Trustees for the Mary Ward Settlement
The Mary Ward Settlement
Background Information
October 2013
The Mary Ward Settlement has a proud heritage as part of the settlement movement which developed in the late 19th Century as a response to urban poverty and social problems arising from industrialisation. Mary Ward founded our settlement in 1892 to “provide public education and social service for the benefit of the community” at a time and in an area where great wealth and great deprivation stood side by side, much as they do today. For over 100 years we have provided both access to justice and access to education to people from all over London as well as to the local communities of Holborn and King’s Cross.
Currently the Settlement delivers its services via:
- the Mary Ward Centre – an adult education provider
- the Mary Ward Legal Centre – a legal and debt advice provider.
The Boards are increasingly focusing on how we can draw on the strengths of both activities to improve and develop our service as one Settlement to our students and clients.
Mary Ward Centre
The Mary Ward Centre promotes the ethos of the Settlement by providing an opportunity for a broad education to adults of all backgrounds. We believe that shared access to education is an essential part of a civilised society. With rising unemployment, the challenges faced by migrant communities, an ageingpopulation and increasing recognition of the special needs of people with physical and mental health problems,people need more opportunities to find out how other people think and to gain the companionship and confidence that lifelong learning can provide.
At the Mary Ward Centre our strategy is to provide high quality courses to students who wish to share their enthusiasm to learn, whatever their ability to pay and whatever their background. We offer around 1,000 different courses, all of them part-time, including basic English, maths and IT, health and exercise, art, music, a range of humanities subjects and modern foreign languages. The majority of our courses are non-vocational but we also offer specific employment-related training, including transferable work skills ranging from introductory administrative skills through book-keeping and payroll to project management. We also offer professional qualifications in, for example, community interpreting, childcare, counselling and teacher training. Around 1,000 students take part in our community outreach programme which provides courses in partnership with other voluntary and community sector organisations, designed to attract students who are underrepresented in mainstream adult education or who have specific barriers to learning. Our 2009 Ofsted inspection awarded us four ‘outstanding’ ratings.
We have over 5,000 students from all over London. Many of them need reduced fees and/or financial help towards study. They include people who are low paid, unemployed, homeless, disabled, single parents, older learners and people suffering from depression or loneliness. People from all backgrounds come together to study, which provides a unique opportunity for learning and for communication.
The Centre also runs a very successful outreach programme working with local community organisations to provide education and training for those who have been excluded from mainstream education and who may have had a negative experience of formal education. This programme is particularly aimed at local communities in King’s Cross and Holborn such as the Bangladeshi, Somali and Chinese populations but we add new courses all the time, in
response to need. For example we are currently developing work with Centrepoint for young homeless adults. Many of our outreach students gain the confidence to move on to other courses at the Mary Ward Centre and other colleges.
Mary Ward Legal Centre
The Mary Ward Legal Centre has provided free legal advice to Londoners for over 100 years. Based in the Settlement’s new Holborn building, we have provided specialist advice and representation to over 3,500 clients a year, ensuring the poorest Londoners have had access to specialist help with debt, employment, housing and welfare benefits legal problems. In addition, each week the Legal Centre provides a pro bono legal advice clinic staffed by volunteer lawyers from city firms and chambers. Clients access the Centre’s services via appointments and weekly drop-in sessionsat the Holborn office and 5 outreach sessions across London.
On 1 April 2013, major changes to legal aid were introduced, with the result that the Legal Centre is now able only to provide a much reduced legally aided advice service, limited to housing and certain debt matters. Advice on welfare benefits and most employment matters is now out of scope of legal aid. We are still able to provide some advice toCamden residents on welfare benefits problems as the result of funding provided by the London Borough of Camden. Some more general debt advice is also provided under theCapitalise scheme funded by the Money Advice Service. The Legal Centre faces considerable challenges over the next year in finding a way to continue to help Londoners in need of legal advice within a much reduced funding environment.
Board and Committee Structure
In Summer 2012, the Boards of the Settlement and the Legal Centre decided that they wished to operate in an integrated fashion, meeting together, as they believed that by working together the education and legal centres we could enhance the Settlement’s ability to meet its charitable objectives, with integrated support services and financial management, and drawing on each other's strengths and contacts to develop better provision for our beneficiaries. The two organisations and Boards remain formally legally separate, but a majority of the trustees serve on both Boards. The two Boards hold joint meetings, five or six times a year.
There are four joint Standing Committees, which meet two to five times a year, depending on need :
- Finance
- Audit & Risk
- Governance & Nomination
- Remuneration
Each trustee is expected to be willing to serve on a Standing Committee as well as on the Board. In addition there will occasionally be limited life task groups, to deal with particular issues.
Trustee Person Specification
All candidates must show a commitment to the mission and values of the Mary Ward Settlement and an understanding of and willingness to accept the role and responsibilities of a trustee and a director.
All candidates must be able to demonstrate the following core governance skills:
- ability to think strategically, creatively and for the long-term;
- knowledge of and ability to discharge the core responsibilities of being a charity trustee;
- willingness and ability to commit the time to the Boards as indicated below;
- willingness and ability to serve on appropriate formal and informal committees/advisory groups relating to specific processes, functions or projects;
- willingness and commitment to being an effective ambassador and ‘influencer’ for the Settlement
Skills, knowledge and experience
Essential
Commitment to the mission and values of the Settlement
Strategic perspective and vision
Excellent analytical skills
Excellent communication skills
Networking skills
Experience, preferably at senior level, of organisational leadership
Experience of governance (for example as a Board director and/or trustee)
Preferred or highly desirable skills and experience
Leadership
Change management
Chairing and/or facilitating meetings
Creative thinking
Evaluation of performance and quality assurance
Role Description
The Boards have agreed the following role for trustees:
a)approve the mission and strategic direction of the charity (this includes generating ideas which reflect knowledge of the external environments and communities that trustees come from);
b)scrutinise performance of the Settlement in the context of strategy;
c)hold the Warden, and through the Warden, the senior executives to account for progress in translating strategies into action and results;
d)exercise their fiduciary responsibilities and duties of care;
e)assure themselves of compliance with relevant regulatory regimes;
f)secure the right Warden (chief executive) and senior executives;
g)act as ambassadors for the charity and company; and
h)be reflective about their own performance as a Board.
The Board has the authority to direct the activities of the Settlement, and to exercise all powers of the Settlement that are not required to be exercised by one or other charity-company in general meeting. In turn, the two Boards, working together and separately, delegate to the Warden authority to manage the settlement.
(Boards guidelines as agreed 5 December 2012)
Time commitment and nature of involvement
Trustees are expected to attend five or six Board meetings a year (which last between 2 and 3 hours and currently take place at our central London office from 6.15-8.15 pm on a weekday evening). We expect trustees to be willing and able to serve on a Standing Committee (see background document) and also between them to support and attend a reasonable number of Settlement events (for example AGMs, exhibitions, concerts, receptions, lectures). In addition, trustees must be willing and able to read and reflect on Board and committee papers in advance of meetings.
Terms of office
The term of office is three years. A second consecutive term may be served on the recommendation of the Governance & Nomination Committee if a trustee is considered to have been effective and useful in the first one. The intention is to balance independence and fresh insights and ideas with knowledge and experience of the Mary Ward Settlement.
Preparation, attendance and contribution
Trustees are expected to prepare for, attend, and contribute meaningfully to all Board meetings and Standing Committee meetings, in order to discharge their obligations.
Confidentiality
Consistent with fiduciary duties, Trustees are expected to maintain strictly the confidentiality of the deliberations of the Boards and their committees.