Governance
Each Congregational Federation Church and each Area Association are in their own right separate charities and are therefore governed by charity reporting and governance. The managing trustees are those responsible for compliance and these would typically be the church officers and area officers respectively. It is a collective and joint responsibility between the trusteeship.
This includes items such as ensuring accounts are produced on time, having them independently examined, obtaining adequate insurance cover, employment and human resource matters, health and safety policies. They will also need to consider having good investment and reserves policies.
The Charity Commission produce many good publications to aid charity trustees and these can be obtained from their website.
Another really good source is with ACAT membership.
Each church would also be governed by their Trust Deed which each trustee should make themselves aware of.
It is recommended that where a church has property ie church, manse, that the Congregational Federation Ltd are appointed as the property trustees.
