An insider view of the Stakeholder Forum

A member of the Commission’s Stakeholder Forum since 2021, Tony Clarke is Chair of Start360, a 30-year-old charity based in Belfast and dedicated to providing person-centred support services for people with a wide variety of needs.

Alongside his work in the charity sector, Tony has been running his own business, providing outsourced finance and training to the charity sector for 20 years. Here, we ask Tony to tell us a little bit about himself and how he has found being on the stakeholder forum.

Can you tell us about you and your work with charities?

I provide outsourcing finance support for charities in Northern Ireland, from payroll, management accounts, independent examinations to finance training and troubleshooting with senior managers and trustees.

I am also the Chair of Start360, which is how I came to be part of the Commission’s stakeholder forum. Start360 has nine members on its Board and five Ambassadors

Start360 started life back in 1993 as Opportunity Youth in North Belfast - a small, public sector project. The organisation soon outgrew its premises and it has moved a number of times into a bigger Belfast office, as well as establishing ourselves throughout Northern Ireland. We currently have offices in Derry/Londonderry, Ballymena, Enniskillen, Glengormley, Lurgan and all three prisons, delivering twenty-seven services in the areas of Health, Justice and Employability. We also outgrew the name Opportunity Youth, becoming Start360 in April 2014 to better reflect the wider range of service users who we work with daily.

We work with young people, families and vulnerable adults, who are often disengaged from mainstream services and marginalised from their communities. In the 2023-24 year we worked with over 20,000 individuals and their families, so I am understandably proud of the whole organisation.

How did you personally come to join the stakeholder forum? When did you join?

I joined back in 2021. I noticed an open call for applications on social media. As Chair of Start360, as well as my experience and knowledge of working with small grass roots group in the sector through my finance role, I felt I could bring a level of knowledge to the stakeholder’s forum.

How have you found it so far – has it been helpful? Met your expectations?

The forum is great, each meeting brings a discussion around the challenges charities are facing as well as a presentation from Commission staff to keep us updated – it really feels like we are part of the Commission’s development process. It is also clear, from my experience at the meetings, that our comments and suggestions are listened to and valued by the Commission.

The forum has more than met my expectations. It’s not just a meeting for the sake of a meeting, they are interactive and chaired well, allowing all to have a voice. It’ s also great to collaborate with peers and like-minded individuals that all clearly have a passion for the sector.

What are the challenges and opportunities you see facing the sector in 2024 and going forward?

The challenges for 2024, I think, are the same as the last twenty years I have been in the sector - lack of funding, Westminster budgets, local government spending, health care, demand for services, large programmes coming to an end meaning jobs are at risk. Trustees’ recruitment and retention is also a big issue for the sector. It really is a balancing act working to retaining trustees – when trustees step down, this can lead to implications for staff morale and for governance and so on.

Anything else you would like to add?

As someone that works in the finance area in the sector and as a charity trustee, I think it’s important to remind charities of their annual reporting duties – which I know is something the Commission is also very vocal about.

I understand some common issues with reporting can range from the accounts not being submitted in the correct format to no independent examiner or audit report being provided, to the trustees’ annual report not including all the necessary information. Annual reporting is vital for transparency and accountability so I would encourage all trustees to ensure they are on the ball with it.