Doncaster Deaf Trust is a specialist deaf and hearing impairment trust in Doncaster with a nursery, residential offer, school for the deaf, and specialist college. The Trust had procured GLK to provide an independent review of governance following a number of senior leader changes. We were asked to support the Trust to review their governance arrangements and to provide an action plan of recommended improvements to aid effective and good governance.
GLK Solutions used their knowledge of effective governance and structures to feed into the report and make effective recommendations. In addition we completed further research to ensure the context of the Trust was considered and we could identify statutory compliance as well as best practice approaches.
We worked with identified contacts within the Trust including the Chair of Trust Board, Chairs of Governors for their services, and other senior leaders to start to gain an understanding of the opportunities and challenges within the Trust.
The report covered a raft of areas including:
- Recruitment of Trustees and Governors
- Succession planning
- Effective governance
- Compliance and statutory recording
- Organisation of meetings
The action plan provided as part of the report has given the Trust Board a clear steer to take their development further. We have also identified on the action plan potential leads within their Trust to further support their approach to managing each of the actions.
We have been very impressed with Gemma and Lesley at GLK. They have excellent knowledge and expertise when it comes to governance and have advised us professionally throughout the project we have worked on together. The report and action plan that was produced at the end of the project was very detailed, thorough and completed to a high standard. Communication during the project was positive and effective that increased the quality of the report and action plan.
We feel the recommendations from the review will improve our governance capability across the Trust and we are happy with the end result. In fact, we have been so impressed with Lesley that we have engaged GLK to support the implementation of the action plan that will ultimately improve governance across the Trust. I would absolutely recommend GLK to anyone needing support with governance.
Alexis Johnson
Chief Executive Officer | Doncaster Deaf Trust