Intelligent Monitoring: New guidance to help cut red tape for
charitable, voluntary and community organisations
The
National Audit Office has published some practical guidance. This
will help Government reduce the red tape involved in monitoring the
£12 billion it gives to charities and other
voluntary and community organisations each year.
Charities that receive public funding have to account to
government funders for how they have spent this money. They also
need to show the impact they achieve with it. But the burden
and cost of this must be appropriate to the risks and benefits
involved.
Cutting unnecessary red tape can free up time and money that
would be better spent focusing on the key services that these
organisations provide. The term we use for achieving this balance
and avoiding poor practice is ‘intelligent monitoring’.
Our guidance: Intelligent Monitoring is
part of 'Financial relationships with third
sector organisations – a decision support tool for public bodies in
England'.
It is designed to:
- be a step by step guide that will help Government to apply the
‘Principles of proportionate monitoring and reporting’ produced by
the Office of the Third Sector.
- encourage Government to think about monitoring as early as
possible in a funding relationship and not simply as an
add-on.
- highlight the importance of monitoring for the providers of
services as well as funders.
- include practical case studies to illustrate the guidance and
how the principles can be applied.
The National Audit Office plans to expand on these practical
examples of intelligent monitoring with the help of users of the
guidance as best practice emerges. If you would like to
contribute to, or comment on, the guidance please email better_funding@nao.gsi.gov.uk.
Intelligent Monitoring builds on the existing National Audit
Office decision support tool 'Financial
Relationships with Third Sector Organisations: a Decision Support
Tool'. This is an online toolkit designed to help Government
funders work through the key considerations and issues involved in
funding third sector organisations such as charities and voluntary
and community organisations.
The guidance has the support of HM Treasury, the Office of the
Third Sector and the Commission for the Compact.
Related Links