With a new chair, Dame Suzi Leather, and the Charities Bill soon to get its third reading, we’ve had a busy time producing new ways to help trustees on a range of topics.  

Charity Commission Direct

We launched our central ‘reception’ unit, Charity Commission Direct earlier this year, to ensure that new cases and enquiries go straight to the right part of the Commission. Key features include:

• all new enquiries to the Commission via any channel - post, email, telephone or fax - will go directly to a single entry point, Charity Commission Direct;
• each enquiry will be risk assessed and priority requests will be immediately escalated;
• a dedicated trustee helpline, available via 0845 300 0218, backed up with skilled staff with experience of trustee enquiries;
• a signposting facility will be developed with a range of specialist organisations for non-Commission enquiries;
• a database of frequently asked questions is available to provide immediate answers; and 
• better turnaround times for both mail and email requests.

We’ll keep developing the service to make sure it’s as easy and quick to use as possible.

Setting an example with SORP

The Statement of Recommended Practice for charity accounts (SORP 2005) was published last March, and many charities adopted it early for their 2005 accounts. As more charities start to finalise accounts for the year to 31 March 2006, they’ll be adopting the new SORP for the first time.

The redesigned finance sections on our website create a single ‘lead page’ to access all our accountancy related guidance. This page, ‘Help with preparing charity accounts and reports’ is on our website under ‘Meeting our requirements’ .

We’ve also published the final batch of example accounts and reports, giving charities some ideas of possible formats and approaches. Make sure you don’t use them as a blanket SORP substitute or template without considering your own charity’s specific circumstances.

We’ve added links to the websites of early adopters of the SORP; these accounts can help charities see how others deal with particular disclosure issues.

Click on ‘Charity accounts and reports’ on the homepage of our website to access SORP 2005, the accounts packs and the early adopters’ examples.

Helping in the hunt for new trustees

We know from our previous research that many trustee boards are still relying on word-of-mouth recruitment of new trustees, while at the same time finding it increasingly difficult to do so.

Our new guidance ‘finding new trustees’ covers all the steps involved, including:

• undertaking a skills audit of the current board;
• 
  advertising for trustees;
• 
  assessing who will make a good trustee;
• 
  recruiting internally;
• 
  getting help to find trustees; and
• 
  vetting new trustees and carrying out CRB checks.

It’s intended as a practical guide to each stage of the process and it’s available from our website at www.charitycommission.gov.uk or by calling Charity Commission Direct on 0845 300 0218.

Collaborative workers and mergers

Diversity and independence are sector strengths, yet there are many areas where charities could do more for their users by sharing expertise and experience through greater collaborative working.

Our latest guidance on the issue, ‘Collaborative working and mergers’ , includes:

• areas for consideration before taking collaborative working further;
• legal issues which might arise;
• when the Commission needs to be involved;
• different structures available for charities working collaboratively formally; and
• a range of issues involved in mergers, including the due diligence process.

It’s not part of our agenda to push charities into partnerships or mergers. But for those thinking of going down this route this guidance provides a good starting point. All these titles are available from our website under ‘Publications’ or by calling Charity Commission Direct on 0845 300 0218. 

Sush Amar works for the Charity Commission