Swarthmore Care Home
Trustee with a strategic care focus - Volunteer
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Do you want to support the running and future development of an independent Care Home charity based in Gerrards Cross, especially as we increase our support for people living with dementia?
What difference will you make?
What do YOU get as a volunteer trustee with our organisation?
- An opportunity to exercise your strategic skills in older person’s care and support, probably in a different environment or context
- An opportunity to influence and collectively-lead our organisation
- A chance to expand and implement your understanding of our work
- A chance to augment your experience of charities
- A boost to your career and CV, if needed
- Satisfaction of helping an organisation that supports older people, thus giving something back to your community
What do we get?
- Your strategic skills, knowledge, understanding and experience, especially in areas of care
- Your abilities to influence plans for our charity’s future
- Enhancement to our overall governance and the Board of trustees; improvement in our charity and operational growth
- Your participation in our collective decision-making, contributing to all areas of our charity work
- Your enthusiasm
What do our beneficiaries get?
- The ability to continue and expand support for our residents
- A forward-looking and agile organisation, with a well-informed and well-managed Board of trustees
What are we looking for?
Here are some of what we would expect from our trustees; we appreciate you may want to develop more in some of these areas. We know that you may also need training and support from employees, from other trustees and from external organisations, and that that will be forthcoming, as necessary, to build on any area.
- Understanding of the needs of our residents and their families is desirable; an empathy with them is essential
- Clear commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, valuing differences to make better decisions and deliver better services for our residents
- Understanding of good practice in the care of older people, particularly in residential and care facilities, and with regard to the culture, strategy, values and governance of the Home
- Previous experience of working or volunteering in an older persons’ care service would be beneficial
- Awareness and understanding of the CQC’s Well-led framework and charity governance
- Understanding of compliance with the CQC’s regulatory requirements, and Adult Social Care’s inspection and expectations; experience in these areas would be highly welcome but is not critical
- Able to interpret care quality metrics, identify improvement priorities and make recommendations to the Board and Senior Leadership Team
- Having strategic vision; good, independent judgement; ability to think creatively, tempered by pragmatism and reality
- Ability to cooperatively work with the team of trustees, bringing impartiality and objectivity to decision-making
- Skills and ability to listen, even to dissenting views
- Willingness to speak your mind and to challenge other trustees and employees with good intent; able to make unpopular recommendations to the Board, if necessary
- Skills to analyse proposals, examine their strategic consequences and make concise recommendations
- Secure personal access to digital communication and able to competently use those resources
- Commitment to the organisation; willingness and ability to devote the necessary time & effort, including being fully prepared for trustees’ and associated meetings
- While experience and understanding of charity law and governance can be useful, we strongly welcome people without prior charity trustee experience in order to increase the diversity of our Board; training in those areas is provided
- Willingness to be available to employees for advice and enquiries; ability to visit the Home on an occasional scheduled basis (Cf. below)
- Having appropriate personal and professional contacts & networks, with willingness to draw on those as needed
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What will you be doing?
Swarthmore Care Home is an ‘exempt’ (not needing to Register with the Charity Commission) charity, registered with the FCA and regulated by the CQC, providing residential and dementia care in a bespoke setting and grounds.
Set up in 1945 with a Quaker ethos, although now neither residents nor trustees are expected to be Quakers, we are looking to increase our Board’s knowledge and abilities for the good care of older people, both now and for the future.
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Trustees have committed to expanding our facility to better support and care for people living with dementia, and thus we need to increase our collective experience in that and associated areas.
The role and what we are looking for in a new trustee
Trustees are the people who make the top-level decisions for our charity. Our Board includes people with governance and financial backgrounds, plus some with understanding of dementia and residential care. We expect new trustees to have empathy with our cause and with our residents.
Our Care Subcommittee, which meets online, strategically steers the Home in all matters of care and support for our residents, and we’re looking for new trustees to join and contribute to that strategy, advising our Senior Leadership Team in their day-to-day management. This trustee role includes the option to eventually take on the role of Chair of this Subcommittee, and to become the Nominated Individual (CQC-defined).
We’d expect some experience in working or volunteering in a care setting, although we’re flexible about what that is, plus an understanding of supporting people living with dementia. Similarly, you should have some grasp of Adult Social Care and the CQC, and compliance with their expectations.
However, you don’t necessarily need prior experience of charity trusteeship, as induction to our organisation will be provided, plus specialist support as a new trustee including access to external training.
Support from our paid employees is always available, as they deal with the day-to-day running of the organisation trustees do not execute any operational responsibility. Regular contact and liaison with other trustees, plus at least two scheduled in-person visits to the home per year, is expected.
We are a charity not a business, but we apply business principles to governing our organisation. We want to expand the diversity of our board, in all meanings of the word, and strongly welcome applications from people from less-represented groups.
We ask for approx. ten hours per month, which includes all meetings, discussions, etc. You will need access to digital communications, as much of our charity’s business is run that way.
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