Trustees may also find a related set of standards produced by the UK Workforce Hub useful.
About the code
Good Governance: a code for the voluntary and community sector is being funded and promoted nationally as part of a government initiative by The Governance Hub.
The organisations involved in producing it included:
Our review
Help the Hospices and the Forum of Chairmen of Independent Hospices reviewed the Code alongside our other governance guides and produced a commentary on it.
We give the Code our full endorsement. We believe it is comprehensive, timely, easy to understand and widely applicable to all hospices. We urge hospice boards to audit their current practices against the Code’s recommendations.
The code:
-
is advisory and the Governance Hub is inviting compliant organisations to state this in their annual report and other reports
-
is compliant with all current legal and regulatory requirements in England, including current charity provisions; nearly all of the recommendations are equally relevant in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
-
fits comfortably alongside the Charity Commission guidance on The Hallmarks of an Effective Charity and The Essential Charity Trustee
-
is being integrated into our own Board Development Programme, Trustee Induction Pack and other courses and publications for board members.
National Occupational Standards
The UK Workforce Hub has launched National Occupational Standards for Trustees and Management Committee Members. These describe the areas of responsibility for trustees and seek to raise trustee standards.
The Standards are cross-referenced to the Governance Code and are intended to offer guidance rather than to be compulsory. Hospice trustees may find the ‘pocket-sized edition’ of the Standards easier to refer to than the full pack.
