Volunteer Trustee: Advocate for Rights & Inclusion

Passionate about rights? Vocal Advocacy needs people like you on our Board. You don’t need a background in supporting people with a learning disability, but you must share our dedication to their empowerment.

Vocal’s Board of Trustees is collectively responsible for setting the charity’s vision, safeguarding its reputation and financial security, and ensuring full compliance with charity and company law. It works in partnership with our members, staff and volunteers, embedding co-production at every level. Trustees guide strategy, safeguard values, and ensure co-production is at the heart of everything we do.

As part of our Board, you will support and shape our work and strategic direction, as well as help us achieve our purpose to ensure wide-ranging and easily accessible advocacy is available to people with a learning disability in South Devon and Torbay. As a Trustee, you will have a real opportunity to offer your unique skill set to help the strategic progression of the charity. You will become part of a warm, friendly and inclusive organisation where staff, trustees and our members, as ‘experts by experience’, work supportively and enthusiastically together to a common end. Everyone contributes in their own way, and is valued for what they bring. Vocal is a great network to belong to, and our in-person or virtual meetings involving all the different groups are stimulating but also fun.

What are we looking for? Vocal has a small board, and as we grow as an organisation we wish to expand both in numbers and the range of skills it can offer to support the Chief Officer to carry forward the development of the charity and ensure long-term sustainability of our services. We are looking for individuals who are ‘team players’ with good communication and listening skills, with the ability to relate to our members, staff and fellow trustees. They should bring strategic vision and independent judgement as well as an ability to think creatively and contribute new ideas.

The participation of our members in the recruitment of staff and trustees is fundamental. We asked them about the qualities they thought a trustee should have and some of their ideas were:

• Understand people with a learning disability
• Know what advocacy is and how it helps
• Understand people’s rights and want to help people have a voice
• Respect personal space, boundaries, trust
• Be at the ‘level’ of the members and approachable, able to make the members feel valued and appreciated
• Understand money - perhaps have run a business.

New trustees would bring their own personal skillset to the role. This could cover a wide range of experience including finance, strategic and business planning, income generation strategies, communications, lived experience of advocacy, and social care service delivery and commissioning. They may have supported people with learning disabilities and bring an understanding of their lives and communication needs. Our skill set priorities for the Board will evolve over time. Currently we are happy to receive a wide range of applications, although we would particularly welcome the opportunity to recruit a potential treasurer with financial expertise (although significant responsibilities are delegated to our accountant.) We are seeking new trustees who share our commitment to Vocal’s values and objectives and can help shape our future. Whatever your background, if you are passionate about fairness, inclusion, and giving people a voice, we’d love to hear from you.

What will you be doing? 30+ years ago when Vocal was founded, many people with learning disabilities lived in large institutions, their wishes often overlooked or ignored. Despite much change since then, too many still face discrimination, isolation, and decisions made for them. That’s why Vocal Advocacy exists. Our role is to stand beside people, amplify their voices, and ensure they’re heard—whether in care planning meetings, in court, or simply in everyday life. We’re here to make sure everyone has the chance to be listened to, respected, and in control of their own future.

The Vocal board has a key role overseeing all our work and ensuring we do just that! Vocal is a user-led organisation. As voting members of the charity, these “experts by experience” play an active role in shaping our direction. Co-production is embedded throughout our work, from local members’ groups to our AGM and whole-organisation meetings and as a board member you will work closely with them.

As a small charity, sustainable funding has always been a challenge. Most of our income has traditionally come from local authority contracts and grants. We are a partner in the Devon Advocacy Consortium, delivering Care Act and statutory advocacy across South and West Devon under contract until 2030. Expanding and sustaining wider services has been a priority in recent years. In 2022, we were one of just 15 organisations nationally chosen by the Henry Smith Charity to deliver a strategic programme evaluating the cost benefits of advocacy for people with learning disabilities. This funding runs until 2026 and has already shown that investment in advocacy not only benefits individuals but also saves significant public funds. Through this grant funding and an income-generating project supporting parents with learning disabilities, Vocal has grown significantly. Our challenge is to sustain our new services and continue our development. The board will play a key role in this future planning and we need people with skills that enhance our ability to thrive. Income generation, fundraising and successful grant bids will be key parts of our business planning. This is an exciting time to join the board and support our ongoing development as we build on strong foundations.