Chair designate of Home-Start Spelthorne

Do you want to help improve the lives of parents and young children in Spelthorne by taking the lead in our charity?

You could be the next Chair of Home-Start Spelthorne, a local charity in NW Surrey that gives every child the best possible start in life.

Trustees are the people who make the top-level decisions for our charity. Our Board includes people with experience and skills in supporting parents, and we’d expect new trustees to have empathy with our cause and our beneficiaries, but you don’t have to be a parent.

Our long-standing Chair is stepping down from her role, and will hand-on those duties over an extended period of up to six months to enable your induction and continuity for the Board and the charity, although her knowledge and experience will continue to be available. At the same time, it is the intention that our staff team will change and increase to better support the volunteers who themselves support our beneficiaries.

To add to that, Spelthorne Borough Council will be subsumed into a new West Surrey Council by April 2027, and our Home-Start countywide consortium, of which our Chair is a trustee as well, may change to reflect those new structures.

What skills do I need?

Although we don’t insist on prior charity trusteeship, previous leadership and committee experience will be essential, with abilities to steer the organisation through these changes, and a strong strategic focus. Full induction to our organisation will be provided, plus specialist support as a new trustee including access to external training.

If you can think strategically and plan long-term, you have the primary skills needed by our Chair; you’ll also need to be able to work collectively with other Board members. Support from our paid employees is always available, as they will deal with the day-to-day running of the organisation.

We are a charity not a business, but we apply business principles to governing our organisation. We are looking for people from a variety of backgrounds to join our charity. We want to expand the diversity of our Board, in all meanings of the word, and strongly welcome applications from people from less-represented groups.

During those six months as ‘designate’, we ask for about ten hours per month, which will rise to fifteen hours/month as Chair. These include all meetings, discussions, etc., and will slightly increase at Year-End and AGM times. Many of your duties may be carried out online and by phone/video, as well as face-to-face.