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New Navca chief downplays Labour connections

Governance | Tania Mason | 8 Dec 2011

Navca’s new CEO-designate Joe Irvin has insisted that his Labour affiliations will not come into play in his new role, and that his career has been much broader than his two jobs in the Labour government.

Irvin, whose appointment to succeed Kevin Curley was announced yesterday, is a former adviser to both Gordon Brown and John Prescott, and applied for the job of Labour General Secretary in June. He also held senior roles within the Transport & General Workers’ Union over a period spanning 18 years.  

But he told civilsociety.co.uk this morning that he had a “much more rounded past than just working for a few years in the Labour government”.

“I’ve done all sorts of other things in my life over 30 years. And all sorts of people in all sorts of organisations have political preferences but Navca is not a party-political or party-affiliated organisation and as chief executive I’ll be totally professional.  

“All I care about is if the government is doing good things for the local voluntary sector I’ll be saying ‘great’, if they are doing bad things, I’ll be saying ‘can you do this better’, irrespective of the colour of central government or indeed of the local government, which is very varied.

“I’m concentrating on the future now.  In other jobs I’ve done I’ve worked with Conservatives and cross-benchers and Liberal Democrat MPs and peers - it’s not a problem for me.”

He denied it would be a problem for the politicians he has to deal with, too. “Nick Hurd’s very well thought of, he’s a very serious politician and he’s professional as well.  Individuals have different political views but I am the CEO of Navca and I’ll be absolutely professional about that.”

Personal experience of local voluntary action

Irvin has had plenty of experience of local voluntary action in a personal capacity. In the 1980s he helped set up a centre for unemployed people, he has served on the advisory groups of the Child Poverty Action Group and ex-offender charity the Apex Trust, is a member of RSPB as well as having worked for the charity, and he recently organised a local campaign on education policy in Camden.

His top three priorities as Navca CEO will be to meet as many members as possible, to boost the support for local voluntary sector leaders, and to help Navca members find new resources to replace the gaps caused by central and local government funding cuts.

He said: “I have a lot to learn about the voluntary sector and about Navca and I’ve got a lot to bring to the sector too.  I’m going to try and take the local voluntary sector leaders and those they are serving through this storm and help them get through it in a healthy state.”

Irvin starts his new job on 16 January.

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Directory: National Association for Voluntary and Community Action
Who's Who: Joe Irvin