Codes of conduct for trustees - addressing tricky and sensitive issues on the board

CTN is regularly approached by trustees with concerns about an issue on their board, such as a trustee being dominant or not turning up to meetings. These issues are often very sensitive, difficult to resolve and can cause a fair amount of stress. As the national charity that supports trustees we are exploring ways of supporting trustees to address such issues.

Many charities have codes of conduct for their trustees, but in our experience, they are rarely used. However, these codes of conduct could be used to address some of the issues which trustees experience on their boards.

CTN is putting together resources to help trustee boards develop codes of conduct that are appropriate for their organisations, and to support them to use those codes of conduct once they are in place. This will include model codes of conduct, guidance on putting together a code of conduct and case studies about how other organisations have used codes of conduct.

We need your help to make sure that these resources address the needs of trustees in the most helpful and practical way possible. We would like to hear from you about -

• the kinds of trustee behaviours that have caused you concern and difficulties.
• your experience of putting in place and using a code of conduct, even if you’ve never used it (and we’d love to receive a copy of your code of conduct)

We’d love to hear your thoughts by email or phone - contact Claire Farmer on claire.f@trusteenet.org.uk or call on 01483 230 289.

Alternatively or additionally, you can complete our confidential online survey by clicking here