Honorary Treasurer and Trustee

The Charity

RoSPA’s vision is for ‘life, free from serious accidental injury’.  

Accidents are the biggest threat to you and your family for most of your life. In fact, more than 14,000 people die as a result of accidents across the UK each year, while thousands more are maimed, and millions are injured. And yet accidents don’t have to happen and RoSPA’s vision is for ‘life, free from serious accidental injury’.

For more than 100 years, RoSPA has been working to change both legislation and attitudes surrounding accidents, from the compulsory wearing of seatbelts and the campaign to stop drink driving, to the Cycling Proficiency Test and to the more recent the ban on handheld mobile phones behind the wheel and our Safer by Design framework for house builders. As a registered charity and through campaigning, carrying out research, influencing legislation, informing and educating, auditing and providing expert consultancy to businesses, we have maintained our position as the leading advocates for the wellbeing of people everywhere. 

RoSPA has an annual turnover of circa £7m per year and employs 74 staff, working in England, Scotland, Wales and other countries. While most staff work within RoSPA’s commercial businesses (consultancy, training, qualifications, events and awards) a significant minority work on research, evidence, policy formulation, communications and campaigns. The charity enjoys multiple endorsements including recognition by Ofqual as an Awarding Body and certification to ISO9001 by the British Standards Institution. As well as delivering courses that lead to its own qualifications, RoSPA is an accredited training provider for The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH), Institution of Occupational Health and Safety (IOSH), Joint Approvals Unit for Periodic Training (JAUPT) and City & Guilds qualifications.

RoSPA is now seeking to recruit an independent trustee to the Board to act as Treasurer. They should be a qualified accountant, ideally chartered, with broad experience of having worked within the charity and/or commercial sectors. They will probably be serving as or have served as a Financial Director of a large charity and/or medium-sized commercial business, with experience of investment strategy, pension funds, financial systems, financial risk management, liaising with external auditors and investment advisers. The Treasurer should keep in regular contact with RoSPA’s Executive Head of Finance.

Currently this Treasure role usually takes 10-15 days per annum including keeping in touch time, 4 Board meetings, Board committee meetings, strategy day and RoSPA’s AGM.

The Board has nine Trustees with varied backgrounds in business, finance, health and safety and the health service.  

For more information, please contact Juliet Parker, executive team secretary at jparker@rospa.com, tel. 0121 248 2002. If you would like to discuss the role in more detail, please contact Tracey Rudge, operations director at traceyrudge@rospa.com or via Juliet Parker to arrange an informal discussion with Ian Holborn, Treasurer.

If you would like to apply for this post, please send your CV with a covering letter, describing your relevant skills and experience and why you want to volunteer to work with RoSPA.  The closing date for applications is Friday 30^th July 2021. Please note only successful candidates will be contacted.  RoSPA is committed to creating a diverse Board of Trustees and welcomes applications from all suitably experienced applicants. 

Role description

RoSPA’s Honorary Treasurer Trustee

Appointment term – initially three years from November 2021, with the possibility of two further three-year terms to be served.  

Frequency of meetings – four a year, plus attendance at the Annual General Meeting with additional meetings if a member of a Board Sub-Committee

Keeping in touch – on average, monthly ‘phone calls to/from RoSPA’s Executive Head of Finance. Frequency of calls will vary with the financial cycle (budget, audit, strategy, year-end, AGM, pensions, investments etc.). These provide routine opportunities for mentoring the Exec Head of Finance and exchanging advice/expertise. 

Remuneration – none; out-of-pocket expenses for attending meetings will be covered

Governance

The Charity’s Board comprises nine Trustees with varied backgrounds in business, health and safety and the health service. 

The Trustees of the Charity delegate the day-to-day management of the Charity to its Chief Executive, Errol Taylor, along with his Executive team which includes a qualified head of finance.   A total of 74 staff work for RoSPA. Trustees are responsible for fiduciary and financial oversight and for agreeing the strategy of the Charity. There are sub-committees reporting to the main Trustee Board on finances and investments, remuneration and nominations.  Trustees are expected to join one or more of these committees. The Board is chaired by Mike Parker CBE.

The Charity faces some difficult choices in allocating its resources effectively. Trustees play a key role in ensuring that this is done in a timely, transparent and efficient manner, and that the impact of its activities are measured systematically. The Charity also works in partnership with statutory bodies as well as with other charities and voluntary organisations to maximise its effectiveness.

Person specification

Candidates interested in applying to become a Trustee of RoSPA should be able to demonstrate knowledge and ideally experience in the following key areas:

• Membership of other boards or committees at a similar level
• Professional background in finance in commercial and/or charitable sectors
• Experience in investment strategy, pension funds as well as liaison with external auditors and investment advisers with Working Knowledge of DB Pension Schemes
• Charity governance
• Decision support and Key Performance Indicators
• Mentoring senior managers
• Experience of Audit / Resources and Investment Committees
• Experience of Company Secretary / Compliance and Risk experience.
• Turnaround Experience - Process / processes (ERP / Financial processes), Systems and Web solutions, Change management
• Mentoring experience.

Time

The time commitment expected for the role of Treasurer Trustee of RoSPA will be around 10-15 days per year of which approximately half would consist of meetings. The remaining time would consist of preparation, background reading and reviewing papers.

Location

Most Trustee meetings take place remotely by Microsoft Teams. As the world emerges from the Covid pandemic, some of these meetings will revert back to face-to-face meetings that take place in London, Edinburgh or the charity’s HQ in Birmingham. RoSPA itself has been operating successfully throughout the lockdown and will be adopting a hybrid form of working with staff working remotely 2-3 days/week at home and 2-3 days/week in RoSPA premises.