The charity sector needs to increase its focus on leadership by trustees and recognise their centrality to the sector, according to the chief executive of Mind, Paul Farmer.

“There is a very, very clear message from everything that the Commission is saying, about the super centrality of the trustees in organisations and that’s absolutely right and proper,” he said.

“Trustees are there to steward their organisations,” Farmer said at the launch of Civil Exchange’s new report, Independence in Question: the voluntary sector in 2016. “I think there is a huge need to invest in what trustees do. Induction, training, support and so forth for trustees is hugely important.”

Farmer also called for three new streams of dialogue – both within the sector and between voluntary organisations and the government.

“I don’t think the dialogue between the government and the sector is sufficiently clear,” he said. “It is often quite confusing with confusing sets of sub-dialogues going on between different parts of the sector and different parts of the government.

“I’m not completely convinced that the sector has a sufficiently cohesive strategy towards itself. But nor does the government have a sufficiently clear message about what it wants the sector to be.”

Farmer said there was a need for charities to engage with their communities – and adapt to changing times.  

“We have had very strong, powerful messages about what happens when you connect. Most organisations are fully in touch with what their communities are telling them. But these days those communities are changing. They are both geographical and virtual. They are sometimes specific and sometimes general. And I think we need to think about how those conversations, those dialogues can do that."

Farmer also called for greater dialogue between large and small charities.

“There is a need for a new dialogue between large and small charities, to really reflect on the point that not all large organisations are bad and not all small organisations are good,” he said. “The reality is that there are fantastically well run organisations delivering missions and value for their organisations. Some of them are large, some of them are small.”

His point was emphasised by Sarah Atkinson, director of policy and communications for the Charity Commission who said the regulator was increasingly seeing different views expressed by big and small charities.