Age UK Cheshire is a local social enterprise that is dedicated to improving the quality of later life. The charity co-produces excellent services and creates opportunities to connect people meaningfully and influence positive change. Because of its work, people love later life in Cheshire. It values putting people at the heart of everything it does, being enterprising, challenging itself and others to be better and innovating to deliver what older people want and need.

Age UK Cheshire coordinates a wide variety of programme offerings, with over 150 volunteers working across six shops and a community centre. In Cheshire alone, there are approximately 154,000+ people over the age of 65. Within that population, 65,000+ live with a long-term health condition, 11,500+ people experience loneliness, and over 8,500+ are living with dementia. Therefore, Age UK Cheshire services have the power to have an immediate impact on people's everyday lives in a highly tangible way. 

In everything it does, Age UK Cheshire seeks to connect people; whether that is through local resources, by promoting new friendships, encouraging new hobbies and interests and fundamentally through the information, advice and support that it provides. It is an independent, locally-registered charity but works with others, including national Age UK to promote impactful programmes dedicated to improving the quality of later life for the citizens of Cheshire.

The incoming Chair will provide leadership to the Board and will ensure that Trustees fulfil their duties and responsibilities for the proper governance of the charity. They will support, and where appropriate, challenge the CEO and ensure that the board as a whole works in partnership with executive staff. The Chair is responsible, along with the Board, for the overall governance and strategic direction of the Charity, developing the organisation’s aims, objectives and goals in accordance with the governing document, legal, and regulatory guidelines.

In conjunction with the Senior Leadership Team and Board of Trustees the Chair will have the responsibility of setting the mission, vision, and strategy for the charity, reviewing risks to the organisation and subsequently managing these appropriately. Additionally, in this role, the Chair will ensure high standards of governance and implement proper conduct of board meetings. The specific responsibilities of the Chair include, but are not limited to:

To ensure the highest possible standards of governance by ensuring that:

• The charity has an appropriate governance structure
• The Board delegates authority to committees, the chair, the CEO, and others to enable the charity to operate effectively and efficiently
• The Board has an appropriate skillset, and this is utilised in combination with external professional advice
• The Board recruits its members in a fair and transparent way 
• The Trustees act reasonably, and in the interests of the charity
• The Board meetings are chaired effectively by encouraging participation and constructive challenge

Age UK Cheshire seeks a Chair to lead the Board, who will be aligned to its mission and will be active, engaged and genuinely have an intrinsic desire to understand the needs of older people in Cheshire. They will have enthusiasm and commitment to the aims and values of the charity and the ability to provide the level of commitment required for this role.

In terms of specific skill sets, successful candidates will bring the following capabilities.

• Experience of being a charity Trustee (prior Chair experience is not necessary)
• A keen sense of strategic purpose
• An inclusive leadership style: able to inspire and support everyone to participate on an equal footing
• The ability to listen and engage effectively and able to encourage that in others whilst fostering a collaborative Board environment
• Able and willing to champion Age UK Cheshire’s work through personal networks, social media, and other channels
• A strong personal commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion
• Enthusiasm for the charity's vision and mission
• Willingness to lead according to the charity’s values

The Chair is appointed for a three-year term of office, renewal for two further terms to a maximum of nine years. This is a voluntary position, but reasonable expenses will be reimbursed. The Chair will be expected to attend four Board meetings annually, held in person. In addition to this, there will be eight committee meetings annually currently being conducted online via Microsoft Teams, one monthly scheduled meeting with the CEO with flexibility to respond to the occasional ad hoc issue, annual reviews with all Trustees and CEO, and annual strategy sessions (one or two days).

This organisation is based in Cheshire and the ideal candidate would preferably be from Cheshire. However, they can be from surrounding areas in the Northwest of the UK as well. This is because Age UK Cheshire holds some face-to-face meetings and it would like for the Trustees to have an understanding of the needs of the people it supports in the specific geographic location. Reasonable travel expenses may be covered by the organisation.