Our weekly round up of news and updates from across the sector
Charity Commission
Speech by the Chair, Orlando Fraser
See here for the full transcript of Orlando Fraser's keynote speech at the Charity Law Association Conference last week, in which he set out his vision for the Commission and his personal ambitions and priorities as Chair. To pick out a few parts of his speech – he emphasised that the Commission "will be led solely by the law in the exercise of [its] statutory functions". He also said the Commission "will exercise leniency, where appropriate, when trustees make honest reasonable mistakes from which they are learning" but "will take robust action where we consider a charity or its purposes is being exploited, or harmed by abuse or negligence."
New inquiries
The Commission has announced inquiries into two religious charities who share the same sole trustee. The Commission is investigating 'the Centre for Skills Enhancement Limited' and 'Jesus Power House Ministries LTD', following financial concerns about both charities, including inaccurate financial accounts and potential unauthorised trustee benefit. Both charities' bank accounts have already been frozen pending the results of the inquiries.
Tax and VAT
Charity Tax Group has flagged that a recent HMRC Policy Paper entitled "Administrative changes to the creative industry tax reliefs" includes changes to these cultural tax reliefs: Theatre Tax Relief, Orchestra Tax Relief and Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief. CTG reports that there is very little detail in the Policy Paper but the main impact is that it will be mandatory, from 1 January 2024, that all claims to Theatre Tax Relief, Orchestra Tax Relief, and Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief are made using a new online 'Information Form'. The content of the Information Form is not known at this stage.
Sector General
NCVO has published the UK Civil Society Almanac 2023. See here for the Executive Summary.
Climate Change
From last week, public sector organisations including schools, hospitals, leisure centres and other public buildings can bid for a cut of £230 million of government funding to support significant low-carbon energy upgrades to their buildings. The funding can be used for projects ranging from heat pumps and solar panels, to new energy efficiency measures such as insulation and low-energy lighting. To apply for funding public sector bodies should visit: Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme: Phase 3.
Diversity and inclusion
See under the Schools section of Education below.
Fundraising
The Fundraising Regulator has announced the launch of a "market inquiry" looking into issues relating to the use of subcontractors in fundraising by charities. The inquiry will seek to better understand how door-to-door and on-street fundraising sub-contracts are arranged and monitored in the sector.
The FR says this, its first ever market inquiry, will include fact-finding, sector engagement, and workshops with relevant stakeholders. Following its conclusion, the FR will issue its findings and produce targeted support to help charities and agencies fundraise responsibly using sub-contracted partners. The form of this support will be led by sector feedback and may include written guidance, workshops and events. The FR says it will also engage with other regulators and sector bodies to agree a process for action against those who prove unwilling to comply with the Code of Fundraising Practice.
There has been no detail so far about the timetable for the inquiry or how this fits with the ongoing consultation on updating the Code.
Scotland
The monthly 'OSCR Reporter' newsletter for October 2023 is now available.
Northern Ireland
The trustees of roughly 150 charities will receive a letter from CCNI to highlight how the new traffic light display could affect their charity. The traffic light display, which is expected to go live on the register of charities later this year, will indicate if a charity has submitted their accounts and reports to CCNI on time or late.
Social Enterprise
At the Social Enterprise World Forum a new verification process was launched that aims to unite social enterprises around the world. The 'Social Enterprise Verification' mark will be a logo awarded to enterprises that put 'people and planet first'.
Tim Thorlby, director of Beautiful Enterprise, wrote a thought-piece for Pioneers Post on the need for better data in order to understand how social enterprises grow.
Pioneers Post reports that 'Buy Social Europe', an initiative set up by Social Enterprise UK that aims to boost social procurement among European corporations, has set a target of unlocking up to €5bn in corporate contracts for European social enterprises by 2030.
Social Enterprise UK reports that 40% of suppliers at the Labour Party Conference were social enterprises, including Belu water, Change Please coffee and Fruitful Office.
Social investment/social impact investment
Pioneers Post provides commentary on the latest UK dormant assets allocation, with £87.5m going towards social investment. Organisations such as Access and Big Society Capital have commented that they welcome the allocation but that there is opportunity to unlock more than this figure.
Good Finance has published an article entitled 'Understanding Shariah Compliant Investment: A Simple Guide', which sets out the key principles of Shariah Investment and how it works in a social investment context.
Faith based organisations
As you probably saw in the press, last week the government granted £3 million of additional funding to the Community Security Trust to enable it to place additional guards in schools it supports throughout each school's operating hours, and to place additional security staff outside synagogues on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.
The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs has designated the attacks in Israel starting from, but not limited to, 7 October 2023 as acts of terrorism. This means applications can be made to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) under the Victims of Overseas Terrorism Compensation Scheme 2012 by those victims injured, or the families of those killed, in the attacks.
Culture and creative
The House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has published a report, NFTs and the blockchain: the risks to sport and culture. The Committee says that the emergence of NFTs in the world of art has led to the risk of widespread copyright infringement. Regarding art and culture, the report says that emerging technologies that undermine intellectual property (IP) and copyright protections for artists' work have a profound impact on individual artists and the UK's creative industries.
Education
Schools
At the Conservative Party Annual Conference, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to develop a new Baccalaureate-style qualification for 16-19 year olds called 'The Advanced British Standard'. The aim is to combine A- & T-levels into a single qualification. See this policy paper for more information on the ABS, why the Government feels it is needed, and the next steps in its development. The Education Hub has also made a blog post called 'The Advanced British Standard: Everything you need to know'.
A DfE press release shows they are trying to boost teacher recruitment with £196 million in funding for scholarships, bursaries and salary grants to help trainees through their teacher training.
The first ever AI 'hackathon' in education will take place at the end of October in an attempt to experiment and understand how AI could be implemented in education. See this DfE press release for more information.
We have previously flagged the Equality and Human Rights Commission'supdated guidance for schools under the Equality Act regarding pupils with protected characteristics. Bates Wells partner Matthew Smith looks at the guidance in more detail here.
Further Education
Jack Smith, Head of Pathways and Funding Policy at the Office for Students, has written a blog post on the new Lifelong Learning Entitlement, and the OfS' role in implementing it.
Higher Education
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan announced last week that the DfE is launching a consultation on minimum service levels for teaching in universities as a result of strike action by lecturers. This DfE press release says the consultation will focus on 'stronger protections for final year students, key cohorts or those studying specialist subjects.'
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