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2.3 Translating the Principles into Action
The On Board Guide for Board Members of Public Bodies in Scotland provides the practical advice and guidance that is needed to enable public bodies and Board members to apply the principles of good corporate governance to their own organisations. The Guide pulls together good practice from the private and public sectors to provide guidance to Board members across the three main dimensions of corporate governance as set out below:
- Roles, Responsibilities and Relationships (Section 3 of this Guide)
- setting out the roles and responsibilities of the Board, Board members, the Chair and the Chief Executive;
- managing the key relationships between the Board and senior management and between the public body and the sponsor Department; and
- conducting Board business efficiently and effectively.
- Effective Financial Management (Section 4 of this Guide)
- how the Board and senior management demonstrates its financial accountability for the stewardship of public money and its performance in the use of resources.
- Standards of Behaviour (Section 5 of this Guide)
- how the Board exercises leadership in determining the values and standards of the organisation, and ensuring compliance with the requirements of the Ethical Standards Act.
The Sections which follow take each of these three dimensions of corporate governance and explain their meaning more fully and, in particular, their relevance to you as a member of the Board of a public body in Scotland.
A Good Corporate Governance checklist is provided at Appendix 2.1. After you have settled in and familiarised yourself with your public body and its ways of working, you may wish to review the governance arrangements in place against the checklist to satisfy yourself that appropriate arrangements are in place to meet the needs of your public body.
In addition, you may wish to assess the extent to which your body is complying with the six core principles of Good Governance through completion of the self assessment checklist at Appendix A of the Good Governance Standard for Public Services.
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