News

Independent social worker Joan Rowland says managerialism has got the better of one leading children's charity

It was with a heavy heart that I read that NSPCC staff were angered by job losses and scrapping of local projects (News analysis, page 18, 29 November). For the majority of my 13 years with the NSPCC until 1998, I considered myself to be fortunate. I was given encouragement to assist in developing services to children and families and I received excellent training. I was surrounded by like-minded professionals who wanted to provide appropriate services to children in need of protection. But that was in the beginning.

When I was first appointed there were no tiers of management and the director operated an open-door policy. Between the director and myself there was one regional manager. In those days, the NSPCC was built on the strength of its front-line workers.

By 1991, I tried to resist the disillusionment that had begun to creep into my daily thinking. I could see growth in the middle and senior management sectors of the organisation while on the front line, teams were being culled. There was an explosion of middle managers, the director became a chief executive, and instead of having one director, eight regional directors replaced him.

I tried to understand the management philosophy. I cast aside my doubts that the word "protection" was no longer appropriate within the title because such thoughts were heresy. True there was growth in the form of a telephone helpline, but I knew what happened to the calls from the public who requested NSPCC intervention. They were passed on to overstretched social services departments for investigation because that was a service that had long since been abandoned by the NSPCC except in those specialist areas where kudos would be gained.

The current chief executive Mary Marsh has inherited a voluntary organisation that has lost its way over the past 10 years. It has become more interested in its own perceived status than the service it was set up to provide.

Like many others, I want to believe in the strength and influence of the NSPCC in child protection services and I look forward to witnessing future positive changes in its strategies. Once I can see this happening, I will willingly become a supporter again but while they continue to cull their direct services, I do not intend to pay the salaries of their over-staffed management tier. Money I put into their tins will be for developing direct services to children. And I feel that I speak for the majority of the public.