Governors and Trustees

As a governor or trustee, your role is strategic oversight — you approve policies, challenge management, and ensure your organisation operates within the law. AI and procurement are increasingly landing on board agendas, and you need enough understanding to govern effectively without becoming a subject-matter expert.

Public Skills Hub provides the foundational knowledge you need. Our guides on AI risks and procurement basics are written in plain English for non-specialists. The AI Governance Meeting Template gives you a structured agenda for board-level AI discussions, and the AI Risk Assessment Starter template shows you what a proper evaluation looks like.

You don't need to understand how AI models work — you need to understand what questions to ask, what risks to look for, and what good governance looks like. That's exactly what our resources cover.

**Common questions you bring to the board:** What's our AI policy, and when was it last reviewed? How are we documenting AI tool approvals? Have we run a DPIA on the AI use cases that touch personal data? Are we meeting our procurement obligations under the Procurement Act 2023? Our AI Governance Meeting Template gives you a standing agenda that surfaces each of these on a regular cadence.

**Where to start:** Read the AI Risks Every Office Team Should Understand guide and the Procurement Basics for Beginners guide — together they give you the vocabulary and framing to challenge management constructively. The AI Risk Assessment Starter template shows you what a credible evaluation looks like; you don't have to write one, but you should recognise one when management presents it.