Thursfields Hosts Charity Commission in Worcester

Thursfields Solicitors was delighted to host the Charity Commission’s first visit to Worcester to meet with local charity trustees and their accountants.

The Charity Commission has made a public commitment to place greater emphasis on its enabling and supportive role.  This is perhaps in contrast to recent years, when the Commission was viewed in a policing role, which included naming and shaming errant charities.

Looking to extend its digital services and improve the Annual Return process, the Commission is visiting different regions around the country to seek face-to-face feedback from local charitable organisations. This first visit to Worcester was well attended by charities and their advisers, keen to understand more about the Commission’s future digitalisation and the impact on its users.

Ian Roughley, Manager of Usability at the Commission, was delighted with the interest shown by local charities and their advisers. He said: “The helpful observations and comments will be fed back to the rest of the team in order to develop our future digital services.  We have carried out this testing for previous services and really appreciate the feedback as we look to improve the customer experience.”

Andy Wheeler of Disability Sport Worcester commented: ‘It was great to hear that the Charity Commission were coming to Worcester to canvas opinion and for a small charity like ourselves, we are honoured to have input on something that will create fundamental national changes. We look forward to seeing how the changes are implemented and sincere thanks to Thursfields for hosting and driving the initiative on this research’.

Jenny Smith, Head of Charities at Thursfields, commented: “The Commission was encouraged by the warm and positive response from the local charity sector, which has put Worcestershire and the Wyre Forest firmly on their radar for future visits.   They certainly plan on returning and any charities that would like to receive invitations may contact me at jsmith@thursfields.co.uk”