Martin Crewe examines why charities still have a key role to play in society

In 1946, Benjamin Spock published his revolutionary book Baby and Child Care. The core message was – ‘Trust yourself, you know more than you think you do’. A couple of recent meetings brought this sentiment to mind.

The first was with one of the big four accountancy firms where we were presented with a market analysis and advised on what the Barnardo’s USP (unique selling point) could be. It was interesting stuff but in several key areas we had additional information / insight beyond that presented by the experienced private sector consultants.

The second was with a high performing Scottish local authority where we were discussing how we could work together to improve children’s mental health. It is an area of activity where we are acutely aware that we don’t have all the answers. At the end of a wide-ranging and constructive session it was clear that the local authority didn’t have the answers either - although we are going to work together to improve the knowledge of both organisations.

In my 30 years of working for charities I have seen an awful lot of advisers and consultants who are confident that we could improve our effectiveness. Sometimes this has been based on nothing more than a perception that we don’t work in a competitive market and therefore cannot comprehend the rigour that we could gain from private sector insights. In fact, many charity staff have MBAs and understand business models – however we also understand the importance of context and the huge complexity of stakeholder relations that have to be managed in charities.

These are difficult times for charities with the Oxfam scandal coming all too soon after the collapse of Kids Company and the Olive Cook fundraising practices controversy. However, most charities are full of amazingly dedicated volunteers and staff who are in it for the cause.

One of my most profound charity experiences was telling a large group of staff that their service would be closing and they would likely be redundant. Despite the initial shock, the first four questions that the staff asked were all about the impact of the decision on the children and families they worked with. The personal impact was secondary to the cause.

There is something different about working in the voluntary sector and a shared set of values is a vital part of this. Whatever our individual charity, I believe there are tangible reasons why we all have a key role to play:

- Proven ability to identify need and engage with hard to reach groups
- Independent from the state which helps build trust with some clients
- Good at involving service users in decisions that affect them
- Used to working across professional boundaries
- History of innovation
- Able to leverage funding from non-statutory sources
- (Generally) high degree of public trust

Of course we should never be complacent but neither should we underestimate how much we know.

Martin Crewe is director of Barnardo's Scotland