CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT

Prior to 1998 there was no National Drugs Strategy. There were no targets either. How strange to think of a world without targets. What on earth did we all think we were doing? Whatever it was, at Lifeline, we have been doing it since our foundation in 1971. What has guided us from our early days in Manchester to our current position in the drugs treatment industry? Good question; one of the Lifeline Questions. The first Lifeline Question is: Do we understand ourselves? That is to say: Do we know what we are and where we are going? Do we know what we aspire to be? Do we understand ourselves: as a charity; a business and a campaigning organisation? Do we understand how those things fit together and help shape our decisions, our policies and practice?

If I may, I will start this short tour by going straight to our constitution: “The purpose of the Organisation is to relieve poverty, sickness and distress among those persons affected by addiction to drugs of any kind and to educate the public on matters relating to drug misuse.” That is our purpose.

I think it is really a very good idea to have a purpose. However, I wasn’t always so clear about the precise value of that celebrated article of managerialism: the mission statement. Our own mission “Telling the truth about drugs”. is as much a slogan as a mission. One can feel more comfortable with slogans than with missions. After all, every slogan is a promise. And certainly “Telling the truth about drugs” is a fine claim to be able to make.

Increasingly, over the past four years, however, we have been asked again and again, often by current users of drug services: “Does Telling the Truth about Drugs extend to Telling the Truth about Drug Services.” Bad services are inevitably causing distress to those who use or seek to use them. Addressing bad services then seems absolutely consistent with our purpose. This is a case of our purpose informing our mission.
In order that we can successfully pursue our mission and our purpose by creating and developing good services, we need at all times to be sure our company is well managed, both as a business and a charity.

Over the recent past, Lifeline has struggled mightily to get to grips with the implications of our major growth. Lifeline has grown by 610% in past five years. One of the most important facts about our sector currently is that Lifeline is certainly not alone in enjoying rapid, substantial growth. Successive waves of investment have provided the opportunity for a number of fellow charities in our field to grow just like Lifeline has, whether starting from a lower or higher initial base.

At Lifeline our response has been, to put it bluntly, to have a top-down revolution. Organisations that grow as quickly as Lifeline has are bound to be somewhat pulled out of shape by the sheer scale and speed of growth. One very salient fact about Lifeline’s growth is that of a forecast turnover of 13.7 million for 2005/2006, we currently forecast spending on ‘Centre Costs’ to be only £735,870.00. This is a small centre.

Lifeline is alone among the large drugs charities to have its key development and communications departments away from the corporate centre. This means, amongst other things, that Lifeline has a reputation which is constantly being developed by the different parts of the organisation. It is an organic developing range of approaches and practices that have emerged across Lifeline. A typical Lifeline senior manager is both a developer and a strategic manager of local services. Lifeline has a large number of very creative and very successful senior managers. Lifeline is creative because of this decentred approach. This approach has also been successful from a commercial point of view.

Fortunately however, we haven’t been too wound up in our own success to see that we needed to strengthen a number of aspects of our organisation. As I said, we started at the top. The question of governance is certainly an issue for every charity in our industry, not just Lifeline. In our case, our Root and Branch Review of Governance has fundamentally prepared us to face the challenges of being a successful and responsible charity.

The review led to the urgent and successful restructuring of the our Finance Department. It has prefigured a subsequent management review which in turn has led to the appointment of our first Deputy Chief Executive. Above all, the review has successfully examined all major trustee functions and culminated in the recruitment of five new trustees. We will shortly be recruiting five more. In this respect, a key finding of the review was that the new enlarged board of trustees would be serviced by a range of corporate inputs adequate to their strategic and policy making role. Governance at Lifeline is about ensuring that we are true to our purpose. It is also about ensuring that Lifeline is able to function as a successful charity; a viable business and a radical campaigning organisation.

In our sector, unfortunately, it is often thought that campaigning just gets in the way of business. One of the signs that charities have been dominated by a somewhat narrow business-growth agenda has been a neglect of campaigning. Our sector really needs to take its responsibilities to heart. Hundreds of millions of pounds go through drugs charities every year. Tens of thousands of people seek our help every year. We have a duty to report and comment as a sector, not from a narrow business agenda but with a clear ethical purpose.

At that key governance level: the level of purpose; the level that informs the mission, isn’t our job to do everything in our power to reduce the distress “among those persons affected by addiction to drugs”? Surely when one looks at our sector we should look to create a powerful collective campaigning lead on just such a basis.

At Lifeline our campaigning agenda is perfectly straightforward: To strive to protect the best interest of those we serve by legitimate (non-party) political activism in line with our mission to “Tell the Truth About Drugs”. Our key campaigning objectives are to effectively challenge discrepancies and injustices; to be supportive of the rights of socially-excluded people and to promote debate regarding policy and practice.

These objectives speak very directly to our charitable purposes of helping relieve poverty, sickness and distress among those who seek our help. Our campaigning agenda far from damaging our business agenda generally enhances our ability to speak authoritatively and persuasively on issues arising directly from the day to day operations of our core business.

At the same time, however, campaigning isn’t always popular or well received and Lifeline has had its fair share of criticism in recent years. At all times, however, we have been directly guided by our mission and our purpose. They, more than anything else in Lifeline’s history tell us who we are and guide us in what we do.

Ian Wardle