The Developing Governance Group

It was formed following the Developing Governance Seminar in May 2006 at which it was overwhelmingly agreed that the sector needs its own set of standards in governance which must be led by the voluntary and community sector and not by Government.

To date, the Developing Governance Group has concentrated on producing a Code of Good Governance for the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland. The Code, which was officially launched in June 2008 by the Minister for Social Development, sets out best practice to help and support management committees/boards of any size. It is envisaged that voluntary and community organisations can state compliance with either the full Code or the principles of the Code.

Thanks to funding secured from Lloyds TSB Foundation the Code has now been printed in a pocket sized booklet and committee/board room posters have also been produced. Each of the Developing Governance Group members have made a commitment to distribute the booklet and a poster to each of their members. The Group is currently working on redesigning the diycommiteeguide website to map all of its online resources to each of the 7 Principles of the Code so as to provide practical resources for each of the principles of the Code. This will hopefully be completed by the end of 2008.

Developing Governance Group Members

The Developing Governance Group is currently made up of the following sector support organisations: Age Concern NI, Community Evaluation NI, Community Change, NICVA, Early Years (formerly NIPPA), NI Sports Forum/ Sports NI, North West Community Network, Rural Community Network, St John Ambulance, Supporting Communities NI, Volunteer Development Agency and Youthnet.

For further information contact the Secretariat which is provided by Denise McCann, Member Services Manager at NICVA, denise.mccann@nicva.org, 028 9087 7777, or Denise Hayward, Assistant Director at Volunteer Development Agency, Denise@volunteering-ni.org, 028 9023 6100.