The Charity Commission is planning to recruit 85 additional staff after receiving a £5m increase to its budget, the regulator said in its annual report and accounts, published today.
The Commission accounts confirm that it will continue to receive an additional £5m a year from the Treasury on an ongoing basis,although this is only until such time as it is able to start charging charities for regulation.
But the Commission said that despite the funds, its primary risk remained not having sufficient funds to cope with demand for its services.
The regulator reported saw a 36 per cent increase in the number of compliance cases opened in the year, as well as a record number of applications for registration.
The Commission said a major focus remains improving safeguarding in the voluntary sector. It found that significant numbers of charities which should have had safeguarding policies did not appear to do so.
“As in previous years, our primary risk was being able to meet increasing demands for services against a backdrop of limited financial resources,” the regulator said in its report. “The dramatic increase in reporting of safeguarding issues within the sector has intensified this challenge.”
The Commission said that the 20 per cent boost in its funding from Treasury would lead to a similar increase in staff numbers.
“With the additional funding from the Treasury, to ease the pressure brought about by increased demand on our services, our key focus for the first six months of 2018/19 will be attracting, recruiting and inducting up to 85 new employees,” the report said.
Staff numbers remained static in the year, with 10 redundancies. However attrition rates were high. A third of all staff moved job during the year, and 38 per cent of London-based staff left the Commission.
Caseload increases by 36 per cent
The Charity Commission’s accounts show that the number of compliance cases rose from 1,664 last year to 2,269 this year.
In addition, serious incident reports rose by 29 per cent to 2,819, while statutory inquiries rose 19 per cent to 135 (excluding a single inquiry last year which covered 74 connected charities).
The Commission did not give details on why its caseload has grown so much, although it said the increase in serious incident reports was largely down to increased safeguarding disclosures.
The number of disclosures of “matters of material significance” by auditors rose from 17 to 194, year-on-year, after the Commission reminded auditors of their duties to make disclosures.
There were 78 uses of new powers given to the Commission in the last Charities Act, including the disqualification of 14 individuals and six official warnings, the regulator said.
1,700 charities lacking safeguarding policies
More than half of all serious incident reports related to safeguarding, which the Charity Commission has said is an increasingly significant priority.
In January 2018, the Commission wrote to 1,700 charities which said they worked with or supported vulnerable beneficiaries, but said in their annual returns they did not have a policy for safeguarding.
“We reminded the trustees of their legal duties and signposted them to our safeguarding strategy,” the report said. “In the next financial year we will undertake further targeted engagement with these charities.”
Record applications for charitable status
The Commission said it had received a record 8,375 applications, although only 64 per cent of those went on to become charities. There were 5,398 charities registered, as opposed to 4,360 who were removed from the register.
In the previous year it had 8,368 applications, of which 6,045 were registered, while 4,556 charities were removed.
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