Earlier this (18th March) the third commencement order was made under the Charities Act 2006. Among the provisions this brings in is the Charity Tribunal, which has only got a President so far, charity lawyer Alison McKenna (see previous newsletters). There are five legally qualified members and seven lay members of the tribunal still to come, intended to create an affordable route to appeal Charity Commission decisions.

Third Sector quotes the Tribunals Service “It will take 15 weeks for cases to come to the tribunal because of the length of time the different parties have to respond to each other, so all the members should be in place by then.” Office of Third Sector news release.

Other provisions of the Charities Act which are brought into effect immediately under this order are
- allowing charities to pay trustees for goods and services.
- three new powers for the Charity Commission, giving greater flexibility in dealing with cases of mismanagement, maladministration or abuse of a charity.
- more flexibility for charities to change their charitable purposes.
Summary in news release.

A fourth commencement order is expected in the next fortnight to bring into force further provisions of the Act from 1st April:
- The definition of charity, including the public benefit requirement, and associated provisions.
- The statutory requirement to prepare group accounts, and some other changes to auditing, accounting and reporting requirements, which will generally apply to financial years of charities beginning on or after 1st April 2008.

The Office of the Third Sector has also announced that it is taking longer than hoped to develop the draft secondary legislation needed to bring in the Charitable Incorporated Organisation legal model, due to the complexity of the interaction of charity law and company law. A consultation package is expected in May, which will be followed by debate in Parliament, meaning that it will be late 2008 or early 2009 before the CIO form is available.

Sir Bert Massie, previously chair of the Disability Rights Commission, is to be the new Commissioner for the Compact, overseeing how this agreement between government and the sector is implemented.

He takes over from interim commissioner Helen Baker on 1st April, but he will be answering questions on the Compact Voice National Network discussion forum over the next week (19th to 26th March) - go to http://compact.ning.com/?xgi=gEVaMbr to join the forum.

A new, permanent, chief executive is still awaited. Office of Third Sector news item, or Charity Finance news alert at http://www.charityfinance.co.uk/home/content.php?id=1381.

There is concern in both Scotland and Northern Ireland around funding for voluntary sector health initiatives.

In Scotland, see SCVO’s news item at http://www.scvo.org.uk/scvo/NewsAndEvents/ViewArticles.aspx?f=h&al=t&pid=6934, or check out CHEX news, http://www.chex.org.uk.

In Northern Ireland, three per cent efficiency savings set in the Northern Ireland budget are being passed on by public bodies to voluntary and community organisations they fund - NICVA news items at http://www.nicva.org/index.cfm/section/news/key/100308efficiencysavings and specifically on health and social care at http://www.nicva.org/index.cfm/section/news/key/04mar2008trustcuts.

To help with contract and grant negotiations, NICVA has produced a useful summary on NI government policy around Full Cost Recovery.

A bicycle recycling project and a flat pack furniture workshop that provide employment to homeless people are among fifteen organisations that have been chosen to compete in the Spark social enterprise competition, supported by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

All the finalists will receive coaching to help them develop their social enterprises to help more homeless people into training, volunteering and jobs, with a chance for a share of half a million pounds too.

News item at
http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/716425?version=2.

The Innovation Exchange is looking for people or organisations with new ideas to support excluded young people and independent living.

The best ones will be invited to a Festival of Ideas (April/May) and supported to develop their plans (May/June) with possibility of dedicated support and a share of an Innovation Exchange Fund. http://innovation-exchange.org/festivals-of-ideas.

The 100th (permanent) community radio station has gone on-air in the UK, with projects stretching from the Isles of Scilly to Orkney.

Read more on the variety of coverage and background in Ofcom news release, http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2008/03/nr_20080310.

The much-discussed revised guidance on campaigning by charities has now been published by the Charity Commission.

Both the news release (at http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=358150&NewsAreaID=2) and Third Sector’s article (at http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/789694/ have some useful information on how this has changed and what it clarifies - that taking action can be part of achieving a charity’s objectives, but can’t be its only function.

The document itself, ‘Speaking Out - Guidance on Campaigning and Political Activity by Charities’ (CC9) is at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/publications/cc9.asp.

Online democracy charity MySociety has a new web site, WhatDoTheyKnow?, aiming to make it easy to submit requests to public bodies under the Freedom of Information Act, providing simple request forms and the ability to browse previous requests.

Still in development, but basically working, at http://foi.mysociety.org.

The government has responded to the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Volunteering (Manifesto for Change). Many points have been accepted, but the idea of an annual fund to support partnerships between charities and local councils was rejected, as was the suggestion of a cabinet minister with responsibility for volunteering.

They will invest £4 million in new training programmes for volunteers and volunteer managers; create a new access to volunteering fund for disabled people (£2 million); produce guidance to help avoid unnecessary criminal records checks being carried out; improve coordination of volunteering by civil servants; support existing events to promote volunteering. Plus further work will be done on the viability of including volunteering in the inspection of public services. See Office of the Third Sector. Volunteering England welcomed the response.

Also, the first in a series of reports examining the role of volunteers and volunteering in public services has been published by Baroness Julia Neuberger, the government’s “independent volunteering champion”. ‘Volunteering in the Public Services: Health and Social Care’ says that there is much potential to expand volunteering in health and social care to build more people centred services, with service-users themselves a largely untapped source.

The main recommendations are summarised in the news release, which also has a link to the full report. Society Guardian coverage at http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/10/voluntarysector.socialcare.

‘Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design’ has been recommended by Laura’s Notebook, a voluntary sector technology blog (http://laura.popokatea.co.uk). This useful guide is “aimed at helping organisations strengthen campaigns and projects through communicating vital information with greater impact”.

Go to TacticalTech at http://tacticaltech.org/infodesign for more and the download (a chunky 6.85MB pdf, A5 format).

The BBC’s Action Network web site, which helps people get involved in community action, is to close at the end of April. They say that “the pace and innovation of online democracy means that our members can access a wider range of web tools, and have more control of their campaigns” elsewhere.

However, as part of BBC’s commitment to help people engage in civic life and national debate, a new service of ‘topic pages’, as well as giving the latest news stories on an issue, will link to wider debate through blogs, campaigns and web sites. And many of the Action Network guides and briefings will be moved across too.

Details at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A33049172.

UnLtdWorld, an online network to connect social entrepreneurs, has been officially launched (4th March), alongside a connected Research Lab, “the world’s first dynamic mapping and graphing of social entrepreneurship”. See http://unltdworld.com/pages/blog.php or register at http://unltdworld.com.

SIX (social innovation exchange) is another new site in this area. It hopes to link together other networks of social entrepreneurs, acting as a clearing house, matching portal and an innovators’ resource bank. It has a weekly look at new projects, resources and organisations around the world. http://www.socialinnovationexchange.org.