Who we are
OTR isn’t just a charity providing mental health services, it’s a movement mobilised to support, promote, and defend the mental health, rights, and social position of young people.
The charity is at an exciting stage of its 59-year history and is proud to be reaching more children and young people than ever before (over 17,000) across Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset with creative and diverse mental health and wellbeing information and support. How we do this is just as important as what we do, because our approach is grounded in a set of beliefs and assumptions about mental health which we think it’s important to be transparent about.
Background to the role
We are currently creating a brand new three-year strategy, setting out an exciting vision to support, promote and defend the mental health, rights and social position of young people. This follows a period of organisational growth, where expanding services into the North Somerset region, and working in partnership with the local statutory mental health provider, has increased our staffing to over 100 employees.
Our new Chair will be an experienced Trustee or Board member who is skilled in effectively managing meetings for productive discussions. We are looking for someone with energy and drive and who will ensure robust governance, aligning strategy and operations. A number of our Trustees have been with us for less than a year and we also have a new CEO and a fairly new SLT, we are therefore looking for an experienced hand who is a skilled relationship manager and a decisive leader, capable of listening to all sides and finding compromise to make difficult decisions.
Main Responsibilities
- To be responsible for providing effective strategic leadership and management to the Board of Trustees, enabling them to fulfil their responsibilities for the overall governance and strategic direction of OTR.
- To chair meetings of the Board of Trustees effectively and efficiently, bringing impartiality and objectivity to the decision making process.
- To plan the annual cycle of Board meetings.
- To set agendas for Board meetings and review minutes.
- To ensure the Scheme of Delegation to the CEO is reviewed and updated.
- To be knowledgeable about, and abide by, the Articles of Association and Charitable Purpose.
- To represent OTR at functions and meetings, and act as a spokesperson as appropriate.
Person Specification
- Strong leadership skills and a collaborative team member.
- Strategic vision.
- Able to display impartiality, fairness and the ability to respect confidences.
- An understanding and acceptance of the legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of Trusteeship from the Charity Commission and Companies House.
- Excellent people management skills, and an ability to build trusting relationships with Trustees, senior staff, external partners and stakeholders.
- Ability to make measured and fair judgements and decisions.
- A regard for Nolan’s 7 principles of public life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.
Time Commitment
The overall time commitment is approx. 1-2 hours per week. This includes quarterly board meetings, time to prepare, plus an Annual General Meeting. The Chair is expected to have regular meetings with the Chief Executive and engage with individual Trustees regularly. Attendance at additional sub-groups and internal/external events is also required.
Diversity and inclusion
At OTR, whatever your role or professional background, you will be expected to work in a way that is anti-oppressive and inclusive. A key focus for OTR is to develop an organisation that is inclusive for all. We do not claim to be experts in this, but we are committed to continuous learning and improvement in these areas and invite you to join us on this journey.
OTR recognises the benefits to individual practice and organisational credibility of having a diverse community of staff and volunteers and to this end, is continually working towards building and maintaining an environment which values and pursues diversity accordingly.
We recognise that tackling systemic inequality, prejudice, racism, and oppressive practice requires each of us to actively engage, self-examine and make changes where necessary in order to improve access and ensure an equitable experience for all in society and all of those who come through our doors at OTR.
If you would like a call to discuss the role in more detail, please email Paul at [email protected] to arrange a convenient time. Having a call of this kind will not influence the success or otherwise of your application.
Please download and read the Candidate Pack before applying.
