NUS Services: A case study in improving your governance

Over the last year ACEVO has been exploring the need to improve governance for third sector organisations. Improving their governance remains a top issue for ACEVO's members, second only to funding in their top concerns.

In an effort to tackle a lack of confidence in the performance of third sector boards, ACEVO, in partnership with Assess Us, has developed an online tool which offers a practical assessment to board members, and advice on how to up their game. ACEVO's 'Governance Review Service' involves a confidential online assessment of board members and the CEO followed by practical advice on improving governance practices.

The assessment is based on four components:

1. A review of the board against the Code of Governance published in 2005
2. A review of the CEO's performance in leadership management and delivery
3. A review of the chair's performance in leading and managing the board
4. A board skills self-assessment to identify any gaps

NUS Services first used ACEVO's Governance Review Service in 2007 and are now committed to performing it annually. Dave Lewis, Company Chair and Ian King, Chief Executive Officer, explain further:

NUS Services is a purchasing consortium working across 220 students' unions in higher education, organising and co-ordinating national procurement deals, income generation opportunities and the commercial development of students' unions. As an organisation, NUS Services has a net turnover of about £4 million, although we co-ordinate over £60 million across our members, supported by 52 staff involved in a range of services including procurement, financial billing, marketing and customer support.

With regards to governance we have a board of fifteen. Four are representatives of the National Union of Students (NUS) - including the National Treasurer (Chair of the Board), National President and Chief Executive. The majority of the board are from our shareholder membership, directly elected at the AGM, with four being permanent members of staff of those students' unions (four year post), and five being elected student officers (one year post). Before the review we had one non-executive external board member. In addition, we have four committees - financial resources, ethics and environment, business and enterprise, purchasing and scrutiny - combining a pool of over 40 volunteers drawn from different students' unions. It is important to us that the volunteers are at the same time both the decision makers and the operators. This ensures our strategic vision is responsive.

The review promised good value for money and the chance to address underlying governance issues. When we had our initial conversation with ACEVO we liked the questions and the design. We had always done an annual assessment of voluntary experience, but we were hitting a barrier in that ex-board members had a different analysis of the challenges of governance than when they were on the board. Given half of the board can change on a yearly basis, we believed that any barriers to participation: shyness, politeness, or perhaps they just hadn't really clarified in their own heads what the issues were, could be overcome through this anonymous facilitation. Therefore the online survey was of particular appeal, in that it offered an anonymous format to receive constructive feedback. With 102 comments, we were surprised by the number of responses and the detail in which people offered feedback. The online facilitation allowed a much more considered approach from board members, with people much more comfortable explaining their thoughts than had been seen in previous meetings. The outcome of the Review allowed the board to theme its approach in a much more structured way than previous reviews had allowed, with evidence and consensus that we were focusing our energies in the right direction.

In terms of our governance since, board members feel much more confident about our governance arrangements, part of the effect was psychological. People felt able to step up dialogue and we started freeing ourselves from a bog of processes to a constructive way forward. Both the Chair and Chief Executive were empowered to make more informed decisions. As a direct consequence of the review, we changed the format of our meetings and the role of volunteers within the board. We presented a successful proposal to our AGM to increase the number of external advisors across our structure, including an additional external member to our board. Thankfully, we now spend less time at board meetings discussing governance and process!

Following the success of the review, we will be undertaking the process a second time, ensuring that we're not getting stale, and that we can measure our improved performance over the last year. We've definitely seen the benefits. Our governance and our culture have changed for the better. Undergoing such an assessment provides solid evidence for learning and making

Dave Lewis is Company Chair and Ian King is Chief Executive officer of NUS Services Ltd.

Taken from ACEVOs publication network

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