Chair of the Board of Home-Start Berkshire East - Volunteer

Can you lead a charity that supports parents of young children in east Berkshire? Are you our new Chair of the Board? What difference will you make?

Your leadership skills, coupled to your strategic vision

• Your abilities to jointly influence plans for our charity’s future
• Your participation in our collective decision-making, contributing to all areas of our charity work
• Enhancement to our overall governance and to our Board
• Your enthusiasm

What do our beneficiaries get?

• The ability to continue our support for local children, families and our community
• A well-governed charity, sustainable for the future
• A forward-looking and agile organisation, with a well-informed and well-supported Board of trustees

What do YOU get as a volunteer trustee with our organisation?

• Use of your leadership skills, possibly in a different context
• An opportunity to influence and lead an organisation supporting local families and children
• Opportunity for new skills and expansion of your experience of charities
• Boost to your career and CV, if needed
• Satisfaction of helping an organisation that supports our community, thus giving something back

What are we looking for?

Here are some of the skills, abilities, experience and knowledge that the organisation expects from our Chair. It is clearly acknowledged that some of these may be stronger than others and that training and support from our organisation, and other sources as appropriate, will be available for you to build on any of them.

• An understanding of the needs of parents with babies and young children is desirable; an empathy with those needs is essential
• Clear personal commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, valuing differences to make better decisions and deliver better outcomes for our beneficiaries
• Cooperatively and inclusively to lead the team of Trustees, bringing impartiality and objectivity to decision-making, with the ability to bring people together to build consensus, for them to be fully involved and invested in the charity in discharging their responsibilities
• Demonstrable experience of strategic leadership and committee work, with a clear understanding of the role of the Chair in effective governance; to have such experience in a charity or not-for-private-profit organisation will be highly-valued
• Ability and skills to effectively manage meetings, including the ability to listen, even to dissenting views
• Willingness to speak your mind and to challenge other Trustees and employees with good intent; able to make unpopular recommendations to the Board, if necessary
• Strategic vision; good, independent judgement; ability to think creatively, tempered by pragmatism and reality
• Skills to analyse proposals, examine their strategic consequences and make concise recommendations
• Secure personal access to digital communication and able to competently use digital resources
• Commitment to the organisation willingness and ability to devote the necessary time & effort
• Having appropriate personal and professional contacts & networks, with willingness to draw on those as needed
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability and willingness to advocate for and champion Home-Start Berkshire East across different stakeholder groups
• Experience of employee and/or volunteer management, support and appraisal would be welcome
• Financial management expertise and, in association with our Treasurer, a broad understanding of charity financial and funding challenges; an experience of fundraising would be very welcome but is not required
• Appreciation of voluntary sector funding challenges

What will you be doing?

Home-Start in Berkshire East is an empowering, visionary, family support service built on trusted relationships and rooted in the community. We are a local charity, also part of the national Home-Start network of 180 groups. Our Board of trustees is fully responsible for governing our independent organisation, which focuses support to parents with young children, through a range of volunteer and employee-supported services, primarily in the east of Berkshire. With a turnover of £300k+ in 2024/25, we’re a medium-sized charity, with 14 paid staff and over 30 regular volunteers, offering over 3,000 volunteer hours to more than 300 families per year.

We are looking for a new Chair for our Board of Trustees, as we continue to grow after our recent merger, and as our current Chair reaches the end of her Term of Office. You’ll have a leadership background and an understanding of (charity or corporate) governance. It is vital that you are able to lead cooperatively and work with other Trustees, the CEO, our employee and volunteer team, to shape our vision and strategy. Whilst we’d appreciate some experience within the charity sector, as either a trustee, volunteer or employee, that is not absolutely vital – we don’t want to preclude appropriate experience from other sectors that clearly fits our current and future needs. This is a high-profile appointment, with strong commitment to the future of families and children, and an appreciation of Home-Start’s work both important. We are a charity not a business, but we apply business principles to governing our organisation. We are looking for fresh expertise and experience, wanting to expand the diversity of our board, in all meanings of the word, and strongly welcome applications from people from less-represented groups. The focus of a trustee is strategic, and our Chair will not be expected to get involved in the organisation’s operations on a day-to-day basis; however, regular contact and liaison with other trustees and our CEO is expected. We ask for at least eight hours per month, rising up to sixteen hours per month at times of year-end and the AGM, plus other occasional promotional & celebratory events. You will need good access to digital communications, as much of our charity’s business is run that way.