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Commission considers analysing charities' spending info to help inform the public

Governance | Tania Mason | 26 May 2011

The Charity Commission has convened a working group to examine whether it should be providing information to the public about how charities spend their income.

This work will explore whether people expect the Commission to ensure that charities are delivering the work their documents claim they are – a task the regulator does not currently get involved in.

Commission chief executive Sam Younger made the announcement at the Commission's first new-style public meeting in Wales today.

He acknowledged that this is a potentially controversial suggestion: “It is quite a major question, it is a long-term strategic question, as to what the nature of public accountability is.

“Is the public expecting us to be making sure that charities are delivering what they say they will deliver, that they are putting their resources where they are needed?”

He said feedback constantly reached the Commission that the single most important thing the public wants to know about charities is whether money is going to the end user.

At present the Commission does not interrogate or analyse the documents that charities file with it each year, but Younger said the regulator needs to look at whether it should be.

No more hand-holding

At the same meeting, Commission chair Dame Suzi Leather outlined the three broad themes that will underpin the regulator’s work in future.

The first principle is that the Commission exists to serve the public, not to represent and champion charities themselves.

Second, it will focus more tightly on its core regulatory role, such as maintaining the online register, providing online guidance for trustees and ensuring charities comply with the law. And third, it will do the things only it can do.

Dame Suzi said the themes represented a “gentle shift away from hand-holding trustees" as they navigate the regulatory process, to a greater emphasis on trustees’ responsibilities to look after their own charities. “It is an approach that trusts trustees to know best.”

Dame Suzi also offered some detail as to how these principles will be applied in practice. While the Commission will continue to publish guidance online, it will scale back its one-to-one advice and work with sector umbrella bodies to identify where they can take over that bespoke advice role.

The Commission will also look at introducing some forms of self-certification for trustees. “Where trustees currently require legal permissions from us, we want to look at how they can do it for themselves.”

Proactive in identifying risks

Dame Suzi emphasised that the Commission would continue to deal with problems in individual charities by investigating “where there is serious evidence of risk”. But she added that it would be more proactive in identifying risks that continue to contribute to problems in the sector. One of the ways it will do this is by piloting a peer review programme involving "experienced sector figures".

Dame Suzi went on to say that the second stage of the Commission’s strategic review would be to translate these principles into a new strategy and structure. This will come into play in October, she said.

She added that the new-look Commission would not just be a “smaller and perhaps slightly sadder version” of its current incarnation.

“I am very confident we can emerge from these challenges as a leaner, more focused, more strategic organisation. It is important that the public knows that we exist to protect the charities that they give money and time to.”

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