Vacancy: Lay Trustee

Do you want to help improve healthcare for older people? The British Geriatrics Society is seeking to appoint a new lay Trustee

(Unpaid, expenses reimbursed)

The British Geriatrics Society is the professional membership organisation for doctors, nurses and other healthcare specialists engaged in the treatment and care of older people across the UK. We have more than 4600 multidisciplinary members working in acute, primary and community care, united by a mission to improve the healthcare of older people. We are a registered charity and limited company based in Farringdon in Central London, with national councils in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England.

The role

We are seeking to strengthen our Trustee Board by recruiting a second lay trustee to fill a vacancy caused by one of the existing lay trustees leaving the BGS Board. The BGS has twelve charity trustees, of whom two are lay trustees. The other trustees are healthcare professionals. Trustees perform the following functions:

  • Contributing to the strategic direction of the British Geriatrics Society (BGS), setting overall policy, defining goals, and setting targets and evaluating performance
  • Providing governance to ensure compliance with charity law and good practice
  • Scrutinising board papers, contributing to discussions, providing advice and guidance on new initiatives
  • Supporting, constructively challenging, and motivating the Chief Executive and other senior staff
  • Acting as a BGS ambassador, to promote the Society, the specialty and older people’s healthcare.
  • Safeguarding the charity’s assets, including its financial sustainability
  • Working in a collegiate way with fellow Board members to support the Chair and to provide timely, robust decision-making and leadership.
The person

The incoming lay trustee will:

  • Be committed to the BGS mission of improving the healthcare of older people across the UK
  • Have a good understanding of charities and charity governance
  • Have the ability to think strategically
  • Have professional experience from one or more of the following areas: health or social care commissioning; charity senior management or trusteeship; policy influencing; digital strategy; human resources; public affairs.

The new lay member of the Trustee Board will join the BGS in spring 2023, in time to contribute to the implementation of the Strategic Plan 2023/26. Their term of office will be two years, with the potential for a second term of two years.

The BGS supports equality, diversity and inclusion. We value the independent perspective that lay trustees bring to this voluntary role.

Our trustees are unpaid, but we pay travel and other out of pocket expenses, and provide an induction to the BGS’s work. For further details about the BGS, see our website: www.bgs.org.uk To arrange an informal discussion about the role with an existing lay trustee, please contact our Chief Executive, Sarah Mistry, ceo [at] bgs [dot] org [dot] uk.

To apply, please send a CV of no more than 2 pages and a supporting statement explaining what you would bring to the role of no more than 400 words to Mark Stewart via M [dot] Stewart [at] bgs [dot] org [dot] uk

The closing date for applications is midnight on Friday 3 March 2023, with interviews for shortlisted candidates being held shortly afterwards.