Developing future leaders

As applications open for the Clore Foundation's social leadership programme, its director Dame Mary Marsh talks to Jane Dudman about its value to the third sector

Today, applications open for the second year of an innovative programme to develop social enterprise leaders.

The Clore social leadership programme is an initiative of the Clore Duffield Foundation, which has previously set up the Clore leadership programme. The Clore social leadership programme is now recruiting between 14 and 20 people for its social leadership programme, following research that revealed minimal training provision for those with leadership potential across the third sector and concerns on the part of funders that the innovative potential of social enterprise projects might be jeopardised by a lack of leaders in charities, community groups and social enterprises.

The launch comes as unions have expressed concern about proposals to use more voluntary bodies to deliver public services.

This is a highly-tailored, intensive course that is likely to attract a diverse range of applicants, according to Dame Mary Marsh, director of the Clore social leadership programme. "Based on what happened this year, we expect to welcome a diversity of applications, from those in very small organisations to those from medium and large bodies," she comments. "We were especially pleased to have people based in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as it is good to have the views of those doing interesting work in each of the devolved administrations."

Marsh adds that she was pleased with the representation of black and ethnic minority fellows on the first course, as well as the sponsorship by the RNIB of a blind fellow. "Of 14 fellows on the first programme, four are from a black or ethnic minority background and in terms of disability that is good at championing people with a disability, but less good at having disabled people as leaders in the sector, we are pushing that very strongly," she says.

Personal development

Fellows can study either full-time for 12 months or part-time for up to two years. Applicants should already be working in the third sector and will need to demonstrate their leadership potential. "What's important to me is that we can only justify this kind of intensive investment in a smallish group if we have spinoffs," comments Marsh. So, for example, the process of applying for the programme is itself designed to be part of someone's personal development, with feedback at every stage. The foundation is also publishing all the material from the first programme and the Work Foundation, funded by Capacity Builders, is evaluating the work.

"The time is so right for what we are doing," says Marsh. "We need to invest in leadership capacity across the whole of the voluntary sector and it is hard for individual organisations to make that investment, so someone like us needs to do it. If politicians want charities and social enterprises to provide more public services, they have to invest in the capabilities of the sector, not just buy the services.

* Wednesday's SocietyGuardian will feature an interview with Kate Lee, director of strategy and evaluation for the Red Cross, who is one of the first cohort of fellows on the social leadership programme

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