The Regulator for Charities in England and Wales
(May 2007)
On 16 January we launched a consultation on our website about plans for the Annual Return 2007. The aim of the consultation was to give charities, and other interested organisations, the opportunity to see what our future plans entail and to invite feedback on our draft AR07 forms and comment about the key changes.
The consultation closed on 19th March 2007.
We received 25 responses with the majority of replies coming from larger charities (income over £1million) and a roughly equal number of responses from medium-sized charities and smaller charities (income under £10,000) A third of respondents were umbrella groups or advisers to charities.
The consultation invited comment on 4 key questions:
Question 1 Do you think our proposals for AR07 will improve the submission experience for charities?
All the respondents who answered this question agreed that the proposals will lead to an improved submission experience for charities.
Question 2 Do you think our proportionate approach to requesting information according to the financial size of a charity is pitched correctly?
The majority of respondents who answered this question agreed that our proportionate approach is pitched correctly, supporting the principle that it is appropriate to request different levels of information from different sized charities to reduce the administrative burden on smaller charities.
Question 3 Is our approach of replacing fixed monitoring questions with tailored links to information on a range of topics a helpful change?
The majority of respondents who answered this question agreed that removing the monitoring questions was helpful.
Question 4 Is our new approach to serious incident reporting by charities clear, are the right issues addressed and is the threshold at which it commences (charities with an income over £25,000) proportionate?
Whilst the majority of respondents who answered this question were in agreement that our approach to serious incident reporting is pitched correctly, a number felt that our Guidance Notes could be improved. In particular, the guidance should make the distinction clearer between what the Commission is recommending as good practice and what is a legal requirement. In addition, it was suggested that we make it clearer about what we will do with the information provided and to set out some practical examples of what we think constitutes a “significant” risk or “serious” incident.
The majority of responses have been positive about the AR07 proposals with broad support for the changes. The issues of quantifying volunteer numbers and clarifying what is meant by a serious incident attracted most comment. Some respondents queried the potential duplication of providing financial data from accounts although a number of large charities have confirmed it will take no more than 30 minutes to complete the main Annual Return form, supporting our form completion estimates.
A number of respondents questioned how helpful the exercise would be if volunteer figures were based on estimates and excluded smaller charities. It was clear from some responses that some charities do not know the scale of volunteering for their organisation and would need to introduce administrative measures to gather the data.
We have decided to introduce this question as an optional field only for 2007. This is in recognition of the potential burden for some charities to provide previously uncollected data. However, its inclusion will mean that the issue of volunteer contribution is brought to the attention of trustees. For charities completing the question we will know if they use large volunteer numbers, enabling us to offer better informed advice. In some cases it will help to inform our assessment of risk when considering allegations or suspicions of wrongdoing.
Optional completion also gives us the opportunity to do some follow up work to better understand the issues that arise for some charities in harnessing volunteer information.
In light of the consultation comments we will review and improve the guidance covering Serious Incident Reporting.
We think the proposals for AR07 remain consistent with and conducive to the delivery of the Commission’s new objectives set out in the Charities Act 2006. Our plans to improve the collection and display of information about charities, which these proposals support, are designed particularly to further the Commission’s objective of enhancing the accountability of charities to donors, beneficiaries and the general public.
Specimen copies of the Annual Return forms for 2007 will be published shortly on our Annual Returns homepage.
We are encouraging charities to use our improved and secure online service to complete their Annual Return and we intend to notify charities shortly after their financial year end that their online Annual Return for 2007 is ready for completion.
We will send an invitation by email or post and expect notifications to start from early July. Charities will be directed to the secure online service where they will be prompted to enter their unique password. Details of how charities can still obtain a paper form for completion will also be provided.
Has your charity provided a contact email address? If not, update charity details now.