Opinion

Post-election: Boards and charities must adapt 1

Governance | Jill Pitkeathley | 24 Jun 2010

Only time can tell if the voting public has got it right in this year's election but Baroness Pitkeathley says whatever the outcome, change is abound within the sector.

Many people will remember the experience of the British scientist Francis Galton who is quoted in James Surowieki’s famous book The Wisdom of Crowds. Attending a country fair where those present were invited to judge the weight of an ox once it was slaughtered and dressed, Galton was sceptical that anyone who was not an expert butcher would have the ability to do this.

In fact he said: “The average competitor was probably as well fitted for making a just estimate of the dressed weight of an ox as an average voter is of judging the merits of most political issues on which he votes.” The crowd however, proved him wrong. The average guess of the 800 entrants was 1197 pounds. The ox weighed 1198 pounds. Somewhat grudgingly, Galton admitted: “The result seems more creditable to the trustworthiness of a democratic judgement than might have been expected.”

Is that what we have seen in the general election? Has the voting population, most of them totally non-expert, reached a collectively wise decision to give no political party an overall majority? Presumably only time will tell but the result of their decision - or lack of it - a coalition government - will undoubtedly have far reaching implications for the Third Sector. Wait a minute - is that a term we must stop using now that the Office of the Third Sector has become the Office for Civil Society? If so, many people will be pleased.

Many charities will be busy studying the manifestos of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to see if they can gain pointers for the future and help them revise their strategies for engaging with government at national and local level. Of two things we can be certain:

First, it will be no use making a case for more resources unless you can also make a case for the outcomes you seek being not only cost-effective but cheaper.

Second, there will be a lot more pressure than hitherto for merger and collaborative working. If two such different political parties can form a coalition for the benefit of the nation, why can charities not do so for the benefit of their client group? The usual answers about each having their own particular style and place will not wash, it seems to me in the face of the financial stringency we all face.

Since trustees are often seen as the barriers to mergers or to true collaboration for reasons of their particular passions, history or simple resistance to embracing new ways of operating, it will be more important than ever to ensure that sufficient induction and training is offered to new and existing trustees, to offer mentoring and peer support to enable them to face the major changes which everyone in the charitable sector (whatever it is called) will have to embrace. Such changes will be difficult and threatening but they will offer opportunities too. If trustees can keep the needs of their client groups at the forefront, rather than their own needs and the needs of their organisations, perhaps we in the charitable sector can find new ways of working together which currently seem as unlikely as a coalition government seemed just a month or two ago. 

Baroness Jill Pitkeathley (pictured) is a lifetime Labour peer for the House of Lords, and is currently chair of Cafcass

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