Charity Commission updates – New Chair & Business Plan for 2022/23
The Charity Commission has recently appointed a new Chair and published its Business Plan for 2022/2023, which includes a commitment to strengthen visibility and engagement in Wales.
The new Chair of the Commission is Orlando Fraser QC. WCVA’s CEO, Ruth Marks, attended an introductory meeting with Orlando Fraser in May and we look forward to working with him to support charities in Wales during his term at the Commission.
His inaugural speech ‘sets out his intention to lead an to lead an expert regulator that is fair, balanced and independent.’ The speech is positive about the role the sector plays in society and expresses ‘a desire to lead an expert Commission – that is, a regulator full of the brightest and the best, whose judgment can be relied on by you trustees as authoritative.’
CHALLENGE AND ENCOURAGEMENT
He states that he wants the work of the Commission to be informed by three key values – fairness, balance, and independence. There is a reassuring message around supporting trustees to ‘get it right’ when things don’t go exactly to plan’:
‘So, there will be occasions when the Commission will be very robust, but equally you will see a supportive side to us – it is a question of achieving the right overall balance over time between challenge and encouragement, and it is something to which I want the Commission to pay attention.’
The speech ends with a promise that the Commission will keep increasing its efforts to improve the service it provides to trustees. There are also two asks for trustees. The first ask concerns the legal duty of prudence as trustees, ‘or as you may know it, managing your charity’s resources responsibly’. This is especially important as we enter increasingly challenging times. The second ask concerns trustee recruitment, including a request to ‘make any recruitment drive as inclusive and diverse as possible, thus ensuring the continued excellence of the sector.’
BUSINESS PLAN
The Commission has also published its Business Plan for 2022- 2023, which is structured around three priorities:
- we will improve our ability to regulate efficiently, effectively, and robustly
- we will better engage with trustees, supporting them to run their charities well
- we will strengthen our organisation to ensure we deliver our ambition
We are pleased to note that the new Business Plan includes a commitment to ‘work closely with representative bodies and engage positively with the Welsh Government and Senedd Members on matters of shared importance’ and to ‘strengthen our visibility and engagement in Wales’.
The Charity Commission will be running a FREE event at this years gofod3 with An Introduction to the Revitalising Trusts Programme.
For additional support on governance issues make sure your organisation is a WCVA member. You can also sign up to our governance e-bulletin or any other WCVA mailings you would find useful for regular updates.
The post Charity Commission updates – New Chair & Business Plan for 2022/23 appeared first on WCVA.