Charities SORP

Sue Wilson FCA

Convenor of the ‘Government & Public Bodies, Major Funders & Donors’ Engagement Strand

Sue is a Chartered Accountant with many years’ experience in general practice.  Currently working as the Trust Accountant for The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust: a top 100 grant giving trust concentrating on funding translational medical research and encouraging young scientists to pursue a career in clinical research, and also making life easier for the sick and disadvantaged through a range of other grant programmes. The Trust makes over 300 awards each year

Previously, she ran her own practice for 25 years.  In practice her specialism was Restaurants, Wine Bars and Public Houses and this enabled her to participate in a management buyout and become part owner of a restaurant and wine bar in the City of London for 4 years.  It was during this period that Sue first experienced working in partnership with a national Charity as corporate fundraisers.

Sue moved permanently to the charity sector in 2009 where her first job was to prepare a charity for liquidation, as regrettably, it was no longer considered viable.  She then became Head of Finance & Resources for a children’s hospice, where she worked for 6 years.  It was this role that has given her a continued interest in the Hospice Sector, which has continued in her current role at Sir Jules as they have a Hospice Fund. This fund exposes Sue to approximately 100 sets of hospice accounts each year which are forensically analysed before grants are awarded.

Before taking up her role at Sir Jules Sue worked as Head of Finance for a Government spin out which had been formed as a CIC.  This role gave Sue insight into the difficulties that not only spinning out can create, but also the challenges of changing a Government department into a charitable organisation.

Sue has been the Trust Accountant at Sir Jules for 3 and a half years.

Personal statement:

I am particularly interested in the technical side of accounting and presentation of information in accounts.  With the number of accounts I see each year, and knowing the emphasis we at Sir Jules place on various disclosures in accounts, I look forward to playing a part in providing insight and inputting into the next version of the SORP.

I would never wish to discourage flair in accounts presentation, but fully appreciate that one person’s interpretation of the current SORP is not always the same as another person’s. I see anomalies in presentation on a regular basis, and feel that if we in the sector are somewhat confused, so must be the public.

I look forward to playing a proactive role in the process.