Managing faith charities as trustees: Charity Commission’s guidance updated
2 September 2021
Our Charities and Ecclesiastical teams, takes a look at the Charity Commission’s refreshed guidance for trustees managing faith-based charities.
The Charity Commission has recently published refreshed guidance aimed specifically at charities established to advance religion. The new content, called Managing faith charities as trustees, replaces the previous ‘Faith in good governance’ guidance, and will be of relevance to faith-based charities whose main focus is religious worship and related activities.
This update will be welcome for many faith-based organisations, as they deal with the ongoing impact of Brexit (in particular relating to volunteers and employees) and the pandemic (which has had a catastrophic effect on such charities’ income streams and ability to undertake usual activities including worship and missional outreach), alongside the ongoing high profile investigations into safeguarding concerns for religious groups.
The guidance sets out advice in dealing with key current issues for faith charities and places of worship, including safeguarding and financial management. It highlights the core areas for legal compliance, and provides signposts to how such organisations can achieve best practice in good governance.
The content is comprehensive, and covers the following:
Registration with the Charity Commission
When this is appropriate, and/ or necessary, and how to go about this
Benefits of registration
The legal structures of charities
Unincorporated (trusts, associations)
Incorporated (charitable companies and charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs))
Converting from an unincorporated to incorporated structure
Holding trustees for land including the Official Custodian for Charities
Being a trustee of a faith-based charity
Identifying who these are and making appointments
Managing disputes and disagreements
Legal duties of trustees
Induction of new trustees
Religious or spiritual leaders as trustees
Conflicts and benefits
Managing conflicts of interest
Paying trustees who are also charity employees for services
Ongoing obligations
Reporting serious incidents
Other regulatory requirements
Safeguarding – working with children and adults at risk
Particular safeguarding risks for faith charities
Signposts to organisations able to give further advice
Handling and reporting incidents and concerns
Checks on trustees, staff and volunteers
Managing charity finances
Internal financial controls
Cash collections and electronic payments and banking
Checking bank statements (‘reconciling’)
Protecting against fraud
Sending money internationally (including overseas donations)
Annual returns and accounts
Paying trustees for services
Other issues to consider
Controversial invited external speakers
Employing people (including those from outside the UK)
Health and safety
GDPR and data protection
Birketts is one of the country’s leading practices in ecclesiastical law, and, together with our experienced charities team, is extremely well-placed to advise any person or body thinking of setting up a religious charity, or wishing to discuss governance and management matters relating to existing charities with faith-based purposes. We also have a strong charity property team, well-versed in the specific issues pertaining to churches and other religious buildings.
If you would like to discuss any of the issues highlighted in this article further, please feel free to get in touch with a member member of the Charities Team or Ecclesiastical Team.
The content of this article is for general information only. It is not, and should not be taken as, legal advice. If you require any further information in relation to this article please contact the author in the first instance. Law covered as at September 2021.