How it works
Most compliance reviews start with what you lack. This one starts with what the law actually requires of a charity like yours, builds from there, and stays with you afterwards.
The approach
Built up with you, not marked down against a checklist
The traditional governance review hands a charity a long list of everything it does not have. The list is rarely proportionate, rarely explained, and usually ends up in a drawer. The Charity Compliance Engine works the other way round.
It begins with the legal baseline: the short list of things the law genuinely requires of a charity with your structure, income and activities, each with its legal basis stated in plain English. From there, you discuss what else is worth adding for a charity like yours, and what can reasonably wait. The result is a document map your board has agreed and owns, not a deficit report it has been handed.
Every decision is recorded, including what you chose to set aside and why. That record is itself evidence of good governance.
Proportionality
Depth of knowledge, proportionate demands
The engine holds the full Scottish charity compliance landscape, but no charity is shown all of it. Every item is weighed against your profile, and what remains is spread across realistic planning horizons rather than a single overwhelming to-do list.
The session
The five stages in detail
Stuart guides the conversation throughout, and nothing proceeds until you have confirmed it reflects your charity.
Your charity’s profile
The session begins with a structured intake: your legal structure, income band, activities, the people you work with, and your current governance arrangements. Compliance obligations are not the same for every charity, and everything that follows is calibrated to yours.
Your legal baseline
The engine presents the documents and registrations the law actually requires of a charity with your profile. Each one carries its legal basis, stated plainly. This list is shorter than most trustees expect. If you believe an item does not apply to you, you can query it, and the question and answer are recorded.
Worth discussing
Beyond the baseline, the engine raises items worth a conversation for a charity like yours, with the reason each one has been raised. Nothing is pre-selected and there is no pressure to take everything. You add what makes sense, defer what does not, and can note why.
Your agreed document map
The decisions become a visual document map: what you already have in place, what you have agreed to build, and when. This map frames the rest of the session and becomes part of your charity’s record.
The guided session and your evidence trail
The compliance conversation works through the agreed map across six governance areas. Guidance is generated live, grounded in a curated knowledge base. Everything discussed, agreed, deferred and drafted is captured in the session record your board keeps.
Six governance areas
The conversation covers six areas. You can work through all of them in a single session or focus on the areas most relevant to your charity.
Governance and trustee duties
OSCR obligations, trustee responsibilities under the 2005 Act, board structure, conflicts of interest, meeting requirements.
People and safeguarding
PVG scheme, safer recruitment, safeguarding policies, employment obligations, volunteer management.
Finance and accounting
SORP compliance, reserves policy, Gift Aid, audit and independent examination thresholds, financial controls.
Data protection and GDPR
UK GDPR obligations, lawful basis for processing, privacy notices, data retention, subject access requests.
Operations, health and safety
Risk assessment obligations, food safety where relevant, lone working, incident reporting, public liability considerations.
Funding, contracts and legal obligations
Grant conditions, funder due diligence requirements, contractual obligations, trading subsidiaries, insurance.
Outputs
What you leave with
Everything is packaged into documents your board can act on, generated during the session itself. There is no waiting for a report to be written.
Your agreed document map
A visual record of what your charity has in place and what you have chosen to build, spread across realistic timescales. A practical planning tool for your board, and clear evidence of considered governance for funders.
Governance review
A plain-English narrative covering all areas discussed, anchored to the map you agreed, with specific observations about your charity’s position and clear priorities for what to build first. Proportionate to your size and activities.
Draft policy documents
For the items you agreed to build, the engine drafts policies tailored to your charity. These are starting points for your board to review, adapt and adopt, not templates to file away.
Branded PDF session record
A formatted PDF containing the full governance review. Suitable for presenting to your board, retaining for audit purposes, or sharing with funders who ask about your compliance arrangements.
Word document exports
Every draft policy is exported as an editable Word document. Your board owns and controls what happens to them from that point.
Beyond the session
The session is the start, not the service
A session gives your charity a solid foundation, anchored in exactly what you do today. But charities do not sit still. You take on your first employee. A funder asks for a policy you have never heard of. You win a contract, change premises, start a new service, lose a key trustee. Something goes wrong and the board needs to know what to do, tonight, not after three weeks of searching.
When that happens, most charities are left to swim in the ocean of advice that is out there: guidance written for English charities, templates that fit nobody, and search results that cannot tell a SCIO from a CIC. The engine is different in one crucial way. It already knows your charity: your structure, your income, your activities, the map your board agreed and the reasons behind every decision on it.
So when the next question comes, you are not starting again with a stranger. You are coming back to an adviser that remembers you. During the pilot, that continuing support comes directly from Stuart.
An ever-expanding capability, on hand whenever you need it
The engine’s knowledge base grows continuously, and the capability is being built for charities to put questions to it directly, at any time, with every answer grounded in their own profile and agreed framework rather than the open internet. Incidents, growth, new services, structural change: one place to turn, that already knows you.
After the pilot, continuing access will be available through a simple membership. Pilot charities join on founding terms, so the best time to start is now.
Practicalities
What to expect on the day
No preparation is required beyond a working knowledge of your charity: what you do, who you work with, how you are governed, and a broad sense of your income. You do not need to have read any regulatory guidance in advance. That is what the session is for.
Stuart will make brief contact ahead of the session to confirm the format and answer any questions. Sessions are conducted online via Teams or a similar platform and typically take between 60 and 90 minutes. If your charity is based in the central belt of Scotland, an in-person session is also possible and worth raising when we make contact. Sessions work best with a trustee, staff member or volunteer who has day-to-day knowledge of the charity’s activities, but there is no requirement for a full board to be present.
If you are uncertain whether your charity is the right fit, get in touch. A short conversation will establish that quickly.
Ready to find out if it is right for your charity?
Early access sessions are free, and pilot charities will join the ongoing membership on founding terms. Register your interest and Stuart will be in touch to confirm whether the CCE is a good fit and arrange a session.