Presentation from Paula Sussex, Charity Commission, 7 November 2016.

1. The Regulatory Landscape for Charities
Paula Sussex, Chief Executive
Charity Commission for England and Wales
www.charitycommission.gov.uk
Twitter: @chtycommission
7 November 2016
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2. Trustees - an extraordinary force
…in 165,000 charities

3. How the regulatory landscape has changed from 2015
Fundraising regulation
• New fundraising regulator
• Review of the Code of Fundraising Practice
• Plans for fundraising preference service
• Updated CC20 - more focus on trustee oversight of fundraising
Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016
• Closing gaps and loopholes in the Commission’s protective powers
• New reporting requirements for fundraising (1 Nov)
• Tighter controls on professional fundraisers and commercial participators (1 Nov)
• Backstop powers for fundraising regulation
• Enabling – social investment

4. Trustee duties – before and after
Source: The essential trustee, 2007 and July 2015
2007 2015
• Trustees have … ultimate responsibility for directing the
affairs of a charity and ensuring it is.. well-run and
delivering the charitable outcomes for the public benefit
for which it is set up.
Ensure your charity is carrying out its purposes for the
public benefit
Compliance – trustees must:
• comply with charity law, reporting requirements,
governing document, other relevant legislation
• Avoid conflicts of interest, act with integrity
Comply with your charity’s governing document and the
law
Act in your charity’s best interests
Duty of prudence – trustees must:
• Use funds reasonably
• Avoid undue risk
Manage your charity’s resources responsibly
Duty of care – trustees must:
 Use reasonable care and skill
 Consider relevant professional advice
Act with reasonable care and skill
Ensure your charity is accountable

5. Guidance for boards sharpened up

6. Themes from our compliance work
Governance
Conflicts of
interest
Private
benefit
Decision-
making
Fundraising
Registration
compliance
Financial
distress
Source: Tackling Abuse and Mismanagement Report
2015-16, yet to be published, Charity Commission

7. • Poor record keeping
• No evidence even if trustees
suggest they have been
managed
Conflicts of interest – the bad
• Actions pursued
regardless
• Appointing trustees
inappropriately
• Ignoring different, better
courses of action
• Conflicts not declared
• No systems to identify
them in the first place
• People are in it for themselves
• Charities are closed shops
Damage to
public
confidence
Not identified
Not preventedNot recorded

8. Decision making – the good
• Within powers
• In good faith
• Conflicts managed
• Reasonable decisions
• Sufficiently informed
• Take account of relevant
factors
• Ignore irrelevant factors
• Relevant experience
• Diversity
• Not just recruited from
closed circles
• Well informed decisions
• Good records
• Accountability Resulting in… Diverse boards
BehaviourEvidence

9. • “It is an essential part of our regulatory role, and a
strategic priority, to enable trustees to run their
charities effectively, in order to maximise the
effective use of charitable resources” (Charity Commission
strategic plan 2015-18)
• streamlining our permissions processes and automating
our straightforward permissions
• better guidance, better reach, better digital services
• doing more with more partners
Increasing the focus on enablement

10. Our digital aim in 2017
End to end digital services, which will build up into a self-service
portal through which charities can transact and we will deliver
specific and tailored content, guidance and services

11. Better for charities
• A self-service portal for charities will enable a view of transactions,
tailored guidance, reminders etc.
• Increased speed /ease of submission for well-managed charities seeking
to make low risk changes
• Consistent, quality services that have been tested with charities to ensure
that they meet their needs
• Easier to make small changes or frequent updates
• Improved public access to better quality charity information, which will
promote the effective use of charitable resources

12. Better for us
• Automation to remove thousands of low risk transactions each year, creating
capacity for staff to focus on higher-risk regulatory work
• Able to make changes to services faster
• Able to capture better data to better apply risk-led regulation
• Encourage more accurate/timely information on the Register
• Avoid multiple contacts with charities over individual low-risk regulatory
activities
• Reduce costs to process paper accounts

13. Digital support
Launched October 2016 – helping trustees to think about the key questions to
ask
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-digital-work-12-questions-
for-trustees-to-consider

14. :
Quality of trusteeship – what do we need to do?
Re-set standards
and expectations?
Increase support,
development and
guidance?
Make the case for
change?
Improve the pipeline
of supply for
trustees?