Every Childhood is Worth Fighting for: Sir Peter Wanless, CEO NSPCC with Jonathan Bowman-Perks

157. Sir Peter Wanless – CEO NSPCC

Peter has been CEO at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children since 2013. Under his leadership, through challenging financial and operational times for an organisation that relies overwhelmingly on voluntary donations, the NSPCC has played a central role in efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect. Impact is achieved by operating and drawing on innovative services including Childline, through advice and support for families, and through its campaigning work, most recently around designing child protection into the online world where young lives are increasingly spent.
 

Peter was previously CEO at the Big Lottery Fund, distributing hundreds of millions of pounds to charities and community groups. Prior to that, he had a distinguished Civil Service career at the Departments for Education, Employment and the Treasury, working closely with Ministers from across the political spectrum. 

Peter is a trustee at the 5Rights Foundation, is on the steering group for the Government’s National Leadership Centre and is a committee member at Somerset County Cricket Club. He attributes his strong sense of moral purpose to his mother and love of cricket to his father. He received a knighthood for services to children and charity in the 2021New Year’s Honours List 

His leadership tip – you are always on display and can bring energy to any situation. Positive energy tends to achieve more, whatever the context. 

NSPCC – “We’re the leading children’s charity in the UK, specialising in child protection and dedicated to protecting children today to prevent abuse tomorrow. We’re the only UK children’s charity with statutory powers, which means we can take action to safeguard children at risk of abuse.

Our vision

Together, we can stop child abuse and neglect. Through the collective power of our staff, volunteers, supporters and partners, and our 100 years of experience; we will move closer to achieving that goal.

Working together

We couldn’t have created this strategy on our own. We spoke to many people – staff, volunteers, young people, external stakeholders and more – to decide how we can build on what we’ve already achieved, and what to do next. Together, we decided to work towards three impacts for children.

The difference we want to see by 2031

We have three areas of focus from 2021 onwards, these are ways we want to impact children in the next ten years. We must focus on these to make the most progress towards our overall vision, to stop child abuse and neglect.

Each of the impact goals below contribute something different. On their own they will see us make significant and necessary changes for children. Together they will build on each other and have a huge impact on children’s lives. “