The Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership launches

The official launch and inaugural conference of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL) took place on Wednesday 12 October at One Whitehall Place, London. Over eighty practitioners and representatives from across the Voluntary Sector joined the exclusive event. Mr Anthony Nutt, whose generosity enabled the establishment of the Centre, was also in attendance.

During the conference keynote speakers Debra Allcock Tyler, Chief Executive of the Directory of Social Change, and Sir Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of NCVO, shared their insights on leadership within the Sector and how the University is best placed to deal with challenges facing the Sector at this time.

Professor Siv Vangen, Dr James Rees, Dr Carol Jacklin-Jarvis and Dr Owain Smolovic-Jones, the Centre’s core team of academic researchers, from The Open University Business School, also introduced the Centre’s activities which included the following updates:

Collaborative Leadership

Siv Vangen gave a presentation on collaborative leadership exploring the question of whether greater collaboration within the Voluntary Sector can meet current challenges presented by austerity and public sector cuts. Informed by current research into collaborative leadership in child services, the presentation highlighted the need to work through relationships, progressing collaboration through making “good enough decisions” in a context that is turbulent and challenging. Effective leaders, the research suggests, are adept at facilitative leadership skills yet prepared to draw on authoritative tactics when appropriate.

Panel of Leaders

Led by James Rees, the Centre will establish a Leadership Panel which brings together leaders in smaller organisations, who make up the majority of the Sector. These organisations have been identified as being particularly in need of enhanced leadership capacity. By surveying members of the Panel once a year, the Centre hope to gain a longitudinal understanding of the challenges they face and to engage with them in more in-depth research techniques such as interviews, focus groups and collaborative learning.

To apply to be part of the panel, please take our brief survey.

Online Educational Modules

Originally, the Centre committed to the development and launch of one Open Educational Module during the lifetime of the project however, due to great interest in the Centre and our ability to deliver free online courses to mass audiences, the OU has committed additional funding to deliver four more Open Educational Resources.

Led by Owain Smolovic-Jones and co-authored by Carol Jacklin-Jarvis, the Centre will now support the delivery of two Open Educational Modules and three Badged Open Courses (BOCs).

During the conference, Owain and Carol introduced the first five-week module: ‘Introducing leadership in voluntary sector organisations’ and the second eight-week course ‘Collaborative leadership for voluntary organisations’. The first module unpacks what we understand by leadership in relation to voluntary organisations and explores this rich concept from a number of different perspectives. The second course will draw on a mix of contemporary and historical video and text-based case studies from the Sector, so that leadership is developed against a live context.

Our new courses will be available from 31st October and you can register your interest in the courses here. 

The three BOCs include:

• ‘Introducing the Voluntary Sector’, which covers the context and features of voluntary and community organisations including: the structure and history of the UK Voluntary Sector; values and beliefs; funding issues; understanding stakeholders; power and empowerment; and the role of volunteering.
• ‘Working in the Voluntary Sector’, will focus on the practicalities of working or volunteering in voluntary and community organisations including: working with volunteers; marketing and communication; budgets; fundraising; taking part in meetings; working in teams and partnerships; building resilience. This second online course will be launched in November, through OpenLearn.
• ‘Taking part in the Voluntary Sector’, was developed by the OU’s Centre for Inclusion and Collaborative Partnerships and NCVO, and was launched in September.

The conference was a resounding success and reinforced the notion that the Centre has been established at a time of great need and great opportunity. You can watch video highlights from the conference via YouTube.

To coincide with the official launch, an article was published in The Guardian's Voluntary Sector Network, titled: 'Times are tough, so voluntary sector leaders need to learn to collaborate’. The article highlights the Centre's focus on leadership training for smaller organisations and promotes the free courses available on OpenLearn.