Charity & Social Enterprise Governance Consultancy

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Why Eastside People for Charity Governance Consultancy?

The Charity Governance Code 2025 sets out eight key universal principles. Each of these describes what you’d expect to see in your charity (with 41 outcomes in total) to show your governance is working well. All charities, regardless of size or complexity, are expected to follow the principles and try to achieve the outcomes set out for each principle.

For each principle there is a list of behaviours, policies, processes and practices and good governance evidence requirements that are expected to be taiolred to each charity’s specific situation.

While compliance with the Code is not a regulatory requirement. The Code is a practical tool for trustees to encourage discussion about standards, behaviours and processes that are helpful in cultivating good governance.
Evidence of good governance

It is important for trustees to be able to check governance is working as intended, and for external stakeholders to understand governance in the charity.

While this may sound like a daunting proposition, Eastside People’s team of charity governance experts can help you deliver a comprehensive, independent and confidential review.

Whether you want to boost governance performance or fill key roles, we offer a comprehensive approach with advice and insights and an unparalleled recruitment service to bring the right people to your Board.

The Charity SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice) 2026

The new Statement of Recommended Practice (“SORP”) sets out major compliance requirements for charities in forming their Trustees Annual Report (the “Report”). The new SORP applies for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026 to those charities using accruals accounts. If your charity has an accounting period that begins in Q1 2026 you will need to be looking at these requirements now to ensure your reporting is ready.

Read our blog “SORP 2026: A Practical Guide to Trustees’ Annual Reporting Requirements” and download our detailed Guide.

Read blog & get the Guide to Charity SORP

Our charity governance services include:

SORP readiness assessment
General governance advice on annual reporting requirements
Governance reviews with benchmarking your governance practices against your peers and recommendations on how to build stronger governance effectiveness
Impact assessments
ESG materiality, gap analysis and strategy
Strategy
Evaluating the board’s balance of skills, experience and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
Managing identified recruitment needs for example to strengthen board composition and improve diversity, skills and knowledge.

We’re currently offering charity leaders a free consultation to discuss reviewing and improving your governance.

Contact Us to book your consultation.

Increasing regulation across the sector can be dauting for trustees. The new Charity Governance Code 2025 raises expectations of trustees & creates a tighter link between good governance, EDI & sustainability. 'Large’ charities are recommended to conduct an external board effectiveness evaluation every 3 years including EDI. In addition, The new Statement of Recommended Practice (“SORP”) has major compliance requirements for charities for their Trustees Annual Report. These areas are exactly where we can help.

Richard Litchfield, CEO

Additional Governance Services

Governance Review

We use the Charity Governance Code as the spine for governance reviews (and other regulatory bodies when relevant), but will take a proportionate view choosing together areas for particular focus. We design our approach to be inclusive and provide practical and realistic recommendations for you to implement. We will gather information through desk-based research, robust surveys, conversations with staff and trustees, and group discussions. We will produce and present an independent report with an action plan for improvements, making sure that key individuals are regularly involved and aware of emerging recommendations throughout the project.

Skills Audit

We work together with Boards to understand objectively the current blend of skills/experience at their disposal, where their strengths lie (and also weaknesses) and then put in place a plan to resolve the gaps in a sensible and timely manner. While there are a million ‘standard’ trustee skills audit templates out there, we find it more effective to tailor skills audits to a charity’s strategy and we have a well-worked process to do this. With a very good understanding of the recruitment market we are also able to make sure recommendations for Board development are based on sensible and realistic timetables.

Board Recruitment

The highest performing boards are diverse with a good mix of skills aligned to an organisation’s strategy. Our board recruitment service specialises in bringing high-level individuals with business or cross-sector backgrounds onto Boards. We ensure that our approach is fully inclusive by using Applied’s Job Description Analysis Tool and partnering with Action for Trustee Racial Diversity and others to reach a diverse range of potential candidates. We pride ourselves on a simple consistent process, being as thorough and professional as when hiring for paid roles, and spreading the net widely to produce a diverse range of candidates.

Data Protection Service

Our data protection service is particularly relevant for small and medium size organisations who want to outsource the governance of their data processing by appointing a Data Protection Officer (DPO). Working with one of our dedicated data protection officers we will provide:

Regular security audits to ensure compliance and address potential problems
Communication support with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO)
Professional advice on all data protection matters
Keep you informed on changes in data protection legislation
Keep records of all data processing activities
Review and negotiate your agreements/contracts with data processors
Keep your data subjects informed about how their data is being used, and coordinating their requests
Coordinate your response to any data breaches.

Readiness Assessment: Charity Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) 2026

Our team of charity governance experts are here to help you and your board members understand the requirements of the charity SORP that applies for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026 to those charities using accruals accounts.

If your charity has an accounting period that begins in Q1 2026 you will need to be looking at these requirements now to ensure your reporting is ready.

What Our Clients Say

We ask all our clients for feedback, find out what they have to say.

We commissioned Eastside People to undertake our governance review; a valuable experience ably facilitated by an expert independent reviewer whose expertise, professionalism, and collaborative approach helped us gain fresh insights and strengthen our governance framework. The final report provided us with areas of assurance as well as a number of recommendations which were welcomed by the Board. The process was smooth, supportive, and tailored to our needs including the co design of a bespoke governance framework against which we were benchmarked reflecting the nature of our business and structures. Board members now feel better equipped for the future. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Eastside People to any organisation seeking to enhance their governance practices adopting a bespoke, future proofed and co productive approach grounded in the organisations' position and business ambition.

Senior Management Representative

Spectrum Community Health CIC

It was super helpful to have you facilitating the day, we both agreed that we got further than expected and I think we are very upbeat and motivated about the next steps.

Margaret Davies, Chair of Charity Board

Devon Air Ambulance

EP understood what we needed and delivered.

Jo Walker, Governance Support Executive

Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation

We are a homelessness charity in East London and we recently brought in Eastside People's consultant Mike Griffin to support us to update our data protection policies and procedures so they are in line with the new regulation (GDPR). We have greatly appreciated Mike's knowledge and expertise on the subject, but also his ability to articulate recommendations in a clear, concise way. He takes the time to understand the organisation and provides very practical and pragmatic advice. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Eastside People to any other organisation looking for data protection consultancy.

Nicola Robson, Marketing Manager

Providence Row

As a chief executive with limited experience of mergers, I very much valued working with Eastside People. They allowed SRUK to tap into a range of expertise, gave us independent and unbiased assessments of the situation and brought to the table their extensive knowledge and insights from supporting previous mergers.

Sue Farrington, Chief Executive

Scleroderma & Raynauds UK (SRUK)

Eastside People supported us with new trustee integration and the facilitation they provided was a very good start to this important process for us. It enabled our board to have fully informed discussions and make better decisions on important organisational priorities we were considering at the time.

Graham Duncan, CEO

AFK

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Get in Touch

Contact us to find out how our team of charity, social enterprise & not-for-profit consultants and recruiters can help your organisation.

Call, send an email or complete our simple contact form.

Phone: +44 (0) 203 821 6174
Email: [email protected]

Charity Governance

Why Eastside People for Charity Governance Consultancy?

The Charity SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice) 2026

Our charity governance services include:

Additional Governance Services

Governance Review

Skills Audit

Board Recruitment

Data Protection Service

Readiness Assessment: Charity Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) 2026

What Our Clients Say

Other Governance-Related Resources

Service Experts

Get in Touch