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Independent Chair and Non-Executive Director Recruitment
Somerset Skills & Learning CIC (SS&L)
Voluntary roles | Somerset / Hybrid
Changing lives through learning
Somerset Skills & Learning (SS&L) is a thriving Community Interest Company delivering education and skills to around 4,000 learners each year. Working with over 145 employers, we improve confidence, wellbeing, employability and life chances across Somerset and beyond.
We are now seeking two Independent Non-Executive Directors to join our Board at an exciting and pivotal time.
Following seven successful years on the Board, our Chair will step down in November 2026. As part of this recruitment, we will identify our next Non-Executive Chair, offering a unique opportunity to shape the future direction of a values-driven organisation making a tangible difference.
The Opportunities
Non-Executive Director – Finance & Sustainability
You will bring senior financial leadership experience to help guide SS&L’s long-term sustainability.
You will contribute to:
Non-Executive Director – Further Education Quality & Impact
You will bring expertise from the further education or skills sector to help ensure high-quality outcomes.
You will contribute to:
About the Roles
As a Board member, you will:
From these appointments, we are particularly interested in individuals with the capability and interest to step into the Chair role.
Commitment
About You
We are looking for individuals who:
We particularly welcome applications from individuals who reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.
How to Apply
Full details about this opportunity in the attached brief. For a confidential discussion, please contact Anna Jay, Managing Director, Public Leaders Appointments
Closing date for applications: Midday, 21st May 2026. Interviews 10th or 11th June 2026.
If you are inspired by the opportunity to help shape an organisation that is transforming lives through learning, we would love to hear from you.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Eastern Angles is seeking a new Chair to lead our Board, working alongside our CEO in delivering our vision and achieving our mission with our three principles of Grow, Nourish and & Wonder.
The Chair provides strategic leadership to the Board, working alongside the CEO to ensure that Eastern Angles’ vision goals are achieved with a continued view to the community.
As Chair, you will be a primary ambassador for Eastern Angles. We are looking for someone who has a clear and actionable plan for how they will help us grow as a company, particularly in line with our values.
We are particularly interested in hearing from those with experience in governance and facilitating fundraising efforts, ideally in a comparable context.
The position is voluntary and will be a four-year term, with the option to extend for up to a further four years.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Voice 21 – Trustee with fundraising expertise
About Voice 21
Voice 21 is the national oracy education charity. We support schools to build speaking and listening into the curriculum, teaching, learning and wider school life so that every child can use their voice to thrive in school, work and life. Our training and development programmes for teachers and school leaders transform learning through talk, expanding access to high-quality oracy education, particularly for children who need it most.
Why join the Voice 21 Board of Trustees now?
Since its inception in 2015, Voice 21 has built a national movement to put oracy at the heart of education in the UK. In November 2025, the government responded to Professor Becky Francis’s Curriculum and Assessment Review by adopting the definition of oracy used by Voice 21 and by the independent Oracy Commission in its 2024 report, We Need to Talk: ‘Articulating ideas, developing understanding and engaging with others through speaking, listening and communication’.
The government has also committed to publish national guidance on oracy, modelled on the Writing Framework, and to strengthening oracy teaching within subjects. The Schools White Paper published in February 2026 reinforced this direction, positioning oracy as the fourth “R” alongside reading, writing and maths.
Oracy is now firmly part of national policy, and Voice 21 continues to build evidence of its impact on young people’s attainment, wellbeing, belonging and career readiness.
This policy shift represents a major campaigning success for Voice 21 and others who campaigned alongside us. Our new 2030 Strategy aims to seize this moment and secure high-quality, evidence-based oracy education for every child, particularly for those children in schools serving disadvantaged communities.
Investment will be critical to achieving this ambition. Fundraising currently provides 20% of our income. Our goal is to increase this to 40%, doubling fundraised income to support delivery of our 2030 strategy.
The Role: Trustee with fundraising expertise
Voice 21 is keen to strengthen its board-level knowledge and skills by adding a fundraising specialist trustee. We are looking to appoint a strategic fundraising leader who has substantial experience of successfully developing fundraising departments and growing voluntary income. As trustee, you will provide strategic oversight, constructive challenge and advice on fundraising strategy.
Ideally your career will have focused on high value and relationship fundraising (philanthropy, trusts, corporate partnerships). As a subject specialist, you will help to expand and deepen fellow trustees’ understanding of fundraising strategy and operations, providing knowledge, guidance, challenge and advocacy.
Your expertise will be invaluable at this pivotal moment for Voice 21, as the charity prepares to launch an ambitious new strategy, with a goal to double fundraised income by 2030. Your insights will be particularly appreciated by the experienced Head of Fundraising, CEO and Director of Operations – including contributing critical/analytic skills to help evaluate fundraising ideas and opportunities – though your primary focus will be advising on fundraising at governance level.
Knowledge And Experience:
Significant senior fundraising experience, with proven ability to secure major income.
Personal experience working with high profile figures, senior leaders in major companies, people with high levels of personal wealth who are seeking charitable missions like ours to support.
Understanding of charity leadership, including developing and implementing organisational strategy.
Broad understanding of fundraising management across income streams.
Why this role matters:
This is an opportunity to make a real difference in tackling the disadvantage gap at a pivotal moment for oracy education. You will have the chance to influence a dynamic Board and staff team with great ambitions for our 2030 Strategy.
Time commitment:
Board meetings: three per year, in person in London (9am–12pm)
Annual strategy day (9am - 3pm)
Finance Committee: four virtual meetings per year (approximately 2 hours per meeting)
Opportunities to attend Voice 21 events throughout the year.
Safeguarding:
This role is subject to an enhanced DBS check.
Application details:
To apply:
• a CV and a covering letter of 1- 2 pages;
Please include:
• Details of your interest in joining Voice 21 as a trustee;
• An outline of your current work / relevant experience;
• A note of any training and development needs you think you’ll have if you are appointed.
Valuing every voice
Voice 21 believes that every voice should be heard and valued. We are committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and trustees do not condone discrimination on the basis of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership. Voice 21 is a diverse and inclusive workplace and we strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join us.
Settle Stories is recruiting a new Chair of the Board and up to five Trustees, as several long-serving trustees reach the natural end of their terms after years of outstanding service.
Who We Are
A world where every voice, empowered by story, helps build our shared future.
Settle Stories is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation based in the Yorkshire Dales. Since 2010, we have used the power of story to educate, to empower, and to endure. We have reached over 200,000 people across 44 countries and 6 continents. We pioneered hybrid live-streaming for storytelling events in 2019, a year before the pandemic made it necessary. In 2025, funded by the British Council, we collaborated with Msitu Wa Ndoto to broadcast live performances from Africa's oldest burial site, a 76,000-year-old cave in Kenya, connecting artists from the UK and Kenya to audiences worldwide. We are now looking to expand this work, broadcasting from unusual and culturally significant places across the globe.
In schools, our Stories for Schools platform brings the nation's finest storytellers into classrooms through filmed content aligned to the national curriculum. The Storyful Way, our mindfulness-integrated storytelling methodology, is validated by Sheffield Hallam University for its outcomes in emotional well-being and resilience. Judges for our annual Children's Story Competition have included Sir Michael Morpurgo, Joanne Harris MBE, and Anne Fine. Closer to home, Settle itself sits at the heart of everything we do: for 15 years we have preserved the stories of the Yorkshire Dales through oral history projects, heritage archives, and the world's first Listening Gallery, housed in a phone box, keeping local voices alive for future generations.
We have a strong and committed Board, and several trustees have stayed well beyond their original terms. That is a testament to the organisation. In line with good practice, the time has come to bring in fresh voices.
Our current Chair has served two distinguished terms, steering Settle Stories through the pandemic and into its strongest ever position. The organisation is well placed for Arts Council England's next NPO round and the opportunities ahead.
We are looking for an enthusiastic Chair and Trustees who share our values and our passion for the power of story. We are also keen to hear from individuals who would welcome supporting us in a specific area on an advisory basis.
What we are looking for
We are recruiting for Trustee roles and, for those who cannot commit to a Board seat, non-voting Advisor positions.
Applications for both roles are particularly welcomed from women, those from BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and Person of Colour) backgrounds, and from those based in Yorkshire and the North.
All Trustees must:
Have an understanding and acceptance of the legal duties, responsibilities, and liabilities of trusteeship.
Be confident to work digitally using Zoom/GMeet and shared docs.
Have strong networks and the willingness to build and share them.
Exercise good, independent judgment.
Have the ability to think creatively.
Have a willingness to speak their mind.
Have the ability to work effectively as a member of a team.
Adhere to Nolan’s seven principles of public life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity,
accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership.
We are seeking Trustee candidates with one or more of the following:
arts practice - people with working experience of the cultural sector from a practitioner and/or manager perspective;
business skills - commercial experience in earned income growth, B2B sales, or scaling subscription or digital products.
digital expertise – specifically including:
web design and user interfacing (UX/UI);
digital security and infrastructure;
digital marketing/performance marketing;
HR and people development - strategic people leadership: organisational culture, equality and inclusion, workforce development.
finance, legal, and governance experience - commercial finance, charity law or governance, with experience of mixed-income organisations.
Advisors should:
Be able to demonstrate a high level of skill in one of the areas listed above, and be willing to support the Chief Executive and her team whenever advice or views on service delivery and development is needed. An understanding of Charity Commission requirements is also desirable.
Being an advisor is a flexible arrangement between the charity and the individual. The length of the term will be agreed on an individual basis.
The Chair role
We are looking for a committed individual who has a passion for story and literacy.
the skills and time to be able to lead a medium-sized Board effectively and efficiently within the legal and best practice guidance set out by the Charity Commission;
the skills and time to provide regular support (remotely and in person) to the CEO and staff team at Settle Stories;
An understanding of the issues facing small, ambitious charities, and specifically cultural/arts council-funded charities.
Settle Stories is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation based in the Yorkshire Dales. Since 2010, we have used the power of story to
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Are you passionate about using your skills and expertise to help support and develop a UK-wide relationships and sex education charity?
Sexpression:UK provides high quality, comprehensive relationships and sex education workshops to young people between the ages of 11-18 in schools and youth groups. We operate across the UK through our unique network of affiliated branches and volunteers based at universities and students’ unions in 15 towns and cities.
You will have strong empathy with our mission to educate and empower young people to make individual, informed decisions about their bodies and their health. You will be committed to using your expertise to contribute to the future development of the charity and ensuring high quality governance of the organisation.
We are looking for a motivated individual with demonstrable experience in leadership or governance to join our board as Chair of Trustees.This is an exciting time to join our charity with the opportunity to contribute to a unique youth-led charity playing a leading role in some of today’s biggest issues.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
About us
My Life Films is an award-winning charity that uses film and TV to enrich and support the lives of people living with dementia and their carers. My Life TV is our specialist on-demand streaming service, specifically designed to meet the cognitive needs of people living with dementia, for use within care settings and at home.
My Life TV is carefully curated to enable people living with dementia to feel stimulated and connected to the world, improving their mental health and supporting their essential care.
Our high-quality content includes interactive shows like quizzes, singalongs, drawing and chair yoga; calming content, including animal and nature programmes and slow TV; a wide range of reminiscence programmes, from the 1960s onwards, and much more.
Since launching in 2021 we work with highly respected content partners, as well as producing our own programming, in partnership with trusted organisations in the dementia care field, and more widely. The Alzheimer’s Society, BFI, Royal Parks, Museum of Brands, BBC Archive and National Trust are just some of the partners we are proud to work with.
We have ambitious plans to scale up its use, so we can reach and support as many people living with dementia as possible.
About the role
Stepping in at the helm of a well-established Board, and working closely with the highly experienced Executive Director, our new Chair will lead My Life Films through its next phase of growth and impact.
The new Chair will review and reinvigorate the charity’s governance, ideally including a board audit, as well as challenging and interrogating the group’s strategic plan.
This role will suit potential candidates who are ready to step-up to chair a not for profit organisation. This means they are likely to bring current or previous board experience as a non-executive or trustee. Candidates may have experience in the care sector, health sector, charity or foundation, possibly an organisation involved in supporting people living with dementia. This experience could enable candidates to draw on networks in the care, health, charity, voluntary sectors, social enterprise or foundation. It will be important that the new Chair can demonstrate a personal passion and commitment to improving the lives of people living with dementia.
The Chair will also help guide the Executive in optimising the existing model, developing new opportunities by helping expand networks and making introductions when necessary. They will act as a critical friend to Executive Director, coaching and challenging as required and providing leadership and strategic direction to the Board.
They will hold the organisation to the highest ethical standards, ensuring compliance with all regulatory requirements and that My Life Films is run in the best interests of its stakeholders.
The Board of Trustees is the governing body of the charity and is collectively responsible for its success. All trustees must take decisions in the interests of the charity.
My Life Films has a trading subsidiary – MLF Productions Limited – and it is expected that the Chair of My Life Films will also Chair the trading company.
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Selection Criteria
When applying, we ask candidates to highlight any areas of expertise they can bring in the areas identified below.
• Skills and Experience –
Governance / leadership
• Any experience of operating at Board level in the voluntary, public or private sector preferably with a knowledge of the Social Care sector.
• Understanding of good charity governance, including trustees’ legal duties, financial oversight and risk management.
• Experience of chairing effective meetings and facilitating inclusive, robust discussion and decision-making Experience of fundraising, advocacy, campaigning, or working with regulators, commissioners or major funders.
Strategy and finance
• Ability to think strategically, interrogate complex information and focus the Board on priorities, impact and long-term sustainability.
• Strong financial literacy and ability to scrutinize budgets, management accounts and risk registers (not necessarily as a finance professional).
People leadership
• Track record of leading senior individuals or teams; able to coach, support and hold to account a CEO
How to Apply
If you are interested in the role, Maana Ruia a trustee with My Life Films and a member of Enter The Boardroom Community would be happy to fix up a time to talk to you.
Please submit your application to Julian Freeston The application should comprise a Cover Letter detailing your suitability and desire for the role (no more than two pages) and an up-to-date CV (no more than four pages).
The application deadline is 5pm, 29th May 2026
If you are interested in the role, Maana Ruia a trustee with My Life Films and a member of Enter The Boardroom Community would be happy to fix up a time to talk to you. Please get in touch via Details can be found on the website.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.