Time commitment: c. 18 days per year

Remuneration: £9,500 per year

Deadline: Tuesday 5th March 2024

CHP (Chelmer Housing Partnership) is a leading housing association based in the East of England. Headquartered in Chelmsford, but operating across Essex, the Group owns and manages 11,500 homes, with a turnover in excess of £77m. The Group also has ambitious plans to grow its portfolio, both through its own developments and increasing the number of properties it manages for external partners, including L&G and M&G, with a target of 1,500 new properties by 2025.

CHP doesn’t just provide social and affordable homes, it also provides a wide range of services, including:

• Housing services for people living independently in sheltered schemes
• Low-cost home ownership options such as shared ownership
• Management services for leasehold homes
• Garages for rent
• A small number of commercial units for rentA range of support services, such as a dedicated support fund to help residents in need

Mission, values and strategy

The Group's vision is to transform lives and its mission is to create great homes for everyone who needs them. In order to achieve this, the Group is committed to four values:

• Bold - focused on the issues that matter most to the community it serves and taking a bold approach to solving hard-to-fix issues
• Open-minded - open to difference, to challenge, and to new ideas. It encourages diversity, curiosity and inclusive communication
• Caring - passionate about what it does and continually strive to listen, learn and improve together
• Determined - aware of the impact it has on the environment, its customers and wider community and determined to do the right thing. It will balance the sustainability of the organisation with the needs of the community and broader society.

In 2022, the Group launched a new Corporate Strategy to shape its activities to 2025. There are six main objectives as it helps to transform and improve lives:

• Delighting customers
• More great new homes
• Safe and well-maintained homes
• Great place to work
• Smart ways of working
• Strong business growth

To find out more, and see how the Group performed in 2023, please see the latest annual report here.

CHP operates a high-calibre Board consisting of the Chair, nine independent Non-Executive Directors and two Executive Directors (CEO and CFO). Due to succession planning, with two of the incumbents having their term limit, CHP is now to appoint two new Non-Executive Directors.

For this particular role, the incoming NED will help guide and advise the Board and Executive on best practice around customer service, ensuring that the Group is best serving its residents and communities, as well as contributing more broadly on the wider corporate strategy.

The CHP Board has overall responsibility for the Group's activities, with the main duties of this role including:

• Preparing for, and attending, Board and relevant committee meetings
• Ensuring that an appropriate governance framework is in place
• Providing appropriate oversight, scrutiny, challenge and leadership to CHP
• Reviewing and contributing to the development of strategy
• Contributing to the critical and objective assessment of any corporate activity
• Setting the organisation's values and standards and ensuring that its legal and regulatory obligations are understood and met
• Bringing best practice to CHP, horizon scanning and being an ambassador for CHP with stakeholders

The successful candidate will bring extensive senior experience in a business-to-consumer setting. This could have been gained in a variety of roles and backgrounds, but of particular interest are individuals who have had exposure to either the FMCG sector or the charitable / care sector. This could have been in either an executive or non-executive position. Although exposure to the housing sector is not essential, it would be beneficial, as CHP is looking also to add to lived experience of social housing in the Boardroom.

Applicants will also bring the following competencies:

• Expertise, drive, and agility to rapidly assimilate the issues facing the business, and to foster Board debate
• Ability to think critically and strategically and to contribute to strategic discussions in a positive and constructive manner, whilst being challenging and thought-provoking
• Ability to support the continued development of the senior executive team whilst maintaining the objectivity to challenge constructively
• Enthusiasm and willingness to interact with all CHP's residents and other stakeholders

The Board enjoys an open and collegiate culture, in which every Director is offered an opportunity to have their say. As such, the incoming NED must have excellent interpersonal skills and a team mindset. The incoming NED will also demonstrate a strong commitment to CHP's mission and values.

CHP is open to first time non-executives.

Nicola Sawford, Chair
Paul Edwards, CEO
Neil Perrins, CFO
Stephen Bennett
Karen Bird
Toby D'Olier
Fred Goymour
Sarah Jones
Karen Mayhew
Marc Noaro
Katie Rogers
Hetal Trivedi

This role is remunerated and reasonable, pre-agreed, travel expenses will be reimbursed.

Time commitment

There are 10 Board meetings each year (normally two hours). All Non-Executive Directors serve on at least one Sub-committee (between four and six meetings per year). In total, it is anticipated that, in a normal year, the role will require 18 days per year, including meeting preparation time and ad hoc engagement.

Meetings are in person in Chelmsford and as such the successful candidate is likely to be UK based.