Our weekly round up of news and updates from across the sector
Trustees' Week
Happy Trustees' Week! Readers might find this postinteresting. It's from the Chair of Restless Development about her experience of being a Chair of the Board as a 30 year old woman, and the work they are doing as an organisation to challenge traditional power structures.
At Bates Wells, a number of our people volunteer their time as trustees. In fact, members of our team sit on over 60 boards, you can read about some of their experiences here.
The Charity Commission Chair, Orlando Fraser, has said he is 'pretty pleased' by 54,000 people taking the Charity Commission's trustee knowledge quiz, with an average score of 8 out of 10. Have you managed to take it yet?
Cost of living crisis
A report from Ecclesiastical Insurance shows the extent of the impact the cost-of-living crisis is having on the sector. The 2023 'Charity Risk Barometer' shows 85% of charities are most concerned about running costs, and 70% are concerned about loss of funding.
The government has announcedthat the £2 bus fare cap will be extended until the end of next year, and the second cost of living payment of £300 will be paid to eligible families shortly.
Charity Commission
Updated Charity Commission model CIO constitutions
The Commission announced last week that it has updated its model CIO constitutions. This table here sets out the ways the new models differ from the old versions – with the main one being an updated 'Amendment to Constitution' clause.
The Commission says that all new CIO applications submitted from 1st November must include the new Amendment to Constitution clause. Including the other changes is optional. The Commission has published statutory guidance on what the changes mean for setting up a new CIO or existing CIOs.
Israel-Gaza conflict
The Commission has published a press release with advice on how to give effectively to best help civilians impacted by the conflict in the Middle East. They emphasise the importance of supporting genuine relief efforts and signpost to the Disasters Emergency Committee'slist of member charitieswho have launched appeals.
Inquiry launched
The Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into Noble Tree Foundation Limited, a charity which mainly provides social housing, due to concerns around potentially unauthorised trustee benefit. Their annual income rose by 130,000% in one year – from £3,000 to more than £4m.
Governance
Researchcommissioned by Getting on Board, a charity championing trustees from underrepresented backgrounds, shows that only half of charities are actively trying to recruit a more diverse trustee board. Ecclesiastical Insurance carried out the survey with the data showing trustee recruitment overall has improved, with 49% of charities saying they had difficulty recruiting trustees, compared with 60% last year.
Sector General
NCVO and ACEVO have published a discussion paper for a joint general election for manifesto.
Climate change
Ahead of COP28, Bond has reportedthat more than 70 civil society organisations have written to the Prime Minister demanding that the government reverses recent changes to UK international climate finance. The letter describes the government's previous commitment to provide £11.6bn in international climate finance and the change the government has made to what counts towards this. Calling it 'an exercise in creative accounting' the organisations say this move risks fracturing the UK's reputation as a trusted partner to lower income countries.
Data Protection
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued three fines totalling £170,000 for illegal direct marketing under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). The companies offer financial services and their illegal marketing communications included sending text messages without valid consent and making unwanted direct marketing calls to people registered with the Telephone Preference Service (who had not otherwise informed the company that they did not object to receiving calls from them). The ICO also highlighted that one of the organisation's text messages breached PECR by not identifying the sender of the message, or giving people the opportunity to opt out of future marketing communications.
The ICO has issued a reprimand to University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust after a computer system caused some patient referrals to be delayed or lost. The error affected nearly 5000 patients with over 4,100 experiencing delays and 569 referrals disappearing from the system altogether. The reprimand included recommended actions of supporting patients, ensuring processes prevent a repeat of the issue and sharing learning from mistakes across the Trust.
Public procurement and subsidy control
The Public Procurement (Agreement on Government Procurement) (Thresholds) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/1117) will come into force on 1 January 2024, updating certain financial thresholds. In particular, in relation to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, the threshold amounts will be increased to:
- £5,372,609 for a public works contract.
- £139,688 for public supply contracts and public service contracts awarded by central government authorities, and their design contests.
- £214,904 for public supply contracts and public service contracts awarded by sub-central contracting authorities, and their design contests.
The estimated value of procurements will be inclusive of VAT, instead of net of VAT.
Northern Ireland
Celia Currie, the Fundraising Regulator's Stakeholder and Policy Manager for Northern Ireland, writes a blog on some of their current areas of work in advance of a meeting between the Fundraising Regulator and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI) Board.
CCNI will write to about 7,000 charities in November in preparation for the new traffic light display on the register of charities.
CCNI's Chief Commissioner, Gerard McCurdy, writes an open lettert o Northern Ireland's charity trustees giving an overview of the sector and addressing the trials and tribulations of being a charity trustee.
Health and social care
This government announcement sets out that non-NHS organisations, including charities and social enterprises, can apply for funding to delivery one-off payments to staff who are employed on dynamically linked Agenda for Change contracts. These payments were agreed as part of the NHS pay award.
Also see under Data Protection above.
Social Enterprise
Navigating a Just Transition: What does it mean for Charities and Social Enterprises? Good Finance provides a simple explanation of what a 'Just Transition' means, how it may affect the sector, and the key role that charities and social enterprises will play in shifting from a carbon-intensive economy to a more environmentally friendly one.
Social investment/social impact investment
Opinion: We've been providing enterprise grants – and the early results are compelling. Mark Norbury, CEO of UnLtd, and Alastair Wilson, CEO of the School for Social Entrepreneurs , wrote for Pioneers Post about how grant funding that focuses on boosting trading income can help social enterprises to grow and become more financially sustainable.
Sport
This government announcement contains details of the Swimming Pool Support Fund, which will give a share of £20 million to local authorities to fund their swimming pools and leisure centres.
Education
Schools
Ofsted has published phase 2 of its independent review into the government's tutoring programme in schools and 16-19 education providers. The review assesses the quality of tutoring, integration into curriculums and its efficacy in helping pupils catch up. An important conclusion drawn was that much tuition time was being used for exam preparation despite Key Stage 3 pupils needing the most support with catching up. Further information can be found in this Department for Education press release.
Further Education
Schools Week reports a steep rise in academy trust warning notices, which are letters alerting trusts that they face losing an academy. More than 150 have been issued in just two years – to put that into perspective, only 15 notices were sent out in 2021.
See here for the weekly update from the Education and Skills Funding Agency covering news for academies, colleges, local authorities and further education providers.
Higher Education
The Office for Students has confirmed an £8.1 million scholarship fund for postgraduate AI and data science conversion courses in an attempt to increase diversity in students entering these areas.
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