Trustee – DIDCOT TRAIN YOUTH PROJECT

Role within boardOperations

Location Didcot

Reporting toBoard of Trustees

Time commitment: 12 Board meetings per year, plus sub-committees

Remuneration The role of Trustee is not accompanied by any financial remuneration

Job Description

To be a Trustee of an organisation is an exciting and fulfilling role. The role of a TRAIN trustee is to ensure that we fulfilour duty to our beneficiaries and deliver on our charity objective:

The objective of TRAIN is to improve life opportunities of children and young people aged between 8 and 25 in Didcot and around, in need of support or in necessitous circumstances by empowering them to have stability and independence in society.

The statutory duties of a trustee are:

  • To ensure TRAIN complies with its constitution
  • To ensure that TRAIN pursues its objective as defined in its constitution
  • To ensure TRAIN applies its resources exclusively in pursuance of its objective - the charity must not spend money on activities which are not included in its own objectives, no matter how 'charitable' and 'worthwhile' those activities are
  • To contribute actively to the Board of Trustees' role in giving firm strategic direction to TRAIN, setting overall policy, defining goals and setting targets and evaluating performance against agreed targets
  • To safeguard the good name and values of TRAIN
  • To ensure the effective and efficient administration of TRAIN
  • To ensure the financial stability of TRAIN
  • To protect and manage the property of TRAIN and to ensure the proper investment of TRAIN's funds
  • To monitor the performance of TRAIN’s employees

In addition, with other trustees to hold TRAIN “in trust” for current and future beneficiaries by:

  • Ensuring that TRAIN has a clear vision, mission and strategic direction and is focused on achieving these
  • Being responsible for the performance of TRAIN and for its “corporate” behaviour; ensuring that TRAIN complies with all legal and regulatory requirements
  • Acting as guardians of TRAIN’s assets, both tangible and intangible, taking all due care over their security, deployment and proper application
  • Ensuring that TRAIN’s governance is of the highest possible standard

As well as the various statutory duties, any trustee should make full use of any specific skills, knowledge or experience to help the board make good decisions. The above list of duties is indicative only and not exhaustive. A more comprehensive breakdown of the statutory duties can be found via the following link:

Operations Specific Duties

The specific duties of the operations trustee are expected to include some or all of the following list. The nature of a charity trustee boards means there is a degree of fluidity to the job roles, as each trustee brings forward their own unique set of skills and experiences. Therefore, please do not feel you need to be a perfect fit for the list below in order to enquire.

  • Be the lead trustee on TRAIN’s youth work strategy. This does not necessarily require prior experience in the sector, but a willingness to familiarise yourself quickly to a level where you can provide meaningful input to the lead youth worker, and help shape the overall strategy
  • Review the results achieved by the lead youth worker in relation to TRAIN’s objective
  • Lead the HR sub-committee. This committee is responsible for all aspects of employee management, including:
  • Recruitment
  • Induction
  • Supervision
  • Training and development
  • Reviews
  • Disciplinary and grievance
  • Line manage the lead youth worker, ensuring they are supported, equipped, encouraged and challenged in order to thrive in their role and operate and maximum effectiveness
  • Be the trustee contact point for volunteers, assisting the lead youth worker in ensuring TRAIN maintains the quantity and quality of volunteers that the charity relies on to carry out its objectives
  • Have some involvement in networking at an operational level, for example with the police, local schools or other stakeholders

If you would like to discuss this role further please contact us via the Reach Volunteering website.

TRAIN operates an equal opportunities policy, and encourages applications from all sectors of the community.

Didcot TRAIN Youth Project – Registered Charity no 1094601