Why I’ve spent the last nine years creating leadership and management development programmes for people working in our north east VCSE sector
In my 20s (1990s), I was pre-occupied with co-creating, co-leading, fundraising for, managing, administrating, and taking part in artist led activity, achieving eleven major projects during this time. I also created, led, managed, and administrated participatory arts projects, most notably for people with learning disabilities, autism, and additional needs. Looking back, I’d describe my leadership and management ‘style’ during this time as entirely intuitive, latent, self-taught.
The combination of these experiences led me to securing the newly created role of development director at arts-based charity Artists’ Agency (now known as Helix Arts) in summer 1999, working three days a week alongside the other two directors, and with a staff team of six people, working across the region from our office in Sunderland (moving to Newcastle in 2001).
In 2001/02 I took part in leadership and management development training organised by Northern Cultural Skills Partnership (NCSP) in collaboration with Gateshead College, and led by Peter Lumley. This was a level 4 diploma accredited by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). We met for a full day, once a month, over the course of a year, hosted by arts and cultural venues around the region. I loved the course. It provided everything I needed to lead and manage well in my new organisational context. I’m sure I implemented 80–90% of what I learnt, and I’ve no doubt this applied learning kickstarted the success we achieved over the next decade. The course ran until 2008, with several members of the Helix Arts’ team taking part — layering in their learning to create a culture of collective leadership. I’ll come back to this.
My work and volunteering since I left Helix Arts in 2011 has developed my knowledge and understanding of the rich picture of our north east voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector more broadly. We know there are around 7,000 ‘above the radar’ organisations, all registered in some way — charities (71%, by far the biggest group), community interest companies (17%), and registered societies and community amateur sports clubs (12% between them)¹. Almost all these organisations — 95% — have an annual turnover of less than £1m, with 85% turning over less than £250k. It’s estimated 37,000 people are employed in these organisations, each of them leading important work for people and places in our region.
These numbers don’t include unregistered organisations, estimated, nationally, to equate to 1.29 so called ‘below the radar’ groups for every registered organisation. This ratio suggests there could be an additional 8,000+ organisations across our north east region.
What we also know is there is an absence of relevant, quality, and affordable learning and development opportunities for this workforce, particularly in relation to leadership and management. No doubt this absence is one of the many negative consequences of over a decade and a half of accumulated socio-economic/geo-political factors, beginning with recession in 2008, accelerated by austerity policies of the 2010s, and perhaps wrung out entirely by the pandemic and subsequent cost of living crisis.
When I think back to the 2000s — one of the most significant decades in my social leadership journey — these feel like halcyon days, when we could reliably access great programmes like the one I described earlier, for no more than, say £500, made available through subsidies in the system. And matched funding for learning and development activity was quick and hassle free to access — usually on the strength of a one-page form. This enabled cultures of leadership, continuous learning, personal and professional development, and, ultimately, organisational performance.
So why have I spent the last nine years creating leadership and management development programmes for people working in our north east voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector?.. Simply because I am trying to put some of this back. Because I am worried, otherwise, that we’ll struggle as a sector, more than we need to, and we’ll burn great people out along the way, despite our best intentions. None of us do great work on our own. All of us need to access learning and development opportunities to grow, develop, thrive, flourish, and do great work, together.
On reflection, I realise I’m fascinated by how we organise ourselves in society, what we need to grow and develop our ability to lead and manage well, how we create great organisational cultures where people thrive. And this is why I now spend my time co-leading Yes We Can Community CIC with my ace social enterprise partner Stephanie Cole, and Cath Brown, Marie Foalle, Duncan O’Brien, alongside volunteering as a trustee, chair, and mentor. Nothing more, or less, than a small contribution to a big need.
Our latest contribution to the north east’s leadership development is Lead and manage: Best self, great teams, amazing together. We’re committing to running this twice a year for three years — 2023 to 2025 — as part of our contribution to developing our workforce. Join us in next month (April) or in September if you’d like to grow your leadership.
Robert Laycock, co-founder, Yes We Can Community CIC
¹ Third sector trends in England and Wales 2022: sector structure, purpose, energy and impact, Community Foundation Tyne and Wear and Northumberland, November 2022
