Making Terms of Reference work for your Board
Kate Willard, OBE
Now you've had your offer and are looking ahead to Stage 2, this presents an ideal time for TDBs to revisit your Terms of Reference (ToR) to ensure they are working well and still fit for purpose. The changes in personnel, skills sets required, and Board processes that have happened in the move to business case and project development could all trigger a revisit to the ToR. It’s about considering the Board’s journey to-date and understanding what needs to change to keep ToR relevant for your Board.
Working with TDBs across the country, I want to dispel a critical myth: that people feel like ToR is something lawyers do, and there isn’t a role for all the Board members. This is not the case! ToR are about what you need to do, how you behave as a group, how you will deal with conflict, and how you will be legally compliant as you fulfil your key duties, both as individuals and group.
The most important aspect of getting good ToR is that they are developed collaboratively by those who will be bound by them – it is much more about the process by which they are drafted than the specifics of what the document actually says. Most high-functioning Town Deal Boards co-developed their ToR to make them work for their place, their relationships, and their ways of working. The ToR are there to help the board stabilise, set norms and adapt at this stage in the process
That’s not to say TOR have to be wholly bespoke. Any good ToR should:
Clearly state purpose of the Board upfront, even in a set of bullet points
Be clear and use plain English
Be developed collaboratively
Be understood by everyone
Be succinct and easy to use
Include reference to the role of a Secretariat to ensure meetings are effectively organised and minuted
Set out clear pathways for Conflict resolution
Updating your ToR doesn’t need to be complicated or time-consuming. It could take place in 30 minutes with a flip chart if there is buy-in across the Board. The most important step could be agreeing 3-5 bullet points of the Board’s purpose up-front. That will guide the rest of the scope and terms of behaviours.
With 101 towns, there could be 101 examples of good Terms of Reference. My top tips are to make sure you have developed them collaboratively, have buy-in from all parties, and keep them up-to-date for where you are in the Towns Fund journey.