On Monday I was at The Brewery in London for the annual conference of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO).
Sir Stuart Etherington, who has been Chief Executive of NCVO for 25 years and retires later this year, gave his final State of the Sector address. Referring to the current political turmoil, Stuart said: “In the vacuum to come there will be plenty of people trying to mould things in their own interests. We must be the ones sticking up for the interests of others – those who cannot speak for themselves. Investing in social growth should go hand in hand with investing in economic growth: productivity is no good without community”.
Giving the keynote presentation Danny Sriskandarajah, Oxfam GB’s new Chief Executive, urged us to make this “the century of the citizen: a more empowered, connected and equal world”. On Oxfam’s safeguarding failures in Haiti he said “just because we are working to do good doesn’t mean we are exempt from doing harm”. He talked about the role bigger charities such as Oxfam could play within the voluntary sector, to become “less of a super tanker, more of a dockyard”.
The afternoon keynote was an inspirational presentation by Ruth Ibegbuna, Founder, RECLAIM and the Roots Programme. She spoke about establishing RECLAIM – a charity for “the grey kids in the middle”: working class young people being seen, being heard, leading change. Ruth also explained how she had developed the Roots Programme as her response to the divisions exposed by the EU referendum. Roots focusses on understanding our differences, enabling families from very different communities to spend time in each other’s homes. It’s a brilliant initiative – one of very few to be actually trying to address the underlying problems highlighted by Brexit. Ruth said “I’m a tired woman with MS in the North of England who’s trying to fix Brexit” – all power to her. See: https://rootsprogramme.org/
Robin Simpson.
Sir Stuart Etherington, NCVO Chief Executive
On Monday Louise, Katy and I were among more than 600 delegates at The Brewery in London for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations Annual Conference. NCVO Chief Executive Sir Stuart Etherington opened the conference with a ‘State of the Sector Address’ which acknowledged that these have not been easy times for voluntary organisations. Stuart said “too many people seem to have concluded that there is something wrong with charities” and “when we’ve been asked serious questions we haven’t always responded satisfactorily”. He suggested that public trust is the first, and major, challenge: our relationship with the public is by far the most important we have. While it would be too crude to talk about hostility to charities, the veil has slipped and there is an increasing willingness to ask questions. The genie is not going back in the bottle, nor should it: we cannot afford to be seen as less transparent than the public sector. Stuart emphasised the need for openness in relation to fundraising and executive pay. He said the “growing that notion that charities should be seen but not heard would be a huge waste of talent”. He is increasingly concerned about the anti advocacy clause in Government grant agreements, which he said is clearly a breach of the Voluntary Sector Compact. The best voluntary organisations combine the values of legitimacy and authenticity: charities are experts, anchored in their communities. Stuart finished by saying “we will emerge stronger”. He warned that Trustees need to think clearly about everything they are doing: “it makes money” is no longer a sufficient defence. If there are areas you are uncomfortable about, now is the time to do something about them.
Lord O’Donnell
The second keynote presentation was by Lord O’Donnell who spoke about the positive effects of volunteering on wellbeing. The former Cabinet Secretary said local authorities are likely to see further reductions of around a quarter in this Parliament but austerity is causing more demand for charities. He outlined three steps to rebuild trust in charities:
1. we need to prove we are making the world a better place
2. we need to demonstrate how our funds are spent
3. we should try to put ourselves out of business – remove the problems rather than just solving them.
Gus O’Donnell spoke about the What Works Centre for Wellbeing – of which he was the first Chair – and the importance of articulating the wellbeing impact of charities. He said it is absolutely vital we measure wellbeing at a national level through the Office for National Statistics. He thought we should be measuring the wellbeing of children in schools. He said “these are tough times for many in our society and for many charities. We could reign in our ambitions and wait for better times but it would be disastrous. Focus on impact, be transparent, be proud and passionate about what you do, and put yourselves out of business.”
I attended two conference workshops: the first was a debate titled ‘In a fast changing world strategic plans are useless. Discuss.’ Girish Menon, Chief Executive of Actionaid UK and Srabani Sen, a senior consultant at NCVO, argued for and against the statement. This led to an interesting discussion which highlighted the value of having a clear strategy, the important role the process of developing a strategic plan can play and the danger that, without effective strategy organisations focus more on sustaining themselves rather than what they want to achieve.
The second workshop I attended was ‘Digital will transform your organisation – practical tips for leaders’. Julie Dodd, digital consultant and author of ‘The New Reality’ said digital technology affects everything. Organisations need to develop a culture of experimentation: test, make, learn. She spoke about the Open University which had found itself at a roadblock and created Future Learn, as a separate startup, which is now one of the most successful MOOC (massive open online course) platforms in the world. Helena Raven, Head of Digital at NSPCC, talked about three simple principles for digital leaders:
1. Design using data
2. Put the user first
3. Embrace agility
She said don’t confuse a lack of strategy for agility – being agile means being organised!
Robin Simpson.
Sir John Major delivering the NCVO Hinton Lecture 2015
On Tuesday evening I was at the Royal College of General Practitioners in London to see Sir John Major deliver the annual NCVO Hinton Lecture. The former Prime Minister’s speech, titled ‘A Nation at Ease with Itself?’, focussed on inequality, poverty, fairness and social mobility. Addressing a voluntary sector audience, John Major reminded us that, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he introduced Gift Aid and as Prime Minister he launched the National Lottery, 21 years ago. He had observed that it had become increasingly difficult for charities to compete for Treasury funds with pensions, social security, health spending etc. He saw the National Lottery as “money from the public for the public”, “to protect the independence of charities”. To date the Lottery has distributed over £34 billion to good causes and “as intended, most of this money has gone to small local schemes”. But John Major said he worries for the future of the Lottery. It was designed as a national lottery, in effect a monopoly, to maximise returns for the designated good causes but its success has attracted rivals, such as the increasing number of ‘society lotteries’ who pay a far smaller proportion of their income back to worthy causes. John Major also spoke about the importance of small charities, at a time when there is much emphasis on charity mergers. He said small charities “offer small, anonymous acts of kindness, vital to the recipient, that may be overlooked by their larger brethren”. He thought it would be wise to expand the remit and funding of the charity commission. He talked about the poverty of loneliness, saying it is not the responsibility of government to create communities. Rather this is something that has to involve government and charities and faith groups. He said the rise in single person households is a major risk to loneliness and “the community will deal with this issue best”. You can read the full transcript of Sir John Major’s speech at: https://www.ncvo.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/1114-a-nation-at-ease-with-itself.
Robin Simpson.
David Moorcroft speaking at Evolve 2015
On Monday Kat and I were at The Brewery in London for Evolve 2015 – the annual conference of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). The conference opened with a session on volunteering in sport. NCVO President, Tanni Grey-Thompson, was joined by David Moorcroft, Director of Sport at Join In (and still the proud holder of the 3000m world record he set in 1982) and Daisy Robinson – a Join In local leader. David Moorcroft said every successful athlete at London 2012 could trace their success back to volunteers. He said volunteering is part of the fabric of this country, but almost always doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. Join In has used the latest valuation techniques in the economics of wellbeing to reveal that one volunteer in sport creates wellbeing worth £16,032, for themselves and for those they help play sport, see: https://www.joininuk.org/hidden-diamonds-true-value-of-sport-volunteers/
I then attended three breakout sessions:
- NCVO analysis of the 2015 election: The implications for your organisation, with Alexandra Kelso, Associate Professor of Politics, University of Southampton, and Andrew O’Brien, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Charity Finance Group
- Influencing and Campaigning, Post Election, with Emily Robinson, Deputy Chief Executive, Alcohol Concern, and Jonathan Ellis, Head of Policy, Research and Advocacy, British Red Cross
- Measuring impact is a waste of time: discuss, with Fazilet Hadi, Group Director Inclusive Society RNIB, Sally Cupitt, Head of NCVO Charities Evaluation Services, and Sarah Mistry, Director of Effectiveness and Learning, Bond.
The conference concluded with an entertaining discussion about the likely political landscape for the next five years, with Andrew Pierce, Consultant Editor of The Daily Mail and Kevin Maguire, Associate Editor of The Daily Mirror, chaired by NCVO Chair, Martyn Lewis.
NCVO CHair, Martyn Lewis, at Evolve 2015
Filed under: meetings | Tags: ace, arts, England, ncvo, research, Scotland, vcs, volarts
I was in London on Monday for a meeting of the partners in the Understanding Everyday Participation research project. This 5-year project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Connected Communities programme and by Creative Scotland. Understanding Everyday Participation is being run by a consortium of 7 academics at 4 universities with 2 professional researchers and a wide range of partner organisations, including Voluntary Arts. The project is looking at the relationship between participation and cultural value. Orthodox models of culture and the creative economy are based on a narrow definition of participation: one that captures engagement with traditional institutions such as museums and galleries but overlooks more informal activities such as community festivals and hobbies. This project is painting a broader picture of how people make their lives through culture and in particular how communities are formed and connected through participation. The project is undertaking detailed studies of 6 contrasting cultural ecosystems (in Manchester/Salford, Gateshead, Dartmoor, Peterborough, Eilean Siar/Stornoway and Aberdeen). Since we last met, the first round of resident interviews in Salford has been completed and the Aberdeen interviews have been started. We looked at some of the evidence gathered in Aberdeen and discussed the patterns demonstrated by mapping the membership of local clubs. The ethnographic study in Gateshead has also been completed and we had a fascinating presentation about the ‘facilitated participation’ of young people in care in Gateshead. We also looked at the mapping of cultural assets in Gateshead, including places of worship, playgrounds and pubs. This generated an interesting discussion around the question ‘does a place have a cultural signature?’. The Understanding Everyday Participation research project seems to grow more fascinating each time we meet. It still has quite a long way to go but I suspect the outcomes of this project are going to have a very significant impact for the work of Voluntary Arts.
Robin Simpson.
NCVO Evolve 2014 conference at The Brewery, London
On Monday I was at The Brewery in London to attend Evolve 2014 – the annual conference of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). The NCVO conference is always a great event, attracting more than 400 delegates and providing a chance to hear some high-profile speakers, explore some key issues and take part in valuable networking.
Hilary Benn MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
The first keynote speaker this year was Hilary Benn MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. He spoke about “a crisis of confidence in our politics” and said people felt a sense of powerlessness, with decisions being taken too far away from them. He criticised Russell Brand for suggesting that voting is a waste of time and said we should be encouraging the next generation to get involved. Hilary Benn confirmed that a Labour Government would repeal the Lobbying Act, saying “in a democracy you should be free to speak out”. He also stressed that we should be devolving power down in England, as has already happened in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Shadow Secretary of State said “You [the voluntary sector] are the embodiment of a contributory society”. He described plans for a task force to look at the devolution of power and funding and spoke about creating new city regions and county regions, from the bottom up – “we need to build up places as well as London”. Hilary Benn said that passing power down is essential in order to be able to address the greatest challenge of our age – dealing with an ageing population.
Dawn Austwick, Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund
The second keynote speech was by Dawn Austwick, Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund (BLF). She explained that BLF was consulting on the new strategy it plans to launch next year and asked “what is the point of charity in the 21st century?”. She talked about her work with Mission Models Money, which had shown that arts organisations had become so preoccupied with money that their models had changed to align with the conditions of Arts Council funding, drifting away from their original mission. Dawn asked whether the BLF was here to set the agenda or to support the status quo. “Do we alleviate disadvantage or address the causes of disadvantage?” She said funding is an ecology and “we want to celebrate and nurture biodiversity”. It is important to look at what each funder adds to the equation. The BLF mission is to support communities and those most in need. Its scale, scope and reach – covering the whole of the UK, with a wide range of grants from tiny to huge amounts – enables it to reach the places other funders can’t reach. Dawn Austwick outlined four key areas for BLF: its management of knowledge, data and information; its access to decision makers, policymakers, as a conduit for other people’s expertise; its partnerships, using its funding to unlock other people’s funding; and how its responsive, demand-led, grant-making, gives BLF legitimacy and pays back into communities the money those communities have spent on Lottery tickets. She finished by saying “we need to be learning, enquiring and curious – marrying what we uniquely do with what you uniquely do”.
Dawn Austwick, Hilary Benn and Martyn Lewis
The first workshop session at the NCVO conference was interrupted by a fire alarm with the whole conference centre being evacuated while three fire engines dealt with a fire in the kitchens. Fortunately no-one was hurt and we were able to resume the conference after a long wait on the pavement outside The Brewery.
In the afternoon I attended a workshop on ‘campaigning, media and social action’ which included presentations from Emily Roberts, Project Manager for The Big Lunch, Diane Reid, Head of BBC Outreach and Corporate Responsibility and David Cohen, Campaigns Editor at the London Evening Standard. It was a very interesting exploration of the role the media can play in charity campaigning. At the end of the session I managed to speak to Diane Reid about our Up for Arts partnerships with BBC local radio stations and the potential for developing the model further.
Alex Whinnom, Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation
In the final plenary session of the conference Alex Whinnom, the Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation (GMCVO) gave a very impressive presentation which focussed on the imbalance between London and the regions and called for devolution within England and the ability to take decisions locally. He said “devolution isn’t a zero sum game, it’s a win-win”.
There was then a very interesting debate about how charities can manage their reputation in an era of scrutiny. Bobby Duffy, the Managing Director of Ipsos MORI reported that, contrary to perceptions within the voluntary sector, the public’s trust of charities is increasing. Only three professions have declined in terms of public trust in recent years – the clergy, newsreaders and pollsters. Donald Steel, a Reputation and Crisis Consultant said that charities can prevent reputational crises in the way they run themselves and that reputation lies with leaders. Dr Beth Breeze, Director of the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent agreed there was no real evidence of a crisis of reputation in the voluntary sector. She said most charities have powerful underlying themes that make them resilient. Founding stories give charities a strong original reputation that can see off subsequent attacks. Finally the Chief Executive of NCVO, Sir Stuart Etherington, said that it was important for charities not to react to reputational attackes in a way that amplifies the issues.
Robin Simpson.
Cultural Playing Field 