Trustee
at Citizens Advice Bury & Bolton
Role Description
Citizens Advice Bury & Bolton (CABB) is a leading provider of legal advice and information, supporting thousands of clients every year. We are a busy, client focused and dynamic service with a track record of delivering high quality advice face to face, over the phone and digitally.
Our communities continue to face unprecedented challenges with rising costs. The rising cost-of-living continues to directly impact individuals and families, with more people than ever in negative budgets, debt and housing crises.
We are seeking to strengthen our board of trustees, who share our values and are committed to tackling poverty and improving social justice.
We are looking for local individuals who want to share their specialist skills to challenge the impact of poverty, inequality and discrimination and to making a positive difference to the clients we help.
Having recently undertaken a skills assessment survey of our board, we are now in a position to recruit board members and prioritise the areas needed to enhance our collective board.
Our recent survey identified 2 key areas of strength:
Core Governance Strength in fundamental governance areas, including Strategic Planning, Risk Management, and understanding the Legal Duties of Trustees. This provides a solid foundation from which to lead the charity.
Core Financial Strength: we have a strong finance sub-committee that work closely with the operational team, ensuring our accounting, financial processes and budget are in line with our charitable objectives and remain in a sustainable and stable position.
The key skills gaps identified in our survey, and ones which we are keen to prioritise when recruiting new trustees are:
Lived experience of advice services and/or social welfare issues
Service design and impact
Digital strategy
What does a trustee do:
Attend board and committee meetings (quarterly), ensuring that you are prepared for the meetings (reading papers etc) and taking an active part in discussions to;
Set policy and strategy direction, set targets and evaluate the performance of CABB.
Use experience, knowledge and expertise to dissect the information provided by the organisation to satisfy that board is reaching sound decisions, which benefit our communities.
Monitor the financial position of the CABB ensuring that it operates within its means and charitable objectives.
Seek the views of all sections of the community, review and monitor how well the service meets the needs of the local community.
Ensure that the service plans for the recruitment and turnover of staff and volunteers is effective and sustainable.
Review its own work and how effectively it operates including action for improvement.
Work on specific projects with other trustees or staff within CABB to further our strategic objectives.
Safeguard the reputation of CABB and ensuring the compliance of governing documents and processes (articles of association, charity law, company law etc).
In a stable position both financially and operationally, we are now in a period of growth and development, ensuring our ambitious business plan is not only met, but aligned to the emerging needs of our clients.
Please visit https://www.cabb.org.uk/work-with-us/ for more information on this voluntary role.
Type of Activity: Ongoing, In person volunteering
Suitability: Suitable for 18 year olds and over
Time commitment
Quarterly sub-committee & board meetings (evenings) Annual away day/s Ad hoc support to Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and opportunities to shadow service delivery
Bolton
Benefit to the volunteer
You will receive
Induction and training, Volunteer Handbook, Travel expenses, Volunteer policy
Inclusion Statement: Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (EDI&B) is of strategic importance within the organisation and recognised as integral to all we do as a service.
Central to pursuing our EDI&B mission is building diverse and inclusive teams in which everyone has a sense of belonging. We believe inclusion is a social justice issue - a principle that underpins our EDI&B work. We believe inclusion is a social justice issue - a principle that underpins our EDI work. To that end, we particularly welcome applications from local individuals who are representative of the local communities we serve. You can see our most recent comparison demographic data here
To help us achieve this, we aim to make our recruitment process as fair as it can be. Please inform us of any reasonable adjustments you may require to support you at interview/in the role.
Service Design and Impact
Digital Strategy