Stuart Etherington
January 2009
Stuart Etherington of NCVO talks to Clarissa Dann...
What made you choose the social sector?
My original ambition had been to join the army. But, back in the 1970s, the London Borough of Hillingdon’s answer to a graduate social worker shortage was to take university students as trainees and pay for their final two years of college, giving them an additional work placement. My second-year placement was with Camden Social Services as a sort of care assistant. So it was a combination of the experience and money.
How did that develop?
In hindsight I was far too young to be a social worker. I was taking kids into care and detaining people under the Mental Health Act at 21 – you need a lot more experience for that kind of work. I then moved into community development and social planning, doing a masters in the latter thanks to a Home Office Scholarship. After various research projects, I joined the RNID as public policy director, did an MBA part-time and then became the charity’s CEO in 1991 when Mike Whitlam left to run the Red Cross. I was only 35, but Winifred Tumin, the chair (who also chaired NCVO) thought it was worth the risk. So we worked very well together as CEO and chair for over 13 years in two different organisations.
What do you enjoy about your current role?
It gave me the opportunity to develop and deliver a major public policy programme which came out of the Deakin Commission Report – and this has led to the Gift Aid changes, the Compact, charity law changes, quality standard development, the creation of the Office of the Third Sector and the development of research centres. In addition to our other work about capacity building, we are developing a new agenda around civil society. I think this is the best job in the sector!
How do you think you have made NCVO what it is?
I have learnt that the essence of leadership is to make complex things simple. NCVO does three things: creates an environment in which wider civil society can thrive, provide services to help them do their job better and tries to make enough money to finance all of this. Membership has increased from 480 to 6,700 since I got here in 1994 and I see no reason why we can’t get to 10,000.
Is there a blurring of the State and voluntary sectors?
Civil society can do many things – innovation, campaigning, service provision and risk taking but it is all discretionary. Trustees don’t have to provide the same level of service in Hull as they do in Penzance. The State is not about discretion
– it’s about equality. But I don’t see any evidence of the State crowding out the sector. You need to transform the way in which people receive services and engage with their societies and I think the State and civil society are bound up in this together – there has to be a partnership foundation.
What do you think are the major issues facing charities today?
Some are obsessed by their relationship with the Government and not with transforming the lives of the people they serve. We should be looking as much for solutions within the sector as avidly as we are looking for government to provide them. More robust financial institutions to support the sector would be a very good start.
How do you relax?
Ask Rosamund! I have an almost vicarious relationship with the theatre and the opera. I saw Fiona Shaw in Beckett’s Happy Days which wasn’t exactly relaxing but utterly absorbing… And I already have tickets for Waiting for Godot with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. Ros and I love going for long walks together and we go on these holidays where they carry your big bags and you only have to carry a small one. Once we walked from the centre of Sicily to the coast.
What about books and music?
My favourite opera is Eugene Onegin and I have a very soft spot for the Buena Vista Social Club. Reading and re-reading Dickens is a bit of a passion – next on the list is a re-read of Pickwick Papers.
Best of times
Being at the Oval when we won the Ashes two years ago. As a member of Surrey County Cricket Club, I was entitled to buy fifth-day tickets for a tenner, on the basis that if there was no play (and a fifth day is unusual) you get your money back. So I bought two. Although I could have sold them for £300 each that would never have happened! It was a grand day out. And of course – meeting Rosamund.
Worst of times
Watching Charlton Athletic sink even lower in the league. They are a great club I hope they can recover.
Author: Stuart Etherington
Stuart Etherington joined NCVO as CEO in 1994.
He holds degress in Politics, Social Planning, International Relations and Diplomacy and an MBA from the London Business School.
He is Pro-Chancellor of Greenwich University.
Recent appointments include the treasury's Standing Committee on Euro Preparations and the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit.
He served on the Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation Unit's Advisory Board on the Voluntary Sector and HM Treasury's Cross Cutting Review of the Voluntary Sector.
He is a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, The Institute of Strategic Studies and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
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