Adam Sampson
January 2008
Former probation officer and classics scholar Adam Sampson talks about homelessness and his quest for a football club...
What do you enjoy most about your current role?
To lead such a great organisation when you get to redefine and re-energise such a hugely important area of social policy is a huge privilege. Housing issues have not been receiving this level of political and public attention for 30 years.
What made you choose this role?
I worked in a night shelter in Toxteth during my gap year and went from that experience up to Oxford to read classics. After graduating I became an assistant probation officer while running a hostel in the evenings but went back to Oxford as junior Dean of Brasenose for a couple of years. I returned to the Probation Service, working in Tottenham and dealt with Winston Sillcott in the early days of his life sentence after the Broadwater Farm riots. And it was partly because of that I left a few years later to campaign on prisoners’ rights. I have dotted around working in prisons and dealing with drug issues. Although campaigns and issues might differ the clients are often the same – homelessness is very much related.
What do you hope to be remembered for in this role?
Who cares? One of my big critiques of the charity sector is that we all too often forget that our purpose is not to promote ourselves or our organisations. It is to translate money, goodwill and effort on the part of the general public into the best possible outcome to support our beneficiaries.
What do you think is the most pressing issue facing charities today?
The state sector is shrinking and inviting the voluntary sector to perform under contract functions that were previously the state’s role. The private sector is increasingly recasting itself working for socially beneficial aims. The charity sector is growing and professionalising. How do you manage a charity which is both professional and responds to the opportunities out there in a way that continues to benefit our clients and remains true to our mission? We don’t want to end indistinguishable from the corporate entities we are meant to be differentiating from but nor do we want to wind up self indulgent, self-serving and posturing.
How do you switch off from the day job?
My two children and football. The problem right now is my 8-year old son is showing worrying tendencies towards supporting Manchester United and Chelsea. I have to give him a premiership alternative. Arsenal is the obvious choice because of location but I think there is something fundamentally corrupting about giving a child a sense of unparalleled expectations of success. For the vast majority of fans, football is an experience of failure, year in year out. You begin the season hoping against hope that this time it is going to be different but knowing in truth it is not. It’s a big responsibility with a child – what team do you give them?
Which brings us to your favourite book?
I have a first edition of Nick Hornby’sFever Pitch. I bought it partly because I was at college with his sister and not only is it utterly fantastic, it is a profoundly important book. I do find Jasper Fforde’s Nursery Crime series hysterically funny – DI Jack Spratt investigates the murder of local businessman Humpty Dumpty – I know this sounds ridiculous but I can’t recommend them highly enough. Right now I’m reading a history of the 1916 Easter Uprising and have finished a History of St Pancras Station.
And what about music?
Yes I worship at the feet of the Arctic Monkeys and that is utterly embarrassing. I was at Glastonbury this year – Shelter has a presence there – surrounded by lots of other 40 something year-old blokes and covered in mud like everyone else. But music-wise I’m desperately trying not to sink into ‘they don’t make music as good as they used to’. I’m sure it’s fantastic but I have neither the time to listen to it nor do I know how to find out about it because it is all so fragmented.
Best of times?
If I project myself forward to when I am lying on my deathbed desperately trying to stop myself crying for my mother I’ll be looking back on two glorious sporting moments. One was a football match and the ball just came over and I made a 20-yard header. The other was a cricket match – I was about 15 and facing a terrifyingly fast bowler and sudden I find the ball I’d hit was racing off to the boundary. I’ll settle for those.
And the worst?
I’ve had some grim times but would prefer not to discuss them.
Adam Sampson was talking to Clarissa Dann
Author: Adam Sampson
Adam Sampson has been chief executive of Shelter since january 2003. In 1994, he joined the Home Office as assisiatnt prisons ombudsman. He later returned to the voluntary sector as chief executive of RAPt, the national drugs charity. Adam is a board member of a number of charities and public bodies and a commissioner on the UK Drugs Policy Commission. His blog is available on www.shelter.org.uk
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