Richard Litchfield talks to Fozia Irfan OBE, Director Children & Young People, BBC Children in Need

In November 2022, the BBC Children in Need appeal raised over £35m to help children all over the UK thrive and be the best that they can be, a fantastic result during these difficult times.
In this conversation between Richard Litchfield, CEO of Eastside Primetimers and Fozia Irfan, Director of Children and Young People at BBC Children in Need they cover a wide range of topics including:

1. Fozia’s background and why she chose to take the role at BBC Children in Need
2. The new Children in Need strategy which came about after the COVID pandemic and was based on an extensive consultation. The strategy includes a remit to continue to be a broad-based funder (including funding core costs) but also to use their position as the only charitable funder that is part of the BBC to become a much more proactive leader in the social sector to bring about social change in areas including child poverty and child mental health
3. Harnessing the wisdom and intelligence of children and young people in what BBC Children in Need does and the decisions it makes
4. The Cost of Living Crisis and its impact on the resilience and financial position of charities across the UK
5. The lessons that funders such as BBC Children in Need learned during the COVID pandemic that have enabled them to do things differently for the benefit of their benefciaries
6. How the Foundation sector can work together to address inequalities
7. The challenges of diversity in the charitable sector, for example around ethnicity within boards
8. The pace of change within the charitable sector.

“Our shift towards funding core costs is really fundamental because it recognises that we cannot expect organisations to work with children and young people and just find project costs and survive hand to mouth, project to project. If we want to make the sector thrive and be strong we need to fund the organisations themselves.”

“We’re living through constant change.” “Change is our new constant, it’s challenging but it’s also exciting.”