First Person
Former Home Office civil servant Clare Pelham talks about volunteering, campaigning with disabled people, and a relaxing hot bath
In the beginning was…
I was a very bookish little girl and used to spend half my life in the library and my idea of a good half term was reading about five books a day. I had read the complete works of Dickens by the time I was eight. Being alone with those quite adult messages made me think about the world’s unfairness in a way nobody would have taught me at school at that age.
What made you volunteer for this charity when you were a student?
I went to the LSE as you could combine the economics degree with other subjects like law, political thought and history. As students we’d sit up all night putting the world to rights – as you do. When I was volunteering on a telephone service, a disabled young man rang in. We’d had a few conversations and so I went to the library and started looking up some of the things he had been talking about. I wrote to Leonard Cheshire Disability and asked if I could work for them over the summer. They responded immediately and said “fantastic, we have this opportunity and we’d like you to take it.”
Why did you go into the civil service?
I wanted a role where I could make a real contribution to equality and justice and so I joined the Home Office. My first job was working with adult male offenders. It was a real shock as many of these men were not much older than me. It was heartrending to see the sorts of lives they had lived – the economic deprivation, homelessness, family issues, abuse, pattern of absenteeism from school. Winston Churchill once said that a mark of a civilised society was how it treats its prisoners.
And then what?
I was private secretary to Douglas Hurd before leaving later to become head of customer satisfaction at IBM. I then returned to the Prison Service Board. The time with Douglas was very demanding – I was duty private secretary on the night of the Broadwater Farm riots.
The difficulties at Leonard Cheshire following the restructure were well known. So what made you take the job?
It never occurred to me not to. I had been doinga job I loved and was exploring trustee opportunities with a search agency when they said “have you seen this advertisement?”. I hadn’t. This was the chance to do what I had tried to do most of my life.
How did you turn it around?
It wasn’t about me. The person at the top is there to support the others. A recovery plan was already in place and it is working. We went from a £17m loss in 2008/09 to an, as yet unaudited, surplus of about £5m in 2010/2011. When people get into a bad place they can turn inwards on themselves. So it’s about confidence to look to the future but knowing the value of every penny. You need to make the best use of the people you have got and encourage creativity.
Which of the charity’s recent achievements you are most proud of?
The Hardest Hit March on 11 May was a great demonstration by a coalition of disabled people and organisations; we supported people from all round the country to get them there – which highlighted basic access issues for wheelchair users. The threat of removing the mobility component of disability living allowance is being reviewed by the government; and it was also good to be part of the NHS listening exercise. We are also a founder member of a consortium (Disability Works UK) that should support thousands of disabled people into work over the next few years – a very exciting opportunity.
Key issues facing your charity and the wider sector?
I worry that the effect of mobility benefit changes, alongside access issues, will be to make disabled people less visible in our society. So, we support campaign action groups run by disabled people for disabled people and are also doing a lot of work in schools to build awareness that disabled people want the freedom to live their lives the way they choose. In terms of service provision there is a need for a bit of humility, listening and learning, and one of the challenges of the recession is not losing sight of the big goal.
How do you switch off?
I swim 100 lengths at my health club regularly and once you get into a good rhythm you can be very creative as you go up and down. Reading, of course, and travelling. I am off to India shortly with Leonard Cheshire and when I go away the bottom half of my case is all books! But my ‘desert island’ luxury is a long hot bath.
So what are your favourite books?
Pride and Prejudice and Cold Comfort Farm at the moment – but it does vary!
Toughest times?
Telling Jack Straw as a senior civil servant that the IT contract with the Prison Board, which was close to contract signature, had to be suspended because it just wasn’t right. He was fantastic. It would have been easier just to have cancelled it, so it was courageous of him to trust us. We got there with it shortly afterwards.
Best of times?
When I was at Coca Cola we had a brilliant partnership with the voluntary sector engaging young people in being more active. We did this putting in specially equipped playgrounds based on research from Loughborough. At one of the launches Duncan Goodhew came along and spoke so movingly about his dyslexia and being labelled ‘thick’ and how sport gave him a new identity. The lads listening to him said ‘if he can do it, we can’. That was incredible.
Clarissa Dann was talking to Clare Pelham
Author: Clare Pelham
Clare Pelham is chief executive at Leonard Cheshire Disability.
Prior to this she was chief executive of the Judicial Appointments Commission.
Clare has also held senior civil service positions in the Cabinet Office, the Home Office and the Department of Constitutional Affairs.
She has also worked in the private sector at IBM and at Coca-Cola GB and Ireland, where she was responsible for the company’s partnerships with the voluntary sector aimed at increasing participation in physical activity among young people.
Some 500,000 teenagers were involved.
There are no comments on this article. Be the first to comment.