[Nick Stiven]

Jacqueline

Have you ever had a look at the (free) Charity Intelligence website, and in particular, their section on investments?

Click on:

https://www.charityintelligence.co.uk/investments/

We were dismayed by CCLA’s dreadful 2025 performance and the Charity Intelligence website showed just how poor their figures were, compared to their peers. We worked up a shortlist of better performing/lower cost alternative funds, using Charity Intelligence’s data, confirmed with a friendly ‘wealth manager’ that we were thinking along the right lines, and then transferred our interest accounts over to a better performing (and cheaper) fund manager two months ago.

Hope this helps.

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

William

Interestingly, our figures are almost identical to yours!

Our budgeted ‘Voids Cost’ includes the cost of refurbishments as well as lost income.

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Dennis

I have no direct experience of such software, but wonder if you have looked at:

Top 15 Fundraising Software Picks for Better Results in 2026

I’d try there first and see if any providers say they deal with charities like you, or have reviews from charities like you.

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Lisa

We don’t have (or need) a MPLC Licence, although we do arrange and pay for Concessional TV Licenses (another thing altogether) for eligible residents. Residents who are ineligible for Concessional Licenses pay for their own licences.

You only need to apply for an MPLC Licence to legally show movies and television programs in shared communal spaces.

When Do You Need a Licence, specifically?

• Group Activities: Required if you host planned movie nights, film screenings, or organized entertainment.

• Communal Areas: Needed if TVs or screens play films and shows in shared lounges, dining rooms, or reception spaces.

• Staff Areas: Covers entertainment screens in staff break rooms.

What is Exempt?

• Private Rooms: Residents watching television or films inside their own individual flats/cottages do not need a licence (any more than you do at your own home).

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Lisa

You are legally permitted to decline an applicant on the basis that they smoke. Under UK law, smoking is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, meaning you have the right to choose whether or not you want to make accommodation available to individuals who smoke. Your past experience with a costly and traumatic eviction provides a very reasonable background for your caution.

Neither are you obliged to make a full disclosure to a rejected applicant as to precisely why they have been rejected. It’s a bit like dating – in the final analysis, some people just don’t ‘fit’, and no amount of debriefing them is going to help anyone. It could also be counterproductively hurtful to do so.

So, what to do?

Remember that selecting an almhouse resident is not an entirely objective exercise. Yes, there are some objective pre-conditions, usually set out in your Scheme. But there are subjective considerations also.

So, first, make sure you carry out a screening interview for every applicant. Test the validity of their eligibility under your Scheme (poor, good character, live in your area of interest, ex-Services – whatever). Then, crucially, decide, deep within yourself, whether you think they will fit in to your existing community.

You’re not in the business of offering therapy. You’re not going to change people’s anti-social behaviour (be that playing Dire Straits at 3.00 am, or stinking the place out by smoking). So you have to be happy your existing community can live with any proposed new resident. If you aren’t entirely comfortable about someone’s character or behaviour, you simply don’t offer them accommodation.

If you don’t like disapponting any applicant, try gently letting down those who will never fit in to your almshouse community with something like: ‘Thank you for applying for accommodation with us. We will let you know when any suitable accommodation becomes available’.

Whether ‘suitable accommodation’ ever comes up is then up to you … !

This tactic works best, of course, if you encourage people to join an Applicants List, before you have vacancies.

I hope this helps.

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Michele,

On my PC, I selected your question, right-clicked and asked Google AI for an opinion. This is what Google came back with:

‘The role of a Clerk or Secretary to an Almshouse Charity can be structured as either employed or self-employed (engaged via a contract for services), depending on how the trustees set up the position and the day-to-day working arrangement.

Employed Status
• How it works: The clerk is a direct employee of the charity. The charity must register as an employer, operate PAYE (Pay As You Earn) for tax and National Insurance, and provide statutory employment rights such as holiday pay and pension auto-enrolment.
• When used: This is typical when the role requires fixed hours, close supervision by the trustees, integration into the charity’s internal staff hierarchy, or regular on-site administration.

Self-Employed (Contractor) Status
• How it works: The individual operates under a contract for services, meaning they act as an independent contractor or freelancer (or through their own limited company). They invoice the charity for their time or agreed deliverables and handle their own tax, National Insurance, and professional indemnity insurance.
• When used: Many smaller almshouse charities or corporate secretaries/management organizations engage clerks this way, especially when the work is part-time, highly independent, and performed with minimal day-to-day supervision.

Important Considerations for Trustees
• HMRC Rules: The actual working practices dictate the status, not just what the contract says. If HMRC investigates and finds a “self-employed” contract is actually disguised employment, the charity can be held liable for back taxes and National Insurance.
• Governing Documents: Trustees must check the charity’s specific trust deed or governing scheme to ensure there are no restrictions regarding how administrative support or officer roles are paid or appointed.
• Guidance: You can consult resources through The Almshouse Association or seek professional advice from a charity employment specialist to determine the safest approach for your specific setup.’

Why don’t you have a go and do the same, and see how you get on? Google will often identify areas of uncertainty where, depending on your particular circumstances, there might be further information you would need to consider.

For what it’s worth, I’m an employee on the payroll (so the Charity sorts out my tax for me), while my predecessor was self-employed … .

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Sue

It all depends … !

The Wessex Almshouse Group (almshouse clerks within a 40-50 miles radius of Salisbury) carried out a benchmarking survey in 2025 (the next will be in 2028).

Clerk’s pay/hr was reported, on average, as:

40+ units £34.26 (31 hrs pw)
25-39 units £23.72 (34 hrs pw)
11-24 units £20.36 (17 hrs pw)
2-10 units £12.10 (6 hrs pw)

What you end up paying depends on so many factors. The main one, of course, is the job spec.

However (and probably unfairly) employers often factor in whether the applicant is already in receipt of a pension (ie. ‘Do they need the job, or is it really just pin-money for someone staving off boredom?’).

I hope this helps.

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Ruth

Our Warden has an Enhanced DBS check.

If your Warden acts as a general welfare officer—meaning she supports the general wellbeing of the elderly residents but does not provide hands-on personal care, financial handling, or medical treatment—she is not in Regulated Activity.However, if she acts as a Welfare Officer on call 24 hours a day to assist vulnerable elderly residents, she is still in a “Position of Trust” under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act Exceptions Order.This makes her eligible for an Enhanced DBS check (Adult Workforce), but without the authority to check the Barred List.This will still reveal her full criminal history and any relevant local police intelligence.

I’m also checked at the same level, because the residents tend to trust what a Clerk says, and they (and the Trustees) need to know that I’m not a ‘wrong ‘un’.

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Sam

We don’t have a questionnaire that tackles this question, but I wondered if Goggle AI could help you.

It can!

If you Google: ‘Design an annual resident survey that provides information on what beneficiaries feel is the true impact of living in our almshouses’, and ask for an AI response, you will get a suitable framework report (which I have emailed to you).

We’re too small to want to do any of this via a report—we just ask the residents on a one-to-one basis!

I hope this helps

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Chris

I recommend that you use AI.

Simply open ChapGPT or a Google Search bar in your browser.

Type in the following text:

‘We are a 70 unit almshouse charity in London, a Charitable Company limited by guarantee, with 12 trustees including a chair and vice chair. We wish to develop a succession plan, principally to prepare ourselves should our chair decide or become unable to remain in post. What form should this succession plan take?’

With ChatGPT press the ‘up-arrow’, and with Google, press ‘AI mode’.

Whichever you choose, 5 seconds later, job done! Pretty much … .

If you choose Google, a bonus is that the answer will also come with a panel to one side, with the websites from where Google sourced its information, which you can dive into.

For example, Google quotes from board-room.org’s site and their ‘Board Portal’ offers a free ‘Board of Directors Succession Planning: Process, Policy & Free Template [2026]’ download.

What’s not to like?

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

You could start, of course, by looking at the Training Matrix (https://www.almshouses.org/training-seminars/) …. .

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Hello

This is a huge subject, best conducted off-line. There is an optimal order to any training (basically moving from general orientation to filling specific, identified, skills and knowledge gaps) – but everybody is different, with unique skills and experience, and with unique gaps in both.

I can help you, however, if you email me with your name, contact details and a brief overview of your working career to date.

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Monty

Everyone’s experience will be different, as what people do is so situation/person/circumstances-specific. And it’s a pretty big subject, too.

Can I suggest, however, that you can get a lot of really useful guidance pointers almost instantaneously by simply copying the first paragraph of your post into a Google search-box and pressing Search (asking for an AI answer)..

I think you may be surprised at how useful a result you’ll get. Any problems, and I’d be happy to email you the several pages of information that Google provided for me just now.

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Nicola

There may be 2 issues here:

• should trustees without DBS checks visit residents in their homes?

• who should sort out any hoarding found?

I think any visits by trustees, so they understand the extent of any hoarding problems, could well be helpful.

If you have a Clerk and or Warden, who has regular access to residents in the course of their duties (and have therefore been DBS checked, whether at Basic or Enhanced Level, and trained in safeguarding), I think it might be best if they came too, to guide the trustees, and to manage safety, legal compliance, and resident comfort. Especially if the trustees are effectively strangers and never normally visit. I prefer not to encourage ‘free range’ trustees, unless they are very well known by the residents.

On the hoarding isssue, I’m sure you will have had a look at the guidance on Hoarding on this website.

Whatever you do don’t try a DIY solution to any suspected hoarding.

Recognising and solving a hoarding problem is not for amateurs (any more than treating alcoholism would be). It is highly recommended to involve local adult social services or mental health teams early on, as hoarding is frequently tied to other underlying health, social, or psychological conditions.

Been there – it’s a long, slow haul to deal successfully with a hoarder, so let’s hope it’s not too deeply entrenched.

Good luck!

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

[Nick Stiven]

Joanne

No, you cannot preserve or “backdate” the date on an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) the way you can with a gas safety certificate.

While landlords can renew a Gas Safety Certificate up to two months early and retain their original expiry date (like an MOT), electrical regulations do not have this grace period.

Nick Stiven
clerk@stjohnswilton.org.uk

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