Ian Allsop talks to the refugee Council's chief executive, Maeve Sherlock .

Maeve Sherlock had her first experience of voluntary activity in what she describes as a linear career as a student activist. She was treasurer of the student union at the University of Liverpool, before joining the NUS national executive as treasurer and president. She was then director of UKCOSA, a charity focusing on overseas students and international education. In 1997 she joined the National Council for One Parent Families (NCOPF) as chief executive.

In August 2003, she moved to the Treasury as special adviser to the chancellor, Gordon Brown, where her brief spanned child poverty, welfare reform and the voluntary sector. She says of the Treasury role that "I didn't look for it, it came looking for me. It wasn't part of my career plan, but the opportunity came up, I took it and am very pleased I did." She was known by Brown from her role at NCOPF, where she would lobby on issues around child poverty which had trebled under the Conservatives. "Gordon invited people in a lot, and was interested in their views. I wasn�t aware of any previous chancellor working in this way. Right from the outset of his reign the Treasury was run in a way that meant people like me dealing with poverty were seen as much as stakeholders as big business and the City. Economic policy is as much about citizens and employees and this approach is very powerful."

After three years at the Treasury she felt she had achieved the main things she had gone in there to do, and thought it was time to move on. "The advantage of someone like me being brought in to government is to provide a different viewpoint. If you stay there too long you lose that advantage and end up like a career civil servant."

Far from being frustrated at working in government, she is pleased with what was achieved. "I learnt a lot and was there as part of a team that supported ministers at time of change which was really important."

She wanted to move back to the sector, and work in an area that was a real challenge. The Refugee Council role suited her as she was used to working with marginalised and victimised groups.

"There was a time in the mid to late 1990s when lone parents were the asylum seekers of their day and all of society's ills were attributed to them. Having said that, nothing prepared me for the onslaught when I first arrived at the Refugee Council."

She describes her press clippings file as an inch thick as some papers were running stories every day despite there not being enough news to justify it. Although the level of press interest has decreased, it has come back on the agenda in the run up to the election but not to the extent of a couple of years ago.

She says that challenging people's perceptions about refugee and asylum issues is so hard. "People's views are not only entrenched but staggeringly wrong, more than in anything else I have ever done".

She points to a Mori opinion poll two years ago where people thought that almost a quarter of world's refugees came to Britain, where as the real figure is 2 per cent. "If you open the paper and every day there are stories about asylum seekers then this in some ways isn't surprising. People don't understand what an asylum seeker is. All evidence suggests that asylum seekers come from countries with conflicts and the pattern of asylum seeking reflects the problems of the world. A lot of them were the chattering classes of their country and they want to go home. Increasingly, people are being smuggled in as the government has made it harder for people to get in. There are cases where people are tipped out of a van outside Dover and don't know which country they are in. This notion that people set out across thousands of miles just for the hell of it is so mistaken."

She blames these misconceptions on the fact that people have to have scapegoats. "People used to say about foreigners that they'll take our jobs. Now that unemployment is low they say they�ll take our hospital places and council houses." To try and combat people�s inaccurate views, the Refugee Council has published a straightforward guide in the election run up called Tell it like it is - the truth about asylum.

She feels progress is being made, "especially where we can talk to people and show individual stories", something she wants to do more of. "People have a mindset of what asylum seekers are about but change views when they meet them or hear their stories. Most people are warm , welcoming and supportive. Attitudes against asylum seekers are strongest where there aren't any, where asylum doesn't have a human face. It's the fear of the unknown."

When asked about the wider issues facing the voluntary sector she touches on the debate about whether charities working closely with government can retain independence. "A number of people ask how you can retain independence while taking government money and I say you don�t watch TV. The government gives us plenty of money but I routinely go on TV and slag them off. It's never been an issue for us. There is an issue around funding, however. No one says you can�t speak up but there isn't as much money for campaigning and advocacy work as service provision."

She describes a strategic planning session last summer where various stakeholders were asked what the Refugee Council should do more and less of. "Trust funders said campaigning. But when asked if they would fund it they were reluctant. Funders worry about the independence of charities close to government but the easy solution is to fund their advocacy work.

She likes the fact that the Refugee Council does policy and campaigning work, but also has people coming in off the street for assistance as well. "The two things balance well, and it keeps you grounded in issues you are campaigning on.� Refugee Council's campaigning work is funded from individual donations. "I am constantly amazed that given all that is there for individuals to give to, they give to us, although when there are attacks in the press, donations dip, and you have to work harder which is tough."

What Sherlock describes as her pet issue is procurement by government from the voluntary sector. "We need to figure out appropriate ways of doing this. Sometimes competitive tendering is absolutely right but sometimes not, for example when even though a service can be provided well and cheaper elsewhere, it is not right for the client. We provide advice to asylum sectors. The Government may think that local authorities can do that as well but if you have escaped persecution overseas you are fairly unlikely to want to trust a government again. It is fundamental that you get advice from a non government agency."

She also pinpoints the example of where a charity has set something up. "You cannot take away something a charity has spent its lifetime doing and put it out to tender on the open market."

Sherlock is impressed with the recent Compact Plus proposals, which she feels could be "a really radical reform which presents challenges for us all in thinking about our relationship with government". She encourages all charities to read the proposals and speak out on them.

"Ten years ago the Government didn't bother to speak to the sector, and didn't know we were there. We take it for granted now but do so at our peril."