Member Chief Executive Resources

From rising financial pressures and workforce redesign to growing collective advocacy and shared problem‑solving, this snapshot captures the key issues shaping the sector. Drawing on live CEO conversations, it offers a concise pulse check on emerging challenges, priorities and opportunities.

We welcomed Simon Bottery from The King’s Fund to update members on their new Social Care 360 report.

Welcome to the latest edition of CEO Connect — VODG’s new newsletter created exclusively for our member chief executives.

We’re excited to announce that the first meeting of the new Yorkshire and Humber CEO Peer Group is currently being arranged and will take place at St Annes Community Centre.

This resource has been created to give chief executives a clear, strategic window into the issues, conversations and collective expertise emerging across our CEO community.

The session covered major financial and policy pressures facing health and social care. Richard Sagar outlined rising costs, income challenges, and economic trends affecting charities, while James Bullion invited contributions to the LGA’s adult social care consultation.

This month’s CEO breakfast explored key policy changes, workforce and immigration pressures, NHS restructuring, and VCSE sector strengths, with members sharing insights and agreeing actions including case study contributions and feedback on emerging VCSE principles.

This new resource has been created to give chief executives a clear, strategic window into the issues, conversations and collective expertise emerging across our CEO community.

The report benchmarks members' existing systems and provide valuable insights into the specific software applications across various operational models.

We are sharing a detailed table below outlining the various considerations and potential paths forward that are currently being evaluated.

Many VODG members have established trading subsidiaries for the purposes of contracting with local authorities to enable the reclaiming of VAT. This has been done independently following their own professional advice and decision-making processes.

Subject to sufficient funds being raised, VODG will appoint Philip Middlewood to make direct contact with relevant senior people within local authorities. He will explain and persuade on the benefits of changing how they contract with member organisations on behalf of named VODG members.

We held a short online briefing meeting for CEOs and FDs to learn more about the ongoing work around VAT Novation. The meeting was supported by Philip Middlewood, Project Director and VODG member CEOs.

Please be aware that this resource is exclusively accessible to members who contributed to the initial survey. Should you encounter any difficulties or have any questions regarding the access process, please feel free to reach out to us; we are here to assist you.

Stephen Veevers, CEO of Hft, gave a presentation on his organisation's VAT recovery journey, discussing the factors to consider when embarking on such a path, and considering the risks and benefits of VAT novation.

In June 2024, VODG member chief executives agreed to share their major incident reports and business continuity plans within the group. We have compiled the documents here for our CEOs' reference.

A discussion on experiences of inspection, its impacts and effects.

VODG member chief executives met to discuss executive pay and rewards, and to explore if a shared mandate exists for a short benchmarking exercise. This note also seeks to confirm the scope.

Subsequent to the meeting, we have compiled a summary of the conversation and proposed ideas for potential future actions based on current initiatives.

Attached are the two presentations, outlining some of the challenges and opportunities around VAT novation and a summary of the results from our FOIA to councils at the end of last year.

To support senior colleagues involved in contract negotiations with funders, this interactive and activity-based event used interactive drama with professional actors to explore new ways of negotiating with and influencing commissioners.

VODG directors and senior colleagues were invited to join us for these interactive online sessions hosted by VODG corporate partners and international law firm Trowers & Hamlins. For part one of this two part event, we considered how we can negotiate a satisfactory contract. In part two, we considered ways to persuade councils to change their position using public law arguments.

Part of a series of bespoke workshops and webinars for chief executives and senior managers, run over Autumn 2023. These events harnessed the expertise of expert trainers in an innovative way to support our members.