Trustee/Treasurer

Introduction

Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid (BSWA) makes a leading contribution to shaping the response to violence against women across Birmingham and Solihull, and in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of women and children affected by abuse due to their sex including domestic violence, coercive control, rape, sexual assault, female genital mutilation and forced marriage. We believe that women and children have the right to live free from violence, abuse and fear. Last year, we supported 5,337 women and 7,240 children and had direct contact with over 23,000 women across our services including women who reach out to us on our Helpline.

We offer a range of services including refuge accommodation, support in the community, helplines and drop-in sessions, advice and training for professionals, and play and support for children in refuge.

In 2021 BSWA adopted an Anti-Racism Statement and an action plan to achieve race equality across the whole organisation, including the Board. You can read our Anti-Racism Statement here.

We have 177 employees and an annual turnover of £7m. We run six refuges, five of which we own. Our asset base is c.£5m. We have operated for 40 years, we balance our books each year and have appropriate reserves.

We are a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee; our board members are both charity Trustees and Non-Executive Directors who serve as volunteers. We currently have ten board members, and the Chief Executive (and company secretary) attends Board meetings along with other key staff where relevant. We have two sub committees: Finance and Audit committee and a Nominations Committee. One of our trustees takes the role of Treasurer, and is also the Chair of Finance and Audit committee.

This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in the strategic direction of a successful charity.

Video interview

With Patricia McCabe, Chair of the board and Sabah Hussain, Board Member

 

The role

Could you use your finance skills to help improve the lives of women and children affected by domestic abuse and violence against women? We are seeking two board members to join our Board, to strengthen the Board’s financial competence. One of the candidates will provide succession for our current Treasurer whose term of office ends in September 2023.

The Treasurer is a non-executive role and oversees the management of the financial affairs of the charity, ensuring they are legal, constitutional and within accepted accounting practice. The treasurer would also Chair the Finance and Audit Sub-committee, and sit as a trustee on the board.

In the Finance team we have a part-time Head of Finance and a full time Finance Manager who would be managing the day to day finance operations.

Please refer to Treasurer and Trustee role profiles to see the full roles spec (Note, all aspects of Trustee role description also apply to the Treasurer).

Who we’re looking for

• You are committed to supporting and advocating for women, the organisation and its values.
• You have experience and expertise in finance; an accountancy qualification is desirable but not essential.
• You can commit your time to attend four board meetings a year and four sub-committee meetings a year (on a separate day). Given preparation time required for board meetings we envisage the time commitment for board members is approximately half a day a month, and the Treasurer role will require an additional half day every quarter. Our board meetings are usually between the hours of 5pm-8pm, as most of our board members have full time work commitments.

 

• You are willing to attend meetings in-person when required; We see the value of in person meetings, at the moment the board meet twice a year in person in Birmingham and otherwise online.
• We welcome first time board members. You don’t need to have Chair or Sub-Committee Chair experience to be considered for the Treasurer role.
• This role is open to women only as per the charity’s governing document.
• Our board is already diverse by age, ethnicity and socio-economic background and we continue to be particularly keen to recruit black and minority ethnic women to further improve the diversity of our Board. More than 45% of the women we serve are from black and minority backgrounds and we are eager that our board reflects the women that we serve.

Our current Chair is Patricia, who has strong governance experience and experience mentoring and supporting new board members. She is happy to support you particularly if this is your first board or Chairing experience.

More information

• Treasurer role profile
• Trustee role profile
• Website
• For more information/ a conversation please contact: Reem Alaseel, Head of Governance at Recruitment@bswaid.org with the subject ‘New Board Members’.
• This is a voluntary role, as a Charity we do not pay our trustees but we will pay for travel and other expenses associated with carrying out the Trustee role.

How to apply

• We will interview when we receive a suitable candidate.
• To apply, click email Recruitment@bswaid.org with:
  (1) a CV
  (2) a cover letter, answering these two questions:
  – Why are you interested in becoming a Board member of BSWA and what skills and experience do you bring to the role?
  – BSWA is a charity working to end violence against women and children. What is your understanding of this?