Archive for the 'Public services' Category

Law, regulation and governance – the outlook for charities in 2013

Published January 14, 2013 Charity Commission , CIO , Professional Standards Authority , Public benefit , Public services , Regulation , Social Value Leave a Comment

Third Sector asked me to make some predictions about what’s coming up, and what might sneak up and bite the charity sector from behind on the legal, regulatory and governance front in 2013.  Here’s what I said:

Next year the regulation of charities will polarise.  At one end, the Charity Commission’s activity will pretty much focus on fraud, serious abuse and counter-terrorism, as well as registering the new Charitable Incorporated Organisations.  The jury’s out on whether CIOs will catch on beyond an initial flurry of interest in early 2013 or if, longer term, they’ll prove to have limited appeal.  The charitable company model is familiar to both funders and lenders, so dual regulation is no longer the burden it once was;  it’s likely to remain the most popular and convenient structure. Public benefit cases, such as the Plymouth Brethren’s Tribunal appeal will continue to hound the Commission as well, masking the fact it’s a ‘non-issue’ for most charities.

At the other end of the spectrum, the vast majority of charities will simply submit their annual return to the Commission and  be left alone, providing they don’t get a ‘red mark’ for sending in late accounts.   Instead, there will be increasing emphasis on self or voluntary regulation with, for example, the Professional Standard Authority’s new accreditation scheme for health charities going live in 2013.

Expect also to see William Shawcross, the Commission’s new chair continuing to make strong statements about charities’ independence and to court controversy with those charities who regard themselves as ‘social businesses’.

The personalisation legislation which brings in direct payments to service users has huge implications and will lead to many financial gainers and losers.   Implementing the ‘Social Value’ legislation into commissioning will also bring opportunities and challenges, not least  the temptation for charities to go ‘off-mission’ in  pursuing some of these contracts.  Trustees will need the right skills to ensure that their charity properly understands and makes the most of these changes.  Some charities’ governance structures will clearly need to play catch up with the dramatic changes in the funding environment. For example trustee skills audits will need prioritising to ensure the board has the right financial and new business skills for the opportunities, risks and complexities.

One out of six charities say they may have to close next year so trustees will also need to be equipped to anticipate the options whether that’s collaboration, merger, or winding up.

Lastly, whisper it quietly, but I anticipate many charities continuing to approach the Charity Commission for permission to pay trustees.  The numbers of charities with these arrangements in place will grow, whatever is said at Ministerial level.

A version of Rosie’s blog first appeared in Third Sector on 8 January 2013

Knowing the cost of everything and value of nothing?

Published July 2, 2012 Public services Leave a Comment
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Are marketization and spending cuts making the future look corporate in the search for trustees?

I was speaking to a senior NHS medical professional the other day.  She’s currently a trustee of a medium sized medical charity, providing them with invaluable skills and experience.  Historically, this NHS employee has been able to take time off, and to ‘box and cox’ her work pattern to enable her to fulfil her trustee role.  She’s benefitted, the charity has benefitted and the NHS has benefitted from the added insight she gained through her trusteeship.  However she told me that, as part of the NHS’s decision to operate an internal market for its services, she’s now required to account for every hour of her time.  And the NHS’s standard practice and leave policy does not allow time off for trustee duties, except in the case of ‘public bodies’.  Given this policy, and her heavy workload, the doctor I spoke to was not sure for how much longer she’d be able to continue in her trustee role.

Elsewhere in the public sector, similar pressures apply. And that’s despite the Government promoting the notion of the civil service as a ‘civic service’ in their Giving White Paper.  In February 2011 it was also announced that every civil servant would be encouraged to do at least one day of volunteering each year using special leave, with the aim of the civil service employees giving 30,000 volunteering days per year.  Given the current climate and job cuts, I wonder whether that target’s been reached?

Another source for trusteeship is the employees of other charities.  I can think of endless examples of where a charity employee is a trustee, or often the chair, of another charity.  The Small Charities Coalition, ACEVO, and Mind are just three examples of charities whose chair or vice chair also works for a charity.  And if you look at any charity’s list of trustees, you’ll very quickly see how many people working in the charitable sector are also trustees.  I wonder what time pressures these people are currently facing as the latest NCVO survey of charity leaders sees charities battling with an increased demand for their services despite being hit by multiple financial pressures.  As Sir Stuart Etherington puts it, “The sector is already doing a lot more with much less, and something has got to give eventually.”  I wonder if one of the things that will ‘give’ is charities willingness to let their employees take time off to carry out trustee roles in other charities?

I compared the situation in the public and charity sector with some recent conversations I’ve had with employees at RBS and Barclays.  Now I know the banking world is not without its reputational problems (even more so since first writing this blog), but I was struck by both banks really good record on employee volunteering. The people I spoke to told me that they were encouraged to volunteer, and that they were allowed some time off to do so.  For example, Barclays employees are given time off and up to £500 in grants to support their volunteering activities. Elsewhere, in the insurance industry Aviva pay their staff up to three days a year for volunteering activities.  I’m sure some of these examples of volunteering take the form of trusteeship. These firms aren’t just doing it for love; they see it as good business sense as well.

Whilst corporates are by no means perfect, and the motives behind their increasing emphasis on CSR may be as much about rebuilding trust as they are for altruistic reasons, is there more that charities and the public sector could do in this area?

If marketization is now the reality for the public sector, perhaps there should be more calls for the equivalent of a strong corporate social responsibility ethos to match?   As well as their online Employee Volunteering Check Up tool, Business in the Community also publishes a Corporate Responsibility index each year.  Might something similar, which incorporates the extent to which these organisations encourage volunteering, including trusteeship, be encouraged for public sector bodies?

Likewise could charities, larger charities especially, do more to develop a more structured approach to encouraging their staff to take up trustee roles and other volunteering opportunities?  I’m sure many do, but when I was researching this blog I couldn’t find much in the way of evidence of charities talking about their employees’ volunteering activities.  I’m sure if charities put a value to their employees engagement with other charities it would be extremely impressive and worth publicising.  Returning to the recent NCVO survey, it found that a third of charities are planning to increase their workforce over the next three months.  These new employees could be the trustees of tomorrow.  A total reward package which values their contribution to other charities would be well worth shouting about.

Rosie’s blog first appeared in Civil Society on 29 June 2012  

Squeezing the middle

Published November 23, 2011 Localism , Public services , Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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The age of austerity is affecting organisations in all sectors, but times appear to be particularly tough for local voluntary and community organisations delivering local public services. This is the sector’s ‘squeezed middle’: organisations that are too big to survive without funding, but too small to achieve the economies of scale needed to thrive in a more competitive environment. They are discovering is that it is hard to be a mission-driven organisation in a cuts-driven world.

Many of these organisations began life by challenging the way that public services were provided: identifying gaps and piloting new ways of delivering services to meet people’s needs more effectively. They were localism in action. That is why the sector has tended to be strongest in areas where the state has been weakest, for example in child protection and adult social care – for many years the ‘Cinderella services’ of the welfare state.

Opening up all public services to ‘any willing provider’ will create new opportunities for some, but not necessarily for this squeezed middle. I can only think of one or two national charities who may be interested in taking over some acute health services, for example. And in spite of all the talk of voluntary organisations running prisons in recent years, it is still just talk. Many, if not most want to continue doing what they do best: providing high quality specialist and niche services to local communities.

Yet this is more difficult to do when commissioners are going for fewer, larger contracts to help balance their budgets. And at a time when VCOs are competing for funding with organisations from all sectors, including major players in the business world – indeed, it could be argued that in this environment the very concept of ‘voluntary sector funding’ will soon be consigned to the history books.

VCOs are fighting back. We recently spoke to one CEO of a medium sized charity who has spent many months building and leading a consortium of local VCOs to bid for a large, single contract to provide services locally. Now waiting to hear if the bid will be successful, she highlighted the tensions and dilemmas for mission-driven organisations in the current financial climate:

‘I am perfectly comfortable being business-like, but that doesn’t mean I want to be more like business. I made a positive choice to come into this sector because I share its values and principles. Because it puts the user first, it’s not just about the bottom line.

‘I’ve put together the most competitive bid I can without compromising on quality or values; I would rather see my organisation go to the wall than do that.’

To some extent these concerns are shared by commissioners. As one senior local authority manager told us:

‘With the cuts we are in danger of losing real expertise, commissioners with specialist knowledge of services are being replaced by generic procurement officers who know a lot about process – EoIs and PQQs etc – but little about outcomes. I’m really worried that this will mean that contracts will go to those who can put in the best bid, not those who can deliver the best service.’

The Coalition Government is keen that, in spite of the cuts, the voluntary and community sector should play a key role in delivering public services – getting a larger slice of a smaller cake. Its best value guidance, for example, attempts to create a level playing field by emphasising the importance of social as well as economic value.  But, as always, policy is made as much by the actions of those on the ground as by the intentions of Ministers. And the reality on the ground is that local VCOs are being squeezed hard.

Belinda’s blog first appeared in Civil Society.

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