The Government’s new Employment Rights Bill termed ‘Labour’s New Deal for Working People,’ will ‘ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights’ but should non-profits, social impact, and charity organisations be worried? What should you prepare for? The headline changes are likely to include: • Ban zero-hour contracts: Legislation will ensure workers have a right to contract reflecting the number of hours they regularly work, with reasonable notice of any change in shift patterns. • End Fire and Rehire or Fire and Replace: the government will reform the law to provide effective remedies and replace the previous statutory code. • Provide day-one rights on parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal for all workers, although employers will be able to operate probationary periods while they assess new hires. • Remove the lower earnings limit on Statutory Sick Pay so it is available to all workers, and get rid of the three-day waiting period. • Make flexible working the default from day one for all workers, with “employers required to accommodate this as far as is reasonable.” • Make it unlawful to dismiss a woman who has had a baby for six months after her return to work, “except in specific circumstances.” • Establish a new Single Enforcement Body, the Fair Work Agency, to monitor the enforcement of workplace rights. • Set up a Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector. If this works, it will assess whether such agreements could work in other sectors. • Reinstate the School Support Staff Negotiating Body to establish national terms and conditions, career progression and pay rates for teachers and other school staff. • Remove “unnecessary restrictions” on trade union activity, including the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act, to ensure industrial relations are based around “good faith negotiation and bargaining.” • Simplify the process of statutory recognition to ensure workers have a reasonable right to access a union in their place of work. Impact Peripheral workers will gain more rights to stable employment, and permanent employees will benefit from more flexibility as to how and where they work. This has implications for the training of Managers and Team Leader/Supervisors, who will have to manage probationary periods much more effectively, measuring performance and potential within reasonable but short time periods. Pay differentials will need to be more clearly defined to ensure that this additional management requirement is recognised and rewarded otherwise Supervisory roles in other sectors will become more attractive. Assessing whether roles can operate remotely will need to be clearly evaluated and assessed to ensure compliance, and a ‘reasonable’ approach to flexible working requests will need to be defined and put into practice effectively by Managers and Supervisors. Reward Survey: Join other organisations in the non-profit and social impact sector and complete the BTA Reward Survey to share your opinion on how legislative changes will impact the pay differentials and roles within your organisation, and discover what other organisations are either doing or planning to do in the future in terms of their future pay awards, rates of pay, and other relevant aspects of employment. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BTARewards2024

Over the last 3 years, I have been conducting numerous pay and benefits benchmarking exercises as part of my role as an HR Associate with BTA (Bruce Tait Associates), the leading Recruitment and Consultancy for the non-profit and social impact sector. I have noticed that increasingly organisations are concerning themselves with their benefits in addition to their levels of pay. This is significant as areas such as flexible working have become more prominent in the post-pandemic work environment. Having a structure helps organisations consider the benefits they may wish to offer, and then track their value to the organisation in terms of how they attract, engage, and retain their workers. Pay and Benefits: In the most recent BTA Rewards Scoping survey (August 2024), the top 2 key areas of interest for respondent organisations were: 1. Pay rate (current and planned increases (76.7%) 2. Benefits (66.7%) It is noteworthy that Work-life blend was of interest to 1 in 3 organisations (36.7%). Benefits can be broken down into the following elements, with some illustrative examples: Work Hours - flexible working, locations Financial Pension - Independent financial advice, rewards platform Health - Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), Health Cash Plan (HCP), Occupational health Leave Annual -Buy &/or Sell, Family friendly Learning & Development Induction - Access to courses, conferences, networking Pensions are often cited as the most important financial benefit given that employers must automatically enrol their workers into a pension scheme and make contributions to their pension if they're eligible for automatic enrolment. The levels of contribution can, however, vary significantly and employers should identify the importance of the contribution levels for workers based on the stage of their career rather than just offering a pension. Benchmarking: Most organisations will confine their benchmarking activities to focus on their direct competitors, which may be of a similar size and shape, with similar levels of affordability, and in the same sector. This is helpful but have you ever stopped to ask your team members which organisations they may leave your organisation to work for, and in which sector they may be most attracted to work within in the future? Having an awareness of these indirect competitors may be helpful when considering the values your workers place on the benefits you provide. Benchmarking using an external party can provide objectivity and ensure the rewards package offered to your workers is optimised and affordable. Reward Survey: Join other organisations in the non-profit and social impact sector and complete the BTA Reward Survey to share your opinion on the benefits you are currently offering, and discover what other organisations are either doing or planning to do in the future with the level and range of their benefits as they seek to attract, and retain their team members. Link to Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BTARewards2024

Well, this was the message delivered to Amazon Corporate Office team members recently. You likely saw the message through your usual news feeds i.e. BBC News. The significant point to note is that it is not applicable to all Amazon team members but to those in the owned corporate offices rather than the leased contact centres, who will remain working remotely. Return to the Office: The headline turned heads and return to the office is becoming an increasingly emotive subject and one which may be more realistic, as according to the KPMG 2024 CEO Outlook report, which surveyed 1,300 CEOs around the world – including 150 in the UK, more than four-fifths (83 per cent) of UK CEOs expect to see a full return to the office within three years, up 19 percentage points from last year. Are you thinking about making any changes to the hours of work in your organisation? Do you know what other organisations in your sector are planning to do? Employee Value Proposition: An Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is a unique set of benefits and values that an organisation offers to its employees in exchange for their skills, experience, and commitment. A strong EVP helps attract, engage, and retain top talent by clearly communicating what makes the organisation a great or preferred place to work. The elements that comprise an EVP can include: • Work-Life Balance/Blend: Flexible working hours, remote work options, and leave policies. • Pay: Salary, bonuses, and other financial rewards. • Benefits: Pensions, Insurance, and other. • Career Development: Opportunities for growth, training, and advancement. • Company Culture: The organisation’s values, mission, and social purpose. Home or Remote working: Have you introduced a home-working policy, and do your terms of employment state a specific place of work i.e. the office or your employee’s home? If you changed your working practices to become more flexible post-pandemic, has hybrid working become your ‘new normal’ over the last few tears? Do you know how important it is for your team members to have flexibility over their place of work? The answer to these questions may influence how you approach making any future changes to the current working arrangements with your team members. The How: Recognising your obligations to consult team members about any changes, and how you wish to be perceived as an employer who listens to their team members, is important if you wish to become or maintain your status as a great or preferred employer. Reward Survey: Join other organisations in the non-profit and social impact sector and complete the BTA Reward Survey to share your opinion on flexible working as well as pay and benefits, and discover what other organisations are either doing or planning to do in the future. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BTARewards2024

The key to any successful sustainable organisation will inevitably centre on its relationship with people – both staff and those that you serve. But it’s not just a matter of proper consideration of your responsibilities under Employment law, Health & Safety legislation or even your funding criteria – increasingly it is how you truly centre people at the heart of everything you do including your strategy, your values and the culture you aim to promote. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to bring together Governments; Business; NGOs and local communities in a common cause that makes our world more sustainable for everyone, but it is also a challenge to be more accountable for our actions. Whatever the size of your charity, you need to ensure that the voices of your staff, clients and external stakeholders are effectively embedded in the way that you operate and increasingly your funders will be looking for this to be evidenced. By using the SDG criteria, your organisation can show its level of ambition, how it is embracing Equality and Diversity, tackling exclusion, and improving the quality of life in its community. It can also evidence adherence to Human Rights principles and how your organisation encourages ethical partnerships and collaboration. Questions that Board members and Executive Leadership need to address on People and Culture issues are increasingly complex, wide-ranging but frequently inter-connected. Some common examples are: • Do you have a written Code of Ethics policy and how do you record whistleblowing? • How do you engage with your workforce and client group when developing your strategy? • What information do you make publicly available and transparent? • How do you represent your commitment to Human Rights principles, anti- fraud measures, or safeguarding? • Have you developed any policy or programme over the last two years to contribute to SDG 5 – Gender Equality? Failure to adequately address these issues can often result in increased risks both at operational and reputational levels. Recruiting and retaining motivated and skilled staff in a competitive environment remains a significant challenge for the charity sector - staff retention levels can materially impact your effectiveness and costs. Many staff join the charity sector because they are motivated to assist others but in turn, they expect their employers to maintain the highest standards as an employer and contractor. This is also an expectation held by your service users, funders and the public so any failure will inevitably have negative repercussions that can be difficult to address. Your ability to show you have a full understanding of the importance of culture is vital. BTA has developed a cost effective and pragmatic solution through our new Sustainability Audit and Reporting service which is specifically targeted for the needs of small and medium sized charities and can help you identify gaps, manage risks, and maintain the highest ethical standards. As part of our service, we also offer training and implementation support. Please get in touch to discuss how we can help you on your Sustainability journey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SDG-self-assessment Ann McKechin is Senior Associate Consultant with BTA (Bruce Tait Associates), the leading Consultancy and Recruitment specialist for the Charity sector. BTA’s approach intertwines passion with professionalism, ensuring every organisation they partner with is poised to make a lasting impact. Ann is a Policy and Communications specialist with a unique range of transferable skills gained from being a member of the senior management team in a multinational company, a charity director, a non-executive Board member, a former Government Minister and experienced parliamentarian and with a past legal career in the private sector. For more information, please contact Alison Weir, Business Services Manager at BTA on [email protected]

In our complex and diverse world marked by volatility and fiscal uncertainty, it is difficult for any size of organisation to innovate and grow simply from its own resources – financial or human. Keeping pace within a fast-changing landscape is vital but change itself carries risks and smaller organisations can find it hard to find adequate capacity to manage transitions. How you interact with your partners will frequently be key to your success and long-term sustainability. Increasingly, every organisation whether it is small or large is having to spend more time considering how they engage with their stakeholders and how they can use partnerships to remain sustainable. It is no longer simply a matter of just staying connected with people. You need to plan deliberately and carefully how you will communicate with your stakeholders, the messages that you want to communicate to them, the channels you are going to use for that communication and how regularly and at which level you are going to stay connected with them. Many funders now want to have some record about how you keep in contact with your stakeholders, what methods you use and for the most important stakeholders, especially your client group, how you engage them at an early stage in terms of changes you make to your processes and your policy development. Having a formal stakeholder engagement process, even a simple one, is a good start because it encourages particularly management teams and charity boards to review their stakeholder engagement regularly and consider whether it is effectively assisting your strategic development or alternatively is an area of weakness that needs to be addressed. It also helps to align your organisation with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which actively promote the use of partnerships and SDG17 “Partnerships for the Goals”. In addition, it can also provide robust evidence that your organisation is pro-actively aware of its obligations under equality legislation and the promotion of SDG 5 “ Gender Equality”. Funders are also placing a much greater emphasis on encouraging organisations to either increase or start much greater collaborative working with other organisations. There are obvious benefits for funders and charities alike – successful collaborations can maximise efficiencies, share risks, add vital capacity to manage change, and most importantly, scale up the benefit to our communities. That is why your stakeholder engagement policy becomes even more important to consider when looking at how you put your organisation on the strongest footing, and it can also be used to identify or attract possible new collaborations. BTA has developed a cost effective and pragmatic solution through our new Sustainability Audit and Reporting service which is specifically targeted for the needs of small and medium sized charities and can help you identify gaps, manage risks, and consider potential new opportunities and collaborations. As part of our service, we also offer training and implementation support. Please get in touch to discuss how we can help you on your Sustainability journey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SDG-self-assessment Ann McKechin is Senior Associate Consultant with BTA (Bruce Tait Associates), the leading Consultancy and Recruitment specialist for the Charity sector. BTA’s approach intertwines passion with professionalism, ensuring every organisation they partner with is poised to make a lasting impact. Ann is a Policy and Communications specialist with a unique range of transferable skills gained from being a member of the senior management team in a multinational company, a charity director, a non-executive Board member, a former Government Minister and experienced parliamentarian and with a past legal career in the private sector. For more information, please contact Alison Weir, Business Services Manager at BTA on [email protected]

After the onslaught of the COVID pandemic rapidly followed by the cost-of-living crisis, and now swingeing cuts to government and local authority spending, it is no wonder that many in the charity sector feel exhausted simply trying to keep their organisation afloat. If you are a charity board trustee or part of the senior leadership team, your challenge is to find that vital space away from your day-to-day pressures to be able to plan for a sustainable future and to seek out new sources of income. In this tough fundraising climate, your charity needs to be in the strongest position possible to compete in the race for a share of available funds. Now is the time to strengthen the core of your organisation, build your partnerships with stakeholders and rally your people. The Scottish business sector, Scottish Government, local authorities, and major philanthropic funders are increasingly using the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a significant indicator to measure the social, environmental, and economic impacts of the organisations that they fund. This makes sense. The measurements that underpin the SDGs are a particularly useful guide when used to achieve greater consistency in analysis across different sectors, stronger performance, and enhanced public accountability. In Scotland, the SDGs are incorporated as part of the Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework which guides their priorities for both their budget and policy direction. It also underpins much of the criteria used to achieve a net zero society. Regardless of an organisation’s size or purpose, the SDGs provide a common language that immediately shows support in the fight for a better future. Having a clear ethical purpose attracts and retains donors; minimises risks to your reputation and gives confidence to your funders and investors. Meeting the SDGs requires the ability to record and evidence that your charity can add value through a mixture of environmental and social action with the ability to work in new collaborations and partnerships. To support organisations in addressing them will require skills and expertise in both areas. At BTA we have been involved in spreading the message about Sustainability and the SDGs for several years. In our experience, many Scottish charities are significantly behind other sectors in embracing the SDGs. This gap is becoming more acute as charities face a real threat to funding, particularly statutory funding, if they cannot clearly evidence their social and environmental sustainability. BTA has developed a cost effective and pragmatic solution through our new Sustainability Audit and Reporting service which is specifically targeted for the needs of small and medium sized charities. As part of our service, we also offer training and implementation support. Please get in touch to discuss how we can help you on your Sustainability journey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SDG-self-assessment Ann McKechin is Senior Associate Consultant with BTA (Bruce Tait Associates), the leading Consultancy and Recruitment specialist for the Charity sector. BTA’s approach intertwines passion with professionalism, ensuring every organisation they partner with is poised to make a lasting impact. Ann is a Policy and Communications specialist with a unique range of transferable skills gained from being a member of the senior management team in a multinational company, a charity director, a non-executive Board member, a former Government Minister and experienced parliamentarian and with a past legal career in the private sector. For more information, please contact Alison Weir, Business Services Manager at BTA on a [email protected]

At the last Scottish Fundraising Conference, I greatly enjoyed hosting a sold-out discussion with some of Scotland’s biggest Grantmakers. It struck me at the time that things had changed substantially over the course of my career. When I started as fundraiser many trusts and foundations were both secretive and adversarial. They didn’t want anything to do with fundraisers and they point blank refused to share information with us. Fast forward 35 years, and we now have the likes of National Lottery, Wood Foundation and Corra Foundation speaking at fundraising conferences, sharing tips and hints. A genuinely open relationship has emerged between “poachers and gamekeepers”. Exceptions to this happy “concordat’ are rare, and a precious mutually supportive relationship now exists. This represents a paradigm shift in how charities and Grantmakers view their relationship with each other and with the broader community. Trust and transparency have emerged as foundational principles, guiding the relationship between those who give and those who seek funding. This evolution towards a more open dialogue has facilitated a more collaborative and less adversarial atmosphere, fostering a sense of partnership that benefits the wider community. Fundraisers should not mess with this! Yet perhaps we are. With the lazy use of AI in funding applications. It’s a great tool for the fast development of content, but I feel that the integration of AI into the grant writing process must be approached with care. On one hand, AI offers the promise of efficiency and accessibility, particularly for smaller charities that might lack the resources to hire professional bid writers. On the other, the impersonal nature of AI-generated applications could be seen as exacerbating the very issues that the sector has worked to overcome. Scottish Grantmakers are reaching out to professional fundraisers in a spirit of transparency and directness. It’s because they value us as professionals, as communicators, as advocates for the causes that we represent. The last thing that we should be doing is handing that relationship to a computer programme – however clever it is. Yet that is what many people in the sector are advocating. I was on a charity knowledge platform this morning that offers an automated grant writing service for free. Just stick a few hundred words into a Bot and the little bunny will write your applications for you. And all those Grantmakers, that we have spent decades convincing to work with us, are about to be buried in an avalanche of awful, AI-written applications. Written in binary, with no heart, no context, no corroboration, and no accountability. That is not good. If the use of AI inserts a layer of detachment between charities and funders we are in trouble. I remember when many funders wanted nothing to do with fundraisers. We could easily be back there. Charities and AI service providers alike should be mindful of the sector's ethos and strive to use technology in a way that enhances, rather than detracts from, the principles of trust and transparency that are central to Scottish philanthropy. Our expert trust fundraising team at BTA only ever use AI for research – every word of our applications is written by a real, live expert. This doesn't mean that AI has no place in the future of grant writing. AI can be a powerful tool for helping charities articulate their missions and needs, or for identifying themes and opportunities. But it should be used in a way that supports direct engagement with Grantmakers and upholds the values of the evolving philanthropic landscape. It needs a fundraiser to wield it as a tool – not a bot to automate it as a blunt instrument. It is essential to remain focused on the ultimate goal: fostering meaningful connections between charities and funders that lead to impactful outcomes for the communities they serve. By aligning the use of technology with the principles of trust and transparency, we can ensure that AI serves as a bridge, not a barrier, in the pursuit of this goal.

Scotland's charity sector, encompassing over 25,000 registered entities from small community groups to large environmental organisations, is undergoing significant regulatory changes. With the introduction of the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023, Scottish charities are poised to see substantial updates in governance and accountability. This new legislation, spearheaded by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), is designed to bring Scotland's charity regulation in line with the rest of the UK. It highlights the need for charities to prepare for the following key changes, effective from 2024: • Expanded OSCR Powers The Act grants OSCR greater authority to investigate charities and their trustees, ensuring compliance and governance standards are met. • Trustee and Senior Office Holders Criteria: New rules will redefine eligibility for those holding pivotal roles within charities, aiming to strengthen internal governance. • Increased Transparency: Charities are required to provide more detailed information about their trustees. OSCR will also maintain and publish a list of trustees removed or barred from their roles, enhancing transparency. • Scottish Charity Register Updates: The register will include more comprehensive information about charities, including a record of mergers, to provide a clearer picture of the charity landscape in Scotland. The Act introduces new annual return questions for charities with financial years ending on or after November 30, 2023. This includes queries related to a charity’s accounts, aligning with the forthcoming Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) set to be introduced in 2025. The SORP will offer guidance on preparing accounts in accordance with UK accounting standards, with updates reflecting changes in accounting standards or charity law. For charities, especially smaller ones, this means adapting to new accounting requirements. For those requiring audits, understanding the process, time, and costs involved is crucial. Trustees should review their charity’s governing documents to ensure they are fit for purpose and align with the latest regulations. Additionally, potential VAT charges on private school fees and initiatives like the Revitalising Trusts Project indicate broader financial and operational implications for charities. As these changes unfold, trustees must take an active role in compliance and governance. The evolving regulatory landscape necessitates a proactive approach to ensure charities continue to serve their communities effectively, emphasising the importance of readiness and adaptability in the face of new challenges.