Closed - Charity Commission Consultation on Online Plans

The Commission is seeking views on its plans to place all its services online by 2012, a move which is part of their efficiency savings measures.

It has opened a consultation on its equality impact assessment of its online plans, which found there to be no negative impacts in terms of gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or on carers.

The Commission is keen to seek views on the Equality Impact Assessment it has conducted on its move to online services. These include:

• Whether the Commission has accurately identified the impacts, either positive or negative of online working on customers.
• If there any additional impacts which arise specifically as a result of services being online, which would make it difficult or impossible for customers affected to access services.
• What evidence there is to help assess the extent or significance of the impact on these groups of people.
• How any risks relating to these impacts might be reduced and;
• Any other mitigating factors that haven’t been identified.
  
  

However, the assessment did find that there were possible issues with regards to English not being a first language, or communication difficulties relating to disability or age.

It also identified issues around access to the internet.

The consultation asks for views on its assessment and whether it has missed any other impact or factors.

Andrew Hind, chief executive of the Charity Commission said:

“A move to online services will have numerous benefits for charities and their advisers, the Commission, and the environment, but we want to make sure charities have their say about the potential impact of this.

“We’re already asking charity advisers to communicate with us electronically, and extending this to all our customers will save us and charities valuable time and money. Of course we will always honour our responsibilities towards customers with disabilities and other very specific needs. However if we can adopt more online working, it will help us cope with what is likely to be a much more constrained budget.”

The Commission’s Equality Impact Assessment and the consultation document are available on the Commission website. It will accept responses up to 29th October.