Welcome

I am delighted you are exploring becoming the next Chair of Trustees at The Children’s Society. This is such a vital role at a key time for our organisation. We are determined that by 2030, we will have overturned the damaging decline in children’s wellbeing. With only five years to go until then, we’re stepping up our efforts.

Across the country The Children’s Society is making a difference in the lives of the most disadvantaged children: in the lives of those children facing the hardest of challenges; children who are being abused or exploited, children struggling with their mental health, children living in poverty. Every year our services directly support thousands of young people, and we help those young people take on their futures with confidence. At the same time, we are committed to challenging detrimental and unjust systems that trap young people in difficult situations, and we learn from our service teams so that we can change those systems for good.

The Children’s Society has growing energy and continuing passion, ready to fight to make sure that no child has to face life alone. In the coming years, as we look to grow our impact further, I know that we can achieve                                                                         so much.

We have a high-performing board of trustees, and excellent trusting relationships between trustees and the CEO and executive leadership team. The board is engaged, diligent and zealous for the best possible outcomes through The Children’s Society: it is genuinely an exciting time to join us.

We know that we must push harder, redouble our efforts, and grow so that we can continue to create the change young people tell us they need. That means growing our impact, growing our income, and growing our capabilities as an organisation. More needs to be done to prevent the challenges that young people are facing and to make sure that every young person can get support early, before they reach crisis point. In the years ahead, we will focus on increasing the early support we offer; we know that when young people get help early, it can be transformational, reducing the risk that they’ll face more serious challenges in the future and enabling them to take on their futures with confidence.

We seek a new Chair of Trustees who wants to make this happen and who will live our values. If you strive to be to be brave, ambitious, supportive and trusted; if you want to make a difference in the lives of the most disadvantaged young people; if you are ready to join a high-performing board with a bold vision for transformation; and if you want to bring your gifts to a genuinely inspirational organisation, we would love to hear from you.

Kind regards,

Diane Blausten,
Chair of the Organisational Development Committee

I am so pleased that you are considering becoming the next Chair of Trustees for The Children’s Society. I know that as CEO I am completely biased, but this is an utterly extraordinary organisation. The past few years have been challenging for many of us, and especially for young people. In the face of financial constraints and rising costs of living, the last year has been one of the most difficult yet. But The Children’s Society has continued to be here for young people when they most need support, standing alongside them as they work to transform their lives. I am immensely proud of the young people we work with and of TeamTCS.

At The Children’s Society, we have an ambitious, audacious goal: to overturn the damaging long-term decline in children’s wellbeing by 2030. We know that this is a bold ask, but we know, too, that it’s possible. We have big plans to grow our impact, income, and capacity in the coming year; we’re expanding our early intervention support, launching a game- changing major appeal to raise vital funds, and evolving our organisation.

Five years ago, our services were here for 12,000 young people; last year, we supported more than 72,000 children directly. People often ask me how The Children’s Society manages to do so much. The answer is leadership. We have gifted, committed, talented leaders working across TeamTCS, and we have gifted, committed, talented leaders on our board of trustees.

We know that we live in uncertain, challenging times, but we remain determined to increase our impact, help more young people to transform their lives, and change the systems that trap young people in disadvantage. Our board is united and ambitious for the change we want to make and the impact we want to see.

The Children’s Society will need to continue to be a generous leader, to build alliances and partnerships, and to convene a movement of people who stand with us and support us with their time, money, and voice.

This is such an exciting time to join us. As our next Chair, you will be a leader of substance, someone who passionately shares our anger that life is simply too hard for too many children. Someone who wants to lead a high-performing board, who understands that we need to be a disruptive, agile organisation.

Our next Chair will not be afraid to take risks or back us as we speak truth to power, and genuinely grow an innovative learning organisation. The Children’s Society is an amazing organisation.

If you feel that you can help us on our ambitious journey to truly build a society for all children, then we would love to meet you.

Mark Russell, CEO