Paul Streets: A parting eulogy to the voluntary and not-for-profit sector

But it was heavily caveated, recognising that the sector is like an iceberg. Only the top household names are visible in the conscious minds of the public. The 95 per cent beneath the surface are the tens of thousands of small local charities that have been my focus over the past 11 years.

In the past decade I have written about hundreds of small local charities. They are not all perfect but, at their best, they connect us with where all charities begin, large or small – a few people getting together to take action on something they care about.

Take SightSavers – a charity I previously worked in at a senior level. It was founded in 1951, as the British Empire Society for the Blind, by John Wilson.

Blind himself, he was tasked with visiting West Africa after WWII to find out why so many conscripts were blind. He found River Blindness (Onchocerciasis) and the rest is history.

SightSavers now works in scores of countries and, true to Sir John’s vision, has pioneered new ways to address the scourge of preventable blindness.

Most small charities started the same way and are no less remarkable, even if they are less visible to most of us.

Because many are local, they have no aspiration to become large or national. They focus on what they do best. And they work because they establish trusted relationships with people who are often neither trusted by, nor trusting of, state provision, which has judged or sanctioned them in some way.

At their best, what all charities have in common – regardless of size – is a foundation of radicalism and activism through dogged challenging of the status quo. They are instinctively innovative – seeing ways to do things that others think are impossible or pointless.

They are strident advocates for shining a light on what “better” looks like through their own work or testimony.

And they are prepared to share what they do, because they know they can’t tackle the issues alone. Most of all, they are prepared to speak out loudly and passionately, without fear of censure.

The dangers of government contracting

Charities at their worst are obsessed with scale, parochial, driven by powerful egos and fiercely competitive. My lecture particularly challenged the sector’s approach to contracting across successive governments, which risks it becoming part of the problem if it is willing to take on underfunded and substandard contracts.

Not only is this an ethical question for those we serve and employ, it is illusory, given what a tiny proportion of the “market” most charities form.

At best, we risk creating Noah’s Arks for the chosen few, cross-subsidised with voluntary income. At worst, charities become part of the problem – unable to hold poor services to account because they have been co-opted into providing them.

This is just as true for local charities and their relationship with local government and the NHS as it is for national charities and Whitehall.

The difference is that many local authorities – left, right and centre – would share common cause with us in seeking properly funded local services, against a backdrop of the austerity that has been with us for 15 years.

We all want to see something better. But it doesn’t look as though it will be better any time soon. The macroeconomic backdrop is bleak, which will continue to fuel inflation, not to mention the demographics of an ageing population and a declining tax base.

This means we are entering a period of fiscal conservatism – whoever wins the general election.

The three big issues of tomorrow

This is why the sector must look back to its radical roots and seek to achieve scale through influence and advocacy, demonstrating what good services can and should look like.

Critically, this means recognising that many of the issues we face are common to other charities that work in similar areas. Housing or benefits support for people who are destitute in Leeds is as much an issue for PAFRAS, the refugee charity, or Womens Health Matters (which supports women experiencing domestic abuse) or the sex workers charity Basis as they are for any number of Leeds charities addressing poverty.

By leaving our organisational egos at the door we get much further in addressing the underlying causes of the issues that come to our door. Large groups of charities working together can make a far bigger difference. Their sum really is more than their parts.

My call to the wider sector is to engage with the macro issues, recognising that the central debate in all Western Economies facing the economic and demographic realities of the UK is not about the quantum of wealth, but how it is distributed – geographically and individually.

This might seem a long way from our individual national or local issues. But it will be the key driver of whether we get decent health outcomes, whether our social care sector is properly funded, whether we have a benefits system that works for the poorest, or a compassionate asylum system.

At the moment, I fear we are losing the argument by seeming to accept a degree of poverty and destitution that even some of our Victorian forebears might have baulked at.

Worse than that, we sit alongside a toxic ‘culture wars’ narrative played out by a government that seems happy to turn the attention on anyone but themselves, and risks encouraging a divided society that blames and vilifies those many of us would seek to serve. Deeply cynical political poison.

I fear we will see this play out over the election. Can people coming on boats really be the central challenge facing the country when a third of our children live in poverty? And we are christened by the Financial Times as “a world leader in homelessness”? Politicians who don’t bring these issues to the fore don’t deserve our vote on 4 July.

My hope and belief is that the negative narrative dominating the current political discourse is out of step with Britain today. It is certainly out of step with the compassion demonstrated by thousands of small local charities and their communities.

Hence my cry for the sector to coalesce positively around the zeitgeist of a younger, more diverse Britain focused on the three big issues of today and tomorrow: inequality (intergenerational and geographic), inclusion and climate change.

These are just as relevant to big national players such as Cancer Research UK, the National Trust or the RSPCA, as they are to small local charities like PAFRAS, Womens Health Matters or Basis in Leeds.

This challenges the very notion of what being a leader is. It requires leadership that is obsessed with reach, not scale, that instinctively shares and builds coalitions, that drives innovation to show what can be done, and is rooted in – and, increasingly, ‘of’ – the communities we exist to serve.

Go forth and advocate

Am I optimistic?

If it starts from the top, I think the sector’s national leaders, at NCVO, ACEVO, ACF, CFG and DSC, are beginning to mirror this new way of working. We see some of it in key coalitions like the Richmond Group, the Nature 2030 Campaign and the Disabled Children’s Partnership – though it needs to go further and bigger.

Just as importantly, many of the small charities I see through my work at the foundation are beginning to turn away from contracting as the way forward, recognising that it creates a roller coaster of feast and famine that counters the very ethos of their work to create long-term bespoke support for people who really need it.

Some large charities are following suit. Notably, Scope, Leonard Cheshire, Shelter and the Children’s Society have all questioned whether the large-scale contracting model is the route to maximising impact and reach for the people they exist to serve if it compromises their ability to speak hard truths to deaf power. Holding to account. Not being on account.

To be effective, we need to become a force for positive change for all those we exist for. This will require us to be bolder and more strident individually and collectively. It won’t win us friends with government, left or right, but it might with a future generation who want someone to care about inequality, inclusion and climate change.

So, in this, my final piece as a chief executive, I ask you to go forth and advocate. To be proud and be woke. And to be proud of being woke. The UK needs you more than you, or it, can possibly imagine.

But my columns have always been about stories. And in parting, I want to end as I have begun most of my Third Sector pieces – with a story about ‘Steph’.

Steph lives in Sunderland: she’s had a tough life, struggles with alcohol, has no job, and has landed up so often in A&E that they get concerned when she doesn’t turn up regularly.

She is also supported by NERAF – a local drug and alcohol charity. Recently the A&E charge nurse rang NERAF concerned that they hadn’t seen Steph and, fearing for the worst, asked if it had seen her.

Yes, said Amanda the chief executive: “I’m looking at her – she’s across the office doing the photocopying.”

NERAF had realised that what Steph really needed was structure and offered her a part-time job. As a result, she had turned a corner and was currently dry.

The charities I have visited over the years are replete with stories like this because they see people as people, not problems. Invisible to many, perhaps. But to those they serve, they are truly #SmallButVital.

So, I end by celebrating the unsung heroes of our sector. Below the ice, perhaps – but our country would sink without them.

It has been a privilege to serve with you and to write for you. I now look forward to serving alongside you.

Now – be stroppy for Steph, and the millions like her up and down the country who need you. I’ll be watching.

You can find out more about the work of NERAF, Northern Engagement into Recovery from Addiction from their website https://neraf.org/