I am delighted to be here today to acknowledge that Scope are the 2018 winners of #wcoctwf. The World Cup of Charities to Work For! – a Twitter poll of 32 major charities in the UK.

It was a tremendously exciting competition, even though it was basically just touching a screen to vote.
The final – Scope versus Islamic Relief Worldwide – captured the imagination of its staff, past and present, and this turned into a great competition. In the final, Scope won with an impressive 2125 votes, beating Islamic Relief Worldwide 78%-22%.

I am pleased that Scope won for a few reasons: professionally, personally and also ethically.

I was professionally pleased as Scope has been a regular client of The Right Ethos over the years, and the other finalist had not.

I was also personally pleased because of the connection of two births. In 2006, I worked at Scope in Market Road for three months on a short-term contract. It was during my time here that I started planning The Right Ethos. I left Scope in 2007, the same month that I registered my company and so The Right Ethos was born. My wife, Catherine, was already working at Scope as a full-time employee when I arrived and it was across the desks at the offices that she gave me a nod of her head to confirm that she was pregnant with our daughter.

But I am also really pleased that Scope has won from an ethos perspective. From my understanding of the recent changes of Scope, it is now focussing on its core activity of gaining long-term and real change for disabled people. While other charities empire build and measure success in terms of size, Scope appears to be focussed on success in terms of improving the lives of disabled people by concentrating on a quality of opportunity. For me, this shows that Scope has The Right Ethos.

And I am sure this is a major reason why Scope has won the World Cup of Charities to Vote For!