Role Title: Trustee
Reports to: Chair of the Board of Trustees
Purpose of the Role
Trustees of Royal Mencap Society have an important role. They are responsible for providing strategic direction, stewardship, and for ensuring the charity is well run.
Trustees are responsible for:
- Setting and oversight of Mencap’s strategic direction, Mencap 2030. They monitor how we deliver the strategy, operating plans and budgets and our performance.
- Ensuring that Mencap has a high standard of governance and the organisation is well run. They make sure that we follow our constitution, the law and regulatory rules.
- Supporting our mission to deliver high quality, person centred care and support that helps people with a learning disability in the UK to live their lives to the full.
- Overseeing financial sustainability and robust financial stewardship of Mencap.
- Championing Mencap’s work and acting as ambassadors for Mencap. Trustees will help to broaden Mencap’s reach and impact, supporting its activities, and identifying opportunities for growth.
- Having positive relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
- Building and maintaining strong working relationships with fellow Board members, the Executive and Senior Leadership teams, and colleagues. Providing constructive challenge and support to the Executive Team.
- Ensuring that Mencap seeks the views of people with a learning disability and that these views are considered in developing our strategy, operating plan and budgets, and delivering our services and programs.
Values and Behaviours
Trustees of Royal Mencap Society should demonstrate a strong alignment to our values: passionate, inclusive, brave, positive, and kind. Trustees should also be committed to championing people with a learning disability and our mission to enable them to live their lives to the full.
Trustees will be expected to:
- Act with integrity and in the best interests of the Charity.
- Work in an inclusive way which values difference and promotes diversity.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the work of Mencap and the external environment in which it operates.
- Support continuous improvement, seeking feedback from colleagues and other stakeholders on how governance, performance and oversight can be improved.
- Work in collaboration with the Executive and Senior Leadership team, providing support, constructive challenge, scrutiny and effective oversight.
- Contribute to meetings, recognising the benefit of individual perspectives, while balancing the need to act as a collective Board of Trustees.
- Demonstrate leadership and take responsibility for their own ability to work effectively in collaboration with colleagues.
Additional Information
Trustees of Royal Mencap Society are volunteers.
We ask Trustees to attend all meetings of the Board and any Committees they sit on. The Board meets at least four times a year in person. We also ask Trustees to be on at least one of our Committees. Committees mostly meet on Microsoft Teams.
We ask Trustees to visit our services at least once a year.
We ask Trustees to complete some key training which focuses on keeping people safe and so they have the information they need to do their job.
Trustees will be invited to support Mencap’s work by attending high-profile events and activities in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The usual time commitment is between 12 and 20 days a year. This depends on the number of visits Trustees want to do, the number of Committees they are on, and other ways they want to support the organisation. We include time Trustees take to prepare for meetings.
Trustees are supported by the Chair and the Governance team.