Governance reviews

Effective governance is needed now more than ever in today's rapidly changing environment.

Governance arrangements need to evolve alongside other changes as a charity  grows or changes its focus. The challenge often lies in the board providing strategic leadership, ensuring it governs rather than manages and ensuring it is able to evaluate the charity’s impact in relation to its strategy.

The elements of governance you need to consider range from trustee numbers, committee structures, levels of understanding of responsibilities; to the effectiveness of meetings and the performance evaluation of the individual trustees and those in the key roles of chair and chief executive.

Ensuring governance works will be down to the combined efforts of trustees and the staff team. Whilst the responsibility for governance rests with the trustees, the framework for supporting the governance function will typically co-ordinated by the staff team. The effectiveness of the any governance framework is determined not just by the structures and skills of individuals involved, but also the behaviour of both trustees and staff.

We can support you with a review of all aspects of your governance or a strand. We can even take on simple reviews of the terms of reference of committees. Typically the process does involve talking to both trustees and staff. Engaging people in the in the review is as important as the recommendations that come out at the end of the process.

We tailor and agree the objectives of any review to individual client’s needs. Typcially they include:

  • To establish how effectively the current governance arrangements function
  • To identify any aspects which do not comply with requirements and best practice
  • To make recommendations which may assist in enhancing the governance arrangements to ensure they support the trustees in carrying out their responsibilities and enable the society to achieve its objects in the best way possible i.e. to ensure they are “fit for purpose”

We can also tailor the work we carry out to achieve your objectives, they often involve the following:

  • We review relevant policies and procedures, constitutional documents, examples of meeting papers to ensure we understand how your existing governance arrangements operate
  • We interview trustees and staff to gain an understanding and appreciation of what works well and where arrangements could be enhanced or improved
  • We will critically compare your current arrangements to regulatory compliance, our understanding of best practice and your organisation’s strategy, current operations/stage of development
  • We review the information gathered from interviews and research and develop recommendations in consultation with staff and trustees which will enhance your existing governance arrangements

Judith’s responsive approach ensured the process itself was smooth and delivered to our timescale. The report has provided us wisdom and insight, a practical action plan and agenda for change. I have no hesitation in recommending Judith Miller and Sayer Vincent.

Gerri McHugh, CEO of RSTMH

Contact us on svinfo@sayervincent.co.uk or call 020 7841 6360 to talk to someone about governance.