NPC in the press
Put your trust in trustees
29 July 2010 - The Guardian
Trustees are as crucial to charities' success as directors are to businesses – so why don't we hear more about them? The 'Big Society' has had its official launch and there's been no shortage of inspiring stories of social action. But I've been disappointed that in the midst of all this, there has been no mention of what is, to my mind, one of the most valuable forms of volunteering – being a charity trustee.
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National Council of Voluntary Organisations fears cuts
17 July 2010 - BBC news online
Charities have warned cuts in local authority funding in England may threaten services they provide. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) says some councils see them as a soft target for saving money and need to understand the impact these cuts have on vulnerable people. The government has said cuts are unavoidable but other provisions are being made to help charities.
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Who wants to be a billionaire? I don't
17 July 2010 - The Independent
A boom in self-made billionaires is bringing an entrepreneurial activism to traditional philanthropy. The co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, is planning to give most of his $13.5bn (£8.8bn) fortune to charity after his death, on top of the $1bn he has given away in the past 20 years. Mr Allen revealed his intentions in response to a call in May from fellow Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investment guru Warren Buffett, urging US billionaires to pledge to give away half their wealth.
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Measuring Up
31 May 2010 - New Statesman
Whether they talk of the big society or of the third sector, politicians know that charities and volunteers are becoming indispensable building blocks of the national life. And when a nation’s credit is as overextended as ours, making the most of charities becomes pure common sense. Charities are more than just a vehicle for taking up government slack, however.
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Charities must prove their worth to Big Society
26 May 2010 - The Guardian
The new government faces entrenched social problems and the challenge of reducing the budget deficit. Its "big society" idea seems to imply a beguilingly simple solution: use charities to fix social problems and at the same time reduce government borrowing. But is the solution as simple as that? Can charities really offer sustainable and scalable solutions to tackling the toughest problems in our country?
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How can charities prove their worth?
12 May 2010 - The Guardian
If you've been to any third sector conferences recently, you've probably heard the term social return on investment (SROI), or been told that an organisation provides £3 of value for every £1 put in.
In fact, SROI is probably the thing charities ask me about the most. The latest inquiry was from a charity that works to build the self-confidence of women suffering from domestic violence. In the past they have struggled to demonstrate the impact of what they do to funders and they hope that SROI is the solution.
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Hopeless with numbers
8 May 2010 - Financial Times
To start with, I was good at maths. At primary school I could add and subtract, I was quick to grasp the concepts of multiplication and division. When it came to the concept of infinity, I was an early adopter. At five, my dad told me that infinity was the largest number. “Well then,” I said, “What’s infinity plus one?”
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Poor numeracy is a problem we must tackle now
27 April 2010 - The Guardian
If you've imagined that poor numeracy among children and adults is a new phenomenon, then consider these comments made in 1925 by the Board of Education: "Accuracy in the manipulation of figures does not reach the same standard which was reached 20 years ago."
Echoing today's business leaders and educationalists, the board went on to lament the impact of poor maths ability on productivity at work: "Some employers express surprise and concern at the inability of young persons to perform simple numerical operations involved in business."
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'Unco-ordinated' transition between primary and secondary blamed for maths skills shortfall
23 April 2010 - Times Educational Supplement
Too many pupils lack maths skills because of a failure to ensure smooth transition between primary and secondary schools, according to a think-tank which will next week demand a new drive to improve numeracy.
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Third sector can't run on goodwill alone
16 March 2010 - The Guardian
Few subjects are likely to turn off and bore the average reader than the administrative burden placed on charities funded by local authorities and other government bodies. But few subjects are as likely to make the average charity chief executive's blood boil.
Simultaneously, it is widely recognised that charities need to improve the way they measure, demonstrate and communicate impact. Much is expected from the third sector by all political parties and the sector is keen to deliver, but the evidence base to support expectations and aspiration is limited, to say the least.
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Intensive fostering offers an alternative for young offenders
26 February 2010 - The Times
Locking up children convicted of crime presents an ethical dilemma for even the most ardent believers in the power of prison. The younger offenders are when committing their first crime, the harder it is to return them to the straight and narrow — and for many, once they enter the prison system, it is game over. They bounce from sentence to sentence, carrying out progressively more serious offences.
Yet the alternatives are controversial, too soft for some, too severe for others, everything from a return to national service to tailored education and outdoor activity weekends.
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