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Beneficiary trustees not right for all, says Commission

Governance | Gemma Ware | 1 Apr 2008

Beneficiary trustees not right for all, says Commission

The Charity Commission has warned charities to think carefully before bringing beneficiaries onto their trustee boards, after an investigation into mismanagement at a Welsh branch of the mental health charity Mind.

The Commission launched an investigation into the Carmarthen Mind Association after Mind’s network support manager for Wales and former staff members of the branch complained that the majority of the trustees were not capable of carrying out their duty.

The majority of the trustees were service users, predominantly receiving daycare at the charity’s centre in Carmarthen.

In its inquiry report on the case, published last week, the Commission recommended that including beneficiaries on the trustee board was not always appropriate.

It was concerned about the lack of balance on the charity’s board, and that the trustees were failing to get Criminal Records Bureau clearance when recruiting staff for roles working with vulnerable people.

The problems had grown so serious that two major funders, Carmarthenshire County Council and Wales Council for Voluntary Action, had suspended payments to the charity and Mind was considering disaffiliating the Carmarthen branch from its network. Local MP, Nick Ainger, had also written to the Commission about the case.

In March 2007, a month into the inquiry, the trustees told the Commission they wanted to be discharged as they did not have the right skills to manage the charity.

Trustees of neighbouring Pembrokeshire Mind agreed to double up as trustees of the Carmarthen branch in June to get it back on track. As result, the two funders have started up their funding again.

Not right for all

In its inquiry report on the case, the Commission said that while having beneficiaries as trustees could often bring invaluable user experience onto the board, it would not be appropriate for all charities.

“The inclusion of users as trustees is a decision that each charity should consider based on its own circumstances and needs, including the proportion of user trustees on the trustee body who are also beneficiaries of the charity,” the Commission said. 

It said each charity should weigh up whether having users on its board would “enhance the effective management of the charity and have a positive impact on the delivery of its services”.

Dave Lowson, network support manager for Mind Cymru, said the charity would continue to involve service users in its governance.

“The danger is that you lump all service users as the same. It’s really good to have a mix of service users from the past and different users of different types of services,” he said. 

“The important part is that all trustees need to have the skills and training in order to be trustees.” 

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