We are ambitious and optimistic – we love Sheffield and want it to be a great and welcoming city. Our values reflect what we believe will help achieve this:

• Equity and Social Justice
• Trust and Mutual Respect
• Partnership
• The value within people, communities and the VCF-SE

While there is much to celebrate, we recognise that support and services do not work for all people within our communities. We recognise inequalities maintain poverty and injustice, and we work to address not just the symptoms but the systems which continue inequalities. We work for positive change led by communities, change that really matters to local people. To summarise, VAS ACTS for social change.

We are Ambitious
We make Connections
We do it Together
We build Strength

As a candidate, you will not only align yourself with our values and behaviours, but you will also have the following experience and/or qualities:

• Willingness and ability to understand and accept their responsibilities and liabilities as trustees and to act in the best interests of VAS.
• Commitment to our values and behaviours, including a strong personal commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and our ambition to be an actively anti racist organisation.
• Ability to think creatively and strategically, exercise competent, independent judgement and work effectively as a board member.
• Effective communication skills and willingness to participate actively in discussion.
• Knowledge and understanding of the voluntary and community sector.
• Have a balanced strategic and operational outlook – you must be able to think in a systems-focused, holistic manner, but also with accuracy and attention to detail.
• Be engaged and committed, i.e., the ability to invest time in and consistently attend activities requiring trustee presence.
• Be team-oriented and personable.
• Be curious and have a continual willingness to learn.
• Conduct yourself in accordance with the seven principles of public life created by the Nolan Committee.

We are particularly interested to hear from you if you have experience in:

• the following operational areas HR, IT, cybersecurity, and governance;
• system change/change management;
• business development and strategy;
• strategic finance.

Please note that you do not need all of these things to apply - we provide an induction and mentoring for new trustees.

What will you be doing?

Our Board is responsible for maintaining a strategic overview of the work of VAS, making key decisions to ensure the organization delivers its mission successfully. We are undergoing a period of transition at VAS as we implement our strategy, so it is more important than ever for the Board to be able to support our staff not only operationally, but also strategically.

Currently comprised of eight members, we are looking to recruit at least four new trustees to our Board. As part of our last round of recruitment, we put effort into increasing the diversity of our Board so that the trustees are representative of the city they are serving. As a result, our Board has moved towards a more balanced proportion of young, working-age members and individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds. We hope to continue this trend and encourage candidates from under-represented backgrounds to apply – if there is anything we can do to support you in this process, please let us know.

Trustee responsibilities include:

• Ensuring that the work of VAS is conducted within the framework of the Memorandum & Articles of Association;
• Ensuring compliance with all relevant legislation, including employment, company, charity and health & safety law;
• The employment of all staff;
• Determining policy;
• Determining strategic objectives;
• Monitoring and evaluating performance;
• Ensuring that the assets and finances of the organisation are properly managed and accounted for;
• Ensuring accountability to members, users and funders.

Expected time commitment

• One 3-hour Board meeting per quarter, plus a one-hour budget meeting in March
• Half a day per annum to attend the VAS Annual General Meeting
• Preparation for meetings – this will depend on required contribution (e.g., reading and understanding papers may take an hour per meeting, but at times you may also be required to contribute to papers)
• We encourage our trustees to get involved with other areas of work at both an organisational and Board level which would raise the expected time commitment – whether that’s buddying with a senior member of staff whose area of work you can support with your skills and expertise or attending a sub-committee.