The Board of Trustees has ultimate responsibility for what the National Trust does, consistent with section 97 (1) of the Charities Act 1993, which states that charity Trustees are ‘the persons having the general control and management of the administration of a charity.’ This responsibility extends to maintaining appropriate oversight of the Trust’s subsidiary companies.
The role of the Board of Trustees is to:
- ensure that the Trust has a clear vision and a strategy focused on its achievement;
- ensure that the Trust meets its statutory purposes and retains its ethos and values;
- ensure that the Trust complies with its legal and regulatory requirements;
- act as guardians of the charity’s assets, both tangible and intangible, and ensure the financial stability of the organisation;
- agree performance targets for senior management and hold management to account.
Our Trustees shape our strategy by:
- ensuring that the Trust pursues sound and proper principles, policies and procedures in relation to all areas of its work;
- shaping and approving the Trust’s strategic plan, identifying priorities and developing a long-term financial strategy to ensure adequate resources;
- engaging actively in strategic decision-making and policy decisions to implement the agreed strategy;
- keeping under review the long-term development of the Trust in the light of the political, economic and social environment in which it operates;
- approving the Trust’s annual budget and maintaining a three to five year forward view of the Trust’s finances;
- approving major expenditure and transactions.
Our Trustees inspire effective leadership by:
- appointing the Director-General and reviewing his or her performance and agreeing other senior appointments;
- agreeing and delegating appropriate levels of responsibility and authority to the Chair, Committees of the Board of Trustees, Board members, groups of Board members and the Director-General;
- lending their own expertise to the Trust;
- providing access to outside experts and others who can help the Trust;
- acting as advocates of the Trust;
- advising and giving feedback to the Director-General and Executive Team.
Our Trustees monitor performance by:
- ensuring that appropriate risk management and effective internal control systems are in place;
- ensuring that the necessary management information systems exist to assess the Trust’s performance and progress in meeting its objectives, including the evaluation of operational effectiveness and efficiency, compliance with laws and regulations and the reliability of management and financial information.
Our Trustees ensure accountability by:
- acting in accordance with the Nolan Committee’s Seven Principles of Public Life – selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership;
- monitoring actively the performance of the executive management, ensuring clear accountability;
- accounting for the Board of Trustees’ actions in appropriate ways as required by law and good practice – approving the form and content of the Annual Review to members and the Annual Report and Financial Statements, and making the arrangements for the general meetings of the Trust;
- making declarations of inalienability;
- proposing changes to the National Trust Acts or Byelaws;
- reporting appropriately to the Council and ensuring that the Council has the opportunity to express its views to the Board of Trustees;
- reviewing its own performance and effectiveness at regular intervals;