his guidance note draws upon experience of charitable companies limited by guarantee (CLGs) to help inform those involved with, or interested in, academy trusts to help develop understanding of the company and charity law aspects of members in a charitable CLG.

This guidance note seeks to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of merging with another charity and covers the legislative issues around charities registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales.

The issue of executive pay in the charity sector (and other parts of the economy) regularly attracts the attention of the media and sector commentators. Regardless of views as to what is deemed to be an appropriate level of remuneration for senior leaders in diverse and complex organisations as those found in the charity sector, there is an expectation that charities should be transparent about how they spend their resources. This includes the level of remuneration paid to senior staff members.

The Charity Governance Code recommends that trustees ‘consider the benefits and risks of partnership working, merger or dissolution if other organisations are fulfilling similar charitable purposes more effectively and/or the charity’s viability is uncertain’.

This guidance note seeks to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of collaboration and merging with another charity and covers the legislative issues around charities regulated by the Charity Commission in England and Wales.

All trustees undertaking a proposal to work in collaboration, jointly or to merge should carry out a due diligence examination of the prospective partner charity. A comprehensive due diligence exercise will enable trustees to establish a full knowledge base of the assets and liabilities of each charity – for example, employees, rent arrears, property leases, endowments, funding arrangements and governance structures.

This guidance note provides examples of positive behaviours that should help trustees to make constructive challenge and good decisions that further the charitable objects and lead to positive changes.

This guidance provides a specimen skills register for charity trustee boards and should be read in conjunction with other guidance notes in the charity series.

This guidance offers an outline to the charity secretary of a charitable company limited by guarantee of the information that should be considered when dealing with a change of member, who is also a director.