A seat at the table
Board Essentials.
A day for new board members, trustees and audit committee members on what good governance asks of them, and how to do it well.
- Level
- Immerse
- Learning time
- 10 hours
- Where
- Boards and governance
- Price
- £249
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
New board members, trustees and audit committee members
Overview
Joining a board, trust or audit committee brings responsibilities that are easy to underestimate. A seat at the table sets out governance as a discipline in its own right: the board's core duties, the chair and chief executive relationship, and the board's role in testing strategy rather than writing it. It covers risk, assurance and oversight, risk appetite and tolerance, internal audit and the Global Internal Audit Standards, the audit committee under CIPFA's Position Statement, assurance mapping and counter fraud. Meeting craft, from agenda and papers to structuring discussion, sits alongside ethical culture, and a capstone including Thurrock Council's investment failure brings it together.
Aims
This programme aims to help new board members, trustees and audit committee members contribute with confidence from their first meeting. It develops a clear understanding of what good governance asks of them, and the judgement to ask the right questions, test assurance properly and hold the line on ethics and accountability.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Explain the core duties of a board and its committees, including the distinct roles of chair, chief executive, internal audit and the audit committee.
- Assess the quality of risk management, assurance and counter fraud arrangements by asking focused, evidence-seeking questions in meetings.
- Contribute to board and committee decisions that test strategy, set a clear risk appetite and model an ethical culture of accountability.
What you'll develop
By the end of this Immerse, you will be able to:
- Distinguish a governance question from a management question and explain the board's eight core duties in plain terms.
- Explain the board's four strategic roles and place your own board honestly on the spectrum from ratify to co-create.
- Identify which of Lencioni's four meeting types fits a conversation and recognise the common signs of a mismatch.
- Describe the structure of the Global Internal Audit Standards and the role they give the board or audit committee in governing internal audit.
- Explain the core functions of an audit committee and why its independence from management is its greatest asset.
- Explain the fraud triangle of pressure, opportunity and rationalisation, and use it to reduce the conditions in which fraud occurs.
- Distinguish risk appetite, risk tolerance and risk capacity and explain why a board needs all three.
- Apply the programme's ethical themes, from blind spots to culture, to analyse a real or illustrative case.
Built from 8 parts.
10 hours of learning.
- 01The bones of good governanceGovernance principles, structures and processesBitesize · Good Governance1 module
- 02The top tableRoles of the chair, chief executive and boardBitesize · Good Governance1 module
- 03Looking ahead, looking outBoard strategy, risk and assuranceBitesize · Good Governance2 modules
- 04From agenda to decisionMeeting agendas, papers and decision makingBitesize · Chairing Meetings, Boards and Committees2 modules
- 05The independent eyeInternal audit standards and audit committeesBitesize · Audit and Assurance2 modules
- 06Seeing the whole pictureBoard assurance frameworks and counter fraudBitesize · Audit and Assurance2 modules
- 07How much risk is enough?Risk assessment and board risk appetiteBitesize · Strategic Risk2 modules
- 08A culture where integrity holdsBuilding an ethical organisational cultureBitesize · Ethics, Integrity and Standards2 modules