The roles

Trustees take ultimate responsibility for the work we do – setting the strategic direction of the organisation, ensuring its long term viability and overseeing executive performance. Trustees make sure we stay true to our vision and charitable purpose. They ensure our clients and residents are supported to the highest of standards and their voices are heard and influence decisions taken in the board room.

Whether ensuring we meet legal and regulatory requirements, shaping and implementing strategies or having oversight of the management of funds, our Trustees empower us to fulfil our duties and deliver on our ambitions.

There are four Board meetings per year plus two away days which Trustees should attend. In addition Trustees will be invited to join one of our committees (four additional meetings per year). Trustees are asked to visit our services to gain first-hand insight into the work we do and the impact we make. We like to celebrate achievements and Trustees are invited to our annual staff awards event as well as ad hoc events.

Trustees will contribute to strategic discussions with commercial insights and lived experience, and ensure effective systems are in place for managing St Anne’s performance.

The successful candidates will bring good knowledge of one or more of the skills referred to earlier as well as decision-making, confidence and understanding.

Our Trustees have the ability to collaborate effectively and make a commitment to St Anne’s mission and values.

Chair of the Finance and Business Committee

We recognise the outstanding contribution of the outgoing Chair, whose leadership has been marked by commercial astuteness, financial rigour, and unwavering commitment. Over his tenure, he guided the organisation through complex financial landscapes, ensuring sustainability while enabling growth. His deep expertise in financial management, strategic planning, and governance has left a lasting legacy, and his collaborative approach strengthened relationships across trustees, executives, and external partners.

The new Chair must not only mirror this skillset but also enhance it, bringing fresh perspective and additional expertise to meet future challenges. This role is pivotal in safeguarding financial sustainability while enabling innovation and growth. The Chair will provide strategic oversight of finance, business planning, and investment decisions, ensuring that resources are deployed effectively to deliver St Anne’s mission. The skills and experience we will be looking for are:

• Financial Stewardship & Risk Management: Proven ability to oversee complex budgets, manage financial risk, and ensure long-term sustainability, strong understanding of financial controls, audit processes, and compliance requirements.

• Commercial Insight & Value Creation: Experience evaluating investment opportunities, overseeing procurement, and delivering value-for-money decisions and ability to balance commercial discipline with social purpose.

• Strategic Vision & Growth Planning: Skilled in shaping financial strategy aligned with organisational priorities and ability to balance prudence with ambition, enabling sustainable growth and innovation.

• Governance & Integrity: Deep knowledge of governance frameworks, regulatory compliance, and ethical standard and track record of transparent, accountable leadership at board level.

• Sector Knowledge: Understanding of housing, social care, or related sectors, including funding models and regulatory complexity and awareness of market trends and policy changes impacting financial sustainability.

• Diversified Income & Investment Expertise: Experience developing income streams across social enterprise, housing investment, and fundraising, knowledge of property finance, asset management, and investment risk for housing and capital projects.

• Cross-Sector Perspective: Exposure to both private sector commercial discipline and charity/public sector governance and ability to bring entrepreneurial drive alongside social responsibility.
• Digital & Innovation Awareness: Appreciation of how technology can improve financial efficiency, reporting, and business planning.

Chair of the Quality and People Committee

The outgoing Chair has provided exceptional leadership as Chair of the Quality and People Committee, bringing deep expertise in governance, safeguarding, and organisational culture. Under his guidance, the committee strengthened its oversight of service quality, embedded a robust safeguarding framework, and championed workforce development initiatives that aligned with the organisation’s values. His strategic insight and collaborative approach have ensured that services remained safe, responsive, and focused on improving outcomes for clients and residents. For succession, we must identify a trustee with deep adult social care expertise and the ability to provide strategic oversight across safeguarding, housing, health and safety, and workforce strategy. This is a pivotal role that will shape the organisation’s approach to quality and people, ensuring resilience and excellence in a challenging environment. The skills and experience we will be looking for are:

• Workforce Strategy & Leadership Development: Proven ability to align people strategies with organisational vision, experience in workforce planning, leadership development, and succession planning and understanding of recruitment and retention challenges in social care and strategies to address them.

• Commitment to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion: Demonstrated ability to embed EDI principles across workforce and service delivery.

• Quality & Safeguarding: A strong track record in improving care quality and embedding safeguarding culture, familiarity with regulatory frameworks (e.g., CQC standards) and risk management, ability to anticipate and respond to safeguarding risks and compliance issues.

• Strategic Oversight & Governance: Board-level experience, ideally as a Chair or senior committee member, skilled in interpreting performance data, complaints, and client feedback to drive innovation and financial literacy to understand the link between workforce strategy, quality outcomes, and sustainability.

• Change & Cultural Transformation: Experience leading organisational change and cultural transformation in complex, regulated environments and ability to influence and inspire senior leaders and staff during periods of transition.

• Collaborative Influence & Stakeholder Engagement: Strong interpersonal skills to work effectively with trustees, executives, regulators, and commissioners and ability to provide constructive challenge while maintaining positive relationships.
• Sector Knowledge: Deep understanding of adult social care, health and safety, social housing, or quality assurance and awareness of emerging trends such as workforce shortages, regulatory changes, and digital innovation.

Trustee with Housing Investment or Asset Management Experience

We are recruiting a trustee who understands housing markets, investment models, and asset management. This individual will strengthen the Finance and Business Committee by advising on housing strategy, capital projects, and long-term investment planning. Their expertise will help balance financial return with social impact, ensuring housing strategies serve vulnerable communities while maintaining sustainability. The skills and experience we will be looking for are:

• Housing Market & Investment Expertise: Deep understanding of housing markets, property finance, and investment models, ability to assess capital projects, manage investment risk, and deliver sustainable returns.
• Asset Management & Portfolio Oversight: Experience managing property portfolios, including maintenance, lifecycle planning, and value optimisation.
• Knowledge of asset performance metrics and risk mitigation strategies.
• Social Impact Orientation: Ability to translate market dynamics into socially responsible investment strategies and commitment to balancing commercial returns with mission-driven outcomes.
• Strategic Advisory Skills: Skilled in advising on housing strategy and long-term investment planning and understanding of funding models and regulatory frameworks impacting housing.
• Governance & Risk Management: Familiarity with board-level governance and compliance requirements for housing investment.
• Ability to anticipate and manage financial and operational risks.

Trustee with Housing Compliance Experience

This trustee will join the Audit, Risk & Assurance Committee, bringing specialist knowledge of regulatory compliance in housing. Their expertise will ensure St Anne’s anticipates regulatory risks, maintains public trust, and upholds the highest standards of governance. This role is critical for safeguarding compliance across housing operations and supporting robust risk management. The skills and experience we will be looking for are:

• Regulatory & Compliance Expertise: In-depth understanding of housing regulation and compliance frameworks and familiarity with requirements from the Regulator of Social Housing, health and safety legislation, and tenancy standards.
• Risk Management & Assurance: Ability to identify, assess, and mitigate compliance risks and experience implementing assurance processes and interpreting audit findings.
• Governance & Ethical Standards: Board-level experience in compliance oversight and risk assurance and commitment to transparency, accountability, and ethical leadership.
• Sector Knowledge: Understanding of housing sector challenges, including regulatory changes, funding pressures, and safeguarding obligations.
• Awareness of best practice in compliance and governance.
• Strategic Advisory Skills:  Ability to provide constructive challenge and support to executives on compliance and risk issues and in interpreting regulatory reports and advising on corrective actions.