After the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Charity Commission launched an initiative to review how the voluntary sector can best respond in the event of future national disasters and emergencies. The new initiative builds on the experience of the Disasters and Emergencies Committee, which deals with international crises.
The National Emergencies initiative, launched at the end of 2019, to establish a new charity, NET to support the UK voluntary sector in raising funds to provide a collaborative response to major crises. Local charities will be encouraged to work through a single national fund set up by NET with the aim to help direct fundraising. NET will also provide expertise on the allocation of funds and work through local grant distributors.
The Trust has launched its coronavirus appeal earlier this month to raise funds to help local charities in their work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Commission has refreshed its safeguarding guidance, with a view to helping charities understand their legal duties to protect people who come into contact with their charity.
The updated guidance now includes advice on:
For a full update on this, please see our recent article about the changes to the guidance
The Commission is currently seeking views on current considerations around responsible or ethical investments.
The aim of seeking views is to understand how charities are able to reconcile achieving good financial returns with responsible investments consistent with their charity's purpose and values, alongside any barriers that may be preventing them from achieving this.
The Commission will be seeking views until Tuesday 31 March 2020 and has requested that contributions are emailed to: policy@charitycommission.gov.uk .
The Commission has recently published a review of complaints and reports about charities which fall below the threshold for regulatory action.
The review indicates that:
Key messages from the report are for charities to be accountable when it comes to complaints or when people raise concerns, and for charities to embed good practice, appropriate attitudes and behaviour.
The Charity Commission has updated its guidance on exempt charities (CC23). The changes mainly relate to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). HEIs are exempt charities as they are regulated by the Office for Students (OfS), rather than the Charity Commission. The update gives effect to the changes to the Charities Act 2011, introduced by the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 (Further Implementation etc.) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/1027).
These amendments (which came into force from 1 August 2019):
Aside from the changes for HEIs, the Commission continues to focus on serious incident reporting, as early on in the guidance it mentions that exempt charities should check the requirements of their principal regulator (for HEIs, this is the OfS).
The guidance also highlights that thirteen years after the Charities Act 2006, registered societies are still exempt and still have no principal regulator.
The Commission has appointed an interim manager to CAWRM Ltd, known as Jerusalem Merit - a charity which aims to relieve poverty and financial hardship, particularly amongst refugees in the Middle East.
This follows an inquiry into CAWRM Ltd opened by the Commission in November 2018, investigating concerns about the charity’s management and finances.
Interim managers are only appointed by the Commission as a temporary and protective step. This is where the Commission has identified misconduct or mismanagement in the administration of a charity, or where necessary to protect a charity’s property.
For CAWRM Ltd, the interim manager has been appointed to assess specific issues and the charity’s viability. The publication of further appointments was anticipated at the time of writing.