Trustees

Mary Ward Settlement ensure this extraordinary organisation continues in its mission Join our board as we expand to reach new communities in London helping people learn new skills, access justice, combat social isolation, and enhance their health and wellbeing.

What will you be doing?

The Settlement is seeking additional trustees to join its Board at an exciting time for the charity. We recently opened a new centre in Stratford, East London which will help us reach even more Londoners.  We are growing our mental health services and expanding our range of exciting and innovative opportunities in education, to enable people to forge new careers, develop new interests and to join and enjoy a community of people with shared interests.  

The trustees will have the experience to steer the strategic development of the organisation in close collaboration with the CEO and senior management team. Trustees have the ultimate responsibility for making decisions on the governance of the Mary Ward Settlement, ensuring that we are financially sustainable, well-run and committed to delivering our charitable responsibilities.

We currently work from two centres, in Stratford and Waterloo. If you live or work in the East of London, particular in the boroughs of Newham and surrounding area, or Southwark, Lambeth and the South East of London we are especially keen to hear from you.     

We are seeking people with enthusiasm, good interpersonal skills, and empathy and understanding of our service uses, who are prepared to use their experience and skills to achieve the objectives of the Settlement.

Ideally new trustees should have skills that complement those of the existing members of the Board and we are particularly interested in applications from individuals that can demonstrate significant experience in one or more of the following areas: 

• Finance - ideally holding a relevant qualification in accounting
• Education, especially experience on school or higher education governance boards
• Health, especially mental health provision and public health delivery   

The Board recognises that diversity of trustees is vital if we are to operate with excellence. We actively encourage applications from people from all backgrounds. If you'd like to be a Board member but face barriers in applying, we would be glad to support you

Being a trustee will enable you to both contribute your current skills and experience to MWS and build new skills, knowledge and experience for yourself. 

In particular, trustees will be able to gain the following skills and experiences:

• Experience of steering the strategy of a longstanding non-profit organisation
• Leadership, stakeholder management and influencing skills

What are we looking for?

In addition to professionalism, interpersonal skills and empathy, ideally, new trustees should have skills that complement those of the existing members of the Board and we are particularly interested in applications from individuals that can demonstrate experience in one or more of the following areas: 

• Education, especially experience on school or higher education governance boards or an education charity
• Health, especially in mental health provision and public health delivery
• Finance – ideally holding a relevant qualification in accounting such as ACCA, CIPFA, ACA, ACMA, CPA, CGMA
• High level IT knowledge in system architecture and design  

We are especially interested in hearing from those who have direct experience of structural disadvantage, with lived experience that reflects our service users, and those living or working in or near the London boroughs we serve - Newham and the North East and Southwark and the South East.  

What difference will you make?

The Mary Ward Settlement is a London charity founded in the 1890s ‘to provide public education and social service for the benefit of the community’. For over a century  our  education centres and our legal services have continued to develop to enable Londoners to improve their life chances. We help people learn new skills, get back into work, access justice, combat social isolation, and enhance their health and wellbeing. Joining our board enables you to play a part in this work by contributing your skills, experience and understanding of the needs of our service users to.     

How to apply and find out more

Please apply by emailing  with a cover letter telling us why you are interested in the role and the objectives of the charity. You can either detail your relevant qualifications and experience in the covering letter, or attach a CV . There will be an initial informal conversation with the chair or a long-standing board member so you can ask questions about the organisation. You will then have the opportunity to speak to the CEO informally before an interview with 2 trustees. We will endeavour to arrange times and meeting places to suit you. 

Email: recruitment@marywardcentre.ac.uk

Advert information