The Charity Commission has published two new online guides for trustees.
The regulator has produced a trustee handbook, which is designed to ensure a smooth handover between departing and newly-appointed board members by answering common questions. It includes a checklist of documents new trustees should receive, a suggested timeline for preparing a charity’s accounts and guidance on using the commission’s online services.
A separate online guide, produced by the commission with the school governor recruitment charity SGOSS and the Department for Education, provides an introduction to charity law for governors of academies, foundation and voluntary schools.
More than 2,000 academy schools and 8,000 foundation and voluntary schools are charities and exempt from regulation by the commission, but their school governors have the same responsibilities as trustees of registered charities.
"These new guides will help trustees get to grips with their role and help charities develop their inductions for new board members," said Sam Younger, chief executive of the commission. "These packs are not designed to be exhaustive – trustees will have to refer to the commission’s more detailed guidance when making decisions on behalf of their charities – but they do serve as starting points for inexperienced trustees."
