The Charity Commission and Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator launched a search today for new members of their joint Sorp Committee, to provide advice on the best financial practices within the charity sector.
The Sorp Committee advises both regulators in their development of the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (Charities Sorp) and provides technical input and assistance.
Applicants are being sought with a background in accountancy as well as those with experience of the charity sector, funders, commentators on the sector, sector umbrella bodies, and academia.
A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said the non-executive roles will run for a fixed term of three years with the option to extend. Work commitment will be up to six days a year.
“Very recently there have been a number of changes on the committee,” the spokeswoman told Civil Society News. “Sam Younger, our former chief executive, was joint chair along with Laura Anderson from OSCR. But he has recently left the Commission and so in his place has come Nigel Davies. And Ray Jones has recently retired so he’s also off the Committee. So you’ve currently got Laura Anderson from OSCR and Nigel Davies from the Charity Commission.”
The new members are being sought following the recent completion of the new Sorp.
“The main reasons why we are looking for new committee members is that when the current members joined, the conditions of their term was to write and publish the new Sorp. And obviously that has happened and is now completed so as a result their term has come to an end,” said the spokeswoman.
Nigel Davies, head of accountancy at the Charity Commission and joint chair of the Sorp Committee said: “UK accounting is subject to continuing change and the new committee will join us in considering the impact of the Financial Reporting Council’s plans to make further changes to Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.
“The work of the committee looks at reporting in the round. As well as the technical challenges, the committee will help us reflect on emerging good sector practice in governance, the reporting of senior staff pay and performance reporting. We will also have an eye on developments internationally in sustainability reporting.”
The Charity Commission and OSCR said that high standards of transparency are increasingly essential to maintaining public confidence and the Sorps play an important role in helping charities to tell their story fully and accurately to their public.
New members of the Committee will review the Sorps and identify issues for review, discussion and inclusion. The role is unpaid but expenses will be payable to members from charities, academia and small umbrella bodies.
Members will serve until 2018. The closing date for applications is 3 November 2014. Further information can be found on the SORP Committee website.
