Governance review

Ten tips for good governance

The Foundation for Good Governance has produced a 10-point plan for running an effective organisation. Here's the short version, with full text available among the Foundation's research reports - or download pdf directly here. The Foundation is encouraging distribution under a Creative Commons licence.

Home Office final proposals

The Home Office Active Community Unit has published 'ChangeUp', its final proposals on developing the voluntary and community sector.
"ChangeUp's aim is that by 2014 the needs of frontline voluntary and community organisations will be met by support which is available nationwide, structured for maximum efficiency, offering excellent provision, accessible to all, truly reflecting and promoting diversity, and sustainably funded. ChangeUp describes the basic architecture of support which frontline organisations need."
Documents available for download from Home Office site

The Governance Strategy Report

There are two parts to the report which was presented to the Home Office Active Community Unit by the Foundation for Good Governance.

The main report contains, discussion, analysis, results and recommendations. There is also an accompanying document - the volume of evidence which contains a series of articles or papers that were used as a basis for discussion.

The report was used to inform the Capacity Building Infrastructure Framework which was presented to the Active Community Unit in April. The ACU is now producing the definitive framework and this will be available very soon. We'll keep you posted.

Download final report 3.3 M PDF
Download Evidence 2.6 M PDF

Participation in Governance conference

Participation in Governance, Conference, 24th September, Newcastle upon Tyne. Details of our conference are now available.

The extensive conference programme offers board members and their staff an opportunity to take part in a wide range of workshops, discussions and simulations and tackles issues from teamwork to behaviours, diversity to strategy, membership to relationships and much more...

For those based in the North East of England we have been able to arrange some bursaries. For details do call us. For organisations in other areas if you need assistance with the costs, we suggest you try your funders, local community foundation or CVS for a list of potential funders.

We look forward to seeing you there. For full details see attached conference brochure or call the office 0191 232 6942.

Download brochure 120 K PDF

Governance code

A Governance Code for the Voluntary and Community Sector - consultation
As a result of all this discussion the NCVO have produced a Governance Code - which is out for consultation.
Your comments are needed by 10th July, which is good news as it does give us all a chance to respond.
Download code 6O K Word

Governance review - the Home Office proposals

Jon Fox of the Home Office Active Community Unit has now produced summary proposals for governance in the voluntary and community sector, and is inviting comments. These are based on the work of The Foundation for Good Governance, featured on this site.
Download the Home Office proposals here or read on below.
Review original proposals here.
You can comments directly to Jon - see below - or by clicking 'Comments' under this item.

Jon writes in an introductory note:
This summary is based on work by The Foundation for Good Governance, commissioned by the Home Office Active Community Unit to develop the Strategy for Governance, and informed by extensive consultation events, discussion and debate
The Foundation engaged a team of consultants to develop the work. The methodology aimed to ‘grow’ a strategy reflecting the interests of a wide range of organisations, testing issues and themes already identified, draw on existing research, experience and expertise, and provide an opportunity for wide discussion. From the outset, the strategy was viewed as a ‘first step’ in a longer process of developing sector ownership for change and development.
This paper highlights key elements of the draft strategy, and the recommendations being fed in to the Capacity Building and Infrastructure Framework, which will be agreed by the VCS and Government in the coming months. The consultants’ papers explore implementation of individual recommendations in more detail.
Ministers will consider priorities for funding from within the ACU’s capacity building and infrastructure budget (around £80m between 2003-6) alongside proposals developed as part of the infrastructure, performance improvement and skills strategies, and in the context of the broader Framework and Government priorities.
Comments on this summary paper can be sent to Jon Fox at the Active Community Unit: jon.fox@homeofice.gsi.gov.uk by Wednesday 18th February.

Note on terminology
The term ‘board’ has been used throughout this paper for consistency; we do recognise that many organisations will not recognise or choose this terminology for their management committee, council of management, trustee group or other structure at the apex of an organisation’s structure. Similarly the term ‘board member’ has been used, rather than trustee, director or committee member.

Consultants' draft proposals at a glance

This site reports on the review of UK voluntary and community sector governance. Here below are the consultancy team proposals for five key areas of governance development, as summarised in the draft executive summary. You can also see the Home Office proposals based on these here.

The introduction and rest of the executive summary here >. Read down page.
You can also download all drafts here; find details of the review ; read about using this site; and get an update on what happens next.
The sections on framework and governance system provide a theoretical farmework.

Training and development
• Action Research projects to identify and disseminate the training and support needs of organisations at each stage of development more
• Education and training for members in membership organisations more
• Supporting and promoting action and peer learning for managers, chairs and boards more
• The development of board associations more
• Accredited learning for Boards Members more

Information and advice
• Establish a community of practice (CoP) more
• Apprenticeship system to train more ‘specialists’ more
• Provision of legal advice more
• ‘Legal Aid’ for voluntary and community sector more
• An employment mediation, arbitration and advice service more

Funding: Investment in the development of good governance
• Using funder assessment processes to support board and governance development more
• Bursary schemes and small grants for board and governance development available from variety of funders more

Culture Change
• Incentives for board members more
• Standards and principles for effective governance more
• Action Research projects to identify and disseminate the impact of good governance more
• Secondments scheme more
• Establish a large scale mutual insurance scheme more

Monitoring and regulation
• Investment in the development of good governance by the development of appropriate monitoring systems and processes more
• Charity Commission review visits on request more
• A harmonisation of regulation and accountability more

Additional area for action: Partnerships and Governance
Partnership working raises particular questions of governance and accountability that have not been explored within this strategy. We felt that a further piece of research is necessary to explore the impact of partnership working on the governance of voluntary and community sector organisations. more

The review process

Here's the background to the 2003-4 review of governance in the UK voluntary and community sector, and how it is being carried out.

Over recent years there has been an increasing interest and concern amongst voluntary and community organisations, ‘umbrella’ agencies, regulators, funders, advisers, professional bodies, and the government in the ‘governance’ of not for profit organisations.
This interest has arisen in part from a recognition of the increased role that the voluntary and community sector (VCS) takes in the delivery of a wide range of services and the belief by government that the sector can and should have a central role in the reform of public services.
Two recent Government reports have emphasised the importance and significance of the sector, and provide the background for this review. Firstly the Cross Cutting Review carried out by the Treasury and secondly the Strategy Unit review of charities and the wider not for profit sector.

Update to review participants

Here's the text of an update mailing from Christine Morrison to those taking part in the review. It was accompanied by the executive summary, and link to this message alerting people to draft report downloads available on this site.

Using this site

This website is different from most because it is a weblog - or 'blog'. More here in PC Magazine about blogs if you are interested.
The main difference is that the central column contains items - posts - that are in date order.
Underneath each post you can see who wrote it and the category under which the posting has been filed - more later on categories.

Clicking on Permalink puts the post into its own window with unique web address (URL), which you can use to provide a direct link reference to that post.
The Comments link opens a form for people to add ... a comment. Numbers against the link - for example (1) show how many there are already. Trackback shows links from other blogs to the post, if there are any.
The left sidebar contains permanent links about this site (Start here), and we'll add links to other sites.
The categories section is an easy way to find posts on any topic, rather than scrolling down the centre column.
Clicking on the archive - e.g. February - will show all posts on the blog.
The right sidebar shows the latest posts, and comments. You can always get back to the home page by clicking on the top title "Governance review".

If you have any queries about how the site works, please add a comment under this post or email me david@partnerships.org.uk. I would welcome the feedback.... and any inquiries about blogs. You can see another of mine here - Designing for Civil Society.

Draft reports on the governance review

Here are downloads of draft reports of the review carried out into governance in the UK voluntary and community sectors. The review has been carried out by the Foundation for Good Governance on behalf of the Active Community Unit (ACU) of the Home Office. More here on the review process and a message from lead consultant Christine Morrison to those taking part.
As Christine explains, the consultancy team has now reported to the ACU, who will produce a report that can be integrated with other reviews.
At this stage we have completed formal consultation, but would welcome any observations on the reports. You can do that by commenting under items on this site (guidance here) or emailing us directly fgg@governance-works.org
One of our recommendations is development of a 'community of practice' for those interested in governance issues, and exchanges here could help start that.
Update: Home Office proposals now available here for comment

Draft reports - click on links below for files
Download executive summary - Word
Download executive summary - rtf
Download main strategy - Word
Download main strategy - rtf
Download Annexes - Word
Download Annexes - rft

Introduction to consultants' executive summary

This report on governance provides a framework for thinking about how policy makers, funders, regulators and advisers can all work with Board members and staff to enhance the effectiveness of nonprofit organisations.

It was commissioned by the Active Community Unit (ACU) of the Home Office, in parallel with other reviews designed to improve the capacity of the voluntary and community sector, at a time when the sector plays an increasingly important role in the delivery of services using public funds. That role has recently been investigated in two Government reports, the Cross Cutting Review carried out by the Treasury, and the Strategy Unit review of charities and nonprofits.

Objectives and initial work from executive summary

Objectives
Our brief was to develop a governance strategy that could provide a framework for action across government and the not for profit sector. We were told that the strategy should cover:
• A realistic vision of successful governance;
• Trustee and committee member recruitment and diversity;
• Good practice, standards and performance;
• Effective capacity building models to support and sustain improved governance – individual, organisational;
• Funding, legal, regulatory and constitutional frameworks that are enabling;
• Agreement of and consultation about key priorities for strategic, outcome focused investment; a process for maintaining and developing the strategy, including need for pilot projects and further work.

The Governance System

This section is part of the main report, describing the framework needed for thinking about governance. It offers a model that puts the organisation at the centred, but argues for the importance of the external environment - the bigger system. Click the diagram for a larger version. Introduction to the framework

The working definition of governance – ‘the systems and processes concerned with ensuring overall direction, supervision and accountability of an organisation’ – can be applied not only at an organisational level but also to the wider system within which an organisation operates. That is to say, governance needs to be applied both to what happens inside the VCS (voluntary and community sector) but also in the external environment.

The external environment can be divided in two: the immediate operating environment of the sector (in which is found for example, the policies of the Active Community Unit) and the wider environment (which includes for example, government policy on matters that have no immediate bearing on the VCS such as transport). This describes a system with three domains and these are set out in Diagram 1 (above).

A framework for an integrated strategy from executive summary

In order to fulfil the brief, deal with the different perspectives of stakeholders, and show how a strategy could lead to action, we needed to develop a framework that covered all the issues outlined above. We suggest that the overall governance system – what we earlier called the web – should:
• Operate in three domains: the organisational, the intermediary (including support services) and the strategic (policy and procedures impacting on organisations). see
• Take account of the interests and possible actions of seven main stakeholder groups: policy makers, funders, board members, regulators, support or intermediary organisations, academics, employees/professional membership organisations see
• Show how action is needed at difference stages of development within an organisation, on a ladder of effectiveness with rungs from awareness raising through robust processes and systems to high performance. see
• Chart the five-rung ladder against the three domains to show what is needed where and when, and who might be involved. see
• Define the focus for activity in five areas: training and development; information and advice; funding; culture change; monitoring and regulation.

Recommended actions
In developing recommended actions, we drew upon a number of insights and resources:
• We aimed to address the challenges outlined earlier (understand governance, reaching boards etc)
• We used material from the overview and position papers developed by the consultant team
• We used our analysis of the requirements of different stakeholders (informed by the events and meetings we held)
• We also aimed to meet the requirements of a successful strategy
Next > Draft proposals
Full report as download here
More on the framework - the governance system

Implementation from executive summary

Actions not to take
Bearing in mind the various challenges and barriers that we explored, we thought it useful to flag up some ideas or actions that we did not favour.
• More regulation
• Setting up a new web site on governance, unless it is integrated with other communication methods and serves a community of practice
• Trying to establish a community of practice or network that ignores existing networks
• Setting up any new organization or structure without a clear development process to engage key interests
• Adopting a southern focus to investment
• Focusing on charities and trustees alone.

Education and training for members

Apprenticeship system to train more 'specialists'

An employment mediation, arbitration and advice service

Action and peer learning

Action Research projects

Charity Commission review visits

Monitoring systems and processes

Partnerships and Governance

A harmonisation of regulation and accountability