New Trussell Trust director appointed
Helen Barnard joins the charity
Salisbury-based food bank charity the Trussell Trust have named Helen Barnard as their new Director of policy, research, and impact.
Trust CEO Emma Revie said: “Helen brings with her a high degree of expertise, a wealth of experience in the anti-poverty sector, and a values-driven approach to leadership, all of which will be key as we launch new advocacy campaigns and publish the findings of Hunger in the UK, our largest ever research project.”
Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, Ms Barnard said ahead of starting her new role: “More and more people can’t afford essentials. We need to do something else.
“If people are falling into a river, there comes a point where you don’t just pull them out, you go upstream and work out why so many people are falling in this river and how do we prevent it?”
Ms Barnard joins from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a charity with which the Trussell Trust launched the “Guarantee Our Essentials” campaign at the end of February.
The campaign calls on the Government to enshrine in law a process that guarantees Universal Credit payments meet the cost of essential items after research found that there is currently a £35 weekly shortfall between the basic level of Universal Credit and the cost of essential items.
It is estimated that nine million families across the UK would benefit from an Essentials Guarantee.
Ms Barnard also published a book in 2022, called ‘Want’ that looks at the root causes of, and possible solutions to, UK poverty.
“The conclusion that I came to was that all our public services were designed to solve one problem and now they are having to solve a different one.
The NHS, for example, we needed it for mass immunisations and to patch people up from industrial or war injuries. The trouble is today that we need to deal with much more complicated, longer-term problems like mental health.
The NHS was never designed to do that.”
Barnard added that the current system had achieved an “enormous” amount but needed updating to “catch up” with the support people need.