Last year I wrote a review of what I’d learned from working at Save the Children UK. I thought it would be a good idea to do something similar this year. Here in the UK, Save the Children’s goals are to secure a sustainable reduction in child poverty, and to…

Last week I spoke to a group of funders about place-based funding. There’s lots of great resources available about how funders can enable communities and places to thrive, such this research from Renaisi, funded by Save the Children. It’s an important area for people working in funding, charities, public services…

The Youth Investment Fund (YIF) was originally announced in 2019 as a £500m programme. Bidding for the first £10m tranche of funding has just opened, and is being administered by BBC Children in Need on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The timescales, decisions about eligibility…

I joined Save the Children UK in May 2020 as their new Director of UK Impact. In that time, I’ve learned a lot. For example, “if you need to home school two primary school age children for most of a year, it is very helpful if you work for a…

This weekend, Labour is gathering in Brighton to discuss how to help people in tough economic times and to grow the economy after Covid-19. Keir Starmer wrote an essay for the Fabian Society setting out his key principles for this. Twelve years ago, Labour gathered in Brighton to discuss how…

James Plunkett recently wrote an excellent blog on trying to apply the principles of software development to how to develop policy effectively. Lots of charities and other organisations have been trying to implement these kinds of “agile” approaches into their work. But developing a policy and trying to get it…

Nine years ago, I started working for the Big Lottery Fund. I’ve loved working in grant making, ensuring money raised for good causes from National Lottery players goes to people who have great ideas to improve their communities. A few years ago, I helped our Chief Executive Dawn write about…