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Governance Audit tool
This governance audit tool has been designed to allow the assessment of the overall governance of any co-operative or community enterprise.
You will need to be, or become, a registered user of this site in order to use the tool. This is so results can be stored against your user account and accessed later.
Click here to begin or read on for full details as to how the governance audit works.
How to use the governance audit tool
The tool may be used by a governing body for self-assessment, but it was designed to be used by a facilitator or adviser. A discussion with the governing body can be facilitated using the 9 sections in the following tool.
In each section, a series of statements is rated by the governing body - given a value between 1 and 5, where:
- Statement is false: e.g. There are no processes, policies, actions or documents in place. Choose this option also if the governing body (or member of the governing body) is unsure as to whether the statement is true or false, as this is an issue in itself - make a corresponding note in the comment column.
- Statement is partly false: e.g. The organisation is able to reference some of the documents, policies or procedures, but there is no evidence of these being embedded or implemented in practice.
- Statement is neutral: e.g. The organisation has the policies, procedures and documents in place, and can reference them, but the evidence of them being embedded and live is weak. Use this option also if you are confident that whilst the statement is untrue, it is not relevant to your organisation.
- Statement is partly true: e.g. The organisation has relevant policies and knowledge, but there is room for improvement in terms of embedding and using the processes, or undertaking the actions.
- Statement is true: e.g. Processes and policies are practiced and embedded in the organisation and continuous improvements to them are made.
There is an option to indicate where the governing body do not understand the statement. This will score the statement low at 0 as this is a governance issue in itself.
The tool will generate a diagram illustrating the overall governance of the organisation, together with some suggestions for actions to address low scoring areas.
The governance audit can be revisited and act as a catalyst for further discussion between the adviser and the governing body as to any actions or further work required
Click here to start using the tool.
If you have any questions about the use of the tool, please do not hesitate to contact us:
Co-operatives UK Legal Services Team
Holyoake House
Hanover Street
Manchester
M60 0AS
Tel: 0161 246 2900
Email: legal@ uk.coop