The Planning Team is a smaller version of the Management Team. It provides a forum for discussing key aspects of management business. The agenda includes the Gallery's Corporate and Strategic Plans, the budgets, internal and external audit recommendations and risk management and other internal control issues. They are responsible for updating the risk register in readiness for its review by the Audit and Compliance Committee.
Meetings were initially held held at least quarterly. All meetings are minuted.
The Planning Team consists of the core members of the Management Team, including the Director, Chief Curator & Deputy Director, Director of Communications and Development & Deputy Director, Head of Finance and Planning, Head of Resources, Head of Exhibitions and Collections, and Head of Learning.
From the 7th meeting (26 September 2005) onwards, the agenda, minutes, and a full set of discussion papers are included for every meeting. For meetings 1-6 there are only the minutes.
In 2016 meetings began to be held more regularly and from September 2016 were re-named Director's Meeting, the membership of the meeting remained the same. The Director's Meeting discusses Gallery management, approves policies and focusses on forward planning. Meetings that specifically focus on budgets and risk management are referred to as Director's Meeting - Planning Team Business and continue to be numbered in the same format as the previous Planning Team meetings. The two sets of meetings are interlinked and the same individuals attend each meeting.