Memorandum from Simon Cramp (DCH 109)
1. My Name is Simon Cramp, and I am person
with a mild learning disability. I am a Trustee of two major charities—Royal
Mencap Society, and a housing association called New Dimensions
Group which through its operating companies provides housing to
people with Learning Disabilities. I am also a Freelance Consultant
working in the field of Advocacy and promoting people's rights.
I am also involved in a lot of the work set out in Valuing People
(Cm 5086, March 2001).
I may refer to things I think are important
but I am doing this strictly in a personal capacity and not on
behalf of any group I am involved. I just refer to my positions
in there for background to the committee.
2. So to the draft Bill itself and I shall
deal with the points raised in the joint committee press release
that you want responses on.
Yes in the main the draft bill does strike a
balance but one of the problems of being a small charity in my
view is the indemnity insurance there as the current law stand
to provide some protection to people in the decisions they make
with the protection that the insurance does to help provide a
safety net for people who make decisions they think that are right
at the time but turn out not to be at a later point in time. And
this concerns me that it might put people off being Trustees especially
people on low personal incomes but with the potential effect of
society losing good skills and also real life experience that
may help in the charity activities.
3. Not sure because there are so many of
them I can only comment from my experience of Learning Disability
or Difficulty is yes the draft Bill does go some way but is still
not clear for me if any wrong doing is done it still takes a long
time for the Charity Commission to step in also the other thing
that does not sit with me comfortably is the Housing Corporation
being able to ask the Charity Commission to investigate why? Because
one thing I can't find in the Draft Bill is the checking of new
Trustees when say the company has been running for say a year.
Once the Company/Not for Profit is not picking up because coming
back to what I was commenting on earlier in this section there
seems to me no accountability in any clear way.
4. So my only other concern is that yes
the idea sound great in principal but what worries me is especially
Campaigning group will be worried about speaking out against the
Government for the reason of possibly losing a Government grant
say.
So final Comments I think yes the Charity need
to be brought up to date but I am not sure we will still get the
quality of people needed to sit on boards with the right skills
and experience .
June 2004
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