email address that they have provided. There are still a significant number of trustees who are not on email, and these disconnected trustees are potentially still going to be missing out. So there’s a key role for the Chair and Secretary to deal with – ensuring each and every trustee is always kept in the loop.

Charity Governance Code

An interesting development around the Charity Governance Code which was launched in November 2017 and which should now form the basis of any governance development work you’re up to. It’s been developed so far without funding or dedicated resources, so a call has gone out from NCVO and the Code partners for funding and sponsorship in order to make the Code development sustainable. Read the story about this here. No direct affect on the way we all use the Code but will be interesting to see this develop over the next few years.

Support

A simple reminder that if you have any governance questions, concerns, tasks or issues, then please contact me at VANEL to see how we can help. I continue to provide bespoke trusteeship training (such as “Introduction and Refresher Training for Trustees”, or “Technology for Trustees”). We can also do process and paperwork reviews, signpost to resources, help you tackle specific governance issues and more. Just get in touch to discuss.

As always, more governance news from us next week.