Volunteer trustee volunteer roles in monmouth, monmouthshire

Role- Head of Governance and Legal (Voluntary)

Reporting- CEO/CPO

Location- Remote, UK-based

Commitment: We estimate this role requires 4–6 hours per week, with flexibility to manage your own time. All meetings are remote and scheduled in advance.

Compensation: Voluntary role (non-paid)

About YouthAdvantage UK

YouthAdvantage UK is a volunteer-led, research-based organisation championing the rights and wellbeing of young people aged 11 to 25 across the UK. We influence national policy, deliver grassroots projects, and elevate youth voice in key debates; from education to mental health, climate action to justice reform.

We are seeking a passionate, committed Head of Governance & Legal to join our senior leadership team and help shape the strategic foundations that support our work.

About the role

As Head of Governance & Legal, you will lead a small team focused on risk, compliance, and governance excellence. You will ensure our work is rooted in sound legal and ethical frameworks and will support our growth with robust, transparent policies and guidance. You’ll also provide strategic support to our Board of Trustees and act as the senior point of contact for all legal matters.

This is an ideal opportunity for a governance, legal, or compliance professional looking to gain sector leadership experience while supporting a values-driven youth organisation.

 What you’ll gain

• Strategic leadership experience in a national charity
• A portfolio of governance and legal work with social impact
• Board-level exposure and public recognition of your contribution
• A flexible and supportive remote-first culture
• Testimonials, references, and public acknowledgment upon completion
• A chance to help shape youth policy at a systemic level

What you’ll do

• Lead and support the Governance & Legal Support Manager and team
• Design, update, and implement governance frameworks and organisational policies
• Maintain regulatory compliance across charity law, safeguarding, and data protection
• Liaise with the Board of Trustees - prepare agendas, minutes, and reports
• Oversee legal documentation and contracts
• Maintain and review the organisation’s risk register
• Build relationships with regulators and external legal advisors
• Embed a culture of accountability, transparency, and ethical practice

Who we’re looking for

We welcome applications from a broad range of professional backgrounds. You might be:

• An experienced lawyer, company secretary, or governance lead
• A compliance or legal professional seeking strategic exposure
• A postgraduate in law or non-profit management looking for leadership experience
• Returning to work and keen to rebuild your senior-level skillset
• Recently semi-retired and passionate about giving back

 Essential:

• Experience in governance, legal, or compliance leadership (minimum 12 months)
• Familiarity with UK charity law and regulatory frameworks
• Ability to lead and support others with tact and clarity
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Commitment to equity, youth empowerment, and ethical standards

To Apply

If you’re interested, just send us your CV and a few lines about why the role appeals to you — this can be a short paragraph in your email or a separate note. If you'd prefer an informal chat before applying, we’d love to hear from you. Just drop us a message and we’ll arrange a time.

Volunteer Acknowledgement

Although this is a volunteer role, we’re committed to recognising your contribution. Upon successful completion of your commitment, you can request:

• A LinkedIn testimonial or written reference
• A public thank-you post on our social media
• Permission to list your role with YouthAdvantage UK on your CV and LinkedIn

This is an exciting opportunity to join a charity at the very start and to make a difference in shaping how we move forward.

Who are we looking for?

At present we are working towards being fully operational, over the next year Living Reasons will be looking to expand its reach and part of that journey is to work with the trustees and the team to create campaigns that are relevant to the charity values, aims, goals and purpose in an engaging way.

The role of Campaigns Co-ordinator will focus on creating campaigns to raise awareness, income and engagement with our supporters, donors and people who engage with the charity.

This role will be key in ensuring that the message of the charity operations is translated to a wide audience, while also aligning with the ethos and charity objectives.

In this role you will work with all other teams in the charity, including funding, research, live experience and social media and communications, to establish, develop and create on brand campaigns.

Living Reasons feels that experience is not as important as passion, drive and creativity, we like to do things differently, so if you feel you could create engaging, far reaching campaigns that speak to wide audiences, please get in touch with us about this role, regardless of experience, we want our volunteers to grow and develop alongside the organisation.

What is the plan?

The person who is starting the charity up is autistic, has ADHD, CPTSD and also multiple physical conditions that effect daily life and is part of the LGBTQ+ community and has faced a lot of issues in life because of these things.

Living Reasons is being created to fix what we think is a challenging situation that is getting harder to achieve every week, month and year in the current economic, political, environmental and societal landscape. It is not easily defined but we hope the charity objects below will help put context to what we want to achieve, what we can say is that below are the issues we are trying to address, how we do this will change as quickly as society does, but the issues we want to tackle are these:

1) Outdated and damaging employment practices

2) Accessibility to services

3) Limited employment, training and education opportunities

4) Lack of support during times of crisis or need

5) Lack of equity and agency for many people in society

6) Institutional discrimination that is not challenged

7) Abuse of the legal system at all levels

8) Abuse of power in government bodies

9) Poor access to healthcare

10)  Unequal treatment of many people in society by large corporations

11)  Assumptions made by wider society based on incorrect, outdated or discriminatory rhetoric that is used in daily life

12)  Outdated company engagement with the public

13)  Lack of support that is not talked about and not being addressed

Our Living Values -

Creativity

1) Imaginative Development (Individual)

2) Instilled Collaboration (Internal)

3) Changing The Status Quo (External)

Prospectivity

1) What Can You Do (Individual)

2) What Can We Do (Internal)

3) What Can They Do (External)

Revolutionary 

1) Inspire With Confidence (Individual)

2) Boundaryless Innovation (Internal)

3) Challenge Traditions (External)

Attentivity

1) Analyse and Redesign (Individual)

2) Rebel and Reform (Internal)

3) Enquire and Reimagine (External)

This is an exciting opportunity to join a charity at the very start and to make a difference in shaping how we move forward.

Who are we looking for?

At present we are working to secure funding that will see us through our first year, and the role of the Social Media and Communications Co-ordinator will play a key role in this.

If you are well versed in social media, have experience or a passion for communicating with wide audiences across pretty much all social media platforms, this is a role for you.

Living Reasons, at the core of what we want to achieve, doesn't just value experience from employment but from personal experience and based on you as a person, everything else comes from the relationships built and trust given to each other and we want to learn from you, just as much as you will learn from us.

You will work with the volunteers and trustees to create engaging content that focuses on the current needs of the charity and in the first 3-6 months will be very much focused and 2 areas - fundraising and communicating the charity message and gaining support for the charity as we establish ourselves. We want to do things differently, so there are no boundaries other than legal requirements and ensuring we stick to the charity values, which, as you will see, are very much about making change and doing things differently.

Living Reasons – What we are planning, who we are and where we are now:

What is the plan?

The person who is starting the charity up is autistic, has ADHD, CPTSD and also multiple physical conditions that effect daily life and is part of the LGBTQ+ community and has faced a lot of issues in life because of these things.

Living Reasons is being created to fix what we think is a challenging situation that is getting harder to achieve every week, month and year in the current economic, political, environmental and societal landscape. It is not easily defined but we hope the charity objects below will help put context to what we want to achieve, what we can say is that below are the issues we are trying to address, how we do this will change as quickly as society does, but the issues we want to tackle are these:

1) Outdated and damaging employment practices

2) Accessibility to services

3) Limited employment, training and education opportunities

4) Lack of support during times of crisis or need

5) Lack of equity and agency for many people in society

6) Institutional discrimination that is not challenged

7) Abuse of the legal system at all levels

8) Abuse of power in government bodies

9) Poor access to healthcare

10)  Unequal treatment of many people in society by large corporations

11)  Assumptions made by wider society based on incorrect, outdated or discriminatory rhetoric that is used in daily life

12)  Outdated company engagement with the public

13)  Lack of support that is not talked about and not being addressed

Our Living Values -

Creativity

1) Imaginative Development (Individual)

2) Instilled Collaboration (Internal)

3) Changing The Status Quo (External)

Prospectivity

1) What Can You Do (Individual)

2) What Can We Do (Internal)

3) What Can They Do (External)

Revolutionary 

1) Inspire With Confidence (Individual)

2) Boundaryless Innovation (Internal)

3) Challenge Traditions (External)

Attentivity

1) Analyse and Redesign (Individual)

2) Rebel and Reform (Internal)

3) Enquire and Reimagine (External)

If you think you would enjoy this role, please apply, we want to hear from you!

Director of Compliance - (Voluntary)

Status: Voluntary (expenses reimbursed)
Reports to: Board (via the Chair)
Works with: Managing Director, Company Secretary, Head of Programmes, Director of HR, Finance & Compliance Officer
Location: Hybrid (South of England preferred), with occasional site visits
Time commitment: c. 6–8 hours per month, with peaks during audits/incidents
Screening: Enhanced DBS required

Role purpose

To ensure ThriveSpark operates safely, lawfully, and to a consistently high standard by providing independent oversight of safeguarding, data protection, quality assurance, and organisational risk. The Director of Compliance sets proportionate guardrails that enable delivery, maintains the core compliance framework, and advises the Board with clear, evidence-led judgement.

Key responsibilities

1) Compliance framework & policy governance

• Maintain and periodically review the suite of core policies: Safeguarding, Data Protection (UK GDPR), Health & Safety, Quality Assurance, Complaints, Whistleblowing, and related procedures.

• Establish an annual compliance calendar covering policy review, training refreshers, audits, and filings; monitor adherence and report variances.

• Ensure documents are version-controlled, accessible, and aligned across the CIC and (where relevant) the CIO charity arm.

2) Risk management & assurance

• Own the organisational risk register: define risk owners, review quarterly, and ensure mitigations are tracked to closure.

• Design proportionate internal assurance (spot checks, observations, sample reviews) to test policy effectiveness without impeding delivery.

• Produce concise compliance dashboards and narrative reports for the Board, escalating material issues promptly.

3) Safeguarding oversight

• Ensure safeguarding policy and practice meet statutory and sector standards, with clear reporting/ escalation routes and post-incident learning.

• Confirm coverage and currency of safeguarding training for all relevant staff/associates; monitor DBS status and safer-recruitment controls.

• Chair or contribute to incident reviews (including “near misses”) to identify root causes and corrective actions.

4) Data protection & information governance

• Serve as the lead for UK GDPR compliance (or work closely with an appointed DPO as applicable).

• Lead Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) for new systems, platforms, or data flows; ensure data minimisation, access control, and retention schedules.

• Oversee privacy notices, subject access processes, data breach response, and ICO registration/renewal.

5) Quality assurance (QA) of delivery

• Codify QA standards for programmes (planning, observation, feedback, supervision, reflective practice).

• Coordinate periodic QA reviews with the Head of Programmes; verify that quality actions are implemented and evidenced.

• Support the publication of proportionate impact and compliance statements to clients and stakeholders.

6) External compliance & partner due diligence

• Ensure statutory filings and insurances remain current (e.g., ICO, relevant regulator reporting).

• Oversee due diligence for key suppliers/partners (safeguarding, data protection, insurance, references) and ensure appropriate clauses in contracts.

• Advise on procurement and proportionate contract-management controls.

7) Complaints, concerns & whistleblowing

• Maintain accessible routes for complaints/concerns; ensure timely, fair handling and learning capture.

• Safeguard whistleblowers and assure the Board that concerns are investigated and addressed without detriment.

Success measures (illustrative)

• Risk register reviewed quarterly with actions closed to schedule; Board receives clear, timely assurance.

• 100% completion and currency of mandatory training (safeguarding, data protection) for staff and associates.

• All relevant programmes observed/assured against QA standards at agreed cadence; corrective actions implemented.

• DPIAs completed before any new data processing; zero material data breaches; ICO registration current.

• Safeguarding incidents reported promptly; root-cause analysis and learning actions evidenced.

• Annual policy audit completed; filings and insurances up to date; no missed statutory deadlines.

Person specification

Essential

• Substantial experience in compliance, safeguarding, quality, or risk within education, health, or the social-impact sector.

• Practical command of UK GDPR (including DPIAs, retention schedules, breach management) and confident policy drafting.

• Proven ability to design proportionate assurance, interpret evidence, and communicate concise, actionable findings to Boards.

• Calm, independent judgement; able to balance risk with operational realities and maintain confidentiality.

• Strong written/oral communication; skilled at turning complex requirements into usable guidance for busy teams.

• Commitment to inclusion, ethical practice, and the safety and dignity of beneficiaries.

Desirable

• Experience overseeing mixed workforces (staff, associates, volunteers) and multi-site delivery.

• Familiarity with sector regulators and reporting (e.g., CIC Regulator/Charity Commission context).

• Exposure to ISO-aligned approaches or equivalent quality systems.

• Relevant credentials (e.g., safeguarding lead, information governance, risk/assurance).

Safeguarding, data protection & H&S

This role is subject to an Enhanced DBS check and ongoing safeguarding refresher training. All activity must comply with ThriveSpark policies and legal duties, including UK GDPR, Health & Safety, and sector standards for safeguarding. The director ensures safer-recruitment, data minimisation, and lawful processing are embedded in everyday practice.

Terms of appointment

This is a voluntary position during the current phase. Reasonable expenses will be reimbursed in line with policy. Time commitment averages 6–8 hours per month with additional time during audits or incidents. The Board will periodically review leadership requirements as the organisation scales.