Crunch vote prompted by plans to stop offering respite care for sufferers

The board of trustees at the MS Society is facing a vote of no confidence at its annual general meeting next month.

Members of the society have already tabled a motion calling for a suspension of the board’s decision to pull out of providing respite care at centres in York, Surrey, East Lothian and Leamington Spa, putting 380 jobs at risk.

The no confidence motion states that the board “has betrayed members’ trust” by redirecting major respite care spending without members’ approval.

The meeting, being held on 25 September, will also include a motion in support of the board’s decision to withdraw from the centres, which says it will “benefit more people with MS and carers throughout the UK, and provide fairer access to the society’s services”.

The Charity Commission’s Faith and Social Cohesion Unit, which closes at the end of this month, has made a range of resources for faith-based charities available online.

The unit was set up in October 2007 with a £1.2m grant from the Communities and Local Government department. It worked primarily with Muslim charities and encouraged them to register with the commission. The grant ran out at the end of April.

The resources include guidance on how to register as a faith-based charity, along with case studies of mosques to demonstrate good governance. These will join guidance that is already available on the commission website.

Economic conditions and job cuts stop charity staff from moving on

Staff turnover in the voluntary sector decreased significantly in the year to March 2010 but is still higher than the UK average, a new report indicates.

The study of 90 medium and large organisations by management and HR consultancy Agenda Consulting found there was “quite a significant drop” in the proportion of people leaving their jobs compared with 2008/09.

Work areas experiencing noticeable drops in turnover included fundraising and retail.

On average, 20 per cent of staff left their roles in the 2009/10 financial year, compared with 21.3 per cent in the previous year.

Despite the fall, the sector turnover rate remains significantly higher than the overall UK figure of 13.5 per cent.

  Report by Skills – Third Sector says 42 per cent have had no training at all

More than four out of 10 people who manage volunteers have not received any training, according to a report released recently.

Despite identifying much good practice in volunteer management, the study by the Institute for Volunteering Research, called Valuing Volunteer Management, concluded it is undervalued and underfunded in many charities.

The report draws on responses from more than 1,000 volunteer managers at third sector organisations in England.

It said 42 per cent of people managing volunteers have not received any training that would help them to carry out that work. In organisations with more than 50 staff the figure was 20 per cent.

The report found 86 per cent of respondents would welcome extra training or skills development. However, volunteer managers were often unaware of how to access the training, advice and support available.

The report calls for greater policy focus on how people managing volunteers in small groups might be better supported, and further research to explore the trend of using volunteers to manage other unpaid staff.

The research was commissioned by training charity Skills – Third Sector.

Julie Wilkes, its chief executive, said the government’s big society agenda relied on civic action and volunteering. She said her organisation was drawing up a skills strategy prioritising creating “flexible and affordable learning opportunities” for volunteer managers.

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Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has succeeded in his quest to ban the reams of forms, high costs and red tape getting in the way of communities organising street parties and summer fetes.

From now on, instead of organisers being met with endless, confusing guidelines on food licences, road closures and insurance – councils can ask street party organisers to complete one simple form.

A cross government meeting held by Mr Pickles, with the Department for Transport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport as well as local government and community groups such as the Big Lunch and Streets Alive, has agreed this new approach.

Mr Pickles will make it clear in a new leaflet that there are no dusty, central laws restricting councils from taking a common sense approach to administrating events.

He will expel the myth that councils are required by law to advertise and charge extortionate fees for small road closures, potentially saving organisers thousands of pounds.

Previously, some small community groups were asked to apply for up to five separate licences and found it tricky to get upfront advice on what to do. They also found out about hidden costs right at the last minute, causing delays or cancellations to community events.

For most small organised street parties that don’t affect the wider road network, there is no requirement in law for local authorities to advertise proposed closures or carry out consultations. Neither are specific signs or other traffic management equipment required.  Local authorities should act proportionately, wisely, and in the public interest – and highways law do not present any barriers to that.

Some easy, good practice guidance has been agreed in a new leaflet which will be published in September and be made available online and from town halls.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1700138, or go direct to

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/streetpartyguide.

NCVO has made its submission to the Treasury spending review, calling on the government to ensure the net effect on voluntary and community organisations is “at least neutral”.
The document also asks the Treasury to ensure settlement letters ask departments to “be mindful of the need to strengthen civil society”, therefore looking at the impact of their spending decisions, as well as asking them to consider how they might “work with the sector to do things differently and more cost-effectively”.
The submission, written by senior policy officer James Allen (pictured), also argues for:

• Localisation and decentralisation
• Supporting and strengthening the Compact, with funding agreements set for at least three years
• A level playing field for the sector when bidding for contracts
• A radical simplification of the gift aid system
• A wider examination of the tax system to incentivise giving and philanthropy

The umbrella body also promises to work with other support bodies and VCOs, saying it recognises that existing support services “could be rationalised to become more efficient, effective and sustainable”.
This comes is response to the government’s stated desire to improve the effectiveness of infrastructure to support frontline organisations, a consultation upon which is pending.

RNLI lifeboat

The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators assessed the reputations of 154 organisations

The RNLI has been awarded the highest ever score in a global study that measures the reputations of large corporate organisations.

The rescue charity was one of 10 well-known voluntary sector organisations, including the RSPCA, British Red Cross and Cancer Research UK, that were examined in the UK segment of the study, which attempted to gauge how well respected organisations are.

The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators commissioned the survey, which assessed the reputations of 154 UK-based organisations in areas including innovation, leadership and performance. At least 100 people were consulted for each group included in the study, which is also carried out in 33 other countries.

The RNLI averaged 95.1 per cent in the seven areas, compared with the global average of 64.2 per cent. The average for the 10 charities included in the study was 86.7 per cent.

Louise Thomson, head of policy at ICSA, said this was the first time charities had been included in the poll, which has been running for five years.

“Unsurprisingly, charitable bodies came out on top when compared with other types of organisations, with the reputational score for the top charity recording the highest ever measured by the researchers.”

Paul Boissier, chief executive of the RNLI, said: “We work tremendously hard on our reputation and standing in the public eye.”

Association of Charity Shops is to hold talks with Association of Chief Police Officers to discuss ways of tackling the problem

Charities are concerned that media reports of charity clothing collection scams will reduce people’s willingness to donate items and cost them millions in lost income.

Bogus collectors have recently used the names of the Down’s Syndrome Association and the RNLI, and a BBC report this month exposed a company that claimed to collect for Breakthrough Breast Cancer in Kent.

David Moir, head of policy at the Association of Charity Shops, said the reports of scams could damage public trust.

“It is highly possible that these bogus collectors could harm the public’s confidence in giving clothes to charitable collections, and that will have a damaging affect on charities’ stock levels,” he said.

It pointed out that charities get the full value of clothes they collect or that are taken to shops, while commercial collectors gave a proportion of the value to charity that the Association of Charity Shops had calculated to be as little as 5 per cent.

The Development Trusts Association and bassac, both of which have community-based organisations as members, are consulting about a merger which would bring together their expertise in community enterprise and community development. They say that this is not down to financial concerns but “the huge potential of a new organisation”. Bassac news item, Civil Society Media news item at http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/governance/news/content/7219/.

The first annual Trustees Week is to take place 25th to 31st October, organised by the Charity Commission, in partnership with Charity Trustee Networks, National Council for Voluntary Organisations, Reach Volunteering, Getting on Board and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. Other voluntary organisations are encouraged to organise related events and activities. News release at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/RSS/News/pr_trustees_week.aspx, or go to the dedicated website at http://www.trusteesweek.org.uk. Do note that the latter uses Blogger, which may make it rather slow in some web browsers.

Guidance on search engine optimisation (SEO), otherwise known as making websites easier to find, has been produced for charities by the Internet Advertising Bureau, the trade body for digital marketing. The ‘Search Toolkit for Charities and Public Sector’ includes an Oxfam case study and can be found via For access to the toolkit click here. (From Third Sector, http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/1023411/)

Only Connect, sponsored by Triodos Bank, enables voluntary organisations to visit another organisation to learn about how they have diversified their income into trading or public service delivery or by using loan finance. The visitor’s time and travel is reimbursed £150, and the host organisation gets a £200 consultation fee. Run by NCVO for organisations based in England only, current round closes 10th September, see http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/onlyconnect.

In  a change, just announced, to the Committee of Advertising Practice Code, adverts and marketing communications by companies on their own websites and on services like Facebook and Twitter will fall within the remit of the Advertising Standards Authority from 1st March 2011. See Out-law.com at http://www.out-law.com/page-11340 or if you prefer Civil Society Media at http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/fundraising/news/content/7226/.

Local Government Minister Grant Shapps has today scrapped the Place Survey, one of the largest surveys in Europe that was due to be conducted by local authorities this autumn.

Today’s move to scrap the survey is part of concerted efforts by the new Government to release councils from Whitehall control – leaving them free to respond flexibly and effectively to the needs of their residents.

It follows the scrapping of Comprehensive Area Assessments by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in June, instead making councils more accountable to residents rather than ministers in Whitehall.

The announcement also follows on from the new Government’s plans to require councils to publish online their spending over £500; to stop Town Hall publications which compete with local newspapers; and to block the practice of councils and quangos hiring agencies to lobby Government.

The Place Survey is a postal survey conducted by every council in England. Introduced in 2008, it involves over half a million residents and is estimated to cost more than £5 million to run.

Results have been fed back to central Government and used to measure councils’ performance on a range of centrally-imposed targets.

A new regime of town hall transparency, publishing spending and service information online; http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1606882.

Tougher rules against ‘lobbying on the rates’; http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1666074.

People power, allowing residents to veto unwanted council tax rises; http:www.communities.gov.uk/newsstories/newsroom/1658293.

Using the internet to help end the town hall ‘non-job’; http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1631912.

Stopping anti-competitive ‘propaganda on the rates’ killing off local newspapers; http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1625181.