A new support group for charity chairs was launched in London this week at a meeting hosted in the Charity Commission’s offices at Millbank. 

Provisionally referred to as an independent ‘Institute of Chairs’, the initiative is the brainchild of governance expert Ruth Lesirge and Rosalind Oakley, chair of Charities Evaluation Services. 

An invited audience of 25 chairs and chief executives was addressed by John Gladwin, chair of Citizens Advice, who said that he knew from personal experience that being the chair of a charity could be an isolated role. 

“Chairs are on their own,” he said, “there is no support body for them.” 

Gladwin, who is also a former chair of Christian Aid, made the case that, at a time when society is making greater calls than ever on the services that charities can offer, it is essential to find new ways of strengthening the support that is available to trustees, and in particular chairs.

Lesirge added that, as well as providing peer-to-peer support and improving the skill-set of chairs, she hoped the new Institute would be a source of research to demonstrate the close linkage she believes exists between “good chairing and the effective delivery of social change”.

British Red Cross chief executive, Sir Nicholas Young, said that he had been involved in several attempts to launch such a group over the past ten years, and felt that this was a timely initiative.

Charity Commission chief executive, Sam Younger, also welcomed the launch of the new body, as did a number of charity chairs who were present to express their support. They included Alan Craft from the Scout Association, Alice Maynard from Scope and Ed Smith, chairman of WWF UK.

Free seminars: Reputational risk - the role of the chair

To mark Trustees’ Week Governance magazine and Farrer & Co will be hosting three FREE seminars to bring together chairs of major charities with common interests to discuss how to prevent and control reputational risk. Each group will be led by an experienced chair who will begin the seminar with remarks about his own experience in this area.

For more details and to book email [email protected] or call 020 7819 1210

• Mon 5 Nov - Trusts & Foundations (chair Sir Roger Singleton, The Diana Fund)           
• Tues 6 Nov - International charities (chair Andrew Purkis, ActionAid)         
• Wed 7 Nov - Religious charities (chair Peter Jeffries, Urban Saints)