Charity Finance editor Andrew Hind has joined a new independent panel of sector leaders who will examine and report on the sector’s independence over the next five years.

The Panel on the Independence of the Voluntary Sector has sprung out of some work done by the Baring Foundation, where Hind has been a trustee for about six months. Hind (pictured) filled the trustee position vacated by Sir Nicholas Deakin who had been doing some work for the Foundation on strengthening the voluntary sector, which included some reports on independence.

Now the Baring Foundation has decided to further develop this stream of work by funding an independent panel of experts. It will be chaired by Dame Anne Owers, chair of Christian Aid and former Chief Inspector of Prisons, with other members including Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Lord Hodgson, chair of the Deregulation Task Force. Sir Nicholas Deakin is also a member. The panel held its first meeting about three weeks ago.

The Baring Foundation has committed £99,000 over five years to the work.

Hind said the panel would take an “annual snapshot” of the state of the sector’s independence, not just from government but from all stakeholders, such as corporate donors and pressures from local communities.

It will monitor this over the five-year period, probably commissioning some of its own research and extracting relevant data from other studies, and producing its own annual assessment, the first of which is expected by the end of this year.

Think tank Civil Exchange together with DHA Communications have won the job of delivering the secretariat to the panel. Matthew Smerdon, deputy director of the Baring Foundation, will be its adviser.

The full panel is:

• Dame Anne Owers, chair
• Andrew Hind
• Sir Nicholas Deakin, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Birmingham University
• Lord Hodgson, chair of the Deregulation Task Force and president of NCVO
• Sir Bert Massie, former Commissioner for the Compact
• Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
• Louise Whitfield, associate solicitor at Pierce Glynn and an expert in public law
• Nick Wilkie, chief executive, London Youth