Our weekly roundup of news and updates from across the sector.
To help you navigate this week’s content, the links below will take you straight to content by topic.
- Charity Commission
- Investigations and complaints
- Sector general
- Governance
- Tax and VAT
- Equity, equality, diversity and inclusion
- Philanthropy
- Fundraising
- Legacies
- Climate change and environment
- Data and privacy
- Professional bodies
- Consumer law
- Health and social care
- Social enterprise
- Social investment / social impact investment
- Safeguarding
- Education
Charity Commission
Charity Commission CEO David Holdsworth has written a guest blog for New Philanthropy Capital about impact reporting for charities. The blog looks at how impact reporting has evolved under the new 2026 Charities SORP guidelines and why strong reporting matters. It also says the Commission has commissioned independent research to find out how it can better enable charities to report impact in the way they want.
See ‘Investigations and complaints’ below.
Investigations and complaints
The Charity Commission has concluded its regulatory compliance case into Coventry City of Culture Trust. It found that the former trustees failed to maintain effective oversight of the charity’s finances and did not act in accordance with their duties to manage the charity’s resources responsibly. The Commission was particularly critical of the trustees’ decision to take out a loan at a time when the charity may have been insolvent and there were doubts about the charity’s ability to repay the funds in full.
The Fundraising Regulator has published an investigation summary about the British Limbless Ex-Service Men’s Association.
Sector general
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has announced that a consortium, led by Locality, has been selected to deliver the £11.59m Local Covenant Partnerships Fund. The fund will support 15 local authority areas to develop and implement local covenant partnership agreements as part of the government’s Civil Society Covenant programme, with the aim of strengthening collaboration between public bodies and voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.
Governance
A new report from the University of Bath School of Management, supported by Nigel Kippax and Charity Finance Group, looks at how composition of a board shapes the quality of a board’s decisions.
At 2-3pm on 8 October Lucy Rhodes, Livia Velicu and Olivia Woodward are hosting a webinar on the legal, regulatory and practical sides of closing a solvent charity well. This will include case studies of closures that delivered lasting value and impact.
Tax and VAT
Charity Finance Group has launched its ‘Back the Future of Gift Aid’ campaign, calling on the government to modernise the Gift Aid system and make it “fit for the digital age”.
Equity, equality, diversity and inclusion
Rachel Mathieson and Mindy Jhittay are holding a webinar at 3.30-4.30pm on 23 September to consider the practical implications of the new Equality and Human Rights Commission ‘Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations’ for qualification bodies (particularly those managing people, policies and workplace environments across multiple sites and assessment settings).
Philanthropy
New Philanthropy Capital and Charities Aid Foundation have published the latest version of ‘Towards a National Strategy for Philanthropy and Charitable Giving’ which sets out six proposed strategic priorities for activity to build “a renewed culture of philanthropy and charitable giving in the UK”. This outlines recommendations and actions that the group thinks the government could take forward.
Fundraising
See ‘Investigations and complaints’ above.
Legacies
On 6 October we’re hosting a Charity Legacy Conference, where our brilliant Charity Legacies team will share legal insights and we’ll hear from guest charity speakers about their own experiences. We’ll cover topics including unlocking funds, handling cases proportionately and robustly, and tax considerations.
This September, Bates Wells is joining charities, professional advisers, and other organisations across the UK to mark Remember A Charity Week. To coincide with this week, Alice Faure Walker and Hugo Walford have produced a resource for charities to help demystify restricted legacies. Find out more about what is and what isn’t a restricted fund, and how to unlock these funds to revitalise your charity’s income.
Climate change and environment
An update from Karli Hiscock and Anita Binns explores why climate clauses in real estate matter more than ever. With climate risk being a core business risk, they have seen a growing interest in climate clauses.
Data and privacy
The August 2026 edition of the Independent Schools Management Magazine features an article from Rayhaan Vankalwala and Nneka Cummins with cybersecurity tips for schools. They set out the key questions that schools should be asking themselves to ensure they are protecting the personal data they hold appropriately.
Rayhaan has also shared a guide to demystify the rules around cookies under UK data protection law, summarising the key changes in this area that were introduced by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.
Professional bodies
At 3-4pm on 7 October, Bronya Greatrex, Emily Wilson, and Gareth Deane (Barrister at Old Square Chambers) are hosting a webinar discussing the duty to make reasonable adjustments as both an employer and a qualification body – which is the case for many professional bodies.
Consumer law
Lindsay Draffan and Leela Fair share an update on timings for the subscription regime introduced by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act 2024. As mentioned in a previous Briefing, this is set to enter into force this coming January. However, further detail as to how this will be achieved during the latter half of the 2026/2027 Parliamentary session is not yet known.
Health and social care
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published an update about how it is rebuilding its regulatory approach and digital services.
The CQC has also shared new guidance for providers that may need CQC registration to deliver health care or treatment at events.
Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, and HM Inspectorate of Probation have published guidance for a new programme of joint targeted area inspections focusing on younger children living with neglect. From autumn 2026, inspections will assess how local agencies work together to identify, respond to and prevent neglect affecting unborn children and children aged 0 to 11, with a particular focus on multi-agency safeguarding and early help.
Social enterprise
Social Enterprise UK has announced the shortlist for the UK Social Enterprise Awards 2026. Co-operatives UK, which is co-producing this year’s awards, highlighted the strong representation of co-operatives across the shortlist, including nominees for the inaugural Co-op of the Year award.
Co-operatives UK has opened applications for its Youth Advisory Group, which brings together people aged 16-30 to provide strategic input into the organisation’s work and support projects aimed at increasing young people’s engagement with the co-operative movement. Applications close on 10 September.
See ‘Sector general’ above.
Social investment / social impact investment
Charity Finance Group is seeking examples of charities that have experienced difficulties accessing commercial finance. The case studies are intended to support ongoing policy discussions with HM Treasury relating to Commercial Credit Data Sharing and access to finance. If you have recently experienced such a challenge, you can get in touch with Charity Finance Group: [email protected].
Ethex and Triodos Bank UK have announced a collaboration under which future Triodos Bank UK crowdfunding investment offers will be hosted on the Ethex platform. The initiative aims to increase access to direct impact investment opportunities and support greater flows of capital to projects delivering social and environmental benefits.
Impact Investor interviewed Daniel Nowack, Head of Social Innovation at the Schwab Foundation and the World Economic Forum, about the gap between climate finance and health system resilience, and the opportunities for investment. According to the article, health impacts remain a neglected area in climate finance, despite climate change being expected to cause around 250,000 additional deaths annually. It considers opportunities for impact investors to support scalable healthcare enterprises and innovative financing models that can strengthen healthcare systems and improve climate resilience.
Impact Europe is launching Social Investment in Action Europe, a platform that tracks publicly reported transactions involving members of its network. The platform is intended to help users analyse capital flows and funding activity across the impact economy, and it has recorded around €90bn in member-related capital flows since January.
Safeguarding
Changes made by section 139 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 to the definition of regulated activity with children came into force on 1 September 2026, bringing certain supervised roles in the child workforce within the scope of regulated activity. As a result, staff and volunteers who work closely and frequently with children may now be eligible for enhanced DBS checks with children’s barred list checks, even where they are supervised. The DBS has said that schools and other organisations working with children should review affected roles and ensure appropriate safeguarding checks are in place.
Education
General
A blog from Jean Tsang, Helen Fry and Liz Racine reflects on the last 12 months in the education sector and looks at what lies ahead. They explain how the coming years are expected to bring one of the most significant periods of policy reform in recent memory, exploring topics such as the Schools White Paper and the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026.
The Department for Education (DfE) has announced a £25 million investment to expand housing and support options for care leavers, following an independent review which found that many young people leaving care experience significant isolation as they transition into adulthood.
Ofsted has published its latest Big Listen action monitoring report, setting out progress on reforms introduced following stakeholder feedback and the independent reviews into the death of headteacher Ruth Perry. The report states that 108 of 132 actions have been completed and highlights changes including the replacement of overall effectiveness grades with report cards, reforms to inspection processes, increased support for provider wellbeing, and enhanced transparency and stakeholder engagement across the inspectorate.
Ofsted has also published annual updates to its education inspection toolkits and operating guides, which apply to inspections from September 2026. The updates cover early years settings, state-funded schools, non-association independent schools, further education and skills providers and initial teacher education providers, and reflect changes to relevant DfE statutory and non-statutory guidance.
And Ofsted has published new guidance for inspections of education, skills training and work in prisons and young offender institutions under its renewed inspection framework. The changes include a new inclusion evaluation area, a stronger focus on literacy and reading, higher expectations for education provision, and the replacement of the overall effectiveness grade with more detailed assessments across five evaluation areas. Inspections under the new framework will begin from 21 September 2026.
Also see ‘Health and social care’ and ‘Safeguarding’ above.
Schools
The DfE has introduced tougher school uniform rules aimed at reducing costs for families by closing loopholes that allowed schools to require expensive branded items. The new rules cap the number of branded uniform items schools can require and expect schools to work with suppliers that offer payment plans and regularly review contracts, as part of wider government measures to ease the cost of living for families.
The DfE’s September 2026 ‘Keeping children safe in education’ guidance is now in force. Schools and colleges should ensure staff are working from the updated statutory guidance, including the requirement for all staff to read Part One in full and follow their school’s or college’s safeguarding policies and procedures, and the sections on safeguarding responsibilities, online safety, child-on-child abuse, information sharing and managing allegations or concerns about staff.
Further Education
The DfE has confirmed that the Further Education Workforce Data Collection for 2025 to 2026 is now open. The latest DfE Update also includes information for further education providers on 16 to 19 in-year growth funding for the 2026 to 2027 academic year, earnings adjustment statements, updated funding dashboards and statutory guidance for colleges on streamlined energy and carbon reporting.
Higher Education
The Office for Students (OfS) has launched a new freedom of speech complaints scheme for university staff, visiting speakers and other non-student members of higher education institutions. The scheme will allow the OfS to investigate complaints where freedom of speech or academic freedom rights are alleged to have been infringed, with the regulator also consulting on new freedom of speech-related registration requirements for higher education providers ahead of their planned introduction in April 2027.
The OfS has also published a series of commitments following the University of Sussex judicial review, which identified failings in aspects of the regulator’s decision-making. The reforms include a new “no surprises” approach to regulation, greater transparency during investigations and enforcement processes, enhanced safeguards against predetermination, and increased use of informal interventions before formal regulatory action is taken. The OfS has also committed to publicly monitoring progress against these reforms.
Disclaimer – The information contained in this update is not intended to be a comprehensive update – it is our selection of the website announcements made in the week up to last Friday which we think will be of interest to charities and social enterprises. The views expressed in items we’ve included are the views of the named authors/sources, and should not be taken to be the views of Bates Wells, its partners or employees. The content in this update is necessarily of a general nature – specific advice should always be sought for specific situations.