For chairs and company secretaries
Board effectiveness reviews, run and evidenced in one place.
A board effectiveness review is a structured assessment of how well the board, its committees, the chair and individual directors are working, and what should change before the next cycle. BoardServe runs the whole review in one place: tailored questions, tracked responses, a board-ready report and an action plan you can evidence.
BoardCommitteesChairIndividual directors
What does the UK Corporate Governance Code require?
Provision 21 of the UK Corporate Governance Code 2024 asks for a formal and rigorous annual review of the performance of the board, its committees, the chair and individual directors. The chair should commission a regular externally facilitated board performance review; in FTSE 350 companies, at least every three years.
The 2024 Code calls it a board performance review, not a board evaluation, to signal continual improvement rather than a backward-looking audit (EY's summary of the 2024 changes). Most people still search for a board effectiveness review, and the two describe the same exercise. The provisions apply for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025.
Two neighbouring provisions decide how much work follows. Provision 22 asks the chair to act on the results. Provision 23 asks the annual report to describe how the review was conducted and, where an external facilitator was used, to name them and state any other connection with the company or its directors.
Source: the FRC's UK Corporate Governance Code 2024. For the full cycle, from planning to follow-up, read our guide to running the board performance review cycle.
Who commissions a board effectiveness review?
The chair commissions the review; the company secretary usually runs it. Beyond listed companies, comparable expectations reach charities, NHS provider trusts and housing associations through their own codes, so a first review is often triggered by a scheduled external cycle, a new chair, a merger or an upcoming listing.
The work lands on the people holding the timetable: the company secretary assembling responses, and the chair who has to stand behind the findings. If you are still choosing between running it yourself and appointing a facilitator, start with internal versus externally facilitated reviews; once that is settled, choosing an external board reviewer covers what to ask a provider.
Before you commission
What the board needs to decide first.
Five decisions shape the cost, the timetable and how much the review is worth.
Scope
Whether the review covers the board alone, or the board plus its committees, the chair and each individual director. Widening the scope changes the questions, the timetable and what the annual report can say.
Timing
When findings need to land: before the annual report is drafted, before the strategy day, or before a new chair takes the seat. Work backwards from that date, not forwards from today.
Internal or externally facilitated
An internal review is quicker and cheaper to run; an external one carries independence the annual report can point to. Provision 21 settles the question for FTSE 350 companies at least every three years.
Who sees the raw responses
Whether individual answers reach the chair, the facilitator only, or the board as themes. Agree it before the first question goes out, because it changes how candid the answers are.
What happens to the findings
Who owns each action, when it is reviewed, and how progress is evidenced at the next cycle. Provision 22 asks the chair to act on the results: an owner and a date, not a discussion.
Scope is the decision that shapes the rest. A whole-board review that skips the audit, remuneration and nomination committees leaves the busiest part of the governance year unexamined; see committee effectiveness reviews and the board skills matrix audit.
What you get
What a review looks like on BoardServe.
The same cycle a company secretary already runs, with the assembling taken out of it.
| Stage | What happens | What the board gets |
|---|---|---|
| Scope the cycle | Set the review to cover the board, its committees, the chair and individual directors, and assign the participants. | One cycle, named participants, clear deadlines. |
| Tailor the questions | Question banks can be tailored to your governance framework; the questions are written for senior, time-constrained directors. | Questions your board recognises, in plain English. |
| Collect responses | Directors respond on any device. 360-degree and external no-login links bring in people outside the organisation. | Candid input, without chasing spreadsheets. |
| Track progress | The company secretary watches completion in real time and closes the cycle when it is done. | A live view of who has responded, and who has not. |
| Report | AI-assisted written reports, scoped by participant or across the whole cycle, exported to Word for the pack. | A board-ready report, in the format the board already reads. |
| Act on the findings | Findings become an action plan with owners, tracked between cycles rather than filed. | Something the chair can report against next year. |
| Evidence it | Every response, request and decision is time-stamped, with access scoped by organisation and role. | An audit trail for auditors, funders or the regulator. |
Reviews can be run internally or externally facilitated, so the platform carries both the annual internal review and the three-yearly external one. Every engagement includes implementation support. Board material stays in the UK and EU, encrypted in transit and at rest, with role-based access scoped by organisation.
Framework mapping
What your code expects, by sector.
The wording differs; the expectation of a periodic external view of board performance does not.
| Sector | What the code expects | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Listed and FTSE 350 companies | Provision 21 asks for a formal and rigorous annual review of the board, its committees, the chair and individual directors, and a regular externally facilitated board performance review, at least every three years in FTSE 350 companies. The external reviewer is named in the annual report. Applies for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. | FRC, UK Corporate Governance Code 2024 |
| Charities | The Charity Governance Code asks boards to review their governance annually, and expects larger charities to involve an external expert in that review every three years. | NCVO, carrying out a governance review Charity Governance Code |
| NHS provider trusts | NHS England treats in-depth, independently facilitated developmental reviews every three to five years as good practice, alongside self-review against the well-led framework. | NHS England, the insightful provider board NHS England, well-led framework |
| Housing associations | Board effectiveness is one of the four core principles of the National Housing Federation's Code of Governance 2020, alongside mission and values, strategy and delivery, and control and assurance. | National Housing Federation, Code of Governance 2020 |
For the models these codes draw on, see the main board effectiveness frameworks.
Scope your review in 15 minutes.
Tell us your reporting cycle, your committees and when the findings need to land. We will show you how the review runs in BoardServe and what a quote for your organisation looks like. No obligation, no hard sell.
Book a 15-minute callQuestions
Common questions
- How much does an external board effectiveness review cost?
- Published UK fees vary widely with scope. Merchantec Capital publishes fixed-fee board evaluations typically starting from £5,000, and Natspec charges member colleges £675 a day excluding VAT plus travel, costed after a scoping meeting (both checked on 3 August 2026). BoardServe is priced around your organisation, its size and the modules you use, so we scope it on the call.
- How long does a board effectiveness review take?
- It depends on scope and the board's diary. The variables that move the date are how many people take part, whether committees and individual directors are included, and how quickly responses come in. Progress is tracked in real time, so the company secretary can see where the cycle stands instead of chasing it.
- Do we need an external facilitator every year?
- Not under Provision 21, which asks FTSE 350 companies for an externally facilitated board performance review at least every three years. The annual reviews in between can be run internally. Charities and NHS provider trusts work to comparable cycles under their own codes.
- Who sees individual responses?
- That is the board's decision at scoping, and it changes how candid the answers are. Access in BoardServe is role-based and scoped by your organisation, with a time-stamped audit trail on every action, so whatever the board agrees can be applied and evidenced.
- Can we review committees and individual directors in the same cycle?
- Yes. A single cycle can cover the board, its committees, the chair and individual directors, so the audit, remuneration and nomination committees do not need a separate exercise months later.
Fee sources: Merchantec Capital, UK board evaluations and Natspec, external governance review, both checked on 3 August 2026. Third-party fees change without notice.