RNIB appoints Sally Harvey to chief executive role

Harvey has been acting chief executive since Lesley-Anne Alexander retired in October last year

The Royal National Institute of Blind People has appointed Sally Harvey as its permanent chief executive.

Harvey, former managing director of the charity’s subsidiary RNIB Places, has been acting chief executive of the RNIB since October 2016, when Lesley-Anne Alexander retired after 12 years at the helm.

Harvey has been at the RNIB since 2009 in several senior leadership roles, the charity said, and was previously acting chief executive and director of housing at the Abbeyfield Society and director of resident services at the Peabody Trust.

She will be paid between £150,000 and £160,000 a year as chief executive, the charity said, which is the same as her predecessor’s wage.

According to its entry on the Charity Commission’s online register, the RNIB had an income of £114.5m in the year to 31 March 2016 and employs 2,359 people.

Harvey said: “I’m honoured to be trusted with this important role. We are at a turning point. The RNIB is changing and we will continue to adapt and modernise our approach.

“Alongside our community, supporters and partners, we are working to ensure that being blind or partially sighted isn’t a barrier, everyone with sight loss can live their life with confidence and the eye health of generations to come is prioritised.” 

The RNIB has made a number of changes to in the past year. One hundred staff left the charity earlier this year after a restructure. The charity also completed a merger with its partner charity Action for Blind People.

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A subsidiary of the charity, RNIB Solutions, which was set up by the charity in 2013 to generate income and provide services such as talking books and a Braille library, has also lost 23 staff as part of a restructure of the division after it made a loss in four of the past five years.

Eleanor Southwood, chair of the RNIB, said in a statement: “On behalf of the board of trustees, I would like to congratulate Sally on her appointment as our new chief executive. 

“Blind and partially sighted people face significant barriers to inclusion in society. In Sally’s appointment we have someone who will work with our community to tackle this head on.”

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Restructure of RNIB Solutions leads to 23 redundancies

The division, set up in 2013 to generate income, made a loss in four of the past five years

Twenty-three people have been made redundant after the RNIB cut more than 50 jobs in a division that was set up to generate income but ended up costing the charity millions of pounds.

RNIB Solutions, a directorate set up by the charity in 2013 to generate income and provide services such as talking books and a Braille library, made a loss in four of the past five years and has consumed approximately £10m of charity subsidy over the past three years.

The job losses are part of a process designed to restructure the division and improve how it is run.

A business case document seen by Third Sector in August showed that at least 52 jobs were at risk and a number of other staff faced having their hours reduced after the charity was forced to subsidise RNIB Solutions.

An RNIB spokesman told Third Sector at the time that the document was an internal consultation document that had been given to staff who might be affected, and the charity hoped the difficult decisions could be made in the most sensitive and respectful way possible.

According to the document, RNIB Solutions, which had 261 staff, was set up to eliminate the charity’s deficit, but in 2016/17 it spent £16.6m against an income of £12.4m, leaving a loss of £4.2m.

Following the consultation’s completion today, 209 full-time-equivalent roles will be retained at RNIB Solutions, a reduction of 52 jobs. Of the 52, 23 will involve staff leaving the charity, 17 of them through compulsory redundancy. Six people opted for voluntary redundancy.

Scott Lynch, managing director of RNIB Solutions, told Third Sector that the charity had minimised the impact of the restructure by removing vacant roles and redeploying some staff to other parts of the RNIB.

Lynch said all those who were being made redundant would leave the charity before the end of January, and a new senior leadership team in the division was in place.

Lynch said the consultation had led to a “narrower focus” on five key areas centred on important areas for beneficiaries and commercial income: information and content; public transport; financial services; retail and products; and educational content.

He said the consultation process “has been very successful in that we have got great engagement with staff” and the charity got “great feedback over those 45 days in which we were consulting”.

He added: “It is good to have lessened the impact. Obviously we don’t like to make any of our colleagues redundant, but we need to have a sustainable cost base going forward.”

The changes at RNIB Solutions follow a restructure of the main charity that took place earlier this year , in which 100 people left the RNIB, 70 of them through voluntary redundancy.

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Jobs at risk at RNIB after commercial venture struggles

RNIB Solutions, which was set up by the charity in 2013, made a loss of £4.2m in 2016/17

More than 50 jobs are at risk at the RNIB after a division set up by the charity to eliminate its deficit required a £10m subsidy over three years.

A business case document seen by Third Sector shows that at least 52 jobs could be at risk and a number of other staff could have their hours reduced after the charity was forced to subsidise RNIB Solutions, a directorate set up by the charity in 2013 to generate income and provide services such as talking books and a Braille library.

An RNIB spokesman told Third Sector the document was an internal consultation document that had been given to staff who might be affected and that the charity hoped the difficult decisions could be made in the most sensitive and respectful way possible.

According to the document, Solutions, a division of the charity which has 261 staff members, was set up to eliminate the charity’s deficit, but in 2016/17 it spent £16.6m against an income of £12.4m – leaving a loss of £4.2m.

“This was not an anomaly in a single year; similar levels of deficit were delivered during the previous year (2015/16) and are expected to be delivered during the current year (2017/18),” the document says.

“In total Solutions will have consumed circa £10m of charity subsidy over a three-year period. This has contributed to RNIB as a whole also running significant deficits over the last three years.”

According to information available on the Charity Commission website, RNIB as a whole has run at a deficit for four of its last five financial years. For the year ending 31 March 2016, it had an income of £114.5m but spent £123.1m. 

The average monthly number of employees at the whole charity during the year to March 2017 was 2,321, according to the RNIB spokesman.

The document says the main reason for Solutions’ deficit was the high and rising cost of providing its services.

It also says the charity had initially expected Solutions’ commercial services, such as commercial transcription, consultancy and training to cover the cost of all of its services and deliver a surplus for the charity, but this had not been the case – the commercial activities had generated £1m, but the cost of running it had been £5m.

Many of the services are “highly complex, very manual, built on outdated or unstable infrastructure and are neither efficient nor scalable”, causing problems resulting in frequent customer complaints, according to the document.

“A lot of our resources and energy are being spent each week fire fighting and dealing with the latest issue or problem,” it says.

The document calls for Solutions to reduce its costs and find more efficient ways to provide its services – including through restructuring its teams.

It lists 52 jobs that are at risk of being cut, plus some workers in seven different areas could also have their hours reduced. The document also lists the creation of 36.75 full-time equivalent roles.

An additional 19 full-time equivalent roles as transcription production assistant are listed under new jobs – but this role is also listed in the changed roles, where it shows the number of roles has actually been reduced from 21.72 FTE.

The RNIB spokesman said: “This is an internal consultation document for those affected and as such it would be inappropriate, and disrespectful to those directly concerned, for us to disclose its details to those outside of the organisation. A number of staff have been placed at risk of redundancy with every effort made to ensure job losses are minimal and people are redeployed where appropriate.”

Third Sector reported in February that up to 200 jobs were at risk at RNIB, according to unions. 

The RNIB spokesman told Third Sector today that in that round of job cuts, 30 people had been made redundant and a further 70 had taken voluntary redundancy.

“Sadly, there were job losses,” he said. “We worked closely with the unions to ensure that the jobs losses were minimal and that people were redeployed where appropriate.

“Like any charity we have to make careful decisions to ensure our long-term sustainability. These are challenging times and we have to keep a careful watch of where we are spending our money to make the most of the resources we have.”

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ICO контролировала христианскую помощь, Гринпис и RNIB в течение трех месяцев

. Благотворительные организации были помещены в список наблюдения, в то время как Управление Информационного Комиссара расследовало возможные нарушения закона о защите данных

Христианская помощь, Гринпис и РНИБ контролировались Управлением Информационного Комиссара в течение трехмесячного периода во время расследования нарушений защиты прав на благотворительные фонды в прошлом году, указал регулятор.

Три благотворительные организации были в числе 15 благотворительных организаций и двух колл-центров, которые проводили добровольные встречи с ICO. Советские письма были также выданы шести из 15 благотворительных организаций, сообщил регулятор Третий сектор .

ICO расследовала и выдала штрафы в размере 181 000 фунтов стерлингов за 13 благотворительных организаций за нарушение правил защиты данных после Daily Mail и . Газета Mail on Sunday провела расследования практики сбора средств, связанных с Несколько крупных благотворительных организаций.

В своем ежегодном докладе, опубликованном на прошлой неделе, ICO заявила, что она взаимодействовала с рядом других благотворительных организаций по поводу обеспокоенности по поводу соблюдения, но не приняла карательных мер либо потому, что проблемы были решены, либо не было найдено никаких причин для беспокойства

Представитель ICO сказал Третий сектор что регулирующий орган провел добровольные совещания по соблюдению с 15 благотворительными организациями, включая христианскую помощь, благотворительную благотворительную организацию Caudwell Children, Королевскую добровольную службу, WWF-UK, RNIB, Greenpeace , Траст-фонд Trewan Sands Children, RNLI и Британский Красный Крест.

Он также провел встречи с NSPCC, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support и Oxfam, все из которых были среди благотворительных организаций, в конечном итоге оштрафованных в отношении таких методов, как сопоставление данных и скрининг богатства.

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Еще одна благотворительная организация также провела заседание по соблюдению, но пресс-секретарь не смог подтвердить свою личность в понедельник утром.

В своем заявлении представитель ICO сказал, что эти встречи могли проводиться до или после каких-либо действий по обеспечению соблюдения или поддержки.

Детский трест Caudwell, PDSA, Фонд исследований диабета и здорового образа жизни, Национальное общество глухих детей, Королевская добровольная служба и RNLI были выданы с рекомендательными письмами, и никаких дальнейших действий не было предпринято, хотя четыре из них придерживались последующих мер, По словам регулятора.

Между тем, Christian Aid, Greenpeace и RNIB были «поставлены на мониторинг и их соблюдение в течение трехмесячного периода», – сказал пресс-секретарь.

В конце трех месяцев все вопросы считались разрешенными, и никаких дальнейших действий не было принято, сказал представитель.

Он сказал, что организации могут отслеживаться в тех случаях, когда было несколько жалоб, или если регулятор считает, что организация может улучшить свои методы обработки личных данных или проводить прямые маркетинговые практики.

«Мы ожидаем увидеть улучшение или внедрение новых процессов, чтобы обеспечить их соблюдение», – сказал он. «Это было в случае с тремя благотворительными организациями, которые были помещены на мониторинг».

Представитель Greenpeace UK заявил, что благотворительность была помещена в список мониторинга, потому что было высказано восемь жалоб на холодные призывы.

Он сказал: «Мы исследовали каждую из них, и во всех случаях мы обнаружили, что мы выполнили как наши строгие протоколы, так и Закон.

«Мы передали наши выводы сторожевому псам, который пришел к выводу, что доказательства были удовлетворительными и в результате привели нас в список наблюдателей. Мы дали явное обещание нашим сторонникам и общественности из Великобритании, что наши сборщики денег не будут называть людей Которые не дали предварительного согласия на это. Это обещание, которое мы намерены сохранить ».

Представитель RNIB сказал: «В RNIB нам очень важно, чтобы вся наша сбор средств осуществлялась уважительно и ответственно, и мы регулярно проверяем, как мы можем связаться с нашими сторонниками, чтобы убедиться, что это Случай.

«Руководство и поддержка со стороны таких органов, как ICO, неоценимы в обеспечении того, чтобы мы продолжали применять руководящие принципы лучшей практики и соблюдали правила, и мы полностью сотрудничали со своими запросами. После периода мониторинга мы были удовлетворены тем, что ICO Удовлетворены и не предприняты дальнейшие действия ».

Христианская помощь отказалась от комментариев.

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