Welcome Letter from Lynne Berry, Chair
This is a fantastic time to join Sustrans as the next Chair/Member of the Board of Trustees.
Sustrans’ mission of making it easier for everyone to walk and cycle couldn’t be more relevant. We don’t just create the case for change though, we deliver it too. Everything we do, we do through partnerships with schools, communities, disability organisations, local and national governments, health bodies and other organisations that share our values. It’s all grounded in the expertise of our staff and volunteers. We’re determined that what we do will make life better for everyone and that the people with whom we work will come from all communities and social backgrounds.
We’ve come a long way in the last few years – and there’s still further to go. We’ve reviewed our purpose, we’ve focused on understanding the impact we have and, through evaluating it, where we need to focus more. We’ve done a great deal to improve how our Board works and to make sure that we comply with the charity governance code. We’ve re-examined our strategy and made sure we achieve the things that matter to us, our stakeholders and the communities of the UK. We remain one organisation but we’ve responded to the different aspirations of the four national governments and their active travel, climate change, environmental, health and wellbeing priorities in ways that reflect their policies – as well as ours.
We have made the bold decision to say we are here for everyone. That’s easy to say and harder to achieve. It’s not just a matter of scale but fundamentally it’s about living our values and making real our ambition to be inclusive of people of all backgrounds including those who are usually excluded from decision making, such as people with disabilities, people from UK-minority ethnic groups, people of all ages and all genders. We’ve got a long way to go.
Could you help Sustrans get there? I have loved my time as Chair of Sustrans. We have a committed and skilled Board, an inspirational Chief Executive and senior leadership team, great volunteers and expert staff. We need to be more diverse, we need to focus on putting impact, volunteering, fundraising and partnerships at the heart of what we do, and we need to make sure we really are here for everyone.
If you can support Sustrans to get there, have the skills needed for developing strategy and good governance, share our values and our ambitions, do apply. More details are included in this pack.
Lynne Berry, CBE
Chair, Sustrans
Welcome Letter from Xavier Brice, Chief Executive
Thank you for your interest in the position of Chair or Trustee of Sustrans.
Movement is a basic human need. It needn’t be detrimental to how we live, and yet transport is now the single biggest contributor to the UK’s CO2 emissions. For over 40 years ago, the charity has been working with communities and partners across the UK to help transform the way that we travel to create healthier places, and happier lives for everyone.
When I started as CEO over five years ago, climate change was low on the political and public radar, environmental charities were some of the least trusted in our society, and sustainable transport was of fringe and specialist interest. This has changed – and our agenda has never been more relevant. Net zero is now a social and political imperative. The pandemic illustrated the pent-up demand for walking and cycling, brought home how important local place is to all our wellbeing, and starkly evidenced health inequalities.
We are well placed to make a difference. Sustrans has always had a reputation for being a practical organisation. Working with others to deliver change on the ground, shows what works (and what doesn’t) and means that our calls for change are grounded in the art of the possible and achievable. We are trusted as a critical and informed partner by local and national governments across the UK, and are now entrusted with significant public funds to deliver the impact set out in our business plan.
Coming into the third year of our five year strategy we have grown substantially. The value of projects and programmes that we are responsible for has grown by over five-fold since 2016. More importantly, we are much clearer on the impact we want to have, and how to measure this.
But there are big questions ahead.
Right now we are grappling with rapid growth – notably ensuring that we have the organisational infrastructure in place to deliver the change that we want to see, consistently and repeatedly. A challenge compounded by the current economic environment.
Two years ago we stated that we are an organisation that wishes to be ‘for everyone’, explicitly addressing the inequity and disparities that are exacerbated by a car-dependent society. We have made great strides on this in the last few years but still have a way to go.
Looking ahead, we need to ensure that we avoid becoming an adjunct to government – whilst still strongly influencing and shaping public policy and investment; a risk driving in part by the huge relevance of our mission and vision. Bound up with this risk is the need to shift our funding-mix. Our income is predominantly from public-sector grants. We do fundraising but need to become a fundraising organisation, our initial plans here having received a set-back during the pandemic.
Finally, for all our relevance and impact, our voice and reach is not where it needs to be to match our ambition. Sustrans’ strap-line has long been “join the movement”. I believe that we can do far more to create this movement – if you do to, then please come and join us!
Xavier Brice
Chief Executive