Third Sector

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Charmaine Griffiths, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, to reflect on the voluntary sector’s female-dominated workforce and the challenges facing women on their path to senior leadership positions.Charmaine stresses her conviction that charities need to be representative of the communities they exist to support. She describes heart disease as a disease of inequality, reflected in the fact that only one in eight cardiologists are women. She acknowledges that more work needs to be done to level the professional playing field for women and minority groups within the voluntary sector, but warns there are few quick fixes to effect the necessary culture changes.Also in the episode, news editor Andy Ricketts recounts how an appeal led by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations to uplift public service contracts as costs rise appears to have fallen on deaf ears at the Treasury.Do you have stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better tha