Trustees

Who we are

SJOG is a growing charity with a range of housing and support services across England and Scotland.

We are ambitious for the people we support and at our core we are a charity built upon our key value of hospitality. Every day we say, “Come in. You are most welcome. How can I help?”

We have a history of innovation, 140 years old and counting. In recent years we’ve built on our long history of providing support to people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, autistic people, people who have experience of mental health issues and people who have been subject to modern-day slavery.

We are primarily funded through contracts with over 90 local authorities, Integrated Care Boards and UK government departments, though we are building our fundraising capability. We have worked hard to build our financial strength, which in turn has resulted in new services and the creation of 200 new jobs within the charity. We now have 600 colleagues from diverse backgrounds (40 languages are spoken as a mother tongue), adding new stories to the charity’s legacy every day.

The quality is good too, with all our regulated services rated good or outstanding across all areas by the Care Quality Commission for the past 5 years and, most importantly, a focus on the quality of life of the people we are here to support.

We are launching our new ‘DO GOOD’ Strategy, which sets out an ambitious vision to build inclusive communities, increase impact, and strengthen organisational effectiveness. Structured around three themes: ‘Do Good’, ‘Do More Good’ and ‘Do It Well ‘, the strategy focuses on supporting people with the greatest need, growing sustainable impact through innovation and partnerships and maintaining high-quality, trusted services underpinned by strong governance, data and technology so that we can create lasting social value in the communities where we work and live.

Who we are looking for

As we launch our new strategy, we are looking for new Trustees who can bring skills and experience to a strong and cohesive Board, particularly people with expertise in housing, technology and EDI and culture. This can be from a variety of sectors and backgrounds. We are looking for people who can support and challenge our thinking about developing the housing that is needed to support our services, technological innovation and impact, especially around AI and someone who brings expertise in EDI and culture and can challenge our thinking.

We want our Trustees to reflect the people and communities we are active in. We are always looking to increase the diversity of the Board and to embed lived experience within our decision-making.

Our Board and colleagues are people from all religions and none but they share our values. We are underpinned by catholic social teaching and would welcome applications from people who can help us strengthen the Board’s understanding in this area.

Successful candidates will be strategic, curious, ambitious and want to be part of our next period of growth as we look to continue to innovate services for high-quality impact in the communities we support.

Time commitment

The Board meets four times a year for c.3 hours in Darlington; One of these meetings is our full-day strategy away day which usually takes place in one of our services in a different part of the country for example Leeds or the Midlands. Trustees all sit on at least one subcommittee, of which there are four: Quality, Finance, Audit & Risk, Governance, and the newly created Fundraising Committee. Committee Meetings are 4 times a year and tend to be held virtually.

We expect that with reading, calls, informal conversations and other ad hoc activities, the time commitment will be up to 1 day a month.