News

Hebditch to leave Capacitybuilders

Finance | Tania Mason | 25 Mar 2008

Simon Hebditch is standing down as the chief executive of Capacitybuilders at the end of this month.

No explanation has been given as to the reason for his departure, although a statement from the organisation said he would be concentrating on playing a wider role in the development of capacitybuilding in communities in the future.

In the statement, Hebditch (pictured) also said it was important that a new chief executive be installed for the start of the three-year government spending round which is due to begin in April, and to win renewal of funds for the following phase too.

“For myself, I will always be a staunch supporter of the need to build the capacity of the third sector and the increased role it can play in our communities,” he said.  “I will be concentrating on playing a wider role in this development in future.”

As Capacitybuilders’ first chief executive, Hebditch led the organisation through its first two years of operation and the delivery of £70m of ChangeUp funds.

He has overseen the winding down of the much-maligned ChangeUp hubs and will depart just as they are replaced, on 1 April, with the new national support services.

This task has made him unpopular in some quarters, particularly at the NCVO which has lost several million pounds in funding and had to make staff redundant as a result of the changes.

At the recent NCVO annual conference dinner, the umbrella body’s chair Sir Graham Melmoth left diners in no doubt about the tensions between the two organisations with the comment in his after-dinner speech: “My chief executive has forbidden me from saying anything about Capacitybuilders or its leadership”.

Catherine Johnstone, the former chief executive of Regional Action and Involvement South East, who joined Capacitybuilders as a special adviser last summer, will become interim chief executive after Hebditch’s exit.

Kevin Curley, chief executive of NAVCA, which has done comparatively well out of the transition to national support services, said he was “surprised and disappointed” that Hebditch was leaving and paid tribute to his work. 

“I think he’s done really well in what is a very tough, in fact a virtually impossible role.  Capacitybuilders had an impossible brief, it was tasked with doing far too many things at too many different levels.

“Simon’s achieved a high level of credibility with most national organisations he’s dealt with, except of course with those who feel they haven’t been given enough money.

“If I had to fault him, or Capacity builders under him, it would be that they tried to do too much. They haven’t got a lot of money and so they should really focus on local infrastructure in those areas of England where infrastructure is still pitifully underfunded.”

Prior to joining Capacitybuilders, Hebditch had held policy and strategy roles for Charities Aid Foundation and NCVO and spent four years as chief executive of Bradford CVS.

Tweet

Directory: Capacitybuilders
Who's Who: Tania Mason