A trustee skills audit template is the grid for the skills and experience already on your board, and the gaps still to fill. Copy the rows below. Each trustee marks only their own name, then you agree the gaps in one meeting. What the Charity Commission's guidance on finding new trustees (CC30) asks you to look for is in the trustee skills audit guide.
What the columns are for
CC30 does not set these headings, and it does not publish a form. CC30, updated on 14 May 2025, says that looking regularly at what the board needs, which it calls a skills audit, helps you see what you already have and the gaps you need to recruit for. It says a smaller charity can keep that check simple. This grid is ours, built around the categories CC30 says a list may include.
Trustee Meetings is a governance tool, not a law firm. This is information, not legal advice.
The columns below follow that. "Why we need it this year" stops you copying a national list. "Depth" uses three words, which are this template's own scale, not a Commission score. "Route" is limited to train, recruit, or advice, because the Charity Governance Code (2025) lists those three as the evidence that a board tried to fill a skills gap. The Code says compliance with it is not a regulatory requirement.
You still follow the governing document (the constitution, the articles, or the trust deed). CC30 says you must follow what that document says, and that if you do not, your trustee decisions may be invalid. The grid does not override an election, a term, or a condition the document already sets.
Trustee skills audit template
Copy this into the paper you send a week before the meeting. Delete a row your plans do not need. Add a row only if you can say, in the second line, why this charity needs it this year.
[Charity name]
[Charity number]
[Date of this audit]
[Plans this audit is based on, in one sentence]
For each area, copy this block once:
Area:
Why the board needs it this year:
Names and depth (strong / some / none):
Gap (yes or no):
Route (train / recruit / advice):
Owner:
Date:
Send one copy to each trustee with their name already at the top of a column, or ask them to mark only the line that is theirs. Do not ask anyone to score a colleague.
Notes on each line
Area. Why it is here: CC30 says your list may mix knowledge of your field of work, specific skills, behaviours and qualities, knowledge of the people and places you serve, lived experience, and the experience of someone who uses the service. CC30 describes lived experience as "personal or first-hand experience of the cause your charity works on". A user of the service, in the same guidance, includes someone close to a person who uses it. Pick the areas this year's plans need. Six to ten is enough for a small board. What you write: a short label, such as "safeguarding in work with young people" or "reading quarterly figures". Not "finance" on its own if you cannot say which part of finance.
Why the board needs it this year. Why it is here: CC30 says you think about purpose, beneficiaries, plans, opportunities and challenges, short term and long term. A row with no reason will be ticked and then ignored. What you write: one sentence tied to something the board is actually doing. "The hall now hosts a Thursday youth group" is a reason. "Good boards have this" is not.
Names and depth. Why it is here: CC30 says the audit identifies skills you already have, including ones you did not know about. Each person marks their own name. Strong means you have done this work and could lead a conversation about it. Some means you have real experience or training, but you would not lead. None means you have not done it. Being willing to learn is a quality CC30 lists separately. Do not write it in this line. What you write: "Treasurer: strong. Chair: none." Use your own trustees' names. If nobody has it, write "nobody" rather than leaving the line blank.
Gap. Why it is here: CC30's second use of the audit is the gaps you need to recruit for. The board agrees this box in the meeting. One "strong" is not always enough, and five people at "some" can still be a gap if nobody can lead. What you write: yes or no, plus five words on what is missing. "Yes. Nobody has led safeguarding."
Route. Why it is here: a gap without a route is a worry, not a decision. The Code's suggested evidence for filling skills gaps is training, recruitment, or specialist advice. Use one of those three words. What you write: train, recruit, or advice. If you need two routes, split the row. Do not write "explore".
Owner and date. Why it is here: CC3 says you "should give enough time, thought and energy to your role", and that you should recognise when you need advice. A name and a date turn that into something the next meeting can check. What you write: one trustee, and a real date. "The board" is not an owner.
A worked row
This is an illustration, not a real charity and not a Commission example. A community hall has started letting a youth group use the building. The safeguarding row, after the meeting, reads like this.
| Line | What the board wrote |
|---|---|
| Area | Safeguarding in work with children and young people |
| Why this year | A youth group uses the hall on Thursdays from this term |
| Names and depth | All six trustees: none |
| Gap | Yes. No trustee has training or experience to lead this |
| Route | Recruit |
| Owner and date | Chair. Role agreed by 20 November 2026. Advert out by 4 December 2026 |
The finance row at the same meeting went the other way. Only the treasurer was "strong". Everyone else was "some" because they had seen the bank balance. The gap was yes, but the route was train, not recruit: the treasurer walks the board through the quarterly figures for twenty minutes at each of the next two meetings. CC30 says the board does not need an expert for every topic. A second accountant was the wrong vacancy. A board that cannot read its own figures was the real gap.
That judgement, gap by gap, is the point of the template. The rules behind it sit in the trustee skills audit guide.
How you use the finished grid
Block the next meeting's agenda for forty minutes. Ten of those minutes are for corrections to people's own rows. The rest are for the gap column and the route. Do not reopen a person's score once they have explained it, unless they ask you to.
Then do four things before you close.
- Minute every "yes" in the gap line, with the route, the owner and the date. A future trustee should be able to see why you recruited.
- Turn each "recruit" row into a few lines of the role description. CC30 says the role should state the skills you decided you need, and why, and that you should include only the experience you need. Say what can be learnt after someone joins.
- Where the route is advice, name the kind of adviser. CC3 says "most charities must take advice from a surveyor or other qualified person when selling charity land". Use that as the test of seriousness. A one-off question for a solicitor belongs in this row. A standing seat on the board does not.
- Put the grid with the papers for the recruitment, and give the new trustee the welcome pack and the induction checklist when they start. If the gap was about how people behave, rather than a skill, that standard belongs in the trustee code of conduct, not in a score.
If members elect you, or another body appoints you, attach the gap lines to what you send them. CC30 says you can tell members and appointing bodies which skills you are looking for and why. You still follow the document's appointment rules.
Do this once, then let it run itself. Trustee Meetings is a simple board-meetings tool built for small UK charities. It keeps this grid with the minute that agreed the gaps, so the next recruitment starts from the same paper. 30-day trial, then £15 a month or £180 a year. Card required at signup. Cancel any time in the trial. £120 a year if your charity's income is under £25,000. Every trustee included. Try it with your board
Mistakes when the grid is treated as a test
Scoring colleagues. CC30's value is that people have skills the rest of you did not know about. A chair scoring the whole table will reproduce the chair's memory. Send the grid out. Each person marks their own name. You challenge a "strong" only by asking what the person has actually done.
Leaving the gap line blank. A blank reads, a year later, as if you never looked. Write "no" when the board is covered. Write "yes" when it is not.
A route called "discuss next time". That is how the Thursday youth group is still without a safeguarding lead in March. Pick train, recruit, or advice before you close the meeting.
Recording people's backgrounds on the same sheet. CC30 keeps the mix of backgrounds and characteristics as a separate diversity audit. This template does not have a column for age, ethnicity or health. CC30 tells you to follow data protection rules, and to handle personal information sensitively. Do not add that column because a spreadsheet had a spare one.
Using a low score to start a resignation conversation. The grid is for gaps in the board, not a mark for the person. Raising how an individual is doing belongs in whatever review process you have agreed. The Code treats review of individual trustees as its own practice. It is not this template.
Frequently asked questions
Should you score people with numbers or with words? Use the three words on this template: strong, some, or none. CC30 does not set a numeric scale, and it says a smaller charity can keep the audit simple. Numbers look precise and then start an argument about whether someone is a 3 or a 4. Words are enough to see a gap.
Who fills in the grid, each trustee or the chair? Each trustee marks their own row before the meeting. CC30 says current trustees may have skills and experience you are unaware of, which you will miss if one person completes the sheet from memory. The board then agrees the gap column together, in the meeting.
Two people claim safeguarding and neither has training. What do you write? Write 'some' only where someone can point to training or to real experience of the work. Willingness to learn is a quality CC30 lists separately, not the skill itself. If the board needed a person with safeguarding knowledge and nobody can point to it, the gap column is still yes.
How often should you fill the grid in again? CC30 says that regularly exploring what the board needs can help you, and that you do not have to wait for a vacancy. Our steer, not a Commission rule: do it once a year, and again when a trustee leaves or the charity's work changes. An untouched grid from three years ago will not describe the board you have now.
Where should the completed grid be kept? With the board's papers, next to the minute that records the gaps. It names living people and the skills they bring, so it does not belong only on one trustee's laptop. CC30 says you use the audit when you write the role and plan later vacancies, which you cannot do if nobody can find it.
This template is for trustees of charities in England and Wales. CC30 states that it applies to England and Wales. Scottish charities are regulated by OSCR, and charities in Northern Ireland by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. Use their rules rather than assuming this page applies in full.
The reasons for each line are in the trustee skills audit guide. When the new trustee arrives, use the trustee welcome pack and the new trustee induction checklist. Browse the full guides library.