As we move into the autumn, I’ve been reflecting on the training and development themes from 2016 from my role as National Charity Specialist at Mazars. What were these themes and what is coming next?
For me, there were two main themes from 2016 to date, the roll-out of the Charity SORP and the demise and fall out from Kids Company. I’ll cover the Charity SORP in this blog and the aftermath of Kids Company in a later blog.
The Charity SORP is the Statement of Recommended Practice which provides a framework for charity trustees to follow charity accounting and financial reporting standards. This framework was in a state of transition in 2015. At Mazars, we worked closely with our charity clients to help them to apply the framework to the specific circumstances of their charities. This included specific bulletins, regional seminars and one on one working sessions. We have largely completed this round of work through helping trustees to prepare their Annual Reports and accounts for 2015 under the current framework. I can now look forwards. Where are we on the framework and what are the issues to look at next?
In 2015, there were two Charity SORPS, the Charity SORP (Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities) and the Charity SORP (Financial Reporting Standard 102), published in 2014. For 2016, we can disregard the Charity SORP (Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities) as it does not apply to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2016. The Charity Commission for England and Wales and its counterpart in Scotland, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).
The two regulators are currently carrying out a research exercise on the Charity SORP (Financial Reporting Standard 102). This exercise will focus on the structure of this SORP, its layout and how accessible it is? What were the learning points in its implementation in 2015? What changes to the SORP would users like to see?
As Nigel Davies (Head of Accountancy Services at the Charity Commission) said:
‘We hope that sector practitioners and users of charity reports and accounts will take the opportunity to tell us about what needs improving and share with us their ideas or solutions.’
The consultation process stage of the research exercise ends on 11 December this year. In a later blog, I’ll look at the issues and solutions which I plan to raise with Nigel in the autumn.
Paul Gibson
19 September 2016