Future First Reviews

Future First is the definition of toxic leadership. Senior management have no idea what they’re doing and rule through intimidation, not strategy. The CEO and COO are paid far too much for doing very little. Staff are routinely asked to lie in reports to funders to cover up missed targets. When outcomes aren’t met, the solution isn’t accountability or learning. Long term partnerships fail because the lower level staff turnover is so high and senior leadership don’t retain information. Corruption runs deep. Entire teams were made redundant, only for their roles to be quietly re-advertised as near identical positions but at significantly lower pay. This isn’t just poor practice, it’s unethical and they did it in the knowledge that they could rely on grey areas in employment law to screw over employees. Morale is crushed under the weight of poor leadership decisions. Staff join with passion for social mobility and good intentions, but that energy quickly evaporates when they see how poorly run the organisation truly is. People are often mislead at interview stage. Dedicated, talented employees are burned out or pushed out by lack of culture and support, while senior leadership, whom there are too many of, pretend the boat isn’t sinking.

Chaotic and inexperienced leadership, toxic working culture stemming from top down, very hierarchical structure despite being such a small team, minimal impact on the communities served. Future First attracts really talented well-meaning people because of the mission of the organisation, but staff tend to leave about 6-18 months because they get so disgruntled that they can't take it anymore. This causes extremely high turnover of staff, resulting in work being shuffled around constantly and key stakeholders becoming disgruntled. Overall there are probably worse places to work, but I just really wouldn't recommend bothering with Future First unless you're desperate.