Governance update – March 2022
As 2022 progresses and we (hopefully) move into the final stages of the pandemic, three governance ’themes’ continue to dominate the wider education and nonprofit landscape:
1. Lessons learned during the pandemic
2. Safeguarding and equality
3. Equity, diversity and inclusion
Academies sector
In some aspects, the academy sector is ahead of the game in all three areas. There is a significant amount of high-quality guidance on hand from the DfE, with some 23 specific areas picked out at Academy trusts: governance and broken down into further subject matter. There is a Governance Handbook for academies, regularly updated and tailored very specifically to the academy sector, which has for some time featured extensive sections on, for example, diversity in boards and the promotion of equality.
In other aspects the entire education sector has had to face up to the impact of Everyone’s Invited. However, it would not be a surprise to see the state school sector brought into this realm more expansively in the near future, and appropriate considerations will need to be brought on to the agenda of academy trusts’ governance committees if they haven’t already.
Social care and public sector care operators are struggling with significant safeguarding matters, both historical and current. The academy sector again has extensive and relevant guidance and oversight, such that the arrangements needed to be in place are at a more advanced stage than many organisations and sectors affected by safeguarding concerns. However, the risks around safeguarding are never cancelled out; they are rather mitigated in the best ways possible.
The academy sector, like any other sector, whose activities include the care and welfare of children or vulnerable individuals, must be constantly aware of old and new dangers that could cause or translate into systemic issues.
Despite the sector being outside the immediate scope of some of these current governance pressures, the most recent update of the Academy Trust Handbook, as our next article touches on, has still been focused on improving governance in the sector, and it clearly remains a priority area for the DfE.
This may partly be because of perceived governance failures or weaknesses. However, it is also a reflection that this is a rapidly shifting subject in a fast-moving sector, with a lot of moving parts in trusts’ governance arrangements – and many of those moving parts are moving very quickly.
Lessons learned regarding governance during the pandemic
After any significant or difficult event, a review of lessons learned is always an important step.
The pandemic has been the most testing two years in recent memory. Based on our experiences with our clients, common themes include:
- Most schools will now have a well-tested ’emergency decisions’ policy and procedures.
- During the pandemic, the ‘dotted line’ between trustees being focused on strategic decisions and the senior leadership team (SLT) on operational matters often became blurred – is it now time to reinstate that governance foundation and strategic divide?
- How well did the organisation’s risk register/framework perform and what could be amended for the future (beyond, of course, adding ‘global pandemic forcing complete lockdown’ to the register)?
- Did the trust’s delegated authority framework stand up to the stresses and strains imposed upon it, and were decisions made at the right levels (i.e., at board, committee, senior leadership team, or other levels)?
- Was the reserves policy appropriate (and does it continue to be, two years later)?
The wider charity sector – equality, equity, diversity and inclusion (EED&I)
The 2020 Charity Governance Code refresh marked a step change in this area for the wider nonprofit sector. Every organisation we work with now seems to be considering this area in more detail and is already on some part of the journey towards a more diverse board or governing body. A key element of this is developing and embedding a culture of equity, equality and inclusion into their organisation. A few recent articles and reports that I have found interesting include.
- Several articles in the January 2022 edition of ‘Governance and Leadership’ magazine which was dedicated to EED&I from many different perspectives.
- The joint AGBIS and Farrer & Co publication ‘Towards an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy’
- From Here to Diversity, a practical guide from Action for Trustee Racial Diversity, includes one of my favourite recent quotes around building a diverse board: “Some boards create a false binary between diversity and skills, presenting a situation where either diversity is trumped over the skills needed or vice versa. This is not how we would urge a Chair to approach recruiting for diversity.”
- #iWill publication ‘Getting Young People onto your Trustee Board’
If the above isn’t enough bedtime reading, the remainder of 2022 is sure to deliver more, with a recent new Chair of the Charity Governance Code Steering Group announced, more institutions undertaking ‘lessons learned’ reviews, and further steps taken along their EED&I journey towards agreed objectives.