Introduction to our Governance Code

	The governance code is the list of rules agreed to by the Board of Directors of Cope Foundation.
	The Board of Directors are the people that help make decisions about Cope Foundation.
	The Board of Directors are not staff members.
	The Board of Directors are voluntary members.
	This means the Board of Directors are not paid.
	These are the rules the Board of Directors agreed that Cope Foundation should be run by.

Principle 1. Leading Organisation.

We do this by:

1.1 Agreeing our Vision, purpose and values and making sure that they remain relevant;

	We have set out our vision, mission and values.
	We work to make sure that all of these make sense in the future.
	We should change them if they do not make sense anymore.

1.2 Developing, resourcing, monitoring and evaluating a plan to make sure that our organisation achieves its stated purpose;

	We should do everything we can to actually do what we say we will do.
	We should have plans and check from time to time that we are sticking to them and doing the right thing.

1.3 Managing, supporting and holding to account staff, volunteers and all who act on behalf of the organisation.

	Staff and volunteers are very important to us.
	We will manage and support our staff so that they can do their work well.
	Staff and volunteers must be responsible for their actions when they do work for us.
	This counts for anybody who does any kind of work or volunteering with us.

Principle 2. Exercising control over our organisation.

We do this by:

2.1 Identifying and complying with all relevant legal and regulatory requirements;

We should always follow the law and the rules of Ireland when we do our work.

2.2 Making sure there are appropriate internal financial and management controls;

We should be careful with money.

2.3 Identifying major risks for our organisation and deciding ways of managing the risks.

	We should make sure we know any problems or risks that could come up for Cope Foundation.
	We should work on ways of making sure these problems do not happen in the first place.
	If they do happen we should find ways of making them easier to deal with.

Principle 3. Being transparent and accountable.

We do this by:

3.1 Identifying those who have a legitimate interest in the work of our organisation (stakeholders) and making sure there is a regular and effective communication with them about our organisation;

	We should know who is interested in Cope Foundation and the work we do.
	We should communicate with these people often.
	This means getting our messages across to them.

3.2 Responding to stakeholders' questions or views about the work of our organisation and how we run it;

We should always try to answer questions people have and listen to their ideas too.

3.3 Encouraging and enabling the engagement of those who benefit from our organisation in the planning and decision-making of the organisation.

	We should involve the people we support in decisions about Cope Foundation.
	They should always have the chance to help with planning  for the future and have their voices heard.

Principle 4. Working effectively.

We do this by:

4.1 Making sure that our governing body, individual board members, committees, staff and volunteers understand their: role, legal duties, and delegated responsibility for decision-making;

	We should make sure that everyone in Cope Foundation knows what they should be doing.
	Members of the Board of Directors, committees, staff and volunteers need to know what they must do to follow the law and how we all make decisions together.

4.2 Making sure that as a board we exercise our collective responsibility through board meetings that are efficient and effective;

	Our members of the Board of Directors should have meetings that work well.
	They should make their decisions together.

4.3 Making sure that there is suitable board recruitment, development and retirement processes in place.

	When our Board of Directors needs new its members, we must make sure they find the right people for the job in the right way.
	When a member of the Board of the Directors wants to retire, this should happen in a way everyone knows about and is happy with.

Principle 5. Behaving with integrity.

We do this by:

5.1 Being honest, fair and independent;

	We should be honest and fair in all the work that we do and always tell the truth.
	We should be independent.
	This means that we stand on our own two feet and make the decisions that are right for us.

5.2 Understanding, declaring and managing conflicts of interest and conflicts of loyalties;
We must always make sure we do the right thing for Cope Foundation at all times.

We should know that sometimes our decisions might change because of things happening in our personal life.

5.3 Protecting and promoting our organisation's reputation.

We work hard to so that people in the community respect Cope Foundation.

	We should protect this respect and make sure we keep it.
	We should tell as many people as possible about Cope Foundation to get more people to know about the work we do.

We confirm that our organisation is committed to the standards outlined in these principles. We commit to reviewing our organisational practice against the recommended actions for each principle every year.

	Cope Foundation will follow these rules.
	Cope Foundation’s Board of Directors will look at these rules every year to make sure they still work for us.

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