31/08/10
By Andrew Holt
Autistica, the UK’s largest autism medical research charity, has announced the appointment of Christine Swabey as its new chief executive with effect from October 1.
Swabey will succeed Hilary Gilfoy, who has held the post for five years, and is reducing her workload for health reasons.
Christine Swabey has enjoyed a highly successful career in both the private and public sectors.
After leaving university she held director-level roles in the financial sector before taking on a portfolio of non-executive posts in the public sector.
She is particularly well-qualified to take Autistica forward, having had previous experience as a trustee of TreeHouse, the national charity for autism education, as well as having had extensive experience of the healthcare sector, including eight years as Chair of Kingston Hospital NHS Trust.
Having successfully built the charity from a standing start in 2005 to its present position as the leading UK charity funder of autism research, Hilary Gilfoy will continue to support Autistica over the nine months from October as a part-time consultant, completing several major projects with which she has been closely involved.
Other stories you may find of interest:
Autism charities finance under threat
Respite care and leisure services for children and adults with autism are under threat because of cuts to funding. A new report finds that nearly 40% of autism charities are expecting to cut frontline services next year. Many charities are also concerned that the implementation of the new autism strategy, which aims to improve services for adults, is at risk. The report comes out as the government is due to publish its final guidance on the strategy this week. Changing Lives, a report by charity think tank New Philanthropy Capital, reviewed the situation facing autism charities following the introduction of the Autism Act in 2009 and the national autism strategy.
Lord Rennard to chair Commission on Big Society
Lord Rennard, former chief executive of the Liberal Democrats, is to chair a Commission on Big Society. Lord Rennard will bring together high profile political and civil society thinkers including; The Bishop of London, Philip Collins (chair of Demos and leader writer for the Times), Dame Clare Tickell (CEO of Action for Children and leader of the Government’s review of early years services) Nick Boles MP (PPS to Minister of State for Schools, Nick Gibbs MP) and Paul Boateng (former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and former High Commissioner to South Africa.
The European Union is one of the largest donors to civil society in the world, but also accused of not truly engaging with sector organisations. Peter Davy investigates the EU/sector relationship
Current struggles over the Eurozone debt crisis have done little to endear the EU to British voters, it seems. Two polls in July had half the population saying they would vote to leave were a referendum held. In the survey by pollsters AngusReid, only a third thought EU membership had been positive for the country...
With morale in the sector at its lowest ebb, Duncan Jefferies asks what makes an effective leader and how charities can attract and develop the best management talent in the current environment
Andrew Holt investigates the vital and often unique work taken on by faith charities, the
part they play in the Big Society, and how they will survive in a testing environment
Faith-based charities form a significant part of the charitable sector, with 30,115 charities in England and Wales focusing on religious activities,equating to a shared income of £6.643 billion....
