The new Governance Code – I’ve now read it, and here’s my tuppence.
People often hear the word ‘governance’ and think it means just the tick box policies and procedures. Got a conflict of interest policy? Great!
But really charity governance is about people. It’s about people coming together to do something positive and important, in an environment that is extremely challenging.
The old Governance Code wasn’t entirely explicit on the tick box areas, while it also downplayed some of the people stuff. It tended to focus on the overall outcome – what perfect looked like – and that made it overly aspirational and very difficult for Boards to understand when they were far away from the targets.
Its ‘small’ charity version was also laughably set at the £1m mark, ignoring the needs of the sub £100k charities that make up the vast majority of our sector. The new Code has merged it all into one, with some extras listed for the larger charities. On the one hand that makes sense for the majority of my clients, but on the other there remains a glaring need for a proper small charities version which I will continue to plug with my own mini-governance review for small charities.
Moving on.
Aside from that, the new Code is about three steps forward. It breaks down each pillar into three sections: Behaviours, Policy/Process/Practice, and suggested evidence and assurance.
What this has done is make it both more user friendly, as well as much harder for Boards to think they’re meeting good practice when they’re not. It also helps to work as suggestions for what might be the next steps.
While this is great and will help charities do more on their own, I remain a big believer in external governance reviews. Self-assessment doesn’t work.
“You would say that”, I hear you sneer. “You are a governance reviewer, of course you don’t want Boards self-assessing”.
Putting my self interest aside, I’ve delivered more governance reviews than I can count, and I’ve read dozens of self-assessments and then compared them to my own independent findings. The reality is that performance and confidence are negatively correlated. The best Boards will be focussed on what they need to change. The worst think they’re already perfect.
The new Governance Code will be a more useful tool than the old one was – it really should help charities put in place steps before they bring the reviewers in – but the need for external review remains as essential as ever.
And now for the moan.
There’s a single word in the new code that I hate with a passion.
‘Courteous’.
Shudder.
Trustees are told to be ‘respectful and courteous’. Respectful? 100%.
Courteous? This is the most singularly unhelpful thing to have put in here.
The scourge of our sector are rigid, middle class, British manners. They hold us back from debate and disagreement. They limit access and undermine inclusion. They contribute to the reality that EDI is easily and consistently the worst performing pillar in every single charity I have ever reviewed.
“How on earth could courtesy be a bad thing?” I hear you ask. I know it goes against instinct but, as a migrant to this wonderful country, let me explain.
Courtesy is a much more varied idea than people think. One person’s courtesy is another’s rudeness. I’m an Australian who has lived in the UK for 20 years. I quickly learned on arrival that Australian friendliness is often perceived as rudeness here, while British restraint definitely comes across to me as discourteous. Neither come across as disrespectful. Courtesy is too specific, too conditioned to class, to nationality, to social groups, to sectors.
In a sector that struggles to get any kind of diversity in place, we don’t need more confusion about what politeness means, or any more rigidity around standards of corporate meeting behaviour. We need to break open those norms and emphasise engagement, constructive debate, and positive disagreement. We need embracing of different cultures, socio-economic practices, and views of what is and isn’t polite.
That one word made my heart sink.
I hope it’s nowhere to be found in the next version.
Felicia Willow is a governance expert, strategist and consultant, available for governance reviews via Willow Charity Consulting (willowcharityconsulting.co.uk). She is also the Director of Interims for Impact, where she places interim leaders and supports Boards to strengthen their resilience through periods of change, transition and crisis (interimsforimpact.co.uk).