Peter Lee, Trust Secretary of the South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded an accolade for good governance by The Chartered Governance Institute, organiser of the prestigious ICSA Awards 2019. Peter won the coveted Company Secretary of the Year award at a glittering awards celebration at the Park Lane Hilton in London last night, narrowly pipping Andrew Eames of St. Modwen Properties PLC, who was Highly Commended by the judges, to the award.

With increasing importance placed on boards embedding ESG considerations in their decision-making and operations, stakeholder capitalism has become something of a buzzword du jour. It is intrinsically linked to sustainability as it is grounded in the view that giving consideration to wider interests, perspectives and impacts leads to long-term value creation.

Too long? Too boring? Read by nobody? A thankless task? Too many reports attract descriptions like these. But when done well, the annual report is the vital calling card of a listed company. It’s in the doing it well that many companies get stuck. How should a report be put together and what should it say? What are the secrets to producing what’s often the first port of call for investors, and increasingly, other stakeholders?​

This extract is taken from Charity Checklists, 2nd edition.

Of general interest to all members.

Effective governance is key to academy success. The essential introduction to establishing good governance in academy trusts and schools.

The question arises once again of the strange blindness of some of those in public office to the recognition and disclosure of actual or potential conflicts of interest.

Baroness Berridge, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System, has acknowledged the vital role that governance professionals play in academy trusts and confirmed that more widely promoting and supporting the role of the governance professional in trusts is at the top of the DfE’s priorities for this year.

Governance professionals in 2021 will be focusing their attention primarily on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) matters, remote working risk, climate change and diversity this year, according to a poll by ICSA: The Chartered Governance and governance recruitment specialist The Core Partnership. Of these, ESG is seen as the top priority, with the majority of respondents stating that it would be the biggest area of governance focus for 2021.