Adopting Good Governance

In 2007, the Cultural Leadership Programme asked Graham Devlin and Nicola Thorold to review a range of governance issues in the cultural sector that had been identified in the 2006 CLP report, Governance Leadership. In particular Graham and Nicola were asked to explore:

· The desirability of the cultural sector adopting an existing governance code and whether that code should also contain a culture-specific annexe covering issues unique to the sector.

· The development of a new framework through which cultural organisations might be supported through challenging times.

· The frequently expressed view that the currently dominant constitution model for independent arts organisations (the limited liability company with charitable status) is inappropriate and should be challenged.

The documents attached form a cross-referring suite of papers dealing with these issues:

Adopting Good Governance

Supporting Cultural Organisations Through Challenging Times

Could Cultural Organisations Deliver Better If They Weren’t Charities

Whilst they are closely inter-linked, each is intended to be read separately. Taken together, their conclusions and recommendations can be summarised as:


1. The cultural sector should adopt the Governance Code (Good Governance: A Code for the Voluntary and Community Sector) and other models and guidance developed by the Governance Hub.

2. The only topic of particular relevance to the cultural sector that is not covered appropriately in Good Governance is artistic/creative risk. Adopting Good Governance offers guidance on how this issue might be addressed.

3. In support of best practice, Adopting Good Governance also includes guidance on Governance resources available at the time of writing; check lists for induction, board audits, policies and procedures; a list of characteristics of Good Governance, and a suggested approach to self-evaluation (The Health Check)

4. The Health Check is also central to the approach suggested in Supporting Cultural Organisations Through Challenging Times, which is based on the premise that cultural organisations should be enabled to be responsible for their own destiny and that a ‘grown-up’ relationship with their principal funder(s) should allow them to address challenging issues through a collaborative and supportive framework.

5. Could Cultural Organisations Deliver Better If They Weren’t Charities concludes that, whilst the charitable model may not be perfect, it is not itself the primary cause of the board/executive difficulties that were frequently reported through the consultation processes leading to these papers. Rather, it is suggested that these problems arise from behavioural and attitudinal disjunctions and that a number of remedial actions could be taken to help address these.

We would welcome any feedback on the papers. Please send comments to: [email protected]