Charity Essentials - December 2018

Welcome to the last Essentials of 2018. In this edition, we have an article from our Intellectual Property team about the importance of protecting your intellectual property so that your brands and goodwill are not tarnished. We consider the recent case of Cambridge Live, a charity, and its prosecution for health and safety offences. We also have a guest article from former colleague, Simon Lofthouse, about the new charity law regime in Jersey. We have also included a round-up of recent news that may be of interest.

I would like to draw your attention to our excellent trustee training programme which will run throughout 2019 at various locations across the country. Please follow the link at the bottom of this email to see what we will be covering and to book a place on one of the training sessions.

Seasons greetings and best wishes for a successful and impactful 2019.

Protecting Your Intellectual Property

Charities are at risk of intellectual property infringement just as much as commercial brands. The Royal British Legion discovered that counterfeit poppies were being passed off as the genuine article in the lead up to this year’s Remembrance Day. This case serves as further proof, if any was needed, that charities need to have a strategy to protect (and benefit from) their intellectual property, so that their brands and goodwill are not tarnished.

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Are you complying with Health and Safety law?

The recent case of Cambridge Live, which appeared for sentence before Peterborough Magistrates Court on 6th September, brought home the fact that charities are not immune to prosecution for health and safety offences and also that having charitable objectives will not of itself be sufficient to avoid large financial penalties in terms of fines and costs.

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Charity – A Jersey Focus

Jersey has long been a jurisdiction of choice for charities and philanthropy. The flexibility of trusts, foundations and companies means clients are able to establish structures tailored to their specific requirements whether these be wholly charitable or quasi-charitable.

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Charity Commission

Commission review reveals confusion about reserves

The Commission has published a review of charities’ reserves policies which finds less than a quarter of large charities reported an accurate figure for their reserves in their trustees’ annual report. The Commission is concerned that many trustees appear to believe that reserves are the same thing as total unrestricted funds. They may assume that their charity has more unrestricted funds available to draw on than is in fact the case, particularly where significant amounts of funds are tied up in buildings. This may therefore lead the trustees to make poor decisions about the charity’s finances.

Further guidance on charity reserves is available on the Commission’s website.

Employment

Can an individual be liable for a whistleblowing dismissal along with the employer under the detriment provisions?

This article featured in our recent Employment Bulletin and makes interesting reading – as the article mentions, the Charity Commission has reported a 15% rise in the number of whistleblowing reports it received in 2017-18 compared with 2016-17. It is therefore important that employers are managing claims in the correct manner.

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

Residential schools (but with learning points for all who work with vulnerable groups)

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has published a literature review of research into child sexual abuse in residential and non-residential schools. In particular, the examples of where safeguarding measures have been unsuccessful and examples of positive approaches (pages 27 & 28) are interesting and apply to most settings where safeguarding is relevant.