Provision of Board Effectiveness Review

GIAA are required by the 'Corporate Governance Code for Central Government Departments: Code of Good Practice' to undertake a Board Effectiveness Review annually, and with independent input at least once every three years. GIAA are due to be reviewed as part of the Public Bodies Review Programme (PBRP) in 2024/25. One of the Governance Requirements they will assess is whether 'an externally facilitated review of the effectiveness of the board has been conducted within the last three years' and 'if there is evidence the recommendations have been implemented'. GIAA are due an externally facilitated review and, so that there is evidence of the recommendations being implemented for the PBRP, this needs to take place in the 2023/24 financial year. It is important for GIAA reputationally to be compliant with the Corporate Governance Code. As the organisation's purpose is to help ensure the government and wider public sector provide services effectively, it is important that we demonstrate best practice. In addition, a Board Effectiveness Review will allow the Board to assess which areas require development, and identify its strengths. This will contribute to our growth as an organisation, enabling the Agency to better provide its services and therefore deliver benefit to the taxpayer. Professional services support is required to conduct an independent, objective, evidence-based review of the GIAA Board. Such support should have demonstrable experience in undertaking Board Effectiveness Reviews in central Government bodies and an understanding of how Departmental and/or Executive Agency Boards should operate. A soft market test was undertaken earlier in 2023 which allowed for the benchmarking of costs to undertake the Review. A number of organisations expressed an interest in providing the service, with some (but not all) providing indicative costs. The conclusion reached was that such a cost was disproportionately high considering the size of the Agency and the low level of complexity of the governance and Board arrangements. From previous experience at a former organisation, a professional service was procured for an organisation ten times the size of GIAA that had a number of identified issues within its governance framework. The next step was to approach organisations who had been recommended based on their previous interactions with similar organisations.