Join our trustees

Trustees are integral to our development and influential in our future success. You will be involved in steering the Pear Tree Fund, ensuring we develop to respond to the needs of our community. This is a fantastic opportunity if you want to help shape the future of a charity and make a real difference to people's lives.

As well as the main board role, you will also join a relevant sub-committee. We are a small charity so we need trustees who can commit to 10 to 12 meetings a year. Most of the meetings are held remotely, but twice a year we hold face to face meetings at the Pear Tree Centre. Attendance at fundraising events is encouraged but optional.

If you would like to be considered for this role please send a CV with a supporting letter to dinah.morley@peartreefund.org. You will also be required to provide two references.

Please note successful candidates will be required to complete a DBS check on appointment.

This is an unpaid voluntary position, but you can claim reasonable out of pocket expenses.

The charity supports inclusion and equal opportunities.

We will collect and process the personal data that you provide in order to administer the recruitment process. Further information can be found in our privacy notice.

How we serve our community
The Pear Tree Fund is a community charity, based in Halesworth, east Suffolk. We provide information, advice and holistic support to anyone with a life-changing illness or long-term condition who lives in east Suffolk, neighbouring parts of mid Suffolk and south Norfolk, and to families and carers.

The Pear Tree Fund also provides emotional, physical and practical support to people reaching the end of their lives so that they can die in the comfort and security of their own homes.

We pride ourselves on walking alongside people, offering local support when they need it the most.

Our history
The Pear Tree Fund is a registered charity first established in 1989 by three community nurses to provide extra nursing and holistic care and specialist equipment for the terminally ill in the community and support for their families and carers. In the intervening years, the trustees of The Pear Tree Fund raised more than £1m to build a state-of-the-art information and support centre in Halesworth. The Pear Tree Centre opened in 2020 and now offers a wide range of holistic support services to the local community.

The Pear Tree Fund has seven staff, six of which are part-time, and more than 40 volunteers. The charity also manages Dee’s Den, our volunteer-led charity shop that raises £20,000 to £30,000 a year towards end-of-life care and the running costs of the Pear Tree Centre.

The future
We anticipate that demand for our services will increase significantly over the next five years. We offer support to a largely rural area that scores higher than average on the indices of multiple deprivation. It has an above average number of people who are unemployed, on benefits or in low paid work. It also has a much higher than average number of people over 65 which is forecast to increase significantly over the next decade. Local health provision is limited to three main acute hospitals which require two to four hour round trips. This, coupled with poor public transport links and the stretch in the NHS, means it’s vital we safeguard, sustain and develop our services.

The Pear Tree Fund is supported by a mixture of community fundraising, Dee’s Den (our charity shop), legacies and grants from trusts, foundations and statutory bodies. The funding landscape post-COVID is more challenging than normal at a time when we need to expand our services. Our board of trustees will have to navigate this landscape, as well as the changing health and local authority economy, to develop new strategies for fundraising and service development.

Our patrons and board
You can read about our patrons and our trustees on our website.

Role summary
Our trustees oversee the management and administration of the charity. The board has legal oversight of the charity, including responsibility that statutory and reporting requirements to the Charity Commission are met. Our trustees have the responsibility for the strategic direction and overall governance of the Pear Tree Fund. Trustees will be integral to its development and influential in its future success.

We are particularly seeking trustees with a background in any of the following areas: senior management with board experience in either service development, health or social care organisations, preferably social or health areas, experience of working at a board or non-executive director level.

Person specification

Essential

• An understanding of the legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of trusteeship.
• Good, independent judgement.
• Critical thinking and constructive challenge.
• Strategic thinking and mindset of continuous improvement.
• A willingness to speak their mind.
• An ability to work effectively as a member of a team.
• Good networking skills, influencing and communication skills.

Desirable

• Experience in management or leadership within the public, voluntary or private sector, including strategy and business plan development and management of risk.
• Prior experience of working at board or non-executive director level.
• Good knowledge of the voluntary and statutory sectors.
• Skills and experience in one or more areas of non-executive governance e.g. good governance, strategic planning, business management, experience of trusts or other grant giving bodies.