Subject: 12 November GAG meeting summary We have had another meeting of the governance advisory group last Thursday and are making good progress. By way of minutes for that meeting, the following points were discussed following a review of the minutes of the previous meeting set out in my email of 8/10/20: 1. Trustee code of conduct - the final draft of this had been circulated prior to the meeting and was confirmed clear of comments from the group, subject to Mike’s thoughts as he was unfortunately unable to attend the meeting. I have separately received a couple of comments from MTG, which I have now reflected in the attached. Please let me know if you have any comments or queries in relation to it. 2. Terms of reference - Chris had kindly circulated drafts of the TORs for the family support advisory group before the meeting and these were discussed. It was suggested that, consistent with the other advisory groups, the chair would be appointed by the board for an 3 year term initially, followed by two year terms. It was also agreed that certain of the responsibilities should be updated to reflect the new objects of the charity (which were amended over the summer). Chris has subsequently circulated a final version of the TORs to Karina for circulation to the Family Support Advisory Group for comments. 3. Register of interests for advisory groups - we discussed outstanding register of interest returns. I understand that Karina has kindly circulated these to all advisory group members for completion and signature. Please let us know where we stand in respect of receiving completed forms from the board and each of the advisory groups, and if we can assist with this. 4. Complaints policy - Ines had kindly circulated a draft complaints policy ahead of the meeting. This was approved, subject to removing the square brackets. 5. Further draft policies - MTG have now approved the revised drafts of the data protection policy and ABC policy and final versions of these are attached in case you or Karina have any comments. In particular, the data protection policy may need to be revisited once the approach to data protection issues and the outsourcing of the data protection officer function has been decided (in case helpful, the group confirmed that they were in favour of this approach). The group noted that, other than the risk management policy and risk register, financial controls policy, investment policy and cash management reserves policy (which we understand Vince and Finance Advisory Group have on their agenda - see 6 below) and the policies relating to travel and expenses and a gift and hospitality register (which are nice to haves but not essential for the time being), we now have largely agreed all of the policies on MTG's list which was shared with the board. Subject to any comments which you or Karina may have on these, I will start preparing them for submission to the board. I understand that the next board meeting is scheduled for this week, but suggest that it would make sense to aim to have a number of these policies ready for approval at the following board meeting. Please let me know if you disagree. 6. Risk and finance policies - there was a discussion in relation to the risk assessment process and financial policies. Ian confirmed that the Finance Advisory Group was taking primary responsibility for leading the board through the risk assessment process and for producing the finance related policies mentioned above (Vince, please let me know if you need input from our group on this at any stage). Ian also mentioned that at some point in the near future there would be a need for the charity to appoint a financial controller, and that in the meantime Andy
Folwell had done a great job on the accounts. The group noted that it would be helpful for it to have sight of the draft annual report. 7. Date of next meeting - it was agreed that we would have another meeting before year end to approve the final policies mentioned above.