From WCVA Trustee news: solicitors Bates Wells and Braithwaite Summer 2009 Charity and Social Enterprise Law Update contains a variety of articles on such topics as execution of contracts and legacies. Download pdf, 1.66MB.

The National Audit Office announces practical guidance to help Government reduce the burden of monitoring and reporting on third sector organisations it funds.

See the National Audit Office announcement at: http://www.nao.org.uk/guidance_and_good_practice/good_practice/third_sector/intelligent_monitoring.aspx

NCVO and the Charity Finance Directors’ Group have set up an independent expert group on trustee and senior management expenses.

Former Charity Commissioner Lindsay Driscoll will chair the group which will seek to develop best practice following the recent intense focus on publicly-funded expenses elsewhere. Others on the group are the chef exec of the Directory of Social Change, professor of voluntary sector management Paul Palmer and Don Bawtree, charity unit partner at accountancy firm BDO Stoy Hayward. There will be wide sector consultation.

See CFDG news item at http://www.cfdg.org.uk/cfdg/press_release_220609.asp, or Charity Finance, http://www.charityfinance.co.uk/home/content.php?id=2926.

CIPD, the personnel professionals’ organisation, and Acas, the employment relations body, have jointly published a brief “five-a-day management fundamentals” on how to be a better boss.

There is also a discussion paper ‘Meeting the UK’s people management skills deficit’ - more on both in Acas news item at http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2390.

A ‘Big Board Talk’ initiative has been launched by the Charity Commission with the support of the CBI to encourage charity trustees to ask themselves serious questions about how well placed they are to cope during the recession.

The checklist of 15 questions is available at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/tcc/ccnews29check.asp and is also included at the end of the latest Charity Commission News (number 29), pdf version 642KB at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Library/tcc/pdfs/ccnews29inc.pdf, or web page at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/tcc/ccnews29.asp.

CC News itself is also worth circulating, although we have covered nearly all of the items here previously.

Recession Support, the newish web site from ACEVO, has added a page giving an overview of tools to assess, and demonstrate, effectiveness. The page is written by Colin Nee of Charities Evaluation Services.

The recent issue of Tools You Can Use from Fieldstone Alliance (US based) is ‘Seven Essentials for a Successful Executive Transition‘, or change of chief executive.

It gives an overview of the transition process and how it differs from a typical hire, along with their suggestions for seven essential elements of a successful process.

Details have been released of the grants programme being managed by Capacitybuilders to provide support to people who manage volunteers.

There are three strands - a training bursary fund, grants for around 25 local volunteering development organisation, and national strategic support. Capacitybuilders news item.

New Economics Foundation has published ‘Tools for you’, an update to the Prove and Improve Toolkit, designed to help development workers and frontline organisations navigate the world of social impact and quality measurement.

The main booklet (pdf, 355KB) gives detailed summaries of twenty different approaches, while an accompanying tool decider and comparison chart make it quick to weigh up the varying benefits. All downloadable, but registration required, at http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/z_sys_PublicationDetail.aspx?pid=287.

NCVO and the Charity Finance Directors’ Group and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors have jointly launched a Charity Property Help service.

It will provide registered charities and voluntary organisations a one hour consultation with an RICS member firm free of charge, which could cover such matters as property maintenance, environmental issues, lease, renewals and tenancies, planning issues. Details at http://www.charitypropertyhelp.com.

Around 250 priced publications that contain official health and safety advice and guidance will be available in pdf format from the Health and Safety Executive web site free of charge from September. It will still be possible to purchase printed versions at HSE Books.

The Risks newsletter from TUC indicates that it will take to March 2010 for all to be online. http://www.hse.gov.uk/news/.

Updated practical help for HR and line managers to tackle the issue of stress at work has been produced by CIPD working with the Health and Safety Executive and Investors in People. This includes a competency framework enabling line managers to work on the skills required to reduce and prevent stress.

Find the guidance etc. at http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/health/stress/_lnstrswrk.htm.