Trustees’ Week: Updated guidance from the Charity Commission on trustee meetings

The Charity Commission has also recently published updated guidance on charity meetings (CC48), which sets out how charities should conduct meetings and ensure good governance and compliance with legal obligations. The guidance covers all charity meetings, for example, trustee meetings and AGMs. 

The updated guidance is an acknowledgment of post-pandemic shifts in increasing use of virtual and hybrid meetings. The guidance confirms you can hold meetings face to face, virtually or a hybrid of both. It's important to check that your governing document is up to date and reflects what you do in practice.

Apart form the changes around the way meetings are held, the guidance also highlights the need for charities to conduct meetings efficiently, ensuring that they are well organised, inclusive, and focus on key decision making. 

Meetings should comply with the requirements of charity law and the charity’s governing document including, for example, ensuring notice is given in line with the provisions, that there is a quorum of trustees present to conduct the charity’s business and that records are kept.  Trustees should receive papers well in advance of their meetings and should be prepared and engaged to support sound governance and decision making.

The Charity Commission’s updated guidance on decision making is really helpful in making sure decisions are made properly and transparently.

Here are some things to consider when reviewing your governing document: 

• How votes will be held at virtual meetings 

• Whether all meetings will be virtual or hybrid 

• How to give notice of meetings