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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Governance scope and approaches

A council-owned leisure trust has a board made up mostly of council officials who also approve the trust's budget as the funder. A review finds the trust's managers rarely challenge the board, and service users have no formal voice. Which reform would most directly improve governance while reflecting the multiple stakeholders of a public body?

Appointing independent non-executive members, adding service-user representation and separating funder oversight from board duties is the best reform. It tackles lack of challenge, conflicts of interest and stakeholder exclusion, whereas the alternatives reduce oversight, accountability or abandon the public service purpose.

  1. AAppoint independent non-executive members and include service-user representation, with clear separation between funder oversight and board dutiesCorrect
  2. BReplace the board with a single executive who reports only to the council
  3. CRemove all performance reporting to reduce cost
  4. DRequire the trust to maximise commercial profit above its service aims

Explanation

The problems are lack of independence, conflicts between funder and board roles, and absent user voice. Independent members, user representation and role separation address all three. A single executive removes oversight, dropping reporting reduces accountability, and profit maximisation ignores the public service mission.

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