CONTEXT 184 : JUNE 2025 45 and letting them operate more at arms length from the institute. With the benefit of hindsight, I can now see critical problems with such ‘delegated enabling’. Indeed, they were best demonstrated some years later when we dipped our toe in one popular trend for professional bodies: supporting access to accreditation advice through a volunteer network of mentors. Alongside a pilot exploration, a review of the risk profile of any mentor programmes highlighted their threats, both for the IHBC generally and, especially, our board. Our training of mentors would have to be dangerously under-resourced, while the cost of managing attendant risks, including the appropriate care of mentees, could be neither justified nor covered. Instead, we moved on and focused on refining our celebrated Membership Accreditation Training Event (MATE) programme, beginning with a small pilot that I devised to run with Aberdeen City Council. Apart from the wider MATE legacy, this has had the especially satisfying outcome of helping secure IHBC accreditation for many of those volunteering to lead our 2022 Aberdeen School. The next stage of the MATE’s evolution is even better, as we have devised a scheme that will allow for more flexible access options for members seeking IHBC accreditation in ways that suit them. These may be local events hosted by local leads or more flexible, free online sessions for those in facing more challenging circumstances or employers. The MATE’s evolution captures well how our bumpy ride on the CapacityBuild track inspired more successful support structures than it actually established in itself. Another case lies in the modernisation of our Articles, where that paper’s support for volunteers’ independence has segued into a catch-all of memberled constitutional working groups. These encompass almost all tiers of our governance outside those specifically identified in the Articles (of board and council) and easily encompass and support the flexible ad hoc networks of likeminded individuals with a specific, action-based agenda, as envisaged in CapacityBuild. Our business model has improved too. In that same spirit we have added new support for our volunteers and their work. Most obviously in recent years we have increased branch funding. Direct branch support for targeted training has improved. This is largely due to our CPD Branch Partnership, which, after nearly a decade of planning and piloting, is now fully operational. It provides flexible funding and expertise, specifically targeting hard-toaccess and priority training and learning via our branches. More recently, our branch consultant support service means that each IHBC branch committee now has access to an allocated consultant, contactable by a dedicated email address. They are there to help and advise on how best to take advantage of the IHBC’s national office, resources, services and networks, and in arrangements to add capacity in critical areas from events to branch management. This evolving service is expanding, but for now will remain focused on branch committees, managed through the national office – and on myself in the first instance for now, as the initiative develops. So please pass on any thoughts and suggestions on how this programme can help more. The CapacityBuild paper did deal with lots more, but it failed to encompass the other half of the volunteer management challenge. Perhaps that is the even more critical one too, as we are trying even harder to address it today: how we celebrate volunteers’ work. This is evident too in our council, the constitutional structure we developed to focus support for volunteer training and capacity-building. It is also fast becoming the route to celebrating our volunteers. Our most recent council in London’s Charterhouse, as a hybrid event, offered a suitable national foundation for future commendations and thanks. We thanked our departing president Mike Brown, as he moved to become immediate past president, and welcomed another enthusiastic volunteer, and an invaluable new boost to our corporate profile, Rebecca Thompson. We also welcomed a new player at national level, Torsten Haak, whose international networks should help expand our own. I am now looking to plug another gap in CapacityBuild, seeking suggestions on how we might better celebrate our volunteers. We celebrate them through partnerships such as the Marsh Awards, and we are especially delighted that this year our esteemed member Carole Ryan receives the Community Contribution Award (for her wider role in the community benefits she has brought, not specifically for her contributions to the IHBC’s charitable work). One thought that came to the recent board is for a IHBC Lifetime Achievement Award, for which there are so many deserving candidates. Do let me know if you have any suggestions on this long-standing challenge. Seán O’Reilly, director@ihbc.org.uk
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