Charity Commission chief executive Sam Younger says the regulator won't compel any charity to become a member of anything, but it will promote various umbrella bodies on its website.
Younger says the sector should not be concerned that it expects charities to join an umbrella body. However, he admits that the Commission will "use our website and our contact with trustees to point them to organisations, such as NCVO, that are able to offer advice in areas that fall outside our regulatory remit".
Younger announced the news in an opinion piece on NCVO’s online member magazine Engage. Opening the article, Younger said he wanted to “set the record straight” on criticisms from the sector around the Commission’s new strategic direction.
Last month, at the Charity Commission’s Annual Public Meeting, Commission chair Dame Suzi Leather said that in light of the significant cuts to the Commission’s budget, in the future it would expect charities to become members of umbrella bodies, which could take an advice role.
The comments, which were reported on civilsociety.co.uk, prompted a flurry of criticism from charities and umbrella bodies. A major concern was the costs of joining such bodies.
Younger wrote that he and Dame Suzi were "surprised" at the negative reaction from charities:
“I would like to take this opportunity to reassure charities and umbrella bodies.
“We have absolutely no intention of asking umbrella bodies to ‘regulate’ their members. We have no plans to pass on those core duties or responsibilities to others.
"However, we do know that networks and infrastructure bodies can make an important ‘prophylactic’ contribution by encouraging high standards and providing advice that helps prevent problems occurring in the first place.”
In the piece, Younger also argues that a strong umbrella body will strengthen charities: “To stay with NCVO as an example: it has 8,000 members,” he says, “making it among the largest charity umbrella bodies in England. That’s impressive. But there are 180,000 charities on our register – if NCVO attracted 10 per cent of that number to its ranks, it would be an incomparably stronger organisation – financially and politically."
To read the full piece click here.
