Challenges to maintaining board membership for Internal Drainage Boards

This research explored how issues with maintaining board membership affects governance for Internal Drainage Boards.

From:
Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Published
25 February 2021
Category:
Policy, governance and funding
Topics:
Community participation, Flood risk governance, Partnership working
Project status:
Completed
Project code:
FD2712
Date of completion:
31 March 2019

Documents

Research into the factors affecting IDB board membership and their impact on board governance - final report (3 MB) PDF

Internal Drainage Boards: IDB board membership and board governance - summary pack (1 MB) PDF

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Details

This research aimed to establish the issues experienced by Internal Drainage Boards (IDB) trying to maintain a full spectrum of board membership, and their impact on governance. It paid particular attention to local authorities’ appointed members and their role on the board.

The research used:

  • a document review
  • scoping interviews
  • an online survey of all IDBs
  • qualitative interviews with 15 sampled ‘case study’ IDBs

It examined factors that influenced active engagement by board members, as well as the type and variety of skills represented on the board. This included the extent to which these affect the performance of the board. It also explored recruitment processes and why differences exist between the number of elected, appointed and co-opted members between different IDBs.

The project was started in 2018 and completed in 2019, and cost £49,585.

Published 25 February 2021
Contents