C.E. Jottings

Top charity ordered to explain CEO's payoff

Questions are being asked about the integrity of a top UK charity's governance and prudent use of charitable funds, after it paid a large sum to a departing chief executive in return for a confidentiality agreement. According to The Times yesterday, the Charity Commission has sought "urgent assurances" from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) about a payment made to its former CEO in return for which a confidentiality agreement prevents him from discussing the... Read more →

Top pay? Who gets what and why and how do you know? #CondEd

Continued from "Fat-Cat Academy Pay Costs Pupils, Say MPs" My interest in the recent story from The Times under the headline "Fat-Cat Academy Pay Costs Pupils, Say MPs" was not prompted by an a priori antagonism to Academies nor to highly-paid individuals. What prompted it I merely hinted at – and then not well - in the final sentence: “…the intrusion of corporatisation even into the charity sector”. What’s this to do with conductive education, some will ask. I suggest... Read more →

In defence of the amateur tradition on charity boards

When did the word "amateur" acquire such strong negative connotation? In The Times a week or so ago, the headline to a Philip Collins' opinion piece states "These amateurish charities aren't fit for purpose". And in The Guardian the day before an Editorial headline ran "The Guardian view on charity trustees: no role for amateurs". These confident assertions arise from the Kids Company débâcle. Yet if there was one thing that the Board of Kids Company was not, it was... Read more →