‘Don’t wait for a quiet time to address governance issues’ 

26 May 2017 News

Sarah Atkinson, director of policy and communications, Charity Commission

Sarah Atkinson, director of policy and communication at the Charity Commission, has urged charities to address issues with governance sooner rather than later. 

Atkinson was speaking at an event to launch NPC’s state of the sector report earlier this week, and was responding to a question about whether the sector was being too slow to address issues, when she advised charities not to “wait for wait for a quieter time” to take action. 

She said it was getting people on board that takes the time but that there’s “no way around that”. 

“I’m worried about governance, I’m worried about whether we’re moving fast enough on addressing some of the issues on governance,” she said. 

“There were lots of great things in the Lords report, but what there was not was a coherent call from the sector to government to say ‘while you’re looking at us here’s what we want from Parliament to enable the structure’.

“That’s a missed opportunity. You won’t get that opportunity again for a while. Don’t come to me and say ‘this is what the Charity Commission needs to do’ when you haven’t said to Parliament, ‘Parliament change what you ask the Charity Commission to do’.”

Take action 

 She also encouraged charities to read NPC's report and act on it, and not just use the parts which support their existing agendas. 

“We need to understand what this report is telling us,” she said “including the bits that make difficult reading.”

She added that the Commission would be thinking very carefully about what the report is telling it and "how we can reflect it in our compliance and enabling agenda”. 

Atkinson added that the regulator “will get out of your way when you are charging ahead”. 

‘Don’t get distracted’

Vicky Browning, chief executive of Acevo, said she wasn’t sure that charities are responding quickly enough, but said there were examples of innovative leaders responding to challenges. 

“But it is a painful and difficult process,” she said and “some of this just takes time”.

She also urged charities to focus their resources. 

Browning said charities should “focus on their primary objective and really think about what makes the most impact”. 

She said it was important that charities avoid “being distracted” or “following the money”. And said charities should not follow the commercial sector mantra of “growth, growth, growth” because for charities the mission is “more important than growth”. 

Browning added that it is “more important that impact happens, than who delivers the impact”. 

Public trust 

The panel was also concerned by the report’s finding that 31 per cent of charities thought that a fall in public trust and confidence in the sector would affect their charity. 

Sara Llewellin, chief executive of the Barrow Cadbury Trust, said that “trust takes a long time to grow” and is a “careless act to damage”. 

She said the sector needed to “be more trustworthy” by improving transparency and accountability. 

“That means listening and changing,” she said.  

Atkinson added that it was naïve to assume that issues relating to trust would not affect some charities. 

“Falling trust is affecting your charity right now,” she said. 

Browing said that she was “disheartened” by the figure and highlighted the “emergence of a private sector that has social impact as a USP” as a challenge. 

Partnerships and collaboration 

NPC’s report also said that charities think they will collaborate more in the future, however Atkinson was sceptical about this as charities have been slow to do this so far. 

She encouraged charities to think about “what is really stopping you” and “tackle that” or “admit that it it’s not going to happen”. 

Llewellin said “we do almost nothing that isn’t a collaboration” but that it wasn’t appropriate for everything, and without “the right protocols in place you will come unstuck”. 

Browning said that one of the barriers is that “people sometimes think collaboration is all or nothing”. She also said people’s pride can get in the way. 

Maff Potts, director of Camerados, reminded charities that “it is ok to disagree” with your partners as long as you share an overall aim".

‘It’s ok to walk away’ 

NPC’s report also revealed that many charities were subsidising public sector contracts with income from other sources. 

Atkinson reminded charities to “stick to their mission” and “know their worth” and said that “trustees have to be able to assess the true value of contracts”. 

Browning said “we need to get more confident about walking away” because it “doesn’t do us or our beneficiaries any good”. 

Civil Society Media is hosting a course on Risk Management for Trustees on 28 September 2017. For more information, and to book, click here.

 

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