The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace — Written evidence (CHA0038)

Submission to the House of Lords Select Committee on Charities (views on charity sector sustainability)

About the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace

The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace (The Foundation) was founded in memory of two boys, Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball, who were tragically killed in the IRA’s bombing of Warrington in March 1993. The Foundation is an independent charity with no political or religious affiliations and works nationally and internationally to support those affected by terrorism and violent conflict.

The Foundation’s work and reach has grown significantly in recent years and our experience in the field of conflict resolution and peacebuilding means we are well placed to respond to some of the contemporary challenges facing our society. We work with those who have been impacted by war, terrorism and politically motivated violence and our wide range of programmes bring us into contact with individuals ranging from young people susceptible to extremism, women in diverse communities, veterans of conflict and their families as well as survivors and witnesses to acts of terrorism and violent conflict. The Foundation works with Government departments, the Metropolitan Police, local and city authorities, the Irish Government and other Non-Governmental organisations.

Introduction

1. The Foundation has been operating as a registered charity since 1995. The charity was founded in memory of two boys, Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball, who were tragically killed in an IRA bomb in March 1993. On March 20th, the IRA exploded two bombs, without warning, in a shopping street in the town of Warrington in the North-West of England. It was the day before Mothering Sunday and very busy.  The bombs in bins created shrapnel that killed three-year-old Johnathan Ball and five days later, 12 year old Tim Parry lost his life.  54 others were seriously injured. The incident shocked the nation and gained worldwide publicity.

2. After the bombing, the parents of Tim Parry, supported by Johnathan’s parents (Johnathan’s parents have since passed away) wanted to gain an understanding of why they lost their children. Colin and Wendy Parry were taken by BBC Panorama to Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the USA. During these visits, they witnessed work efforts aimed at creating and sustaining peace. They returned inspired, like many other victims, to try and make sure nobody ever experienced what they had gone through. Funded largely by donations they had received in the aftermath of the bombing, they formed a charitable trust.

3. A scholarship commenced in Tim’s name, bringing together young people from different sides of the conflict to try to understand their differences and also share their commonalities. Wendy Parry had the idea to create a location to house the scholarship and together, they set a vision to build a centre as a living memorial to the boys. The project became a millennium goal and with the involvement of Government and the NSPCC, grew substantially. The iconic Peace Centre opened in 2000. It is a multi-purpose building on a large scale with facilities ranging from residential quarters to a café, sport and art areas to special spaces for conferences and project work.

4. Early work started by undertaking a huge and diverse number of projects and activities ranging from community youth clubs to residential programmes. In 2001 the Foundation undertook a study looking at the specific needs of GB domiciled victims of the Northern Ireland conflict and from this report work began to provide a series of activities to assist those victims. At the same time, conflict was changing, with terrorist attacks in New York on September 11th 2001 and London on July 7th 2005 (the latter remaining the biggest loss of life in a terrorist attack on mainland Britain). In addition, a gradual move to peace in Northern Ireland meant that the Foundation began to develop its capabilities working not only with young people but communities generally in building peace and conflict resolution skills.The Foundation is independent and funded as a charity.  We do not take sides, we are not aligned to any conflict, we are not faith or political based and we do not pursue causes such as justice or truth.  There is no other organisation that takes such a stance.

Pressures currently faced by charities and the impact these pressures have

5. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations’ (NCVO) data website, the UK Civil Society Almanac 2016[i], states that there are 162,965 voluntary organisations in the UK. Individual donations and purchases are the sector’s main source of income, providing over 40% (around £16.5 billion) of the sector’s total income. Contracts and grants from statutory bodies generate almost as much of the sector’s income. For almost one in ten voluntary organisations, statutory bodies are the majority provider of their income[1]. In 2015/2016, the Foundation’s annual income was £744,000. Funding comes from a range of sources including local, central and international government grants; grant making trusts and foundations and fundraising events.[ii]

6. Funding and sustainability is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges facing charities today. Numerous issues have a direct impact on availability of funds, from a drop off in donations, funding and spending cuts to increased demand for services and competition for funds. Charities have to work increasingly hard to raise the money they so desperately need to remain operational. All of this has a direct impact on an organisation’s day to day work – from making decisions about which services and projects can continue running to practical issues about hiring a team to undertake the work. Regardless of how vital and necessary the work of the charity is, funding – and how to retain it - is a time consuming issue for charity chief executives and trustees.

7. In recent times, a number of high profile cases have damaged public trust in charity fundraising methods (particularly in relation to direct mail and donor communications), the most notable being the case of Olive Cooke[2] which prompted a statement by then Prime Minister David Cameron[3] and led to an inquiry by the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB). Most charities are heavily reliant on individuals and statutory funds, with these two funding sources together accounting for over three-quarters of the voluntary sector’s income (79%)[4].  Innovation and creativity is important when considering how to raise funds. For example, only a very small percentage of voluntary sector funding comes from the private sector (4.8%)[iii] but the question of ethics is a crucial one for charities and for many voluntary sector organisations, moral decisions about not engaging in partnerships with private companies and businesses that are incompatible with their aims, mean that these sorts of opportunities are not an option.

8. With the number of voluntary sector organisations in the UK standing at 162,965[5], charities are also competing for funds on a regular basis. There are numerous charities dealing with similar issues. This is often effective and necessary - multiple voices, approaches and expertise is often needed to draw attention to an issue and achieve change - but charities should seek to collaborate and work together whenever it is useful and appropriate. 

The current challenges of the financial sustainability of charities and the role of national and local Government with the charitable sector

9. We note that in relation to resources and sustainability, the call for evidence for this inquiry states “As the regulation of charities is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland and Scotland, the Committee will be focusing its inquiry on the experiences of charities in England and Wales. They do however want to learn about the experience of charities in Northern Ireland and Scotland, as well as in other countries.”[6]

10. This is of particular relevance to the Foundation as we are a charity working across borders. For example, the Foundation’s Survivors Assistance Network[7]  (SAN) offers practical and emotional support and assistance to victims and survivors of terrorism and political violence, aiming to help heal division and move individuals to help break the cycle of violence. Completely free of charge, it brings individuals and families together and focuses on enabling people to cope and recover after acts of terrorism. Members of SAN are victims, survivors and those affected by terrorism who are located in England and Wales (a small number in Scotland funded by our own charity) and include Irish citizens who may now reside in Britain, veterans of the armed forces and many people impacted by the Troubles, including the injured and bereaved families. We are the only organisation in Britain that provides this work.  We are ineligible to apply for funding from the Victims and Survivors Service Northern Ireland.  Neither are we eligible for any funding from the European Regional Development Funds, PEACE settlements. In addition, we undertake reconciliation work within Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain.

11. We are the only organisation exploring the East-West dimension to a lasting peace and yet sustaining funding for SAN is an ongoing challenge, further complicated by these jurisdiction issues, meaning that a survivor of terrorism living in England will receive support funded by the Ministry of Justice but the support for a survivor living in Scotland has to come from the Foundation’s general fundraising efforts. We have raised this jurisdiction issue in relation to SAN, with successive Governments but it remains unresolved.  It is, frankly, shameful that the funding for this work comes from a small grant from the Irish Government (less than €14,000) and the remainder is raised by the Foundation’s own community fundraising efforts. This vitally important work should not be reliant on raffles and tombolas for sustainability. Government has a crucial role to play in charity sector funding, working with organisations that have expertise in relevant issue areas, to deliver high quality services.

Charities' accountability to their beneficiaries, their donors, and the general public and the role of the Charity Commission

12. The role of the Charity Commission is to register and regulate charities to ensure that the public can support charities with confidence. There is very little entry requirement for anybody to set up and run a charity and for any person to take up a senior executive or non-executive position. While this ability for anyone to pursue a cause with passion and enthusiasm is one of the reasons the charity sector is the vibrant and diverse sector that it is today, it can also be a contributing factor to some charities being unprofessionally run and some areas of the charity sector being unnecessarily overcrowded.

13. For example, in 2014, a report by the Conservative Peer Lord Ashcroft called for more consolidation in the armed forces charity sector. The Veterans’ Transition Review[8] stated that the number of armed forces charities helping the vulnerable is significantly more than the number of those who are likely to need help. The report suggested that for each organisation there are only eight service users. This may be an even larger scale issue. Charity Commission guidance is that organisations should look at collaboration and merger but in practice, this seems to be a rare occurrence. While it is, of course, important that people are encouraged to set up charities to pursue causes and work for the common good, if there is a lack of oversight, professionalism and collaboration, this can lead to ineffectiveness and a lack of impact. An overcrowded market means that the giving pound is spread too thinly and this in turn, has a negative impact on sustainability. The Charity Commission could take steps to look more closely at the number of charities in operation and those working on similar issues, in order to help charities measure and evaluate impact and avoid unnecessary repetition.

14. About 400 new charities are registered each month. There is little differentiation between large and small charities. The sector could benefit some way of reporting return on investment. Charities are asking the public to part with their hard-earned cash and in return, donors need to know that it is going to be spent in the best possible way. In the wake of media investigations into telephone fundraising techniques, the Charity Commission stated that it intended to play a more robust role in investigating inappropriate activity by parts of the sector and in implementing its regulatory role more generally. Greater transparency and increased reporting is hugely important in building public trust, which has been so badly damaged in the wake of these scandals, the aforementioned Olive Cooke tragedy and the collapse of the charity Kids Company in 2015[9].

The role trustees should play in the performance and effectiveness of a charity

15. There can be no doubt that the role and responsibility of charity trustees has come to wider attention following the questions raised by the collapse of Kids Company. As previously stated, it is relatively easy for an individual to take up a non-executive and/or executive position within a charity with few skills requirements and relatively little experience. This is particularly true of ‘founder run’ charities (charities set up and run by someone who –usually – has a very personal attachment to the cause). The Foundation is a founder-run charity but has vast experience of how to avoid the pitfalls. Our founders, Colin and Wendy Parry, have very clearly defined roles within the organisation, making the best use of their professional skills and strengths. We – and they - recognised that additional skills and talent were needed to perform different roles within the charity, ensuring that the founders’ needs were met but that the charity was never compromised and that governance structures and processes were strong.

16. The role of trustees is crucial in any charity. They help safeguard, scrutinise and support the charity. They should not only give their attention to financial matters, but also help measure and question impact and effectiveness. Trustees need to be able to commit time, energy and passion for the cause.

Recommendations

• Consider some form of mandatory training for charity trustees and some form of professional institute.
• Consider specific guidance for founders and their charities.
• Use data collected to look at how many charities there are, money raised, money deployed on the cause and on administration to help and assist charities and encourage transparency and more efficient and effective working.

31 August 2016