By Karen Loftus, CAN Chief Executive

When we think of leadership, we often picture individuals standing at the top of organisations, making decisions from boardroom tables. But over the past year at CAN, we’ve defined leadership differently. True leadership isn’t about standing above others; it’s about standing with them. It is about acting as a trusted system leader that builds bridges, protects grassroots spaces, and amplifies the voices that the wider system too often misses.

The voluntary and community sector isn’t just a safety net for when times get tough. It is the living, breathing heart of our communities. Our role at CAN is to provide the strategic, courageous leadership required to ensure that heart beats healthily and in perfect sync with our statutory partners.

Our 2026 Annual Review is a testament to what systemic, values-driven leadership can achieve. 

Over the past 12 months, CAN has firmly cemented its role as a trusted collective voice for the local voluntary sector. We know that the NHS and our local councils do vital work, but they cannot reach every grassroots corner or completely understand the lived experiences of our diverse communities.

That is where system leadership matters most. We don’t just pass data up the chain; we bring local insight directly to the decision-making tables. This year, CAN championed the sector’s voice on 36 High-Level Strategic Boards. We brought 125 voluntary organisations together across 46 network sessions, capturing frontline realities and carrying those consensus voices directly into rooms where policy is shaped and services are commissioned.

Inclusive leadership means ensuring equity is never an afterthought. We are incredibly proud that 70% of our full member organisations (424 groups) support people with protected characteristics. True leadership means using our platform to champion those who are underrepresented, providing dedicated infrastructure support to 36 Ethnically Diverse Communities (EDC) groups so their voices carry the weight they deserve.

Strategic leadership is about looking at the big picture and designing prevention-first models that relieve acute pressures on the wider system. The numbers from this year prove that our model works.

By scaling our Access to Community Support Services (ACSS) digital directory by 68% to over 2,600 listings, we provided 880 health and care professionals with the ultimate tool to lead their patients to community support. The result? Our place-based partnerships avoided a cumulative year’s worth of hospital days, driving critical cost savings straight back into the NHS.

But a system leader must also protect and nurture its ecosystem. Grassroots ideas are fuelled by passion, but they need solid foundations to survive. CAN has wrapped its arms around nearly 200 local organisations this year—delivering training to over 1,460 attendees, providing governance health checks, and unlocking £211,533 in vital funding to give local leaders the stability they need to focus on what they do best: helping people.

The road ahead: Our leadership priorities

As demand and complexity rise, CAN’s leadership will remain clear, focused, and forward-looking. Moving into the next year, we are prioritising four key leadership directives:

• System Change: Pushing for recognition of the sector’s value on statutory boards, ensuring underrepresented communities influence policy.
• Alliances: Deepening our engagement with the private sector to unlock sustainable resources, shared value, and corporate civic leadership.
• Resilience: Raising the capability baseline for smaller, grassroots groups so they can lead confidently within their own neighbourhoods.
• Volunteering: Elevating volunteering from a nice-to-have asset into a crucial, barrier-free economic and wellness driver for the region.

True leadership is never a solo endeavour. The incredible system impact detailed in this report belongs to our visionary staff, our dedicated trustees, our funders, our Advisory Council and the hundreds of member organisations who lead on the frontline every single day to make our communities fairer, healthier, and a more resilient place to live.

Thank you for standing on the bridge with us, and for trusting CAN to lead the way forward.