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Governance
member, and to fill the vacancy arising in March 2023
when Christopher Stooke will leave the Board.
The Board of Trustees met five times during the year,
with an additional series of informal meetings in
February to discuss strategy. In addition, there are
two sub-committees of Trustees: the FAIC, which
met four times, and a Governance, Nominations and
Remuneration Committee (GNRC), which met three
times.
All new Trustees are given appropriate induction
into their responsibilities (as laid out in the Charity
Commission’s guidance) and are also provided with
information on the Charity and the Foundation Trust.
Trustees give their time freely and no remuneration
was paid to them nor were any expenses claimed by
them in the year. Trustees are required to declare all
relevant interests and withdraw from decisions where a
conflict of interest arises. The Board keeps a register of
interests for Trustees and senior staff and the details of
related party transactions are disclosed in Note 6 of the
financial statements.
Responsibility for managing the Charity on a day-to-day
basis is delegated to the Chief Executive. The Charity’s
governance framework sets out how these powers are
delegated and defines limits of authority for approval
of financial transactions.
Governance framework
The Charity’s governance framework sets out:
● The role of the Board of Trustees and an annual
Board schedule;
● The process for Board recruitment;
● Job descriptions for officers and process for their
appointment;
● Arrangements for the conduct of Board meetings;
● The scheme of reservation and delegation;
● The committee structure and terms of reference;
● Policies and procedures for financial management,
and performance and risk management;
● Governance policies, including Conflict of Interest
and Trustee Code of Conduct; and
● Policies for governance review and development,
including skills, experience and diversity audits, as
well as individual and collective appraisal.
The Trustees recognise that good governance in
charities is fundamental to success. It also enables
compliance with the law and relevant regulations
and believes that it has robust governance processes
appropriate for the size and activities of the
organisation. The “Charity Governance Code for
larger charities” sets out best practice principles and
recommended practices. The Board will continue
to review its governance processes by reference to
the Code as it develops and grows its activities in
accordance with its strategy.
The Board normally carries out a review of their
effectiveness annually with an independent view
every three years. In 2021/22, a specific review of the
Committee structure, membership and effectiveness
governance was carried out. The outcome of these
reviews was shared with the Committees and reported
to the Board. Actions are being progressed through
the Charity’s operating plan and implementation of the
new strategy. These include standardising our grant
making process and ensuring all Trustees understand
more about the workings of the Committees.
The most important recommendation from the
previous independent review of Board effectiveness
which was carried out in 2019 included actions to be
carried out during the strategy development process
which was completed in March 2022. Although delayed
due to the pandemic, we have now completed the
strategy and incorporated the feedback arising from
engagement on the areas of focus with both hospital
staff and patients through surveys.
The next internal Board effectiveness review will be
carried out in 2022/23.
There are a number of priorities agreed in the Charity’s
strategic plan that
will also address recommended practice set out in
the Code. These are:
1 Ensuring the Charity’s key policies and procedures
continue to support, and are adequate for, the
delivery of the Charity’s aims and, in particular, the
development of its fundraising activities.
2 Evaluating the Charity’s impact by measuring and
assessing results, outputs and outcomes.
3 Developing a more comprehensive process for
ensuring regular communication with the Charity’s
stakeholders, including its beneficiaries.
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