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. Our 2025 Annual Report 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 our sector. We know that the NHS and our local Councils do vital work, but they cannot always reach every corner of our diverse communities, so 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 2,530 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 successfully avoided a cumulative year’s worth of hospital days, driving critical cost savings straight back into the NHS.
The system leader must also protect and nurture its ecosystem. Grassroots ideas are fueled by passion, but they need solid foundations to survive. CAN has supported around 200 local organisations this year, delivered training to over 1,460 attendees, and unlocked £211,533 in vital funding to give local leaders the stability they need to focus on what they do best: helping people.
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:
- Change: Pushing for recognition of the voluntary 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, and the hundreds of member organisations who lead on the frontline every single day.
