Update - LBFEW now has an 'Acting Chair' according to the website (cc @hetanshah.bsky.social )
05.03.2026 10:40
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Update - LBFEW now has an 'Acting Chair' according to the website (cc @hetanshah.bsky.social )
Yes.
I think what's also bizarre is that the remaining charity (now with the proceeds of the sale) is going ahead recruiting a CEO & a Chair. Which seems an interesting decision given the context - micro.green-park.co.uk/city-guilds-...
Yes, I'm afraid so. Even though it bears little resemblance to the vast majority of charities up and down the country - indeed, I don't think I've ever seen a case like this in 25 years in the sector. A charity CEO/CFO moving with the asset they are selling - and getting £1m+ golden hello on arrival
Totally agree.
Times also misses that Dame Limb is also still chair of Lloyd’s Bank Foundation of England & Wales
Clearly Times have caught up - see here in Guardian in December: www.theguardian.com/business/202...
It’s been in Guardian, FE Week and charity sector press (belatedly). But FWIW I think it is potentially an extremely significant charity scandal. Tom Bewick (education specialist) Substack has done vg coverage
I think I went off on something of a late night rant; which at least distracted me from the risk register I was trying to finish...
Oh no, wait, I'm just constrained by the "horizon of the thinkable, shaped by a late-stage industrial paradigm". aka wanting things to happen
But as your community floods, your community building can't pay its energy bills, and no-one has a job, you can always remember "when in fog, hold hands"
I've just read a blog post on the emergent futures/imagination infrastructure which ends with a clarion call for capacity (to do this work); I don't disagree; I'm not sure a *45 minute* blog post screams "we're really aware of everyone's capacity stretch".
It's like a theoretical game with a self-reinforcing group of people, all well-funded but delivering the square root of absolutely no tangible outputs. No lives changed - or even lives touched. But eyeballs dried out? Brains fried? Check.
I listened to a podcast with the Systemic Investment people on recently; and they literally say "we spent 18 months coming up with the conceptual framework; then we thought - we must think about how this is applied in practice"; when asked what success would look like in 3 or 5 yrs, no answer!
Almost as bemusing: the best minds of my generation in the social sector/impact economy seem to be "thinking about how to write the longest and most complicated blog posts or essays which use the word 'systemic' or 'emergent'" whilst doing nothing practical of the requisite scale or urgency.
I can't remember who said "the best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people to click ads"; maybe it should now be "how to increase productivity to the point of maximum wealth inequality and minimal human labour"
London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...
Can see my comms team thinking I should do something similar for social investment.
The link is to WMCA’s specific social economy work, which not everyone knows of. Sorry if not helpful. Good luck with it all.
I'm not sure the risk of snake oil is that high, but that aside - I'd start with orgs in the area - Murray Hall got COF £ and Power to Change £; then there's wider Black Country (BHCG dudleyci.co.uk/services/sav... // All Saints - www.asan.org.uk/enterprise/c...) & WM www.wmca.org.uk/what-we-do/e...
I agree - though seems like learning/people also involved in ICON. TNLCF running Community Wealth Fund instead.
Maybe, although lots of experience/tested approaches - we've been running the Youth Investment Fund for govt for last 3.5 years, working with hundreds of small community organisations *and* local authorities - on new community buildings (in this case youth centres)...
….and PiP isn’t devolved/endowed outside govt in the way Big Local was. There’s also an urgency and scale to some of what we face (now) that also highlights the trade-off with pace that comes with some community development.
FWIW, it’s an interesting & pertinent read. I think it underestimates pace & time horizons a bit; by the time PiP £ gets to communities, we might not be that far out from an election….
Surely the starting point would be the very agencies / existing networks you mention in the piece? (Locality, Power to Change et al). One thing we aren’t short of is consortiums of community-led development….
🚨City & Guilds chief executive Kirstie Donnelly and chief finance officer Abid Ismail will be 'absent' from their roles 'for a short time'
feweek.co.uk/top-two-city...
Not sure why this is not getting more attention in charity sector. If Guardian reporting is correct, we're talking about a charity CEO & FD benefitting personally from £1m+ bonuses, having sold off a charitable asset.
cc @thirdsector.co.uk @civilsociety.bsky.social
See also tombewick.substack.com
Not sure why this is not getting more attention in charity sector. If Guardian reporting is correct, we're talking about a charity CEO & FD benefitting personally from £1m+ bonuses, having sold off a charitable asset.
cc @thirdsector.co.uk @civilsociety.bsky.social
See also tombewick.substack.com
Just wrong. Zipcar flex cheaper than an Uber every time. And you’re underestimating the convenience factor for longer trips. Gladly pay more to not have to spend ages going to car hire place, fill out forms, etc etc
This is deeply crap news. Not had a car in London for 20 years, and use Zipcar all the time….bah!
More inspiration for our next team away day #leadership