Frequently asked questions

This section has been put together to answer members' questions on the RCN's Legal and Governance Review and is updated on a regular basis. If you have any further questions, please email lgreview@rcn.org.uk

Q. What is the difference between personal and corporate gift aid? What will the RCN pay?

With effect from 1st April 2010 the RCN has ceased to be a charity. Instead a new charity has been established, the RCN Foundation. The RCN Foundation has been endowed with £15m of assets and it is anticipated that it will generate its own income from those assets which it will apply in carrying out charitable activities to support nursing to improve the health and wellbeing of the public. Those grants will in many cases be paid to the RCN for it to discharge those charitable activities.

RCN will in future, as it is no longer a charity, be liable to pay corporation tax on any surpluses that it generates. In the future, the Council of the RCN may decide to make donations to the RCN Foundation. Were the Council to decide to do this, any such donation to a registered charity would be eligible to be treated as a gift aid donation in accordance with the rules of corporate gift aid. 

Corporate gift aid is different from personal gift aid. In the case of corporate gift aid, the organisation making the donation is entitled to deduct the amount of the donation against its tax bill, i.e. it can write off the donation against its corporation tax liability.

In the case of personal gift aid, an individual UK tax payer who makes a donation to a UK charity and signs the necessary gift aid form enables the charity to recover from HMRC the basic rate of income tax which the donor is deemed to have paid upon the gift to the charity. In addition of course the individual can claim higher rate tax relief for himself.

Q.  What were members asked to vote on at the AGM 2010?

A. Members were asked to vote on some proposed changes to the RCN Royal Charter and associated constitutional documents.

In summary the proposed changes were about reclassifying some of the information to ensure that it sits in the right place in the hierarchy of documents as well as updating, simplifying and clarifying the documents. In addition, members were asked to vote to reclassify the bye-laws as standing orders.

There were also four significant changes that members were asked to consider and vote on separately. They were to amend the documents to:

Q. Why were the proposals put forward?

A. The 2009 AGM vote was very important.  The changes members agreed to the Royal Charter brought us in line with charity legislation and enabled us to set up a separate charity - the RCN Foundation.

However, our work was not done and we spent the next 12 months talking to members about what else we needed to put in place.

In a nutshell the existing constitutional documents are out of date and don't reflect the organisation as it is now. For example, there is no mention of the RCN being a trade union.

The current charter came into force in 1978, and since then a lot has changed. We wanted to revise the documents to make them easier to understand, to get rid of some out of date information (like Acts of Parliament that no longer exist) and also to make some changes that we believe will improve the way the RCN works and takes decisions.

In addition, the Privy Council has said that it would prefer us to have a hierarchy of documentation that is more modern and reflects good governance practice – which is why, for example, one of the proposed changes to was to reclassify the existing bye-laws as standing orders.

A key principle behind the proposals was to ensure that members are at the heart of decision making. Currently the Royal Charter contains much information which can only be changed if the Privy Council and the Queen sign it off. The proposals ensure that only the very top level powers are in the Charter and that more decisions are in the hands of members.

Q. What will the new hierarchy of documents look like?

A. Currently the RCN has a Royal Charter, bye-laws and a set of rules.  The charter and bye-laws set out the aims of the College and how we work. The purpose of the rules is to set out how we implement the aims and objectives.

In practice, though, there has been confusion between the hierarchy of the three documents with some things not at the appropriate level.

It is proposed to have four levels of governance regulation in the future and only changes at the very top level will need to seek Royal approval. This reflects the way that the Privy Council prefers organisations like ours to work. The four levels will be as follows:

The Royal Charter – decisions resulting in a change to the charter would require a resolution of your elected RCN Council, a vote by members with a two-thirds majority of those voting in favour, and the approval of the Queen.

Rules – decisions resulting in a change to the rules would be amended by a resolution of RCN Council, a vote by members with a two-thirds majority of those voting in favour, and the approval of the Privy Council  (note – these should not be confused with the current RCN rules).

Standing orders –that will contain much of what is currently in the RCN bye-laws. Standing orders would be amended by a resolution of RCN Council and a vote by members with a two-thirds majority of those voting in favour

Regulations - as part of phase three of this work, which will take place following the RCN AGM in 2010, we will also be proposing a new fourth level – regulations – to replace the current rules. These regulations may be created by RCN Council and will set out in detail how the standing orders are implemented.

Q. Why did members have to vote on these changes?

A. All changes to the Royal Charter and bye-laws required membership approval before they could be passed to the Privy Council, which must then agree to the amendments.

Q. Were members consulted before the proposed changes were put together?

A. Yes, members were involved for a number of months before the vote. We started with two fringe events at RCN Congress in Bournemouth in April 2010 and carried out a series of discussions with RCN board members, who were asked to engage with branches and members. Information about the proposals has been on the RCN website since Congress and we we asked branches to consider the proposals at their meetings.  Feedback from the RCN boards and Congress was considered by RCN Council when they made their final decision on the proposals.

Q. When will the changes be made?

A. The changes to the charter and bye-laws that were accepted by the membership in the AGM vote will be submitted to Privy Council for approval. They will come into force in April 2011.

Q. Were other options looked at and why did Council ask members to vote "yes"?

A. RCN Council considered and discussed all the proposed changes in great detail, weighing up the pros and cons of everything that has been proposed.  As some of the changes involved simply updating or clarifying information looking at different options was not relevant. The RCN also taken legal advice and advice from the Privy Council who are the experts in some of these matters. In addition, some of the proposed changes reflected what we knew members have been saying over the years.

RCN Council encouraged members to vote "yes" because the proposed changes will safeguard the RCN,  make us fit for purpose and will more accurately reflect the RCN as it is now and may be in times to come.

Q. One of the votes is about updating, simplifying and clarifying wording – how can I find out exactly what has been changed?

A. Along with our legal advisers we have produced a document which summarises all the detailed changes and explains why they have been made.

You can download this Proposed changes summary document (PDF 229KB) or request a hard copy if you email lgreview@rcn.org.uk or call RCN Direct on 0345 772 6100.

Q. Why were members asked to enable Council to approve annual membership subscription increases over the current rate of up to 2% above RPI in June in any given year?

A. Until five years ago, any proposed subscription increase had to be agreed by a vote of members won by a 2/3 majority of those voting at the RCN AGM.

Consequently, the RCN suffered from year on year financial uncertainty which made financial planning and management even in the short term very difficult. This is simply not sustainable or a desirable for an organisation the size of the RCN.

However, for the last five years RCN Council has had a special dispensation to set the subs rate provided that:

a. the increase in any one year may be any amount up to a 6% increase over the previous year; and,

b. there would be a review in the 4th year (2010)

The vote was about making that arrangement permanent but with some additional safeguards built in. These were that Council would be able to approve annual subscription increases in any given year but capped at up to 2% above RPI in June of that year. Any proposed increase above this level would have required a vote by members with a two-thirds majority of those voting in favour.

The proposal was made to make it easier to manage the RCN's finances. The resolution was not passed.

Q. Why were members asked to vote to make it possible for the AGM and Congress to be held together?

A. Many members have said that they think this is potentially a good idea and could save the organisation money. Therefore, the Charter has been amended to give us that option, should members decide they want it to happen.

Just to be clear, this is not about deciding now to hold Congress and the AGM together – it's about making it possible if it is agreed at some point in the future.

More work would need to be done to identify whether it is appropriate and feasible right now – for example, we would need to look at how it may impact on members, how it would tie in with the RCN financial year, and whether it would create clashes with other events/activities – i.e. elections.

We would also need to consider issues around funding delegates - previous funding arrangements did not allow us to fund members to attend the AGM, so voting members funded to attend Congress would be advantaged. However, we would now be able to fund members to attend the AGM should that be appropriate and practicable. 

Q. Why were members asked to rename the Association of Nursing Students (ANS) as RCN Students?

A. This change reflects the fact that students may now be studying for vocational qualifications in health and social care as well as nursing and midwifery.

Q . Why were members asked to make it possible for all members of the nursing family to be full (as opposed to associate) members of the RCN?

A. There has been a lot of discussion about this issue since HCAs were first admitted into membership nearly ten years ago. The existing constitution does not expressly allow anyone who is not on a nursing register to become a full member. So, HCAs, for example, can only be admitted as associate members. Associate members are unable to nominate or be nominated to stand for election to RCN Council.

This resolution was not passed.

Q. How can members be assured the vote was managed independently and securely?

A. The RCN appointed the independent scrutineers, Electoral Reform Services Ltd who managed and counted the vote.

Q. Why did you amend the standing orders during the ballot?

A. A very small number of errors and omissions in the draft standing orders were pointed out to us during the ballot – for example, there were a couple of typographical mistakes. 

We clarified the position with our lawyers and they confirmed that they made no material difference.

Consequently, we amended the standing orders and published a full explanation of the changes is available on the standing order amendments page.