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Standards for Trustees consultation

Welcome to the consultation on the National Occupational Standards for Trustees and Management Committee Members.

These Standards were developed in 2006 by a Working Group of practicing Trustees from a range of different voluntary and community organisations, and were consulted on widely.

Since 2006, the Standards for Trustees have been very well received – in fact, 5,000 pocket guides have been sold and countless more copies downloaded electronically.

There are four units in the suite of Standards for Trustees and Management Committee Members:

  • Unit 1: Safeguard and promote the values and mission of the voluntary or community organisation
  • Unit 2: Determine the strategy and structure of the voluntary or community organisation
  • Unit 3: Ensure the voluntary or community organisation operates in an effective, responsible and accountable manner
  • Unit 4: Ensure the effective functioning of the voluntary or community organisation’s Board of Trustees

As part of the Standards monitoring process we are currently checking that the Standards for Trustees are still ‘fit for purpose’ and reflect good practice in Trusteeship across the UK.

To do this, we developed a questionnaire to gather feedback on the content of the standards. The questionnaire has now been completed, and we are currently looking at the feedback received.

Please check back to this page for further information about the next phase of the consultation.

Some notes about Standards

What are National Occupational Standards?

  • Standards set out best practice; they describe the standards of performance and underpinning knowledge that are required by individuals to be considered competent in their role
  • They only describe the critical performance and knowledge standards – not those that are ‘nice to have’
  • They are written in ‘outcome’ terms – they describe ‘what’ someone needs to do and know to be considered competent, not ‘how’ they do it
  • They are based around broad functions, not specific activities or processes
  • Standards should be relevant to:
    - organisations across the UK
    - all sizes of organisation

Standards are not:

  • A training scheme or qualification
  • ‘Levelled’, in the way qualifications are
  • Mandatory

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