August 9, 2021
We’re recruiting a new trustee
Are you a young person who fancies giving something back? Become a trustee!
We’re on the hunt for a younger trustee to come and volunteer with us as a member of our Board.
We know that charity boards are traditionally made up of older people, including ours at PSS, where the youngest person on the team is in their late 30s (sorry guys – you don’t look a day over 25, though). Usually Boards have people on them with super-duper skills learned through lots of experience and time – and again, ours definitely does, we’ve got loads of amazing experts on our team whose time, knowledge and skills we’re so grateful to have. But at the grand old age of 102, we’re not daft – we see that age is not the only factor in determining expertise. Young people have loads to offer, including new perspectives and brilliant skills that are hot off the press, and just as valuable to have as those offered by some of our more experienced Board members.
Why do we want a younger trustee?
It’s so important that we make sure the voices of the people we support today and in future generations are heard loud and clear. To do that right and properly, we need to be steered by a diverse squad who can offer an understanding of the different people we work with at every age. Afterall, the fact is that life changes and evolves for each generation. We want someone on our Board who knows what it’s like to be a young person in today’s world.
The wider PSS family is super varied age-wise, so it would also be great to have someone at Board level who also represents our younger team members.
What does a PSS trustee do, anyway?
In case you’re new to all this trustee malarkey, PSS (and every other charity) has what we call a Board of Trustees. This is a team of volunteers who meet up four times a year with a job to do: to make sure PSS is and stays brilliant.
This next bit sounds a bit daunting at first, but here goes: our Board of Trustees take ultimate responsibility for everything we do here.
Are you still with us? Great. It’s not as scary as it might sound.
By being a trustee, you’ll be a director of PSS (fancy), and it’ll be your job to help us make sure we’re doing what we say we will properly, fairly, to the best of our ability and when we say we’ll do it. You’ll do that by using your skills and experience (whether that’s life experience or professional experience) to help us make decisions.
What does the job involve?
Being a trustee’s a big job – and as you might have already gathered, it’s a pretty responsible one. Our trustees have legal responsibilities as directors of PSS, a limited liability company. The Board’s legally responsible for things like the company’s records, accounts and performance. But – and it’s a big but – remember that this isn’t just all down to you on your own, it’s a team effort across the Board. We’ve also got our own quality team at PSS who have the expertise to help make sure our Board is fulfilling its legal job, and to keep you all ticking along smoothly.
You can have a look at the trustee role description and person specification to find out all the little details about what the job’s all about, but here are the seven key things you’ll need to do, along with your fellow trustees:
- Make sure things are done properly and that everything is above board (excuse the pun)
- Along with your fellow trustee friends, take ultimate responsibility for everything PSS does
- Do things carefully when it comes to anything PSS-related
- Keep our assets safe
- Do things in partnership with our other trustees
- Do things in the best interests of PSS
- Avoid any conflict between your personal interests and those of PSS
Why do we need a new trustee?
We might be 102, but we’re growing faster than you can say ‘PSS’, and we need some extra bods on our already-brilliant Board to help make us even stronger, and to help us do all the stuff on our Big Plan (read more about our Big Plan and how you can help us achieve it in our PSS trustee candidate pack).
What are we looking for in our new trustee?
As you know, we’re all about hearing from all different people at PSS, so we’d be made up to hear from you if you’re a younger person with some spare time to offer us.
Values are a really big deal at PSS – they’re not something someone in the marketing team comes up with and puts on the website to sound good. Created by our own employees to reflect some of the personal traits PSS people have, our values are the key to what makes our culture so unique; they’re a reflection of who each of us are and they’re embedded in everything we do. Sometimes other organisations approach us and ask how we managed to make our culture so strong. Our answer is really simple: we only employ genuine, determined, professional, open-minded and big-hearted people – and that goes for who we choose to be our trustees, too.
How to apply
If this sounds like a job for you, the first thing you need to do is have a good shufty at our PSS trustee candidate pack. In there you’ll find all the details you need to know about being a trustee – from how much time you’ll need to give up to how many committees you’d need to be on and when, if you were successful, we’d want you to come and meet us.
As well as the recruitment pack, you’ll also want to read the full trustee role description and person specification, which will tell you exactly what the job involves in full, and exactly what we’re looking for.
If all that’s hunky dory, it’s time to apply!
Please email your completed application and monitoring form to mandy.howe@pss.org.uk
Read the trustee role description and person specification
Read our statement about recruitment of ex-offenders