The Charity Commission could develop a trustees guide to using the Statement of Recommended Practice (Sorp) when the new version is introduced in 2015, as part of plans to help charity boards understand financial risk management.

It made the announcement in its response to the findings from the pilot peer review programme that was carried out by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) last year to look at financial risk managment in charities.  Some 25 charities with income less than £5m took part in the programme, and had their financial controls scrutinised by accountants who are members of the ICAEW and had volunteered their time.

As well as developing a guide for trustees on using the Sorp, the Commission also plans to improve accessibility to its current guidance (and that provided by other bodies); continue working in partnership with other sector bodies and look at developing tailored advice to sub-sectors.

The report pointed out that the Commission has already produced guidance on risk for smaller charities and said: “We will consider how we can raise awareness of risk (and of the available guidance) among the trustees of smaller charities, through a communications strategy and in collaboration with our partners.”

The issue of proportionality was raised by the charities that took part. Revealing the findings of the review last September Nick Brooks, chair of the Voluntary Sector Group at the ICAEW, said: “The volume of information is large and the smaller charities wanted to focus on key areas relative to their size as opposed to the complete panoply of requirements.”

Sam Younger (pictured), chief executive of the Charity Commission, said: “The review tells us that one of our priorities has to be to raise trustees’ awareness of the financial risks charities face, and to signpost them to resources that can help them particularly to avoid fraud. Our upgraded website will aid this, as will our partnership strategy.”

The Commission announced last September that it will relaunch its website in April 2013, and the Commission hopes that the new site help charities find information more easily. But the Cabinet Office confirmed earlier this month that the Charity Commission, which is a non-ministerial government department, website will be subsumed within the single web portal for central government – gov.uk, between April 2013 and March 2014.