For full details on the type of experience we are looking for, visit: https://chi-trustees.co.uk/.

Our current five-year strategy draws to an end in 2024, so our refreshed Board will have an exceptional opportunity to take stock of progress and of what has changed in the world around us, as we review and refine our approach for the next five years. We are also building our capacity for a significant new programme of work, to be announced later this year.

This means we want to recruit 2-4 new members to broaden the skills and experience on the board in a number of areas. The first of these is high-level programme management experience, ideally involving complex academic research contracts and/or working with government funders. Much of our work involves overseeing a complex network of partners with a series of demanding deadlines, so we are looking for expert advice and guidance on handling those relationships and challenges.

We also want to appoint someone with financial management skills, ideally with an understanding of charity finance. This is not about handling complex transactions or large investment decisions, so we are not necessarily looking for a particular qualification (e.g. ACCA); rather, we want to meet someone who can support the board to oversee budgets, ensuring that our financial governance is commensurate with a steadily increasing level of income.

We want to deepen and extend our influence, so the dissemination of what we learn will become more and more important in the next strategic period. With this in mind, we believe the board would be significantly strengthened by the appointment of an expert in communications and stakeholder management, with government relations a definite additional advantage.

This round of appointments provides an important opportunity to develop the diversity of the board in a number of ways. We would particularly encourage applications from women, people from minoritized ethnicities, and those who live with a disability. Public sector and research organisations are relatively well-represented on our board, so we would be interested in hearing from people who currently work in e.g. social enterprise, charities, and the business sector, including fast-growth and technology environments. We work across the UK, so people from all four nations, and (in England) from beyond the London area, would add to the team. We are very open to applications from people in mid-career, and would greatly value applications from people with lived experience of homelessness.

You’re likely to have extensive influence and healthy networks within your field, and will understand the importance of leveraging these connections to support the Centre’s work. It goes without saying that we would ask for a minimum time commitment (around 6 hours per month). Given that we are looking for several trustees, there is room on the board for people taking up their first trustee role: what’s essential is an understanding of the importance of good governance for an organisation which is both a company and a charity, and we’d like at least some new members to have experience of board roles. It would also help to have one or more new members with an understanding of the services – homelessness, housing, health, criminal justice, and others – who we work with.