Plain Governance in practice

Applying Plain Governance

Use the framework to explain, design, or assess your arrangements. Start with the questions relevant to your purpose. Each section offers guidance and a tool you can use to record your account.

Examine a role or arrangement

Describe the role, what is assigned to it, its relationships with other roles, and the instruments that establish these arrangements. A single responsibility or relationship can be expressed in a sentence; a map shows how several parts of an arrangement connect.

Who holds the role, and in what capacity do they act?
What responsibilities, duties, powers, and authority are assigned?
To whom must they give an account, and for what?
Which instruments establish these arrangements, and how do they operate in practice?

Record the arrangement as a diagram, table, or set of statements.

Map an arrangement

Assess an arrangement in practice

Record what happened, the requirements that applied, the evidence, and the grounds for your assessment.

What act does the arrangement enable people to perform?
Does the arrangement exist, and is it accepted within the organisation?
Are the people and circumstances appropriate? Is the arrangement carried out correctly and completely?
What attitudes or subsequent conduct does the arrangement require?
What was accomplished, in what respect did it fail, and how serious was the failure?

Bring your evidence and reasons together in a recorded assessment.

Examine an arrangement in practice

Design decision-making arrangements

Identify the qualities sought in a decision and examine or specify the arrangements needed to support them.

Which qualities are sought in the decision?
Which instrument gives the role or body authority, and does the decision fall within its scope?
What information and contributions must be available?
What steps must be completed before this decision?
Who will carry out the decision, and what must be brought back for review or a further decision?

Record the requirements and the governance arrangements that will support them.

Specify decision-making arrangements

Write or review a policy

Examine what each provision does, clarify its wording, and record the reasons for proposed changes.

Which arrangements must the policy establish, record, or explain?
What does each provision do: commit, require, permit, assign, or explain?
Can each reader identify what applies to them and what they must do?
Do the requirements, authority, related instruments, and practical circumstances work together?

Record the provision’s wording, reasons for revision, and unresolved matters.

Examine a policy provision

Prepare printable notes or a blank template

Evidence and reasons for judgement

Identify the instruments, evidence, and circumstances that support your account. Record unresolved matters and explain what would be needed to settle them. A completed checklist can leave important questions about practice or effectiveness open.

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