VCS Development

Questionnaires have been issued by the Office for Civil Society, as part of the review of the Charities Act by Lord Hodgson, asking whether there are too many charities, whether charities are accountable enough to the public and whether there should be a statutory definition of public benefit.

The two general questionnaires, one for charities and one for the public, are supplemented by shorter questionnaires on nine specific areas, including the definition of charity, the role of the Charity Commission and charity mergers. Both the charity and public questionnaires ask:

Skills - Third Sector has announced that new advanced apprenticeships in campaigning, fundraising and volunteer management have been approved by the National Apprenticeships Service for funding by the Skills Funding Agency.

This announcement, which comes prior to National Apprenticeship Week 2012, means that VCS employers can now obtain help towards the training costs of apprenticeships in these professions.

New independent research, commissioned by the Charity Commission, has found that charities need to do more to describe how people benefit from their work. According to the research by Sheffield Hallam University, many charities miss out on the opportunity to explain, through their reporting on public benefit, how their work has a positive impact on their beneficiaries.