Governance - Intro

The Board of Trustees is responsible for setting the strategic direction and providing leadership to the organisation. It is committed to ensuring that high standards of governance are achieved. All policies and practices in connection with systems and processes and the overall direction, effectiveness, supervision and accountability of the organisation continue to be examined.

In May 2005 four additional trustees were recruited to the Board, drawn from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences and bringing a combination of skills needed to govern a charity such as Lifeline, dealing with vulnerable beneficiaries. These additional Trustees were recruited via an advertisement in the Guardian newspaper and other appropriate journals, thus fulfilling the commitment of the Board to recruit in an open and transparent manner and in line with best practice guidelines.

In January and February 2006 the Charity Commission conducted a review visit to the Lifeline Project. The purpose of the Commission's review visit was to examine key aspects of Lifeline's administration, including our charitable activities, governance and finance arrangements etc. The visit enabled the Commission to provide appropriate and pragmatic advice on legal requirements and good practice. The Commission issued a comprehensive report of their findings to the Board of Trustees in March 2006.
The Commission fully acknowledged the work undertaken in connection with our root and branch review of governance and stated that Lifeline had established a comprehensive governance framework, which met effective governance standards as far as the Charity Commission was concerned. The Commission commented that indeed in some areas Lifeline set an example with innovative or uncommon practices. The Commission also acknowledged that our governance review had taken stock of new guidance which had been published since the Charity Commission leaflet CC60 (the Hallmarks of an Effective Charity) namely Good Governance - a code for the voluntary sector (www.governancehub.org.uk). The Commission also commented that the Trustees' Annual Report was of a very good standard in its description of activities and governance arrangements. In connection with the 2004/2005 accounts the Commission stated that our accounts were very informative and of a good presentational standard.

In December 2005 the Board of Trustees agreed to recruit additional Trustees in order to continue the good work already undertaken by Board members and to improve the sub committee membership composition, by strengthening the skills of the Board. The Trustees viewed this initiative as a continuation of the previous exercise. The Trustees also agreed to use a firm of recruitment consultants in order to recruit the best possible Trustees for Lifeline. In addition to this initiative an advertisement was also placed in the Guardian newspaper, to ensure openness and transparency. The recruitment company conducted a profiled search exercise and as a result of their work and applications received via the advertisement, a number of potential trustees were interviewed in March and April 2006. An additional seven Trustees were recruited and joined the Board in September 2006.