The Board of Trustees is WEA’s governing body, comprising a minimum of twelve Trustees. The Board of Trustees has ultimate responsibility for the strategic direction of WEA. Trustees are also the Directors and Members of the Company.
The Board currently comprises thirteen Members, you can find their information on this biographies page.
The Board of Trustees meets at least four times a year to ensure that WEA’s activities carry into effect the charity’s object. Their work includes providing strategic oversight, scrutinising WEA’s financial performance and the performance of its management, agreeing budgets, monitoring the quality of educational provision and the safeguarding of beneficiaries and stakeholders, and reviewing current policies, initiatives, activities and plans.
Committees of the Board of Trustees
Committees of the Board of Trustees apply detailed, specialist scrutiny to matters within their respective remits, and support the Board in carrying out specific duties or oversight more thoroughly and effectively than the Board could otherwise do by acting together as a full board.
You can see the scheme of committees here.
You can see the committee terms of reference below:
All committees of the Board of Trustees are non-executive.
Formally a committee of the Board of Trustees, WEA Council’s principal function is to promote the democratic involvement of all Association Members. In practice, it is an important stakeholder group and a forum for discussion of shared interests across the English regions and Scotland, making representations on their behalf to the Board of Trustees from time to time.
The purpose and remit of WEA Council are encoded in WEA’s Articles of Association and Regulations.
WEA’s affairs in Scotland are overseen by the Scotland Board, which is a direct committee of the Board of Trustees.
You can visit the WEA Scotland governance page here.
You can view the WEA Scotland Board terms of reference here.
Regional governance in England is delivered by a series of Local Advisory Panels.
You can view the details of our Panels, the Local Advisory Panel (LAP) terms of reference and the role descriptions of LAP Lead Volunteers and LAP Members here.
The introduction of Local Advisory Panels is a recent initiative. You can read about the pivot of Regional Committees to Local Advisory Panels in our news story.
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WEA is governed in accordance with the object and powers set out in its governing documents, the Articles of Association (last amended 8 December 2022) and Regulations (last amended 8 December 2022).
You can read the Articles of Association and Regulations here.
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WEA is a charitable company limited by guarantee (number 2806910), incorporated on 5 April 1993 and registered as a charity in England and Wales (number 1112775) and Scotland (number 2806910).
You can view our Certificate of incorporation, and our Certificate of registration as a charity.
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WEA is a public benefit entity, the charitable object of which is to promote adult and general education for the benefit of the community regionally, nationally and internationally based on democratic principles in its organisation and practice, through the participation of its volunteers and members.
WEA’s Trustees confirm that they have due regard for Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit and believe it to have been consistently applied, that the requirements of section 17 of the Charities Act 2011, and the requirements related to annual reporting within the Protection & Social Investments (Charities) Bill 2016 have been fully met when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance relates.
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Trustees have adopted the Charity Governance Code for Larger Charities and aim to carry out their duties in accordance with its guidance and standards.
WEA maintains a Governance Code of Conduct which applies to every individual involved in any area of WEA governance.
WEA’s Board of Trustees aims to be fully transparent in its conduct, and to that end maintains the following policies:
Contact the Governance team
For all enquiries and requests for information, including contacting the Chair of Trustees, please contact us through the webform below, and one of the team will be back in touch.
