Trustees

Candidate brief

January 2017

Welcome from the Chair

January 2017.

Dear Applicant

Thank you for your interest in the position of Trustee at Contact a Family.

Contact a Family is successful and financially stable with excellent links to parents and families, and other key stakeholders from across the UK.

Following a period of change with a new Chief Executive joining in 2014 and, with substantial improvements to our internal processes and overall reach to families, the charity has embarked on an exciting and ambitious new strategy. We aim to continue to build on this positive work to make even more of an impact and reach greater numbers of families throughout Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England with our wide range of online, telephone and face to face services, which provide vital information, support and advice for families with disabled children.

We are looking fora new Trusteewith knowledge and experience of Northern Ireland. We operate across all four countries and therefore aim to recruit trustees from each country within the UKto ensure we have balanced and representative Board of Trustees. The person appointed will join a highly motivated and effective Board committed to making Contact a Family as successful as it can be.

A key requirement of the role is the time commitment to support the organisation effectively and we are seeking individuals who can commit to attendance at Board and sub-committee meetings.

I hope you find all the information you need in this pack.

If you believe you have the skills and qualities we are seeking, we very much look forward to hearing from you.

Paul Streets

Chair of Contact a Family.

About Contact a Family

Across the UK, a child is diagnosed with a severe disability every 25 minutes. Although some children need hospital care, 98% of disabled children live at home with a parent or other family member who may not have expected to be in this position, but who has quickly had to become an expert.

Finding out a child has a disability is overwhelming and isolating. Families can feel anxious, scared, guilty and alone as they face a daunting task of finding answers and support in a world they did not know existed.

Contact a Family is the only UK-wide charity providing advice, information and support to the families of all disabled children – nomatter what their disability or health condition. We also enable families to get in contact with other families, both on a local and national basis through support groups and support networks.

We also seek to influence public policy across the four nations of the UK to improve the lives of all families with disabled children.

Contact a Family’s strategic vision is that families with disabled children feel valued and are strong, confident and able to make the decisions that are right for them.

Our strategic objectives are:

  1. To develop a sustainable business model to expand our service offer so that we can support more families to be confident, informed and able to access the support they need.
  2. Enable more families to receive and provide peer support to each other by increasing access to groups or networks
  3. Enable families to give back to other families by developing a sense of commitment to, and a relationship with Contact a Family
  4. Secure changes in awareness, policy and service provision that support families with disabled children to be as stable, happy and secure as other families
  5. Ensure all our resources (people, policies, processes, systems and premises) support the efficient delivery of the charity’s strategy.

Over all the work we do, Contact a Family aims to ensure families with disabled children feel valued, and are strong, confident and able to make the decisions that are right for them.

Recent highlights

  • In recent months we have secured significant funding to continue and grow our key services. Our turnover this year remains similar to previous years. We are a financially stable organisation with a clear fundraising strategy and a strong fundraising team who raise resources from across the UK from a wide variety of statutory and non statutory sources.
  • Through our helpline we support over 10,000 different people a year. Results from the Contact a Family Helpline evaluation survey that takes place every 6 months give a consistent overall satisfaction rating of 98%.
  • 802,000 people visited our website in the past year, 4,240 families attended our events and fun days and 10,229 parent carers attended our workshops and training events.
  • We reached 78,000 parents through our parent participation work
  • Contact a Family is a key player and driver of a range of campaigning alliances across the UK both within the children’s disability field and within related areas of public policy such as poverty and family relationship breakdown. We have regular access to government ministers across all four countries and other influential decision makers.

How are we funded?

Most of our money comes from statutory grants, the Big Lottery Fund or charitable trusts. Following the adoption of a new fundraising strategy, we have begun actively developing unrestricted funding, particularly from corporate and major donorsand community fundraisingactivities. This work is at an early stage.

How big a charity is Contact a Family?

Contact a Family is a small to medium sized charity. Our regular annual turnover is approximately£5 million. We employ 130 staff but have a significant number of committed volunteers. We have teams who are based across different countries and regions of the UK and a mix of home based and office based staff.

In Northern Ireland.

In Northern Ireland we have a small team of staff comprising of three people. Our office base is in Belfast situated at 63-75, Duncairn Gardens. Lindsay Wallace is our Manager in Northern Ireland and she line manages two Family Worker colleagues who are based in the Northern Health Trust area.

Our current funding in Northern Ireland comes from the Northern Health Trust, Department of Health and different trusts.

Our current trustee from Northern Ireland Colin Harper is standing down after 6 years of serving on the Board. Colin will be will be available as part of the induction process for the new trustee when appointed. It is hoped to recruit the new trustee during the late winter/ early spring period of 2017 so that a full introduction to Contact a Family can take place.

The trustee appointed will have regular contact with the Contact a Family manager in Belfast.

Further information.

For further informationon all the activities and work that we undertake please visit our websiteat

Role Description

Role titleTrustee

Accountable toChair of Board of Trustees

Role purposeThe Board of Trustees are responsible for the overall governance and strategic direction of the charity across the United Kingdom, developing the organisation’s aims, objectives and goals in accordance with the governing document, legal and regulatory guidelines.

Main Responsibilities of the role

  1. To ensure that the charity and its representatives function within the legal and regulatory framework of the sector and in line with the organisations’ governing document, continually striving for best practice in governance.
  1. To uphold the fiduciary duty invested in the position, undertaking such duties in a way that adds to public confidence and trust in the charity.
  1. To take appropriate professional advice in all matters where there may be material risk to the charity, or where the Trustees may be in breach of their duties. This course of action will ensure the obligation to exercise their duty of care.
  1. To determine the overall direction and development of the charity through good governance and clear strategic planning.
  1. To avoid any personal conflict of interest.

Main Duties

  1. Ensuring the charity complies with legislative and regulatory requirements, and acts within the confines of its governing document and in furtherance to organisational activities contained therein.
  1. Acting in the best interest of the charity, beneficiaries and future beneficiaries at all times.
  1. Promoting and developing the charity in order for it to grow and maintain its relevance to society.
  1. Maintaining sound financial management of the charity’s resources, ensuring expenditure is in line with the organisations’ objects, and investment activities meet accepted standards and policies.
  1. Ensuring the effective and efficient administration of the charity and its resources, striving for best practice in good governance.
  1. Acting as a counter-signatory on charity cheques and any applications for funds, if appropriate.
  1. To maintain confidentiality about all sensitive/confidential information received in the course of trustee’s responsibilities to the charity.

Person Specification

It is essential that in your written application you give specific evidence, by way of examples of past personal experience,of each of the selection criteria below in the person specification. These responses will be developed and discussed with those candidates invited for interview,

Experience:

  • Ideally, new trustees will offer skills and experience in one or more of the following areas:
  • as parents or carers of disabled children
  • experience of charity regulation/ management at a local, national or strategic level
  • first-hand experience of supporting families with disabled children
  • as a qualified accountant with experience of the voluntary and community sector
  • fundraising and marketing experience
  • experience of operating in a policy or campaigning environment
  • knowledge and or experience of the health, social care and children services sector and how these impact on families
  • Successful experience of operating within a board in a charitable, public sector or commercial organisation.
  • Demonstrable experience of building and sustaining relationships with key stakeholders and colleagues to achieve organisational objectives.
  • A proven track record of sound judgement and effective decision making.
  • A track record of commitment to promoting equality and diversity.

Knowledge, skills and understanding:

  • A knowledge and understanding of Northern Ireland –for example knowledge of how government, local and health authorities operate, knowledge and experience of the voluntary, private or business sector, knowledge of the policy world in NI, knowledge of the disability sector in NI
  • Commitment to the organisation and a willingness to devote the necessary time and effort.
  • Preparedness to make recommendations to the board, and a willingness to speak their mind.
  • Willingness to be available to the Chief Executive, senior management team and Northern Ireland staff for advice and enquiries on an ad hoc basis.
  • Good, independent judgement and strategic vision.
  • An understanding and acceptance of the legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of trusteeship.
  • An understanding of the respective roles of the Chair, Trustees and Chief Executive

Terms and Conditions of Appointment

Remuneration

These roles are unremunerated. However trustees who travel to attend Board or sub -committee meetings are able to claim travel and when appropriate overnight costs.

Time commitment

A minimum of four Board meetings per year. All trustees are also expected to take part in one of the Boards sub-committees. Attendance at these meetings can include participation through skype, video or telephone conferencing.

Term of appointment

An initial three year term

Location

Trustee meetings are held mainly at our City Road offices in central London.

How to Apply.

To apply for the role of Trustee, please submit the following via (TBC)

A comprehensive CV.

  • Asupporting statement(of between 1200 to 1500 words) that fully addresses the appointment criteria set out in the person specification. Could you also please make sure that the cv and supporting statement are in clear font size e.g. Arial 12
  • Details of two referees whom we would be able to contact at shortlist stage.

Please also ensure you have completed and submitted the accompanying equal opportunities monitoring form. The information on the form will be treated as confidential, and used for statistical purposes only. The form will not be treated as part of your application.

The closing date for applications is 5pm Friday 24th February 2017

Shortlisting will take place during the week of the 27th February with interviews during the week of the 20th March 2017.

If you have any queries about the role of Trustee you may contact Colin Harper or 07789656909

If you have any queries in relation to the application process, please do not hesitate to contact Paul Soames, Deputy Chief Executive at or 02076088770 or 07957000849

Contact a Family will respect the privacy of any initial approach or expression of interest in this role, whether formal or informal.

Please return your completed CV and supporting statement along with 2 referees to Paul Soames Deputy Chief Executive of Contact a Family at;

or by post to

Paul Soames

Deputy Chief Executive,

Contact a Family,

209-211, city Road,

London EC1V 1JN

The Recruitment Timetable

An indicative recruitment timetable for candidates is provided below. Once final dates are confirmed, these will be made available to applicants as soon as possible.

Closing date / Friday 24th February 2017
Shortlisting
Referencing / w/c 27th February 2017
to follow shortlisting
Final appointments panel / Week of 20th March 2017.
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