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Key Topics
Case Study:
The Silver Line
The Silver Line is a UK charity and Company limited by guarantee. It is a free helpline providing information, advice and friendship for older people.
Brief History
The idea of a helpline for older people was initially created and founded by Dame Esther Rantzen (in response to her own personal experience of loneliness).
In February 2012 The Minister of State for Care Services hosted a round table seminar (chaired by Dame Esther Ranzten). Many representatives from voluntary and statutory organisations were present and supportive of the idea. The Department of Health provided an initial grant to pilot the scheme. This successful pilot was later undertaken in 2012 by CEO Sophie Andrews and evaluated by the Centre for Social Justice. Following the pilot, The Silver Line was awarded a £5 million grant in 2013 by The Big Lottery Fund and another £5 million in 2015.
Currently The Silver Line has 3,000 volunteers and receives approximately 10,000 calls per week from older adults.
(The Silver Line 2016)
Tasks In order to answer the following tasks, you will need to undertake further research on ‘The Silver Line’
In a report format (Part A)
1. Discuss the Corporate Governance, mission, vision and stakeholders of The Silver Line.
2. Evaluate The Silver Line’s organisational structure.
(Part B)
Imagine that The Silver Line would like to use some of their £5 million grant to expand their services to provide home care support (only in the London area). You have been asked as an external Consultant to provide your opinion.
3. Conduct an environmental analysis to analyse the viability of this expansion (it is expected that you will conduct a PEST or PESTLE.
4. Suggest recommendations for managing this expansion.
This report covers the external & internal environment, and resources surrounding Silver Line UK. The core emphasis lies in the strategy planned & involved in key analyzing company’s strength & competence.
The Silver Line UK was established to support lonely and isolated older people. With a trained staffs it provides care which supports free laugh & cry through helpline. Silver UK with key vision to serve more & expand in a new place, the funds utilized from the clients & other donors should be well aligned with the vision & mission of the organization. A PESTLE analysis was done in the new area ‘London Borough of Haringay’ for Silver UK to set up.
The Silver Line Organization is a charity serves isolated elderly in the UK accessible seven days a week, 24 hours a day. As a background Silver UK is a charity which offers a free confidential telephone helpline which provides support, care, guidance, offering information & friendship to older people in the United Kingdom. It is limited by guarantee. It was established on the foundation of helping & providing a free consult to older people who are lonely & has no one to take care off. Since the organization is a charity types hence operational & communication with the board of trustees to the clients to stakeholders & community needs to serve long term perspective goals. The fundraised through the client or via public has to be judiciously used while expanding in a new city or division. In-depth analysis was done on London Borough of Haringay to conclude if the expansion plans of Silver UK is sustainable & viable from a long term perspective.
Silver UK helpline was established on the below objectives & aims:
To be best available helpline which provides solace to older people
To provide healthy support & advice
Requested callers to be redirected to the local groups
Offer information & regular friendship calls and services
To guide & protect those who fall in an abuse trap and feel neglected
To offer free laughs, cries, share sorrows, misery & provide a breakthrough for elders who are imprisoned with emotions
To recruit more people/trained staff that could do counsel, guide & do a brief, continuous weekly/routinely follow ups with the older people to make them emotionally stable & spread happiness.
The identified callers for a better resolution will directed to organizations such as Contact the Elderly, Samaritans, WRVS or the Townswomen's Guild.
Esther Rantzen after the death of her husband felt aloof , lonely & understood the misery of millions of similar aged people. To support such cause she first established ChildLine for lonely & depressed Childs in 1986. Later in her life stages she also wrote the despair & grief of lonely old age elders who could do not share have anyone to share their emotions & are left to grief. It was described as creepy which loses one confidence.
Rantzen and MP Burstow are listed among the trustees of The Silver Line helpline & the CEO of The Silver Line is Sophie Andrews. The helpline is a charity registered in the UK under registration no. 1147330.
The Silver Line was launched nationally on 25 November 2013 with a funding of £5 million by the Big Lottery Fund to provide services to needy people. It was widely prompted through media, Open with a 24 hours service to counsel & help isolated old age.
Surveys was done to check effectiveness & initially 11,000 calls recorded in just 2 weeks & touched a millionth call this year. Through telephone chat services volunteers/staff were able to elude 84% of old age loneliness.
The Silver Line was established to on strong grounds governed by board of trustees & it was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee. It is registered as a charity in England and Wales on 18 May 2012 and its registered number is 1147330. The Silver Line Helpline Enterprises Limited was formed as a trading subsidiary and incorporated at Companies House in August 2014 (The Centre for Social Justice, 2013). CEO, small staff & trustees regularly meet to determine the strategic direction, operations, issues/tasks handled by the Charity. They decide budgeting, planning & risks mapped while handling routine, important tasks/issues in parameters with the framework set by board meetings. It gets approved by each member within the governing body, CEO, staff & by finance and governance subcommittees. The Finance and Governance Committee & Remuneration Committee measures risk & litigation while mapping monthly/weekly financial reports, reviewing new/old budgets, financial controls and judging the objectives set out in the Charity’s business plan.
Vision – To become best-known helpline for older people (Dugdale&Lyne, 2010).
Mission – The objectives for which the Charity to support & counsel old people unconditionally through financially, medically (The Silver Line, 2016).
Stakeholders – President, founder, staff, volunteers, board of trustees, local authorities & Big lottery Funds. Some potential direct impacts of Silver Line’s service include healthcare savings, less stress for families, personal and professional development for volunteers (Chew & Osborne, 2008).
Inward & Outward communication within an organization strengthens the Charity foundation to function in a market. The Silver Line Organization is a charity serves isolated elderly in the UK accessible seven days a week, 24 hours a day (Silver Line, 2015). Since the organization is a charity types hence operational & communication with the board of trustees to the clients to stakeholders & community needs to serve long term perspective goals. The management along with committees, sub committees formed such as Finance, Governance, remuneration etc. works cohesively & adjacently to support community in which it exists.
To check the fundraising strategy a charitable constitution needs to check its growth and sustainability within an existing community.
Checking internal factors in lieu with the projected goals it is best to check environment, external key capacities to check impact of fundraising. For this one need to assess financial budgeting, strategies, plan things, research things, check prospective competitors & evaluate diversified portfolios. When the Silver Line would like to use their £5 million grant to expand their services to provide home care support one should form an optimum planning outlay & continuously monitor.
To check the viability & sustainability of the Silver Line management should adopt appropriate strategy in line with below highlighted.
Current status (Dugdale&Lyne, 2010) ;
Present revenue/financial strengths
Checking progress of Fundraising activity and skilled employment deployed
Charitable services & develop strategy.
SWOT & PEST Analysis
Analysis of competitors / similar organizations;
Checking peers competitors financial strength & and funding mix
Keeping a tab of their future outlay plans
Comparing with prospecting client
Funding Opportunities and Threats
To develop existing funding sources
New potential funding revenues
In depth research on various grants & fundraising opportunities
To check risks internally/externally blended in line with government policy changes
Recommendations and Action Plan
Developing a priority set strategies
Human skilled employed
Action Plan devised
While initiating a fundraising & putting up an expansion plan on the cards a company should redefine its goals & Objective perspectives & parameters
To achieve success at par with the redefined goals one should check available resources be it concrete/intangible assets & skilled/unskilled labor, funds, infrastructure etc. These should be used judiciously & avoid getting wastage as lot of money gets pumped inside a new expansion.
For the new expansion of Silver UK should do budgeting first in terms of resourcing, staff, campaigning, promotion, legal hassles etc. & then check with the projected/targeted road map set.
Continuous monitoring, planning & checking the allocation of diversified funds should be wisely checked & compare with the projected plans.
While expanding in a new place Silver UK should recruit high skilled labor at a low cost to who could serve people, control the resources & anticipate key challenges beforehand. It should be a mix of trained, unskilled & volunteers to spread wings in a new place through correct strategy adopted in promotion, advertising, word of mouth & various other ways. Conducting initial research, generating leads, following up, handling backend operations and checking weekly & periodically reports etc. are some of the key team functions which management should assign.
With the investment of £5 million grant invested in a new place to expand, management should check the infrastructure, viability & existence of the key resources along with projected road map.
One time investment at a new place & then expanding further, Silver UK should continuously check & keep a tab of prospective deals who could grant more funds & help in expanding in a grand scale.
Internal Board approval, raising funds from friends, relatives, social networks, big & small corporation tie ups for funds, volunteers, current donors, public funding, all should be approached & transparency should be shown through brochures, leaflets, mails, annual reports & one should have a clear cut vision, mission, boards of trustees & management who could execute this planning. Spent time in developing strategies, a story who could connect with more masses & could ideal in describing Silver UK goals.
Devising plans & checking diversified funds allocated during fundraising should be closely reviewed. The board of Trustees and senior management in accordance with through approval of committees/sub committee’s form should understand operational issues, internal/external factors which might hamper key plan devised, new ideas inculcating with goals & planning a vision. Future growth and development needs to assess in accordance with the strategy devised. Different avenues & prospective deals should be wisely evaluated & briefly discussed among the management strategic development.
With a charity amount of £5 million grant Silver Line can devise after analysis it with the PESTLE analysis to check viability within UK.
Because of the political stability in Haringay, be it with the new reforms, plans and policies comes favorable in accordance with the strategy with the Silver UK. Charities needs to be considered where there is a high end goods and services.
Positive
Relatively ‘fair’& stable country and public favors Haringay council & reforms.
Positive proactive government
Politically stable
Negative
Deep downs corruption
New migrants penetrating in the UK country ultimately resulting in new reforms & making it unstable.
Haringay has a favorable economic factors such as stability, bank and domestic interest rates, inflation, employment rates and cost of living (Merac, 2014). All these factors conclude Charity coexistence since people during recessions or economic unviability will not favor such causes and there can be shortage of funds churning. Looking at the current trends Silver UK can expand in Haringay.
Positive
Haringay economy is dominated with the big & small businesses who has employed maximum people within the division.
Stable population with normal growth rate
Diversified economy with both large public and private sectors
More funding & charity will be done by Haringay people.
Negative
Deeply impacted during economic recession
Migrants might get settle due to free economic zone
It includes cultural demographics, social growth, health parameters which is favorable for Silver UK charity to survive & sustain in Haringay current trends.
Positive
Many free public services (e.g. National Health Services)
New migrant’s cheap workforce.
High standard of living
Good education background of Haringay people who will support such cause.
Negative
Old age dependency ratio
New social migrants and ethnic groups
Inflated education costs
Haringay is supportive of including latest innovative ideas, new technology developed which is comparable with the Silver UK goals and parameters. Since charity needs to blend in accordance with the new technologies (Twing, 2006).
Positive
Advance quality innovation skills
Expertise in science and IT
Effective laws with regard to intellectual property
Many leading Research & development institutes in Haringay
Negative
Competitors & price breaking strategies
Various Haringay legal reforms which includes tax policies, labor laws, currency stability, evaluation of export/import flows and restrictions is stable in accordance with the global turmoil. Hence if the Silver UK plans to expand in this new area it can coexist since all the Silver UK corporate governance and strategy devised are as per reforms. Operations needs to be retouched as per NGO regulations as per new Haringay legislations.
Positive
Legal reforms and supportive laws
Haringay people follow laws ethically
As such no criminal or terrorist acts recorded from the Haringay community
Negative
Migrants are new in the economy and hence may create tensions and anti-social groups
Destabilizing economy due to the labor unrest and new protocols
An environmental variation which includes seasonal and climatic again looks favorable for the Silver UK to expand in Haringay. As during environmental instability people will never do charity causes (Ching, 2010).
Positive
Supportive climatic and seasonal changes
Stable population with normal growth rate
Demographic factors supportive to support Silver UK causes
Capital skilled techniques & trained staff which can be used by Silver UK to hire locals.
Negative
Haringay has no natural resources generated except for the free air & water
Is dependent on hired labor skill which comes expensive
In conclusion, the Haringay internal and external factors are favorable in coexistence with the Silver UK. It has a high political stability, strong economy growth, and high innovative technology future, socially viable and supportive environmental standards (ConsumerReports ,2011).
While raising funds the biggest problem from arises in planning a change, strategizing the diversified, allocated funds & integrating all the prime, secondary resources into Silver UK’s goals, vision & mission. Strategy & timeline set has to be parallel assessed with the projected outlay.
Some times its issue of under or over staff, unskilled labour who can handle such sensitive issues with no care, corresponding communication in between internally & external staff, board of trustees, clients , shareholders & customers (Businessworld,2011). Reading the background & history Haringay people they look supportive of the noble cause.
Technology adopted, system enhancements all should be timely upgraded to avoid time lags. Looking at the Haringay community its adaptive to latest infrastructure & technology invents which provide skilled resource to serve Silver UK noble cause.
Silver UK to check parallel set up in new expansion place be it checking routine, surprise process, handling key stakeholders, customers, clients whether its periodically, weekly, every day should be defined & timely checked to avoid lags. For this, Haringay local people will be actual potential recruitment.
Silver UK top management to lower, getting approvals from the board of trustees, committees, sub committees should run in correspondence & act proactively (Koyler, 2009). Looking at the Haringay’s people versatility it will go well with structural outlay of Haringay (Adweek, 2014)..
Choosing London Borough of Haringay as a location for expansion and investing a £5 million grant amount Silver UK can strategically plan and organize its funds.
All London Borough of Haringay key factors such as political stability, economic growth, advance technology, supportive environmental and legal reforms will help Silver UK to expand. Silver UK corporate governance, refined reforms, laws, policies adheres to the UK Government reforms. There corporate structure are in accordance with the reforms. Meetings and minutes of the meetings are all in accordance with the stable government laws.
Since the fundraising is done by Big lottery fund the management/board of trustees should be done in diversified manner. Supporting staff and good services will help in more promotion through word of mouth and spread. Investing in a new area already Silver UK has best technology supporting elderly people. All the key factors will only help Silver UK to expand supportively.
Silver UK internal & external factors easily blends with the Haringay factors (Firstpost, 2013).
Be it with new trained skill set staff employed, new volunteers, infrastructure, innovative technology can be deployed to expand more and support elderly staff.
All the calls done by Silver UK on weekly basis or on a routine basis is done with proper permissions and only after customer is approaching for a resolution in his/her life. Hence, it should not come as a spam calls and only serve purpose of helping, extending support to isolated elderly people be it in Haringay or across any divisions/sub divisions (The Tecake, 2015).
In lieu to new expansion at a new place staff or volunteers helping such cause should do proactive mails or calls only after checking fundraising regulators and other organization.
Since Silver UK has a well-planned strategy, execution plans with defined goals, vision, mission, organizational structure it can easily coexist at a new place London Borough of Haringay.
To serve more people in the new place & used its funds raised through donors & by clients should be judiciously utilized as it is answerable to society & owns onus of responsibility in dispersing of the funds.
London Borough of Haringay has a competitive cost for infrastructure, good environment factors & good janitor to support noble cause of Silver UK to sustain.
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