Charities call for help to deal with pressures

Charities in Guernsey have called for dormant bank accounts to be accessed to help support them with the pressures the sector is facing.

On Monday the Association of Guernsey Charities held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) to highlight how the sector was changing and how the States of Guernsey could help.

Wayne Bulpitt, chair of the association, said a survey had over 110 charities participate and gave them "a reasonable base of data and information".

He said the survey "confirmed that our community here in the bailiwick is pretty generous ... sadly it also confirmed the demand on our members, the charities, is growing as well".

Bulpitt said there was a lack of "skilled volunteers" which he defined as those which had particular experiences including secretarial, financial and practical skills of delivering services.

He added over a year ago the members of the Association of Guernsey Charities worked in different workshops to identify four key things the States of Guernsey could do.

"We know they have no magic wand, we know there's no bottomless pit of money, however there's some practical things that government can do," he said.

He added that 39 charities were commissioned to deliver government services.

"We wanted to see fair agreements, so some recognition of salary pressures each year.

He said a number of things were being done by the States.

He said they wanted to see support around proportionate regulation.

"We have regulation that was forced on charities because of the finance industry requirements, we understand that strong economy is critical to our members and and our community, we wanted it to be proportionate," he said.

"We want the three main government departments that we need to work with to work together and to co-ordinate their efforts," he added.

Bulpitt said financially they were short of moneybut "we believe that there's over £100m stuck in dormant bank accounts and government money is held by the Crown in the bailiwick and that money needs to be freed up".

He added in 2012 the States of Guernsey approved a policy letter and they were still waiting for the legislation to implement it.

He said the final aspect was volunteering and they wanted the government to lead the way on that.

"One of the reasons Deputy Faller came last night was specifically that Policy and Resources had advised us that they were studying our manifesto and would formally respond by the end of March," Bulpitt added.

"He laid out some real actions for us across the four main asks that we've talked about," he said.

Bulpitt said they were committed to a biannual survey and believed in a years time members would be able to evidence the impact their charity was having.

The States of Guernsey has been approached for comment.

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