Action for Children unfairly and constructively dismissed social worker, tribunal finds

Janette Coyle claimed she had been bullied and undermined by her manager at the charity’s Plymouth city centre office

An employment tribunal has ruled that Action for Children unfairly and constructively dismissed an employee who felt she had been bullied by her line manager.

Janette Coyle resigned from her role as a social work lead practitioner at the charity’s Plymouth city centre office in August 2015, after she had been made to work alone in small office with little natural light, which she said provoked anxiety because of an incident in 1997 when she had opened a door and the body of a person who had hanged themselves the day before swung into her.

She also claimed she felt bullied and undermined by her manager, Sally Kendrick, who compared her unfavourably to other staff and complained that Coyle’s team was not working quickly enough, according to the tribunal’s judgment, published last week.

The tribunal hearing took place in January, when the charity argued that Coyle had left because she was struggling with the demands of her role.

Coyle had worked for the charity since July 2014 when the charity took on the contract to run children’s centres in Plymouth, providing safeguarding and support for vulnerable children.

She had worked for the previous contract holder, Keyham Community Partnership, since September 2008 and had transferred to Action for Children when it took over.

The tribunal found the transfer of the contract had created a “significant backlog” of work for Coyle and her team and the charity had failed to resolve the problem a year later.

“The tribunal is satisfied that there was no evidence that the claimant was responsible for such issues,” the judgment said.

Anne Goraj, the tribunal judge, said in her judgment she did not believe that those managing Coyle had been made fully aware of her fear of being in the small space or of the traumatic incident with the body.

The judge said she did not believe Kendrick had deliberately intended to undermine Coyle on a number of occasions, but had been “clumsy and tactless”, which had been upsetting for Coyle, the judgment said.

The tribunal also found Coyle would “reasonably have felt distressed and undermined” by some of Kendrick’s comments.

It concluded that the charity’s management had failed to carry out a proper investigation into Coyle’s allegation of bullying and found she felt she had been shouted at by another manager, Susan Turle, in an investigatory meeting into her performance.

Before she left the organisation Coyle was being investigated over her handling of a difficult and potentially violent family, even though her actions in the situation had won her praise from Plymouth City Council’s welfare and safeguarding officer, according to the judgment.

It said the charity had been right to investigate the issue, but not to open a second investigation into the incident.

When Coyle was signed off sick with work-related stress in June 2015, the charity claimed to have found several problems in her caseload which needed to be investigated and suspended her, although it did not thoroughly explain to the tribunal what the accusations against her were.

The tribunal ruled that Coyle had been unfairly constructively dismissed and awarded her compensation, which will be decided at a later date.

It ordered an additional 20 per cent to be added to the compensation figure to reflect the fact that Coyle had not been subject to a formal disciplinary hearing when she left, had not been given full details of the accusations against her and the issue had been dealt with in an inappropriate way by the charity.

An Action for Children spokesman said: “We do not provide detailed comment on individual cases but can confirm that there was a legal dispute regarding termination of employment that was heard by an employment tribunal. These proceedings were progressed and concluded in July 2017.”

Third Sector was unable to contact Coyle for comment.

Source link

Regulator finds ‘concerning lack of safeguarding practices’ at new military charities

From a random sample of 21 such organisations registered since 2007, the Charity Commission also found problems with fundraising and financial controls

There is a “concerning lack of safeguarding practices” and issues with fundraising practices at newly registered military charities, according to a Charity Commission report.

When surveying a random sample of 21 military charities registered with the regulator since 2007, the commission found a litany of problems involving fundraising, financial controls and the safeguarding of beneficiaries.

Its report says the commission decided to carry out the exercise after hearing concerns about fundraising practices and the adequacy of safeguarding procedures, particularly for veterans with physical and mental health needs, such as those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The report says some of the military charities in the sample that used professional fundraisers did not have fundraising agreements in place, which is in breach of legal requirements.

It says that some of the charities could not demonstrate why using a professional fundraiser was in their best interests, and had not assessed or managed reputational risks associated with the fundraising methods they used.

Some had “not operated systems or controls to demonstrate sufficient monitoring which ensures the charity receives all of the funds raised by the fundraisers and people given permission to raise money on the charity’s behalf”, the report says.

The report also highlights concerns about safeguarding, particularly in charities dealing with veterans suffering from PTSD.

“The commission found a concerning lack of safeguarding policies and practices in some of the charities and a need to strengthen existing policies in a majority of the others,” the report says.

“From the evidence seen, this was due to the trustees not having considered their beneficiaries to be vulnerable.”

The commission says in the report that in many cases failures in safeguarding or fundraising policies were linked to other problems, such as insufficient controls over the charity’s finances or a lack of financial planning.

There were also concerns about complaint policies and the management of conflicts of interest at some of the charities included in the sample, the report says.

But it adds that the charities examined were generally set up with good intentions and a passion for helping military veterans, and the report highlights some good practice, including effective collaborative working to help beneficiaries and cooperation between trustees.

As a result of the commission’s work, one charity ceased to operate and another is in the process of closing down.

Michelle Russell, director of investigations, monitoring and enforcement at the Charity Commission, said: “My message to those thinking of setting up new military charities is to think carefully before doing so. There are other ways of supporting the armed forces community, including supporting with money or time an existing, established veterans charity. Setting up a new charity might not be the most effective way to help.”

Source link

Scots more charitable than the rest of the UK, research finds

They are more likely to donate to or give time to charity than the UK average, according to figures published by the Charities Aid Foundation

Scottish people are more generous and more likely to get involved with charities than the UK average, according to new research from the Charities Aid Foundation.

In its report Scotland Giving 2017, which is CAF’s first annual overview of charitable giving in Scotland, CAF found that Scots are more likely to donate money to charity than the UK average, with 65 per cent of Scots saying they donate to charity each year compared with 61 per cent of people across the UK.

The report, which is based on a monthly tracking survey involving more than 700 people in Scotland carried out by the research company YouGov, also found that people in Scotland donated £813m to charity in 2016, accounting for 8.4 per cent of the £9.7bn donated to charity in the UK that year.

To put that figure in context, the population of Scotland is 8.2 per cent of the total number of people in the UK.

Scots are also more likely to volunteer than the UK average, with 19 per cent of people in Scotland saying they give time to charity compared with 17 per cent across the whole UK.

The report says that Scots are more likely to donate goods to charity, with 58 per cent doing so compared with the UK average of 56 per cent, according to the report.

Scots are also more likely to sponsor a friend or colleague who is raising money for charity, with 40 per cent doing so compared with 37 per cent nationally.

Young people in Scotland are more likely to be engaged with charity than young people across the UK as a whole, with 94 per cent of Scottish 16 to 24-year-olds having taken on some form of charitable activity in the past year compared with the UK average of 89 per cent.

Martin Sime, chief executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, said: “Through our own work over the years we’ve had a strong sense that people in Scotland are very supportive of charities, and it’s encouraging that in a number of areas this new research shows the picture is indeed somewhat rosier in Scotland than in the rest of the UK – for example in volunteering, and donations.”

Source link

Money held in banks by largest charities increases to £16.2bn over the past year, report finds

The latest figures, from the charity data website Charity Financials, are based on data from the largest 5,000 UK charities by income, expenditure or net assets

The amount of money held in banks by the UK’s largest charities has increased by £300m over the past year to a total £16.2bn, according to a new report on charities and the banking sector.

The latest Charity Banking Spotlight, which is produced by the charity data website Charity Financials and based on the top 5,000 charities in terms of income, expenditure or net assets, says the most recent figure is still below the peak of £16.8bn in 2012, but almost £600m more than in 2014.

The report identifies the Charities Aid Foundation as having the most cash in hand or at the bank, with the charity having £768.8m.

CAF, which runs its own bank, had the most borrowing with £1bn – about £700m more than the charity in second place, Aston Student Villages.

Latest headlines

The Church Commissioners of England had the greatest change in cash levels over the past year, with a £49.1m increase to a total of £440.7m, the report says.

More than half of the charities surveyed have been with their bank for more than a decade, the report says, and HSBC saw the biggest fall in cash levels, with a drop of £287m.

Barclays, which also sponsored the report, was the most popular bank among the top 5,000 charities, and also is the bank of choice for a third of the top 100 charities in terms of income, the report says.

But NatWest holds the most cash on behalf of charities, with £3.2bn compared with Barclays’ £3.1bn, the report says.

Source link

Charities in north-west England contribute £2.5bn a year to the region, report finds

But study says that those in the poorest areas are the most likely to be financially vulnerable

Charities in north-west England contribute £2.5bn a year to the region’s economy, a new study has found.

Third Sector Trends in the North West 2016, which was published last week, says voluntary sector organisations in the region have an estimated 110,000 full-time equivalent employees spread across more than 10,000 organisations.

But although the report says that most organisations are in good financial health, it adds that those in the poorest areas are twice as likely to be in financially vulnerable positions than those in the more affluent areas.

The report, which was written by Professor Tony Chapman of St Chad’s College, Durham University, is part of a three-year programme of work led by the think tank IPPR North on the state of civil society and the voluntary sector in the north of England.

Chapman’s report is based on an online survey completed last year by more than 1,400 third-sector organisations in north-west England.

Researchers found that 30 per cent of charities in the poorest areas believed they were financially vulnerable, compared with 14 per cent in the richest areas.

Organisations working with people from minority ethnic groups were the most likely to feel they were in weak financial positions, the report says, followed by those tackling concerns about gender and sexuality.

The report says the voluntary sector in the region “is very much a local sector”, with 30 per cent of organisations working solely at neighbourhood or village level and 62 per cent within the boundaries of one local authority. Only 9 per cent operate at a national or international level, it says.

It says the voluntary sector in the region is dominated by small and medium-sized third-sector organisations, representing 6,306 and 4,425 charities respectively.

There are only about 835 charities with annual incomes of more than £500,000, says the report.

Using data from across the north of England generally, the report says the figures indicates that the proportion of part-time staff in the sector has risen from 35 per cent to 45 per cent over the past eight years.

Charities in the north west of England draw upon an estimated 440,400 volunteers who contribute more than 31.7 million hours of work a year, worth at least £228m, the report says.

Jack Hunter, research fellow at IPPR North, said the data showed charities in the region were “an economic powerhouse in their own right”.

But he said the link between deprivation and a charity’s overall financial health was worrying. “Those that are arguably doing some of the most important work with the most excluded north-west communities appear to be suffering the most as a result of the government’s austerity policies,” he said.

“More attention must be paid to poorer parts of our region, where charities and other third-sector organisations are most likely to be in vulnerable financial situations.”

Source link

Age UK Knaresborough & District “unfairly dismissed” employee, tribunal finds

An employment tribunal found a former employee of the charity had been unfairly dismissed, but rejected a further claim that she had been wrongfully dismissed.

A Yorkshire Age UK charity has been ordered to pay almost £6,000 for unfairly dismissing a former employee who was accused of financially grooming an elderly couple she met through work.

An employment tribunal in Leeds ordered Age UK Knaresborough & District to pay £5,895 to ex-staff member Mrs L Webber.

The tribunal heard that Webber had become ‘very close’ to the couple, known as Mr and Mrs A, according to tribunal documents. She regularly visited them during her own time and in July last year became a signatory on Mr A’s bank account amid concerns about his health and mobility.

The couples’ cheque book revealed they paid her £200 as a gift, the documents say.

Another couple who were friends of Mr and Mrs A raised concerns with the local authority when they discovered the signatory arrangement.

They accused Webber of financially grooming Mr and Mrs A. Webber immediately contacted the bank asking to be removed as a signatory but when the matter was raised at the North Yorkshire charity she denied to her chief executive, Jane Farquharson, that she had been a signatory.

Farquharson subsequently ‘robustly defended’ Webber when she wrote to the local authority about the matter, according to a written report of the case published last week.

After it emerged Webber had indeed been a signatory, she was suspended and disciplinary proceedings began.

Webber then raised a grievance against Farquharson, and F Lawton, a retired solicitor and trustee of the charity, became involved in the disciplinary proceedings, the tribunal documents say.

Eventually Lawton decided somebody ‘had to take a view’ and summarily dismissed Webber without offering her a hearing or appeal, which prompted the judge, Jennie Wade, to uphold the unfair dismissal charge at Leeds employment tribunal.

But Wade rejected a further claim for wrongful dismissal. “In my judgment the claimant would have been reasonably dismissed following a fair procedure, by a fair minded and reasonable employer acting within the band of reasonable responses, and giving due weight to the complexity of the matters being discussed, within six weeks.

“That is the limit of her lost earnings arising from the actions of the respondent in dismissing her summarily when it did.”

No one was available to comment from Age UK Knaresborough & District and Age UK did not respond to Third Sector‘s request for comment in time for its 12 noon deadline. 

Solicitors representing Webber did not respond to requests for comment. 

Source link

Charities less trusted than hairdressers and scientists, research finds

A study of 2,000 people by Pro Bono Economics, finds that charities are trusted by 26 per cent of respondents

Charities are less trusted by the public than hairdressers, scientists and television newsreaders, new research indicates.

Research with a representative sample of more than 2,000 UK adults commissioned by the charity Pro Bono Economics found that 26 per cent of respondents said they trusted charities compared with 28 per cent for newsreaders, 45 per cent for hairdressers and 52 per cent for scientists.

Participants were asked to choose which from five possible responses best described their attitude towards 20 professions or sectors. Possible responses were trust, cautious of, suspicious of, distrust or hate.

Doctors came out top with 69 per cent of respondents saying they trusted them, followed by teachers on 56 per cent.

Politicians scored lowest, with 4 per cent of people saying they trusted them.

Charities ranked higher than members of the clergy, who were trusted by 23 per cent of respondents, civil servants, on 19 per cent, and economists, on 14 per cent.

Pollsters were trusted by just 9 per cent of those surveyed, slightly ahead of journalists on 7 per cent.

The survey found that 45 per cent of respondents said they were cautious of charities, 18 per cent were suspicious of them and 10 per cent distrusted them. Only 1 per cent of people said they hated charities, well behind social media stars and politicians, who were hated by 14 per cent and 13 per cent of respondents respectively.

Julia Grant, chief executive of Pro Bono Economics, said charities should look to rebuild trust by demonstrating their impact with independent evidence.

“They are accountable to the public, who are the people who support them, so they need to communicate their impact in a way that engages with the public as stakeholders,” she said. “Essentially, charities’ future stability and sustainability relies on their capacity to prove the importance of their work.”

Latest headlines

But Aidan Warner, external relations manager at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, said data was not the most important factor in improving public trust in charities.

“The reality is that most people don’t think like economists,” he said. “They make decisions on feelings, not data.

“Our research suggests that the public welcome some basic figures from charities, but they shouldn’t be seen as a solution to rebuilding trust. Acting with integrity and communicating in compelling, human language will do more to promote trust in an organisation than any number of spreadsheets could.”

Source link

Senior management teams and boards make slow progress on diversity, study finds

A survey by Third Sector of 50 leading fundraising charities finds slight improvements in diversity over the past three years

Major charities have made progress on ethnic and gender diversity at senior levels in recent years but have some way to go if the sector is to be truly representative, research by Third Sector shows.

A survey of 50 leading fundraising charities has found that senior management teams and trustee boards are slightly more ethnically diverse and have a marginally fairer gender split than when Third Sector conducted the same exercise three years ago.

But voluntary sector figures said that, despite the progress, significant work was still needed on both gender and ethnic diversity at top levels.

The research found that the proportion of female senior managers among the 50 charities had increased from 44 per cent in 2014 to 47 per cent this year, and the proportion of female trustees had increased from 36 per cent to 40 per cent over the same period.

The proportion of female chief executives increased from 30 to 32 per cent over the past three years, but this was only in effect one additional female chief executive since the previous survey was carried out.

The proportion of non-white senor managers increased from 6 per cent in 2014 to 10 per cent this year and the percentage of non-white trustees went from 8 to 10 per cent over the same period.

The figures on ethnic diversity compare poorly with the most recent UK census, which found that 14 per cent of UK residents were non-white, although that figure varied considerably from region to region.

In London, where most of the charities in Third Sector’s sample are based and which is the most ethnically diverse region in the UK, 40 per cent of people were found to be non-white.

For the full data and for comment and analysis, read the full article here.

Source link

Staff morale at highest level since 2008, Charity Pulse survey finds

The latest survey from Third Sector and Birdsong Charity Consulting finds that 47 per cent of respondents feel morale in their organisation is high

Morale among voluntary sector workers has reached its highest level since 2008, results from Third Sector’s Charity Pulse survey indicate.

The survey, which is carried out annually in partnership with Birdsong Charity Consulting and is in its eleventh year, found improvements in almost all areas relating to staff satisfaction compared with 12 months ago.

Of the 46 areas probed by the questionnaire, 16 showed an improvement on last year and only one was worse than in 2016. The rest remained broadly the same.

The survey found that 47 per cent of respondents said they felt morale in their organisation was high: the highest level recorded since 2008 and a five percentage-point increase on last year.

The lowest level recorded over the past 11 years was in 2008 when just 29 per cent of respondents said morale in their organisation was high.

Slightly more than half of respondents, 51 per cent, said they felt secure in their jobs, up by four percentage points from last year and the highest level since a question on the subject was first included in the study in 2009.

Research found that 70 per cent of respondents said their manager was a good person to work for, up from 57 per cent in 2012.

There were increases of between seven and 11 percentage points in the proportion of respondents who said they felt appreciated, thought their views were listened to by management and did not feel under pressure to work long hours compared with 2016.

But there were some negative long-term trends in areas including workload and internal processes.

The proportion of respondents who said they thought their workload was reasonable fell from 60 per cent 10 years ago to 47 per cent this year, and the proportion who said the results expected of them were realistic fell by 11 percentage points over the same period to 57 per cent this year.

The survey found that just 35 per cent of respondents said their charities’ procedures helped them to carry out their roles effectively, down from 48 per cent in 2010.

“This data suggests that a significant proportion of charities are not taking sufficient action to adjust workloads, to curtail projects or, simply, to stop doing some things,” says the report, produced by Birdsong.

“Staff are being put under greater pressure in the hope that the organisation will be able to ‘muddle through’.”

The survey also showed sharp falls in the proportion of those who were happy with the training or development they receive, which fell from 62 per cent 10 years ago to 47 per cent this year.

Only 36 per cent of respondents said they were happy with the personal development opportunities at their charities, compared with 47 per cent in 2007.

This year’s survey was completed in the spring by 245 people working for more than 110 UK charities.

– The full report will be available from the Birdsong website from Friday

Source link