regulations

This guidance describes the current situation with regard to Gift Aid and the voluntary music sector. Please note that Gift Aid is available to UK recognised charities, regardless of whether or not they are also registered charities.

The constitution will put your music group on solid footing in terms of charity structure, regulation and governance and will be hugely valuable in helping you run your group as well as helping to ensure your registration with the Charity Commission is fast tracked. This guidance explains more about what a constitution is and explains why and how you should use our model constitution, including some notes on creating a separate rules and regulation document to go alongside it.

This handbook will help you manage your charity and answers the most common questions about your responsibility as a committee member (trustee) of a charity.

Data protection is about organisations collecting and using data in a fair, responsible and transparent way. It puts the emphasis on needing a good reason for holding and using the data and being clear about what those reasons are. It also emphasises the need to have consent from individuals (in some situations), and the individual’s rights over their data. New data protection laws (often referred to as GDPR) came into force in May 2018.

Data protection is becoming an increasingly prominent issue. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018 tightened up the data laws and led to the Data Protection Act 2018, getting a fair bit of media attention in the process.

The new rules can appear complex, hard to apply and perhaps a bit restrictive. For leisure-time music groups though, it’s mostly about common sense and simple reasonable measures to make sure you are using the data you hold in a fair, reasonable and secure way. 

Health and Safety is one of those terms that can bring dread and derision in equal measure. With some of the stories you hear it’s easy to see why it has a bad reputation. In practical terms though, all it really means is spending a little bit of time thinking about what risks exist in a particular situation and what can be done to minimise them.

The SCIO is a legal structure for registered charities in Scotland. It provides limited liability and separate legal identity to organisations which do not wish to incorporate fully. This guidance outlines the benefits and obligations of becoming or converting to an SCIO

We can help advise music groups on establishing charitable status. There are advantages to gaining charitable status and also some consequences to be aware of that are covered in this guidance.