{"id":16375,"date":"2017-12-14T17:40:35","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T17:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/?p=16375"},"modified":"2017-12-14T17:42:04","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T17:42:04","slug":"governanceweekly14dec17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/2017\/12\/governanceweekly14dec17\/","title":{"rendered":"Governance weekly for 14th December"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weekly roundup from VANEL on good governance, charity trusteeship and non-profit leadership. News, information, resources and ideas. Complemented by our “aboutgovernance” online discussion space for leaders and trustees and our @aboutgovernance<\/a> Twitter feed.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

This is the last \u201cGovernance Weekly\u201d column for 2017.<\/strong> So it\u2019s a chance to do one of those retrospective \u2018looking back\u2019 reviews. But first, a quick look forward to remind you of the new Governance related training programme that\u2019s now scheduled for the start of 2018.<\/p>\n

We have a number of courses scheduled and all the details are on this flyer here. The courses include:<\/p>\n

\u201cCould you be a Trustee?\u201d<\/strong> Suited to people thinking of becoming a trustee for the first time<\/p>\n

\u201cInduction and Refresher Training for Trustees\u201d<\/strong> for those who are new into the role (or need to be brought back up to speed)<\/p>\n

\u201cFinances for non-financial trustees\u201d<\/strong> because every trustee needs to know something about the financial health of their charity<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter Boards: using the Code to review and improve your governance\u201d<\/strong> for individual trustees and the whole board to learn how to improve and develop good practice in your governance approach<\/p>\n

And \u201cTechnology for Trustees\u201d<\/strong> because the level of benefit being gained from the digital and technical revolution within charities is still extremely poor.<\/p>\n

So we have something for everyone. All training generally takes place at VANEL offices in Grimsby, but dates and prices are varied, so take a look at the flyer and then keep an eye on our Training Calendar here and on our website news. Any queries or to book, contact me, Karl Elliott direct.<\/p>\n

So looking back now over 2017…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGovernance Weekly\u201d has been running throughout the year, and whilst it hasn\u2019t appeared every single week, we\u2019ve had over 35 \u2018issues\u2019 and each week we\u2019ve been reporting on new reports and research, on training and learning opportunities, on useful resources for you and your board, and on challenging and interesting \u2018thinking\u2019 in the sector. As I look back, here are a few key trends that have been obvious across governance in the voluntary sector during 2017:<\/p>\n

Importantly the new Charity Governance Code was published after a long consultation. It\u2019s the evolution of the long standing \u201cCode of Good Governance\u201d and it now gives us all a free, easily accessible and understandable framework with which to self-review our own governance approaches and ensure we can take steps to work towards better practices. During 2018 watch out for more and more charities signing up to the Code and for more and more toolkit\u2019s and resources appearing to help you as you apply it. (VANEL have our \u201cBetter Boards\u201d training to help you in the new year).<\/p>\n

Fallout from rogue charity failures continue to ripple through the sector. Particularly the collapse of Kids Company and the role of poor governance in that. The Charity Commission initiated a programme to look at (and build) trust in the charitable sector, and good governance practices (and tools such as the Charity Governance Code) and going to be a way forward on this. In 2018 growing trust in the charitable sector will continue to be a \u2018topic\u2019.<\/p>\n

Digital by default and ever accelerating technology is not going away any time soon. And the charitable sector as a whole is embarrassingly poor on digital skills and on digital implementation. This increases risk across the sector, reduces potential impact and benefit from our organisations, and misses opportunities. Boards lead their organisations and at board level the digital skills shortage is even greater. VANEL will continue to run training and support on the digital agenda during 2018 to help address this theme.<\/p>\n

At the end of the year saw the publication from the Charity Commission of a huge piece of research across the sector (\u201cTaken on Trust\u201d). Although it of course highlighted issues and barriers to be overcome, it also demonstrated clearly how huge the value is of the volunteering efforts made by trustees and committee members in social organisations across the UK. So whilst we have a continual struggle to improve governance in general, all of these valuable volunteers that serve on the committees that lead charities deserve a huge thank you.<\/p>\n

Diversity continues to be an issue (as highlighted in the Taken on Trust report). This can mean diversity such as gender, age, ethnicity or religion, it really means diversity of approach, mindset and outlook, and representation on boards and committees of a mix of skills that do the very best for that charity. Diversity works its way in to the new Charity Governance Code now as a distinct principle to be addressed. So it\u2019s something to continue to tackle. At VANEL we\u2019re actively trying to address age diversity on boards with our IGNITE team championing trusteeship for younger (<30) people.<\/p>\n

May 2018 is getting closer, and that\u2019s the point at which the new GDPR regulations (replacing the Data Protection Act) come fully into force and which all our charities and organisations need to be preparing for. This is a specific technical challenge which all committees and boards need to be tackling but for me it\u2019s also indicative of the challenge of working out how to ensure trustees keep up to date with all the legislative changes in the world around them.<\/p>\n

Of course there were many more trends and themes throughout the year, such as the impact of Brexit, the ongoing recruitment problems onto trustee boards, and the overall challenge of getting generally unskilled and untrained volunteers to take responsibility for the often huge challenges of running and steering charities. But I thought I\u2019d just take the opportunity to tackle just a few.<\/p>\n

Have a good Christmas break and \u201cGovernance Weekly\u201d will be back in January 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bonus Christmas Present for anyone who read this far…<\/em><\/p>\n

A piece of interesting reading for anyone involved in the charitable sector. Sir Stephen Bubb gave a lecture in 2017 on the \u201cHistory of Charity\u201d<\/strong>. It\u2019s available as a .pdf here<\/a> and it really goes all the way back in time and then comes up to date to explore how the concept of charity and then the implementation of Charities took place over the centuries in this country. Something to read after you\u2019ve had a few too many mince pies…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Karl Elliott, Development Manager
\nkarl@vanel.org.uk<\/a> \/ 01472 287548
\nwww.vanel.org.uk\/governance<\/a> – for an overview of our resources and information
\nwww.vanel.org.uk\/trustees<\/a> – for the Trustee Network blog and information
\nwww.vanel.org.uk\/aboutgovernance<\/a> – private discussion space for trustees
\n@aboutgovernance<\/a><\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our weekly roundup of news related to governance, trusteeship and leadership: It’s the last column of the year so it’s time for a roundup of the key themes in governance and trusteeship development that have surfaced during 2017 (as well as a look ahead to upcoming training in the new year). Read on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"xn-wppe-expiration":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-action":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-prefix":[],"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[5,391,11],"tags":[139,516],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3cThd-4g7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16375"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16375"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16379,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16375\/revisions\/16379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}