OSCR Communications Strategy 2023-26

This communications strategy aims to support OSCR’s risk-based regulatory activities and deliver a quality service for charities in Scotland, while developing and nurturing a motivated and flexible workforce. It will help deliver our strategic objective of promoting increased trust in Scottish Charities by supporting charities to comply with their regulatory responsibilities.

Our strategic priorities

OSCR’s five overarching strategic priorities for the next three years, as detailed in our Corporate Strategy are:

  • To ensure the public have access to the information they need about charities in Scotland and how they are regulated.
  • To provide charities with the tools and guidance they need to meet regulatory obligations.
  • To deliver smart, responsive and effective regulation that positively impacts on Scotland’s charity sector and its beneficiaries.
  • To focus on our people and have a motivated, flexible and well supported workforce.
  • To maintain a focus on best value, continuous improvement and collaboration.

The Scottish Charity Regulator will regulate in a way which builds trust and confidence in Scottish charities, holds charities to account and strengthens their ability to positively contribute to society.

Our objectives

Our communications strategy will support the successful delivery of these priorities, by adopting a business-led problem-solving approach to our communications work by working with experts from across OSCR to identify priority areas for action and working with others within the organisation to address those issues together while using modern, effective communications techniques.

Placing effective communications at the centre of everything we do:

  • Our approach to communications should be placed at the heart of all our regulatory work, not just a set of actions tagged on at the end.
  • Communications should be an integral part of all OSCR’s internal project work.

Ensuring that all our internal and external communications are specifically designed to get the right information to the right person at the right time, in a place and format which is convenient and effective:

  • Effective communications will be integrated into our service design. 
  • We will ensure that our communications are effective and continuously improving by regularly considering a range of relevant measures and data, and adapting our approach based on the evidence.
  • Our work will be focused on maximising and optimising direct contact with charities, trustees, and key charity staff through our owned channels.
  • We will use language and communication techniques which are understandable to charity representatives who are not experts in charity law or our regulatory work.

We will be open and transparent about our work, and be proactive about sharing our insight and understanding of the charity sector:

  • We will improve understanding of OSCR’s work and the regulatory responsibilities of charities and their trustees by “showing, not telling”.
  • We will always seek to be clear about how we deliver on our responsibilities.

Our goals

By March 2026, our goals are to:

  • Improve the user experience of charities who interact with OSCR
  • Improve public and stakeholder understanding of the principles of our work
  • Enable our staff to play their part in improving OSCR’s communications

Evaluating success

To evaluate and judge the success of this strategy in meeting the agreed objectives, we should:

  • Increase sign-ups and subscriptions to our owned media
  • Increase overall engagement rates with our owned communications channels
  • Improve the proportion of mentions of OSCR in the media with a positive sentiment
  • Improve the accessibility of our services to a wider range of users
  • Develop and deliver a communications plan to support the future implementation of new charities legislation
  • Increase the number of charities who can complete transactions with OSCR without seeking help directly from OSCR by emailing or phoning our Front Desk.

Measuring progress

As part of this strategy, we will target resources towards improving the effectiveness of OSCR’s media resources (email, website etc) and reduce our reliance on social media channels for key communications a more efficient and effective alternative.

In addition to the measurement of these outcomes, we will agree a reporting mechanism for relevant, actionable data which supports the delivery of these outcomes.

Our plan

Implementation of our plan will enable OSCR to:

  • Collect and analyse a greater level and quality of data on charities’ experience and interaction with OSCR, and use this to generate useful, engaging content and drive forward improvements in our communications work
  • Engage proactively with OSCR’s staff and teams to identify areas where enhanced communications can improve charities’ experience and improve efficiency and productivity for our staff
  • Be innovative and creative about the content we produce and channels we use, at the same time as strengthening our brand with key audiences

To meet our stated objectives, our strategy will be deployed through the following activities. These are grouped by our overall corporate objective, and reference the actions already set out in our Corporate Strategy.

We will ensure the public have access to the information they need about charities in Scotland and how they are regulated

We will maintain an accurate register and increase the level of information we provide to stakeholders about charities, using our new powers under the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act. This will help to provide everyone with an informed view of Scotland’s charities.

  • We will maximise the benefits of new legislative proposals by Scottish Ministers, such as the trustee database and our power to publish all charity accounts, to help charity donors, funders and beneficiaries to get the most informed view of charities they have an interest in.
  • We will develop and implement a series of communications plans to support the effective delivery and adoption of the new regulatory responsibilities, as set out in the 2023 Act.
  • We will share lessons learned from our regulatory work, particularly our inquiries, with charities and the public through both increased publication of reports and learning activities for trustees and others.
  • We will develop a plan to publish and promote these lessons though a range of media delivered through a range of appropriate and effective media.
  • We will securely share the data we gather about charities with stakeholders involved in planning, legislating and working with charities.
  • We will develop a plan to publish and promote these lessons though a range of media delivered through a range of appropriate and effective media.

We will provide charities with the tools and guidance they need to meet regulatory obligations

By making charities’ interactions with OSCR digital by default, making the information on our website more accessible and targeting our engagement activity, we will better equip charities to fulfil their obligations.

  • We will engage and consult with charities to ensure regulation is as effective as it can be, and to understand its impact.
  • We will target our engagement with charities using the data we hold, survey results and other feedback to tailor our activities to help charities improve the way they govern themselves.
  • We will regularly gather data to measure our progress. This data will be considered regularly by the communications team in order to inform our progress.
  • We will review the content and presentation of our guidance for charities to make it more accessible.
  • We will reduce the resource we use in responding to common enquiries from charities and trustees by making information easier to find on our website.
  • We will use the data and information we hold about charities to prepare and deliver focused support and guidance
  • We will better differentiate between what we expect from and how we deal with small, simple, volunteer-run charities and larger, more complex organisations. This includes the information we require in charities’ annual returns to us, financial reporting requirements and the provision of guidance on compliance.
  • Using our regulatory priorities and other available data to prioritise our work, we will map out customer journeys around our key processes, and work with corporate, policy and casework colleagues to ensure that charities, trustees, charity staff and representatives are able to fulfil their regulatory responsibilities without direct support
    • This will involve examining our indirect external communications, our owned channels (email, newsletters, website and social media channels) in addition to indirect and earned communications
  • We will support organisations such as umbrella bodies and local third sector interfaces to develop the skills and materials needed by them to provide consistent, high-quality governance advice and support to charities
  • We will continue to develop and deliver our regular stakeholder newsletters (primarily targeted at TSIs and umbrella bodies) , and seek to find ways to provide more segment ed and specialist information and advice to external stakeholders when possible (e.g. to accountants/financial advisors, by sector etc)

We will deliver smart, responsive and effective regulation that positively impacts on Scotland’s charity sector and its beneficiaries

By increasing our use of technology, being explicit about what to expect when submitting information to us and targeting our regulation, we will make sure we have the right resources to focus on our core activities and to use our powers to hold charities to account where required.

  • We will use the data and information we hold about charities to prepare and deliver focused support and guidance.
  • We will make it easy for charities to fulfil their obligations through digital channels and make interactions with OSCR ‘digital by default’.
  • We will better differentiate between what we expect from and how we deal with small, simple, volunteer-run charities and larger, more complex organisations. This includes the information we require in charities’ annual returns to us, financial reporting requirements and the provision of guidance on compliance.
  • We will better manage the expectations of parties who raise concerns about charities and are interested in our inquiries so that we can focus on completing inquiries and taking action, rather than reacting to queries.
  • We will work with the risk assessment team to regularly review and improve our guidance and communications for those individuals who raise concern.
  • We will work with the risk assessment team to expedite the assessment of cases which attract media attention, so that we can more effectively communicate our regulatory responsibilities to the public through the media.
  • We will use and share our experience and data to inform the wider discussion on charities and regulation promised by Scottish Ministers.
  • We will develop a plan to effectively communicate the findings of our regular reports so that we can leverage the best use of this data (e.g. OSCR Reporter Special editions, Stakeholder email newsletter, Parliamentarian Newsletters, facilitating special events etc).

We will focus on our people and have a motivated, flexible and well-supported workforce

We will support our people to the best they can be by continually building individual capabilities, ensuring the organisation is agile when reviewing priorities, listening to everyone’s ideas and maintaining a hybrid working environment to provide flexibility in how work is carried out.

  • We will review internal guidance to make sure it is as effective as possible.
  • We will work with OSCR’s teams to ensure that our guidance is effectively presented and communicated to staff.
  • We will provide an empowering and interesting working environment and support the aspirations of individual staff members where we can.
  • We will continue to seek ways to improve our internal communications, including our staff newsletter and intranet.

We will maintain a focus on best value, continuous improvement and collaboration

To ensure OSCR is as effective and efficient as possible we will review how we manage our contracts and share services with other public sector bodies. The overall regulation of charities will be improved by removing duplication where charities are regulated by multiple bodies, through defined agreements with other regulatory bodies.

  • We will streamline our approach to procurement, to deliver contract management efficiencies and simpler, more transparent and consistent contract management.
  • We will review the contracts we have to supply communications services and tools to ensure that we are achieving best value.
  • We will develop and publish an annual business plan which outlines our key business and resource priorities for the year.
  • We will develop and deliver a plan to publish and promote key corporate documents.
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