Charity Commission Strategic Consultation
Following the Government's Spending Review and the announcement that the Charity Commission's budget will be cut from £29.3m to £21.3m by 2014/15, the Charity Commission is seeking to review its key priorities for the next five years and develop a new strategy which can be delivered within the resources available.
The consultation asks questions about which services it is most important for the Charity Commission to continue to provide, and about the different expectations stakeholders have of the Commission. Some specific questions are set out in the Charity Commission strategic review consultation document, but these are only intended as a guidelines and general comments are also welcome.
The consultation runs until 14 January 2011 and NCVO will be submitting a formal response. We would like to hear your views so they can inform our submission. Please share your thoughts and participate in our online debate here below.
You can also respond directly to the Charity Commission:
- complete the Charity Commission's online survey
- email responses directly to strategicreview@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk
Comments
the register of charities
From a research point of view, I think it's important to stress the key role that the Commission has in maintaining the Register of charities - and the effort it puts into gathering and sharing that information.
The primary purpose of the register is to provide public accountability for charities - the public can access their objectives, aims and accounts, and use those to hold them to account (thus saving the Commission time and money).
But the register has an important secondary function as a dataset for research into the sector. It forms the basis of the stats in the UK Civil Society Almanac, as well as a population for many surveys of the sector (including the National Survey of Charities and Social Enterprises).
We think the register is a great resource - and with a few improvements it could be even better. Collecting a couple of extra information points (such as the amount of gift aid received) could greatly help charities to be more accountable.
The Commission could also look at widening access to the register in line with the principles of open government data - for example by providing a downloadable copy of the register under the Open Government Licence, or by producing an API or linked data version of the register. Opening up the register in this way makes it possible for developers to build tools based on the register which help charities and help us learn more about them.
payment of trustees
In a recent article on the Guardian about the Charity Commission entering a new phase, Sam Younger was interviewed as the new Chief Executive, and he mentioned the possibility that the Charity Commission will cease its role in relation to approving exceptional governance actions such as the payment of trustees.
I find this quite disconcerning. NCVO strongly believes that the voluntary principle is not only compatible with good governance but an asset, the defining essence of the voluntary sector. There are also widespread concerns that remunerating trustees could undermine public confidence in the voluntary sector, due to a perceived conflict of interest and loss of credibility.
The Charity Commission itself has always maintained that the concept of unpaid trusteeship has been one of the defining characteristics of the charitable sector, and contributes greatly to ensuring public trust and confidence in charities.