Gavin Grant stepped down from the helm of RSPCA for health reasons one year ago and the charity is yet to appoint a successor.

A spokeswoman told Civil Society News that the charity is currently being run by its chair Mike Tomlinson with David Canavan, director of corporate development and enterprise, as the most senior member of staff.

She added that the recruitment process was “ongoing” with interviews taking place and that the charity hoped to appoint a new chief executive by the spring.

Six weeks after Grant stepped down his deputy, John Grounds, also resigned.

The autumn before Grant resigned a leaked document setting out a worst-case scenario, written by its vice-chair Paul Draycott, warned that the charity could be gone in ten years because of a lack of strategy around its campaigning.

For the financial year ending December 2013 the charity’s income fell by £12m, from £132.8m to £121.2m, and the charity said it was considering job losses as a result.

Since leaving RSPCA Grant has re-entered politics and won the by-election for a seat on Malmesbury Town Council in Wiltshire after standing as an independent last May. He previously stood as an Alliance Party parliamentary candidate in the 1980s.

Grounds now describes himself as a strategic marketing and communications consultant.