Regulation

It is often said that if you can be a successful trustee and director of a charitable company then you should be able to run a small business, or even a larger one, standing on your head.  One of the reasons is that a registered charity has to comply with charity law and, if it is also incorporated, company law as well.

To make sure that we comply with the charity law part of this foundation legislation, our regulator is the Charity Commission.  The Charity Commission’s five objectives are:

• to increase public trust and confidence in charities.
• to ensure that they meet the public benefit requirement.
• to encourage charity trustees to comply with their legal obligations in exercising control and management of the administration of their charities.
• to promote the effective use of charitable resources.
• to make charities more accountable to their beneficiaries, donors and the public.

Companies House requires us to submit information to it, usually annually, which is then made available to the public.

Some of our day-to-day operational activity is regulated too.  Domicilliary care for adults is regulated by the The Care Quality Commission and respite care for children is regulated by Ofsted.

While the aspects that have been described above are regulated, a much broader body of legislation has to be complied with too.  Examples are employment law, contract law, property law, tax law their associated regulations.

Andover and District Mencap trustees take seriously their responsibilities in law and view regulation as a positive activity.