Expert by Experience Board Advisor

We are looking for two Experts by Experience Board Advisors to join the Helen Bamber Foundation Board of Trustees, who have lived experience of seeking asylum, being granted refugee status or another form of protection in the UK and lived experience of extreme human rights abuses.

The Board of Trustees is made up of individuals who have overall control and legal responsibility for the charity’s management and administration. All the Trustees share responsibility for the charity and must work according to the Articles of Association – a governing document which sets out the charity’s rules and responsibilities. This means that you will contribute, advise and make recommendations to the Board on the work and strategy of the charity, but as you will not be a trustee you are not responsible for the final decisions.

The Helen Bamber Foundation Board of Trustees is led by the Chair, Adam Epstein. During your time as an Expert by Experience Board Advisor, you will be supported by the Chair and other members of the Board (including two Trustees with lived experience) to ensure that you are confident and comfortable in your contributions.

HOW TO APPLY

We know it can be daunting to join a board, particularly if you haven’t done it before, so we want to make it as easy as possible for you to join us and participate fully in our discussions as a paid Expert by Experience Board Advisor. Both the Chair and the CEO are committed to enable this.

If you would like to apply for the role of Expert by Experience Board Advisor for Helen Bamber Foundation, please could you write a short letter, presentation, video or audio message addressing the following two questions:

• What is the main thing that interests you about applying for this role?
• How do you meet the criteria outlined in the ‘Who are we looking for’ section?

The questions can be responded to in one of four different ways:

• Written A4 (No more than 2 sides of A4)
• PowerPoint (No more than 3 slides)
• Audio recording (No more than 5 mins)
• Video Recording (No more than 5 mins)

If you would like to send a CV as well, please do so but it is not necessary for the application. Please email us your letter and any other information you would like to include to Hannah Padfield, Director of People at jobs@helenbamber.org by 10am on Monday 6th July. To send other formats including audio and video recordings please email them to jobs@helenbamber.org as an attachment. Please ensure that they are no more than 5 minutes.

We would also be happy to provide feedback if you are not shortlisted for an interview. Please contact jobs@helenbamber.org if you would like this feedback once you have been notified of the outcome of your application.

If you would like to get more information about the role - or talk to the Chair of Trustees at Helen Bamber Foundation, Adam Epstein, before you express an interest in one of our Expert by Experience Board Advisor positions please contact Hannah Padfield, Director of People at jobs@helenbamber.org.

TIMELINE

Closing date: 10am on Monday 6th July

Preliminary interviews (online): week commencing 13th July

ELIGIBILITY CHECKS

Since our work involves the engagement and participation of individuals with lived experience, candidates will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check if offered the role. We will also ask you for the details of two referees (if you do not have work-based references, we are happy to accept character references or references from any time spent volunteering).

ADJUSTMENTS

We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we’ll always endeavour to be as accommodating as possible. If you would like to discuss any specific requirements, please get in touch with us at seniorrecruitment@helenbamber.org.

EXPERTS BY EXPERIENCE SUPPORT

We are also proud to be a member of the Experts by Experience Employment Network (www.ebeemployment.org.uk), which aims to increase representation of people with lived experience in the charitable sector. If you are an expert by experience (a refugee or a migrant with direct, first-hand experience of issues and challenges of the UK asylum or immigration system), you can ask them for independent and confidential support for your job application and access other information and resources. They can help you in preparing your job application including providing one-on-one mentoring application and interview preparation support.

Whilst we really encourage applications from people who in the past have received support from the Helen Bamber Foundation, to avoid any conflict of interest we are not able to accept applications from individuals who are still clients of Helen Bamber Foundation, or have received regular support from the Helen Bamber Foundation within the last two years. We also welcome applications from those who have never been a client of the Helen Bamber Foundation, but have similar lived experience of seeking asylum, being granted refugee status or another form of protection in the UK and lived experience of extreme human rights abuses.

Our commitment to principles of equity, diversity and inclusion is an integral part of our approach to our clients, our volunteers and our staff, and we are an equal opportunities and Living Wage employer. We are committed to attracting and recruiting diverse candidates because we are keen to make sure that all our staff, trustees, volunteers and ambassadors reflect the communities we serve and the wider community we work in. We genuinely welcome and encourage applications from a range of backgrounds, especially people of colour, people with disabilities, people from low socio-economic backgrounds, refugees, stateless people and others with lived experience of forced migration or trauma.

Statement on artificial intelligence (AI) and recruitment

At the Helen Bamber Foundation / Asylum Aid we don’t make decisions based on artificial intelligence (AI). We have a human approach to hiring and all applications are reviewed and assessed by our team. Similarly, what we are most interested in hearing about is your individual motivation, experience, skills and values. AI doesn’t know about you or what motivates you – we want to hear from you. AI may be a helpful tool, but typically leads to generic answers repeated by multiple candidates, not stand out applications. Please make sure that your responses reflect your own thoughts and experiences.

To apply, please add your details and upload your CV and cover letter and press submit to answer some short questions. The personal information that you provide to us this application will be stored on our database. We will process the personal information that we collect (apart from equal opportunities data) for the purposes of the charity’s legitimate interests, as follows: (1) to assess your application to work for the charity; (2) to organise interviews, or other recruitment activities; (3) for the purpose of communicating with you about your application; (4) to provide a record of our recruitment process for audit purposes and to respond to queries. We will only retain your personal information in our own database for as long as necessary in order to fulfil the purposes for which we need it, as described above. You have the right to access, correct or delete a copy of the data we hold about you at any time. If you would like to do any of these things, or if you have any concerns, please contact jobs@helenbamber.org.