Ormiston Families supports families in the East of England to build resilience, and make choices to improve the life chances of children. It takes early and preventative actions to create safe, healthy and resilient families who feel in control of their own wellbeing. The charity exists today because of one family’s tragedy: a young woman, Fiona Ormiston Murray, died whilst on her honeymoon. Fiona loved children and it was no secret that she was excited about starting her own family. Her family, devastated by their loss, wanted to do something to honour her memory. They therefore created a charitable trust devoted to helping children and families in need.

Ormiston Trust opened its first service in 1981, The Robert Milne Centre, a home for looked after children in Ipswich. By 1992, it was funding an increasingly diverse range of services for children, young people, and families across the region, so it established a separate charitable trust to manage these services – Ormiston Children and Families Trust. In 2014, Ormiston Children and Families Trust changed its name to Ormiston Families to reflect the fact that all of the work it is now doing is focused on working 'with' families in order to positively impact the lives of children and young people.

Ormiston Families provides a range of services that fall under three main categories: working with families affected by imprisonment or offending behaviour of a relative, mental health and wellbeing services, and working with communities across the East of England. It has around 230 employees and close to 100 regional volunteers. The charity now supports around 15,000 children and families each year, and provides an excess of 35,000 interventions.

Over the past two years, the charity has been able to maintain a strong position by switching many of its services to online delivery during lockdown restrictions. However, Ormiston Families is now looking to resume face-to-face work with children and their families and to expand across the East of England, ensuring better coverage with an emphasis on addressing immediate mental health needs as well as building resilient tools for long-term prevention.

As the charity looks to expand its outreach in the East of England and focus on delivering mental health services for its beneficiaries, it looks to appoint a new Trustee who will join the strong Board of Ormiston Families Trust, a very well-run organisation with an experienced staff team. They will work alongside other Trustees and take responsibility for setting the charity’s values, strategic aims, objectives, and direction. They will have an appreciation of the role which a Trustee plays and share a passion for supporting families and children in building stronger networks, learning from experiences and feeling in control of their wellbeing.

Responsibilities of the newly appointed Trustee include:

• Reviewing the charity’s performance
• Identifying risks and managing those risks to ensure that the charity achieves its strategic aims and objectives
• Supporting the CEO and staff as a challenging “friend”
• Ensuring that the charity is carrying out its purposes for the public benefit
• Complying with the charity’s governing document and the law
• Ensuring that the charity is accountable and that it is managing its resources responsibly
• Acting with reasonable care and skill and using personal skills and experience as needed to ensure that the charity is well-run and efficient
• Ensuring that the charity collaborates with stakeholders to promote ethical conduct
• Safeguarding the good name and values of the charity and ensuring that its values are reflected in all its work

It is expected that the successful candidate will join the Governance and Resources Committees and may, in due course and as time allows, be invited to join the Board of Ormiston Families Enterprises Limited – the charity’s commercial arm.

As part of its succession planning, Ormiston Families seeks a new Trustee with financial and accounting knowledge to join its strong Board and support the Finance Director in safeguarding the financial health of the Trust as it enters a new phase of growth.

Candidates will be financially qualified, and have a solid understanding of financial and accounting practises gained by serving at a senior level in an organisation, whether in the private, public or charitable sector. They will have the ability to advise and monitor the financial health of the charity and work efficiently alongside the Finance Director.

The Trust is open to receiving applications from those seeking their first non-executive role, as long as they have the ability to work collaboratively at a strategic level.

The role is unremunerated, however reasonable pre-agreed travel expenses may be reimbursed. It is expected that the successful candidate will join the Board as a Trustee as well as becoming a member of the Governance and Resource Committees, which meets several times per year. The Board meets approximately once every quarter and the locations of the meetings alternate between London and Ipswich. The term of the appointment is three years which can be renewed by mutual agreement up to a maximum of three terms.