Welcome

CEO Welcome

I’m so delighted by your interest in the position of Chair for War Child UK. Conflict has dominated our headlines for the last few years – rightly so with the tragic events in Ukraine and in the Middle East. We have also been committed to helping people in forgotten crises such as Afghanistan and Sudan. Support for children has never been more critical – in a world where 473 million children are living in or have fled from conflict.

We are seeking a Chair who understands the international backdrop and is motivated by it. You will play an important part, with me, on holding our counterparts in the War Child Alliance Foundation accountable for what and how we deliver for children. But our role in the UK is to fundraise, communicate and advocate for children. The key role we have to play in the broader Alliance’s success is leveraging funds and engagement from the UK public – and we are going through the process of transition within our board, in terms of skills and composition, to enable our success.

I hope you are motivated by this important mission – and you can bring your considerable experience and expertise to helping our fundraising and engagement agenda. You will see that we leverage some brilliant and creative opportunities – and we want to build on that success. A key pillar of our fundraising strategy from 2021-2025 is around sustainable income growth. We are one of the UK charities that is growing, delivering 13% average growth in revenue over the last 5 years – but we are ambitious to do more, so we can help more children. Especially given the backdrop of governments around the world who are turning their backs on the most vulnerable people.

I think our current staff and board members would say it’s an exciting place to be at War Child. We believe in inspiring supporters about what is possible, in fun and creative ways. You’ll find us in gig venues or art galleries or at one of the many events our impressive and committed suite of ambassadors put on to engage our supporters. We seek our inspiration from the children we work with – and the hope they find when they have been through our programmes.

I am hoping our new Chair will be able to add value to everything we do – to engage in our impressive range of events, to represent us with critical stakeholders and to support me in running the organisation for the Board – so we can realise our ambitious plans for future growth.

Helen Pattinson

CEO, War Child UK

Current Chair Welcome

Thank you for your interest in being the next Chair of War Child UK.

I’ve been Chair for the last five years, helping to facilitate the creation of the new War Child Alliance, enabling us to have a greater impact on the lives of more children in conflict around the world, through working much more closely with other members of the War Child family. With this new platform in place, and now working well, and a new executive leadership team settled into their roles, I think it is now time for me to hand over to a new Chair who can help to steer the organisation onto a new phase of growth and impact.

War Child UK, and the wider War Child family is very special. The work we do is different. War Child focusses on the human dimension of a conflict disaster.  We look beyond the food and water issues to understand how children experience a catastrophic loss of family, of home, of security and of hope. And whilst the mainstream humanitarian response focusses on adult needs, a child’s need for education, and for protection from acute vulnerability, is only recently recognised as being of crucial importance.

This is an area where huge innovations are required to find the answers to some big questions.  How to stop children being drawn into militia groups, how to deliver psychosocial support at scale. How to provide education when schools are destroyed or occupied by armed groups. War Child is a hub of innovation and research where new ideas are developed and tested.

This is a powerful issue which the UK public respond to. People understand the importance of what we do at a basic emotional level – which helps to explain why we have grown so quickly in the past few years and why we are so ambitious for what we can achieve in the future.

We are clear about our mission and brave enough to imagine a way of building a global NGO network based on collaboration between fundraisers in wealthy countries and practitioners and civil society in conflict affected countries.

In January 2024, we formed the War Child Alliance, pooling our programme resources to form a shared programme platform which will be governed in partnership with civil society in conflict affected countries. The role of  War Child UK is to fundraise, communicate and advocate to the UK public – the new Chair will oversee the executive team in their drive and ambition to mobilise thousands of people, and millions of pounds, as part of a global effort to make sure that every child can access the support when war tears their lives apart.

At War Child UK you will find a creative and dynamic team. A strong group of committed supporters. A set of inspirational Ambassadors who share in our mission and go well beyond the normal expectations of what charity Ambassadors can do. You will also meet a thoughtful and ambitious Board who are skilled at holding the executive to account whilst supporting them to reach further and go faster.  Your success, and ours, will be based on the strength of relationships – with our teams, with our donors and with your colleagues in other parts of the War Child Alliance. Just as we expect the best for the children and families we work with, we expect the best from ourselves as we support each other to better achieve our mission.

Thanks again for your interest in the role.

John Fallon
Chair, War Child UK