The Charity Commission has decided it will reduce its one-to-one advice to charities and its interventions in individual cases, as it focuses on its key regulatory priorities in light of a 30 per cent budget cut over the next spending period.

The Commission has published its initial conclusions about its future role and remit after concluding the first stage of its strategic review that was informed by a public consultation about its priorities.

It has stated 15 key priorities under six headings which include registering charities; giving guidance to trustees; granting permissions as required by law, and dealing with abuse or mismanagement. However, the priorities give little clear indication about which activities the regulator will stop doing.

Commission chair Dame Suzi Leather (pictured) said: “There is strong support for a clearer focus on our core regulatory role, and on doing what only we can do.

“This will mean a rebalancing of the relationship between the sector and the regulator so that umbrella bodies, and charities themselves, take back responsibility for sharing and promoting good practice.”

She said charities should be enabled to make their own decisions within legal boundaries wherever possible. “This will mean reducing our interventions in individual charities and, over time, our one-to-one advice to charities.”

The next stage of the review will involve further work to develop and refine the priorities into a detailed strategy and activities. A new organisational structure will be devised too.

Further internal and external consultation will take place over the next few months. The regulator said it hoped to start implementing the new strategy from May and to have it fully in place by October.

The key priorities agreed by the Commission are:

Registering charities

•Continue to ensure registration is a robust test of charitable purposes

•Further streamline the process, moving quickly and clearly to reject applications which do not meet the requirements rather than spending time working with them to refine their application.

Providing guidance to trustees to enable them to manage their charity effectively

•Continue to set out clear information and guidance to enable trustees to understand and meet the legal requirements for running a charity

•Tailor our guidance to the diverse needs of charities, and use technology to enable some personalisation and interactivity

•Develop our partnerships with umbrella bodies so that over time they can take on responsibility for one to one advice

•Consider, in partnership with the charity sector, a programme of peer review to help identify and address areas of risk

Ensuring charities are accountable to the public by requiring and publishing information

•Review the information required of charities to make sure what we ask for is necessary and sufficient for public accountability

•Review how we analyse, publish and share the information we hold on charities to maximise the impact

Giving permissions as required in law

•Reduce the bureaucracy connected with these permissions, requiring charities to make ‘right first time’ applications which are then accepted or rejected

•Consider options such as self-certification and the raising of thresholds

Taking action to deal with serious mismanagement or abuse of charity

•Maintain the capacity to investigate individual charities where there is mismanagement or abuse – but focus on individual interventions only where there is a serious and systemic risk and where our involvement can have most impact

Organisational structure and culture

•Create a new structure with a flatter hierarchy, and fewer layers of decision-making

•Create flexible, integrated operational teams

•Be clearer and more consistent about taking up only issues which fall within our risk framework

•Be more relaxed about challenge to our decisions