Trustees Week: 13-17 November
Trustees’ Week is an annual event to showcase the great work that trustees do, share resources to support trustees and highlight opportunities for people from all walks of life to get involved and make a difference.
At NCVO we will be celebrating the contribution that trustees make by making some key resources free and offering discounts on lots of training and publications which relate to governance. Don’t miss out on these – check out our Trustees’ Week page for all the details.
Yesterday we also hosted our Trustee Conference where there were lots of great sessions, discussion and debate on effective governance. In addition to expert lead workshops we heard from a range of interesting speakers including:
- Simon Entwisle of the ICO who emphasised the importance of moving from compliance to commitment on data protection and outlined some of the support available to help organisation become GDPR compliant
- Abbie Rumbold of BWB who took a broader view on trends and what economic trends, changes in digital, and complex user needs might mean for service delivery
- Peter Montagnon from the Institute of Business Ethics who emphasised the importance of ethics and behaviours at a board level. He also highlighted where the new charity governance code supports the development of positive behaviours and ethics.
If you weren’t able to be there, check out the Twitter feed #trusteeconf for some of the highlights.
Taken on Trust research
Earlier this week the Charity Commission has published the most comprehensive research into trusteeship and support for over a decade. The results tell us a great deal about who trustees are, how they are recruited, how they are supported and how boards operate. The objective has been to better understand the perspectives and characteristics of the individuals serving as charity trustees. While there are lots of encouraging findings in the research and the report serves as a reminder of the important role trustees play, there are also lots of lessons for the sector – particularly around the diversity of boards. You can read my take on the research.
Governance forum
Registration for our governance forum on 4 December is still open. The forum is an opportunity for governance professionals to come together and share ideas and best practice. Registration is £35. The next forum will provide an opportunity to explore the Taken on Trust research into trustees. We will ask what these findings mean for the sector and how best to address some of the recommendations.
We are also pleased to welcome the Charity Commission back to the forum to offer an update from the regulator.
We will take a look at the sports sector and consider where there is cross over and shared learning from the implementation of the new sport code of governance.
Reminder on annual return consultation
The charity commission is consulting about changes proposed to AR18, the next version of the annual return which will apply to charities’ financial years starting on or after 1 January 2018.
Upcoming training and events…
10% discount on the following training courses, if you book during Trustees’ Week (13-17 November). Just enter the discount code TW17 on the booking form when you book your place.
- Charity trustees: Induction and refresher – 8 December 2018
- Charity trustees: Induction and refresher – 12 January 2018
- Supporting good governance: Effective board servicing and governance administration – 26 January 2018
- Charity trustees: Induction and refresher – 9 March 2018
- High performance board: Using the governance code 16 March 2018
Dan Francis is NCVO’s senior governance consultant. For more regular updates follow @mynameisdanfran or @NCVO on Twitter.
Dan is responsible for NCVO’s governance consultancy offer, focusing on governance reviews, board performance and trustee training. He joined NCVO from the National Union of Students (NUS) where, as a long standing consultant, he supported the organisational development of local students’ unions as charities. 
