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

Start with an arrangement you need to explain, design, or review.

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?

To record your own arrangements:

Map an arrangement

Assess the application of an arrangement

Use this route to examine an act done under a governance arrangement, such as closing a meeting or selecting a successful bid.

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?

To record your own arrangements:

Examine an arrangement in practice

Design decision-making arrangements

The qualities sought in a decision determine what the supporting arrangements need to provide for. Select the requirements that describe the type of decision sought, then specify the arrangements that will 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?

To record your own arrangements:

Specify decision-making arrangements

Write or review a policy

Begin with the policy’s purpose, readers, and intended use.

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?

To record your own arrangements:

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.

Original materials: CC BY 4.0. Source. Scope and attribution.

Logos, third-party material, and website software are excluded.