Richmond upon Thames

Council for Voluntary Service

Governance

Introduction

Purpose

This is a series of 11 factsheets designed to:

• Give you a broad understanding of what governance is
• Clarify the roles, responsibilities and liabilities of those who govern the organisation
• Familiarise you with key governance resources
• Help you identify and develop the skills you need as a trustee
• Provide you with a selection of practical step by step ways to review your organisation’s governance and develop a prioritised action plan

Are These Factsheets For Me?

The factsheets are primarily intended for anyone who is part of the main decision making group of the organisation, whether they are called trustees, management committee members, governors, the board or some other title. They may also be of interest to others in an organisation that would like to understand more about how their organisation is governed.

Overview of Content

The 11 factsheets are:

Factsheet 0: Introduction to Factsheets (59 kb)
Factsheet 1: Trusteeship (71 kb)
Factsheet 2: Where Do I Start - Governing Documents (55 kb)
Factsheet 3: What is Governance? (57 kb)
Factsheet 4: What is my Role? 83 kb
Factsheet 5: Board Liabilities 68 kb
Factsheet 6 Is your Structure Right? 73 kb
Factsheet 7 Being a Charity and Registering 59 kb
Factsheet 8 How do we go about Implementing Good Governance? 68 kb
Factsheet 9 Where can I find more information? 93 kb
Factsheet 10 Help - I still have questions! 53 kb
Factsheet 11 Factsheet Review 53 kb

Each factsheet is broken down into a number of bite-sized sections, beginning with an introduction and ending with a short review. They also include selected references to other useful resources, and links to them if they are online.

Pre-requisites

Overall, these factsheets assume no prior knowledge or experience. If there are factsheets on subjects you already feel confident about, you do not have to work through them. However, it is suggested that you scan them briefly to confirm your knowledge and to refresh your memory as later factsheets assume knowledge of the content of earlier factsheets.

Outcomes
At the end of this series of factsheets, you will have:

• An understanding of what governance is
• Knowledge of your role, responsibilities and liabilities
• Familiarity with key governance resources
• A program of self-development
• A prioritised action plan for improving your organisation’s governance

Further Help
If you:

• Are unsure whether the factsheets are what you need
• Have questions not answered by a factsheet
• Want further clarification on any point
• Would like help applying a factsheet to your organisation’s particular situation
• or for any other reason would like to discuss your needs with an Adviser

please click the contact link below. The Adviser is available to help by phone, post or e-mail.

Click here for contact information

Sources
The Charity Commission (CC) and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) are the two main bodies that provide governance information to the voluntary sector. In the case of the Charity Commission, it also provides regulation.

The aim of these factsheets is not to duplicate their extensive resources but to give an introduction to them. Since these two large organisations provide information to all charities including very large charities, their publications and websites contain a huge amount of information. It can therefore be quite hard for smaller organisations to identify what to read first and what is relevant to them.

These factsheets aim to provide a basic summary based on their guidance and to signpost you to various definitive resources on their sites in a sequence, which will enable you to cover the basics. Once your organisation is familiar with the basics, you will be in a good position to explore the sites more fully and make good use of their truly extensive resources.

References

These factsheets will refer you to the Charity Commission and NCVO web sites:
Charity Commission: www.charity-commission.gov.uk
NCVO website: www.askncvo.org.uk

Training
The ‘What Is Governance?’ section can be delivered as a 3-hour workshop session to your board, at a selection of daytime, evening and weekend times. To find out more about this, please contact the Advisor.

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