St John Ambulance and its parent charity the Priory of the Order of St John are in the midst of a governance overhaul that will see new boards appointed to both organisations.

The Priory of the Order of St John is an international organisation that oversees different types of operations in different countries. In the UK, its primary operation is St John Ambulance, a subsidiary charity that is much larger than the Priory itself.

Until now, the trustee board of the Priory has been chaired by the Prior, while the board of St John Ambulance has been chaired by its chief commander. However, both charities have shared the same 21 trustees.

Richard Fernandez, head of communications at St John Ambulance, said the recent retirement of both the Prior and the chief commander gave the two organisations an opportunity to re-examine their governance arrangements to see if they accorded with best practice and were still fit for purpose. New Prior Rodney Green kickstarted the review and established a steering group drawn from the trustees. They also enlisted the Compass Partnership to assist them.

As part of the review, the two boards have now decided that in future the Priory board will comprise eight trustees and the St John Ambulance board will have 12.

Just three will be common to both boards, with all remaining members selected to fulfil the skills requirements identified by each charity.

The next stage in the review will cover “chapter, counties and committees”, said Fernandez. Currently each county branch of St John Ambulance has a county management board comprised of volunteers usually drawn from people associated with the Priory.

A “chapter body” also exists to provide an overview for the board of the Priory. If the Priory board makes a decision that the chapter deems inappropriate or wrong, the chapter has the power to dismiss the whole board.

Also, the committee structure of the St John Ambulance board has “grown up organically” and the review will explore whether it is still suitable for the charity’s needs. There are eight committees as well as a medical board, a St John Ambulance directing group and a commercial activities supervisory board.

Fernandez said the decision to appoint Rodney Green as chair of both boards aimed to reduce confusion. “Given that there will be some commonality between the two boards we felt it made sense that this should include the chair,” he said.

It is expected that the new chief commander, once appointed, will sit on the St John Ambulance board but this new role description is still to be written.

The trustees will decide on a timescale for putting the new plans into effect once the review of chapter, counties and committees is complete - this is expected to take around six months.

In its latest accounts, for the year to 31 December 2009, the charity had income of £82m but spent £88m.  Its governance costs came to £670,000 - Fernandez said this is arrived at through apportioning a variety of costs including all internal audit costs, audit fees charged, 50 per cent of the company secretary’s departmental costs and 10 per cent of the national finance function.

Rodney Green is a non-executive director of British Waterways and a trustee of conservation agency A Rocha International. A former chief executive of Leicester City Council, he has held more than a dozen non-executive posts during his career.

The full name of the Priory is the Priory of England and the Islands of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem.