The subject of Conflicts of Interest has been exercising the little grey cells recently both from a personal and a professional point of view. On a personal level I found out in retrospect that somebody who was part of a group I am working with, had been involved in a contract with a charity I am a trustee of.

At the time that the contract came to the Board I was unaware of the connection and so I had taken part in the discussion over that contract. In retrospect I declared an interest and fortunately my fellow trustees were happy that the connection had no impact on the decision making process but what if it had?

Compare this with two or three recent examples of charities I have been working with where as part of my governance review I uncovered some very clear conflicts of interest that had not been disclosed and had the potential and in one case had caused problems by a failure to disclose.

So what is the solution?

As a reminder let us consider the legal definition of a conflict of interest.

"A conflict of interest is any situation in which a trustee’s personal interests or loyalties could, or could be seen to, prevent the trustee from making a decision only in the best interests of the charity."

Most pople think conflicts of interest are all about money but for example, it could be about employment or it could be about working with the wrong organisation. It is vital that Trustees and member of the Senior Leadership Team of your charity are transparent in these situations and even when you don't believe your connection is a material one and you blieve the Interest you have would have no material impact on the decision making process it is vital that it be declared so that your colleagues are in full possession of the facts before they mak a decision.

I strongly recommend that all trustees and members of SLT's be given a copy of the following guide issued by the Charity Commission and recently updated last October

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/conflicts-of-interest-a-guide-for-charity-trustees-cc29

and that it should form part of any induction pack.