Carnegie’s approach was to set a challenging and widely drawn task as a framework and leave those on the ground at the time to decide how to achieve it. The flexibility that he has allowed each new generation of Trustees means that his legacy is a sustainable one. Every five years the Trust steps back and decides what approach is most appropriate to the world that it is living and working in.
A few months ago the Trustees undertook just such a re-evaluation. As a result, at the beginning of this year we began implementing a new strategic plan. Central to it is the distinction between our policy development work – changing minds – and our work to take policy into practice – changing lives.
Within the policy work we have set out three broad themes for our work: People and Place, Knowledge and Culture, and Enterprise and Society.
Already, within People and Place, we have commissioned a study into the role of the Third Sector in delivering future health and social care. Our new Carnegie Fellow, Blair Jenkins, is undertaking an assessment of future patterns of news and journalism under the Knowledge and Culture umbrella; while we have been brought together a roundtable to experts to assess how we can measure economic success in a way that makes measures such as Gross Domestic Product meaningful and usable.
Two aspects of our past programmes are being taken forward as part of our practice work. The Trust continues to play a central role in Community Land Trusts while the work on a Rural ‘Community of Practice’ continues to evolve. You will also notice that the Carnegie UK Trust website has been refreshed.
The Carnegie UK Trust Board and staff are at the centre of all this new and continuing work. In the coming weeks, to meet the new challenges, they will be joined by a new policy team.