Governance

Our Aims To Govern the Charity ResponsiblyOur Articles of Association provide that Family Action may have up to 15 Trustees. There are three committees of the Trustee Board - the Audit Committee, Quality Committee and the Trustee Recruitment and Effectiveness Committee.

The recruitment of Trustees is steered through the Trustee Recruitment and Effectiveness Committee, chaired by the Chair of the Trustee Board.  We assess the strengths of the board and skills that we need for effective governance.  To Provide Effective Governance Through the Trustee Board and CommitteesThe Trustee Board meets seven times a year and holds an Annual General Meeting in November; the Audit, Quality and Trustee Recruitment and Effectiveness Committee meet three times a year.  Family Action Trustees held an ‘Away Day’ in May 2007 to plan the objectives for the coming year. Review of Family Action GovernanceThe Charities Act and Companies Act have been enacted and we have amended our Memorandum and Articles of Association to reflect these.  In June 2006, Trustees agreed to review our governance arrangements to ensure we have the best arrangements in place to govern a large national charity with over £20 million turnover.  The proposed changes were agreed at our AGM in November 2007.

The day-to-day management of the charity is delegated to the Chief Executive, Helen Dent. She works within guidelines, which set out her delegated authority, called Executive Limitations. To Manage Principal Advisers ResponsiblyFamily Action retains a number of advisers.  The auditors, haysmacintyre, are subject to re-appointment annually at our AGM.  The charity has banked with Coutts and Company for over 100 years, and their charges are regularly reviewed.  Receivership client accounts are held at Barclays.  We use three firms of lawyers depending on the specialist nature of the advice we need.  Our principal charity lawyers are Russell-Cooke LLP.  Our investment managers are JP Morgan. To Provide Strategic Leadership of the CharityUsually the trustees agree a Strategic Plan every three years to guide the development of Family Action.  In view of the takeover of fsu services, and the funding changes for children’s services, the Trustees decided that a new Strategic Plan should be prepared to guide our activities. This was agreed in December 2006 and will guide our development through 2007 and 2008. We have set five key objectives, but our targets change annually to guide the future improvement and development of our services.