Barnardo's Chief Executive
Martin Narey
Martin Narey, Chief Executive of Barnardo’s, has previously worked as Director General of the Prison Service, Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service and a Permanent Secretary at the Home Office. When running prisons he was widely recognised for his commitment to transforming and motivating prison staff, and for his clarity of vision and determination to drive through improvements in the way in which prisoners were treated. He established the Decency Agenda in prisons, which led to significant improvements in prison conditions.
Martin graduated in 1977 from what was then Sheffield Polytechnic and began his career in the Health Service. In 1982, he resigned to train as a prison governor. He worked in a local prison, a borstal and a top security prison before taking a number of posts in Whitehall. He was appointed as the youngest ever Director General of the Prison Service in 1998.
He has a deep and passionate concern for disadvantaged young people. It is this thread which brought him to Barnardo’s, which works with more than 100,000 disadvantaged children and young people with a staff of around 6,900 and 11,000 volunteers.
Martin joined Barnardo's in October 2005 and has led it through a period of sustained growth and succeeded in significantly improving its influencing capacity. There have been major achievements in changing government policy on issues such as children in care, asylum seeking children and the supervision of child sex offenders. But the campaigning priority for Barnardo’s has been child poverty. To this end, Martin chairs the End Child Poverty Coalition.
In 2004, shortly before leaving the Civil Service, Martin was the recipient of the Chartered Management Institute’s Gold Medal for leadership, a prestigious annual award recognising a single individual. Martin was the first public sector recipient of the medal for 10 years. He has Honorary Doctorates from Sheffield Hallam and Teesside Universities and is a visiting Professor at Sheffield Hallam.
We asked Martin a few questions to get to know him better…
Q. What do you think is special about Barnardo’s
A. ‘The commitment and the passion of our staff is the first thing that impressed me when I joined Barnardo’s but also the sheer diversity of what Barnardo’s does. It’s the fact that in a single day, I have visited a project dealing with children’s rights to one dealing with disability inclusion, to one dealing with supporting young people leaving care. I really love the way that Barnardo’s meets local needs.’
Q. What are your main goals for Barnardo’s and where does your passion for the organisation come from?
A. 'My goal is for us to be seen, unequivocally, as the leading UK children’s charity. As for passion? It’s easy in an organisation like this!'
Q. What is the most fundamental aspect of helping children?
A. ‘The most fundamental aspect of helping children is sticking with them. When they let you down – as they will, time and time again - hang in there and help them to sort their lives out and stop what is often the inevitable drift into social exclusion. It’s a long term process and young people have got to know that you will always be there for them in the same way as we are always there for our own children.’
Q. What motivates you?
A. 'It is when you see staff that take the vision of an organisation and, in their day to day work, convey that vision into reality. I’m not a great person for very detailed prescriptive business plans. And the conviction of people here leads me to believe we can make things happen with direction from the centre rather than prescription from the centre.'
Q. What is your favourite childhood memory?
A. 'Christmas Eve running into Christmas morning. Being the eighth of nine children, Christmas mornings were magical.'
