The sector ought to give Paula Sussex a chance, says Leon Ward.

I have been taken aback and embarrassed by the some of the charity sector’s reactions to the Charity Commission’s recent appointment of Paula Sussex as chief executive.

Some sector leaders have criticised her for having a lack of charity experience (despite her six-year stint as a Crisis trustee). This culture of fearing, and to some extent resenting 'outsiders' is nothing but damaging to the sector.
 
Sussex has vast experience at managing large organisations with complex needs. Just because they're not charities, it doesn't render her experiences useless. She is currently the senior vice president, public sector at CGI. Just because she is, apparently, 'not one of us', that doesn't mean she won't do a good job – the sector should sit back and review her performance a year into the job - not before she has even started.

Thankfully, a significant voice has stood out against the critics. The chief executive of Crisis, Leslie Morphy, who has served under the trusteeship of Sussex for three years, and so is arguably the most qualified to comment on her charity sector experience, has said that she is pleased that the Commission has appointed someone who understands the importance of ‘campaigning in the charity sector, as well as some of the difficulties of providing services to the most disadvantaged members of our communities’.

This is quite a poignant message considering all of the issues charities are facing around service delivery through payment-by-results contracts (Sussex also used to work for Atos), and the issues that the Lobbying Act will pose throughout the 2015 election.
 
It's rather telling of attitudes in the charity sector when we judge someone purely on what they have done and where they have come from, rather than what they could do. Sussex has also taken a big pay cut to do the role, and as we all know, it's quite the poisoned chalice.
 
The sector seems to need constantly reminding that the Commission is not a charity. It is a public sector regulator, independent of the sector it regulates.

It needs a CEO with skills that plugs the gaps in the organisation’s skill set and ‘charity experience’ probably isn’t a gap identified during the skills audit; I expect many Commission staff will be able to fulfil that role.

It is problematic when we value experience or familiarity over a candidate’s actual skills. Whether sector-wide or for individual organisations, the belief that experience trumps potential every single time is one which could strangle diversity and effective development; something the sector is consistently aiming to achieve. Of course, this is no new debate, and I have written in the past about this same attitude of charities’ reluctance to appoint, for instance, younger trustees.

I for one applaud the Commission for the appointment; an ‘outsider’ is probably exactly what is needed to whip the Commission into shape and to deal with some of the issues that the sector has yet to address.

A fresh pair of eyes that isn't a time-served and blinkered sector supremo, and thus not afraid of challenging those sector people who seek to flex their muscle in undermining the regulator, is I believe just what is needed to shape the Commission into a regulator that does its job well. It is exactly this ‘us vs them’ attitude that hampers the sector’s attraction as a potential career route for aspiring graduates.
 
I hope the sector does not show Ms Sussex the same postured disrespect when she is in post, which they have done on news of her appointment.