Trustee News

Increasing numbers of providers, such as Leonard Cheshire, are ‘handing back’ contracts not viable at current funding levels For several years now, as austerity sucked billions out of social care, the highly specialised UK social care system for adults with complex physical disability, learning disability and autism has been quietly held together by the benevolence of charities. Charities and not-for-profit firms have poured millions of pounds of reserves into propping up the supposedly taxpayer-funded services they provide under contract to councils and the NHS. That subsidy seemed sustainable when inflation was low and subbing underfunded public services did not put the charity’s own survival at risk. Continue reading…

Exclusive: Leonard Cheshire says it can no longer afford to subsidise care services inadequately funded by councils Severely disabled care home residents are being evicted in a series of disputes between one of the UK’s best-known care charities and a number of local authorities that the charity has accused of refusing to meet the soaring costs of care. In the latest sign of the UK’s deepening social care crisis, Leonard Cheshire said it had taken the drastic step of evicting vulnerable residents with complex disabilities because council funders had refused to meet fee increases that reflected the rising costs of wages, energy and food. Continue reading…

Move comes after lawyers and MPs raised concerns about charitable status of Global Warming Policy Foundation The Charity Commission has confirmed that it is reviewing a complaint about the Global Warming Policy Foundation after lawyers and MPs formally raised concerns about its charitable status. GWPF exists to question policy around the climate crisis, and was set up by former Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson, who has said that climate change is not a threat, but “happening very gently at a fraction of a degree per decade, which is something we can perfectly well live with”. Continue reading…

Actor, writer, bon vivant and charity fundraiser who made a huge contribution to English cricketIn his heyday in the 1980s, Ian Botham became the first English cricketer to have an entourage: a gofer-cum-minder, a few select team-mates, fishing pals and even one or two trusted pressmen. There was also a court jester, a talkative fellow known to the gang as “Loon”. This was David English, who has died aged 76 after a heart attack. He arguably did as much as anyone to promote cricket in England over the next 30-odd years, except perhaps Botham himself. Continue reading…

The claims and counter-claims against the charity at the heart of the debate over trans children The charity Mermaids has found itself at the heart of the highly charged debate pitting trans rights supporters against gender-critical feminists. Mermaids, which is funded mostly by donations but also receives grants and payments for training, says it provides support to transgender children and their families, as well as helping to facilitate their acceptance in society. Continue reading…