The UK government looks set to offload or even abandon its flagship
corporate responsibility organization, the CSR Academy, which has been
in cold storage for six months.
The academy, established in 2004 to promote CSR training in Britain,
has been inactive since last summer when its project director, Andrew
Dunnett, left to become head of the Vodafone Group Foundation. No
successor has been appointed, and EP understands that the trade and industry department, which runs the academy, may hand it over to a non-profit group.
Official partner organizations of the academy have told EP
it has all but hit the buffers, and that its entire future could be in
doubt. ‘There’s no real energy or political commitment behind the CSR
Academy any more,’ said a senior figure from one partner body. ‘The
whole thing is moribund and it’s not going anywhere.’
Another said: ‘It’s just a very confused picture. There is no clarity
about the future at all.’ Observers say the academy has become a low
priority at the ministry and has lacked political patronage since the
former CSR minister Stephen Timms, who set it up, left his post. ‘It
was very much seen as his baby and now that he’s gone all the energy
has been lost,’ said one source.
With nobody at the helm, responsibility for day-to-day administration
has passed through the hands of various civil servants, who have had
little time to deal with it.
At its height the academy ran dozens of master-classes, roadshows and
other events to introduce the elements of responsible business practice
to company employees in all departments. In its first year 2000
companies registered to use its framework, which outlines the skills
and competencies required by managers and staff with CSR
responsibilities, and more than 1000 companies participated in training
or regional events. All that activity appears to have stopped, and no
new information has been posted on the academy website since July 2006.
Jane Leavens, of the ministry’s sustainable development and regulation
directorate, said her department was ‘in the process of finalizing
arrangements for the future of the academy’ and that an announcement
might be made this month. She would not comment on the possibility of
the academy being hived off.
Sue Slipman, the former CSR director at Camelot who chaired a
government working group that recommended setting up the academy, said
she was concerned. ‘It would be fine to mothball the academy if its job
has been done, but I suspect this is not the case,’ she said.
‘Perhaps CSR practitioners should be questioning whether the existing
ministers have any real commitment to corporate responsibility and if
they don’t, then perhaps it is time for them to explain exactly what
their vision is for future business practice and behaviour in the UK.’
