ChairAppointment Brief March 2017

Dear Applicant,

Thank you very much for your interest in BlindAid.

BlindAid has over 180 years of experience of delivering emotional and practical support to blind and visually impaired people living in the 12 inner London Boroughs and the City of London. We aim to improve quality of life and to promote independence.

Our core service has always been home visiting; our enthusiastic team is dedicated to working alongside our service users, offering friendly company as well as information and links to other useful organisations. We also provide a telephone support service and can offer welfare rights support.

We provide radio/audio equipment and offer grants to support independent living.

In January 2014, we launched our first tri-borough community project, providing classes in IT, art & craft, cooking & healthy eating and yoga for blind and visually impaired residents of Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham. We now have two such projects and plan to establish a further two to provide access to these opportunities to all blind and visually impaired people in the boroughs which we serve.

All our services are provided free of charge for our service users.

We recently commissioned a research project to better understand the needs of blind and visually impaired people in our region. We are using this to inform the development of a new strategic plan for the charity. We are fortunate to have reserves in place to help deliver such a strategy.

We are now seeking a new Chair to take over the leadership of the charity at this exciting time in our development.

I very much hope you are interested in this position and look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Keith Felton Chair of Trustees, BlindAid

Welcome

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BlindAid is a Central London-based medium–sized charity which supports people with a visual impairment.

The charity seeks to alleviate loneliness and social isolation affecting visually impaired people. It aims to empower users to encourage and support independent living. BlindAid also supports people suffering the

emotional consequences of visual impairment.

We are seeking a new Chair to take over from Keith Felton, who has been in the role since 2013, but has been a Trustee since 1997. The aim is for the new Chair to join the board as a Trustee in mid 2017 and take over as Chair shortly after, initially for a three-year term.

Chair of Trustees

Annual celebration for service users

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BlindAid was established in 1834 as the Indigent Blind Visiting Society and later became The Metropolitan Society for the Blind before rebranding as BlindAid in 2011. It is a company limited by guarantee.

It holds an archive of the lives of visually impaired and blind Londoners across 180 years.

Today, it continues in its core mission of improving the quality of life of people in Inner London with a visual impairment including one-to-one care and advice; access and mobility support; community activity and outreach.

A detailed description of the charity’s activities may be found in the report of the Trustees in the 2015 Audited Financial Statements on our website at: www.blindaid.org.uk

In 2016, the charity had an income of circa £575,000, and total funds of circa £4.6million. As a member of the Greater London Fund for the Blind, BlindAid receives annual allocations from this fund raising vehicle, as well as grants from trusts, legacies and income from the charity’s investment portfolio.

BlindAid is in the fortunate position of having surplus reserves, which the Trustees have

decided to deploy in the expansion of services for people with a visual impairment. As a result, BlindAid has been budgeting annual deficits each year.

This has allowed the charity to establish two new community projects, with two more planned, which provide a range of activities for those with sight loss to facilitate an improved quality of life and more independent living, whilst maintaining and expanding its core services.

As a result, in the future BlindAid will be looking to be more active in raising funds to support its activities to continue this momentum.

Background

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Over the past few years, the charity has made a number of positive changes, developing and expanding its services as noted in the previous section. In addition, operational improvements achieved

include: updating the terms for its staff, documenting formal policies, outsourcing the accounting function, introducing technology to manage activity, and modernising the charity’s governing documents.

Future Plans and Strategy

Key focus for the charity in the short to medium term includes:

• Creation of a set of values to frame BlindAid’s future strategy.

• Ensure services are developed with service users’ ‘voice’ at their centre.

• Development of a new strategy with the aim of increasing the impact and effectiveness of the charity’s services for visually impaired and blind people.

• Provision of community programmes in a minimum of four locations in the area of operation.

• Headquarters refurbished to achieve greater capacity and improved working methods.

• Development of fundraising strategy to create sustainable revenue streams.

• Review of investment strategy.

• Development of impact measurement tools to measure outcomes of services.

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BlindAid is headed by the Chief Executive and has 26 employees, largely comprising office-based staff and home visitors who work remotely.

Chief Executive Officer

Sue O’Hara

Sue worked in the commercial management sector for many years before joining BlindAid, having worked predominantly in Global Corporate Relocation. Additional experience includes advertising and public affairs, as well as working as a voluntary bereavement counsellor for a number of years.

Board of Trustees and Governance

The Board currently comprises nine Trustees, with a broad range of skills and experience, a number of whom have joined over the past 3-4 years. It meets four times a year in Central London from 4pm to 6pm.

The Chair is also a member of the Management Committee, which meets four times a year, at the offices of the charity (Bermondsey SE1).

In addition, the Chair is an ex officio member of the Nominations Committee which meets on an ad hoc basis as required.

The Board holds an away day every few years to review and discuss strategy.

Staff

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Keith Felton (Chair of Trustees)

Keith is a Chartered Accountant and is currently Director of Corporate Services at Crisis, the national homelessness charity. Prior to this he spent 25 years working in the financial services sector. He was Honorary Treasurer between 1997 and 2013 and was elected Chairman in July 2013.

Andrew Blessley

Andrew Blessley had a 30-year career with NatWest in various roles in the UK and USA, and was Chief Executive of a grant maker, The Clothworkers’ Foundation, from 2001 to 2015. He was appointed to the Board in 2001 and was elected Vice Chair in 2013.

Angie Pankhania

Angie is a Chartered Certified Accountant and is Head of Finance & Governance at the United Nations Association - UK. Angie joined the Board as Honorary Treasurer in July 2013.

Fran Hibbert

Fran led MertonVision, a charity delivering services to visually impaired people, for 13 years and retired at the end of 2016. A member of Vision2020, Fran was appointed to the Board in July 2013.

Katherine Cox

Katherine is Head of the Global Financial Client Group at Schroders. Katherine was appointed to the Board in July 2013.

Trustees

Kassim Gaffar

Kassim is a Chartered Accountant who has worked in the financial services sector since 1997, including a number of roles in the corporate and investment banking arm of HSBC. Kassim was appointed to the Board November 2013.

Tim Barnard

Tim Barnard retired from full-time work as a solicitor with Simmons & Simmons, a large international law firm based in the City of London in 2013. Tim is now a non-stipendiary priest. He was appointed to the Board in 2013.

Katherine (Katia) Ramo

Katia is a Corporate and Commercial Solicitor at the global law firm CMS Cameron McKenna. Her initial involvement with BlindAid was as a service user. Katherine was appointed to the Board in 2014.

Henry Bufford

Henry qualified as a rehabilitation worker for visually impaired people and subsequently worked in several London Boroughs, managing sensory teams, commissioning and developing services for people with disabilities. He now works for Blind Veterans. Henry has served as both a Trustee and volunteer for several visual impairment charities. He joined the Board in July 2015.

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Key responsibilities of the Chair

• Lead and direct the Board to enable them to fulfill their responsibilities for governance and strategic direction as effectively as possible

• In conjunction with the Board, appoint, appraise, oversee, and constructively advise and guide the CEO (including regular meetings with the CEO)

• Liaise regularly with the CEO, Treasurer and Vice Chair (as the Management Committee) to monitor financial performance and oversee implementation of strategy on behalf of the Board

• Act as ambassador for the charity at appropriate events, platforms etc

• Support the organisation’s fundraising efforts and be active with funders and stakeholders

The new Chair will lead BlindAid into an exciting new phase of the charity’s life cycle.

Key qualities of the Chair:

Essential qualities:

• Understanding of responsibilities and duties of Trusteeship

• Empathy with BlindAid’s mission

• Willingness to commit time to carry out responsibilities

• Prior experience of Committee/Trustee work

• Leadership and interpersonal skills (including tact and diplomacy)

• Ability to foster a collaborative team environment

Desirable qualities:

• Experience of visual impairment

• Wider involvement with the voluntary sector

• Ability to help the charity’s fundraising efforts

• Familiarity with financial management

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Application Process

If you have the requisite skills and are interested in taking on this role, BlindAid would love to hear from you. You would be joining a motivated Board overseeing the charity at an exciting time.

For an informal conversation about the role, please contact Jess Stockford or Lottie Wihl at Prospectus on 0207 691 1920 or via jessica.stockford@prospect-us.co.uk or lottie.wihl@prospect-us.co.uk

To apply

To apply in confidence please visit www.prospect-us.co.uk/executive/job/HQ00169356 and submit a copy of your CV or an extended biography together with a short supporting statement and a list of any Directorships or Trusteeships that you currently hold.

Please ensure that your application fully addresses the requirements of the role.

You should give the names, positions, organisations and telephone contact numbers of two referees, relevant to this role. References will only be taken once your express permission has been granted.

Please let us know if you will require any special provision as a result of any disability should you be called for interview.

Timetable

The Closing date for applications is the Monday 24th April 2017.

Prospectus will hold preliminary interviews the week commencing Monday 1st May 2017.

A group of Trustees will interview short-listed candidates in Central London on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th May 2017, prior to which they will have the opportunity to have an informal discussion with the Chief Executive.

The Trustees expect to appoint the new Chair at their meeting to be held on Wednesday 24th May 2017.

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Prospectus Ltd 020 7691 1925 www.prospect-us.co.uk

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