Chair of Board of Trustees - Volunteer in Maidstone

BCNO is a UK HE provider and registered charity dedicated to widening participation and delivering academic excellence in osteopathic education. We seek an exceptional Chair of the Board of Trustees, providing strategic leadership and ensuring the highest standards of governance.

As Chair of the Board of Trustees at BCNO Limited, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of one of the UK’s leading independent osteopathic education institutions. Your leadership will influence the organisation’s strategic direction, governance strength, and long‑term sustainability, ensuring that BCNO continues to deliver high‑quality education and clinical training that benefits students, patients, and the wider profession.

You will guide the Board in setting a clear vision for BCNO’s continued growth and innovation, helping the organisation navigate an evolving higher education landscape. By fostering a culture of constructive challenge, collaboration, and accountability, you will ensure that the Board operates effectively and confidently in its oversight responsibilities.

Your ability to bring people together—trustees, senior leaders, staff, and external partners—will strengthen BCNO’s governance and enhance its reputation as a forward‑thinking, student‑centred institution. A central part of your impact will be your relationship with the senior management team. You will work closely with the Chief Executive Officer, providing support, guidance, and strategic insight while maintaining the independence and objectivity essential to good governance.

Through regular communication, open dialogue, and a shared commitment to BCNO’s mission, you will help create a constructive partnership that will enable the senior management team to thrive. As Chair, you will also lead the development of the Board itself—ensuring trustees are well‑supported, diverse in perspective, and equipped to contribute meaningfully. You will model good governance, encourage reflective practice, and promote decision making that is well‑informed, evidence‑based, and aligned with the charity’s organisations priorities.

Ultimately, your contribution will help secure BCNO’s position as a thriving, modern, and resilient educational institution. By guiding the organisation through opportunities and challenges, you will help shape the next generation of osteopathic practitioners and strengthen the profession as a whole.

What are we looking for?

• Experience within finance, accounting and/or higher education.
• Previous experience as a trustee, governor or chair within higher education or another regulated sector is desirable.
• A strong commitment to higher education, student success, and BCNO’s charitable purposes.
• Significant credibility and authority to lead the Board and represent BCNO to stakeholders.
• Ability to inspire and facilitate diverse individuals and their points of view to achieve consensus.
• Strategic insight, sound judgement, and the ability to provide constructive challenge in a regulated environment.
• Understanding of governance, finance, risk, and accountability in the public interest.
• High standards of integrity, independence, and professionalism.
• Familiarity with the OfS regulatory framework and expectations of governing bodies.
• Understanding of academic governance, quality assurance, and student outcomes.
• Experience of organisational change, growth, or financial recovery.

What will you be doing?

The Chair will lead the Board in setting BCNO’s strategic direction, ensuring compliance with charity and higher education regulatory requirements, and supporting the Senior Management team to deliver sustainable growth and educational impact. The Chair of the Board of Trustees provides strategic and regulatory leadership to BCNO as a regulated higher education provider and registered charity.

The Chair ensures that the Board fulfils its responsibilities for institutional sustainability, academic quality and standards, student outcomes, and compliance with company and charity law and Office for Students (“OfS”) regulatory requirements, while advancing BCNO’s charitable mission and public benefit.

Governance, Regulation, and Compliance

• Lead the Board in discharging its responsibilities as charity trustees and as the governing body.
• Ensure compliance with company and charity law and the regulatory framework of the Office for Students, including ongoing conditions of registration.
• Ensure that the Board understands and oversees institutional performance in relation to student outcomes, quality, standards, access and participation, and financial sustainability.
• Promote the highest standards of governance, integrity, transparency, and accountability, consistent with public interest obligations.
• Ensure effective oversight of risk management, safeguarding, freedom of speech duties, equity, diversity and inclusion, data protection, and consumer protection requirements.

Strategic Leadership and Institutional Sustainability

• Lead the Board in setting, approving, and reviewing BCNO’s mission, vision, and long‑term strategy within the context of a regulatory environment.
• Ensure that academic strategy, financial planning, estates, digital infrastructure, and workforce planning are coherent, realistic, and sustainable.
• Oversee BCNO’s response to changes in higher education policy, regulation, funding, and market conditions.
• Ensure the Board considers the student interest and public value in strategic decision‑making.

Academic Governance and Student Outcomes

• Ensure that robust governance arrangements are in place for the oversight of academic quality and standards.
• Ensure that student outcomes, continuation, completion, progression, and student experience are regularly reviewed at Board level.
• Support a culture of continuous improvement in teaching, learning, and assessment.

Board Effectiveness

• Ensure Board of Trustees' meetings are structured, inclusive, and focused on strategic and regulatory oversight.
• Set Board agendas with the CEO and Company Secretary.
• Foster a culture of constructive challenge, informed decision‑making, and collective responsibility.
• Lead recruitment, induction, development, and succession planning of trustees, ensuring the Board has the skills, independence, and capacity required.
• Lead regular evaluations of Board and trustee effectiveness.

Relationship with the Executive and Senior Academic Leadership

• Build a strong, professional working relationship with the Chief Executive and wider Senior Management Team (“SMT”).
• Support and challenge the SMT while maintaining a distinction between governance and management.
• Ensure Board receives timely, accurate, and relevant information to meet its regulatory and fiduciary responsibilities.
• Relate any concerns of the Board to the SMT.

Financial Oversight and Risk

• Ensure robust oversight of BCNO’s financial sustainability, including budgets, cash flow, reserves, investments, and major capital commitments.
• Ensure that financial planning supports long‑term academic quality and compliance with OfS financial viability requirements.
• Oversee arrangements for audit, internal controls, value for money, and risk assurance.

External Relations and Representation

• Represent BCNO externally with regulators, partner institutions, alumni, and other stakeholders.