Would you like to join our board?

Medical Research Scotland are looking for a number of Trustees to help us to continue our mission in using research to change lives and improve health in Scotland and globally.

We are Scotland’s largest independent medical research charity committed to encouraging and supporting promising individuals at the early stages of their research careers.

Desired experience and skills

Our Trustees come from a variety of backgrounds and have different expertise. We currently seek Trustees with at least one of the following overall skills:

• A strong communications, fundraising and marketing background, including knowledge of digital or social media.
• An understanding of the UK charity sector, good governance, OSCR requirements, relevant legislation and statutory requirements.
• An ability to contribute to strategic development and decision making.
• Experience of working in scientific or clinical research, nursing, pharmacy and allied health professions or in the commercial environment in the life sciences industry.

Trustees are appointed for a term of up to four years and are eligible to serve up to a further four years, after which they must retire from the Board. The board usually meet two to three times a year in person/online. Trustees may also be required to contribute between meetings including sitting on ad-hoc sub committees and attending events as appropriate. The role is non-remunerated however reasonable expenses will be reimbursed. If you have any questions or would like a quick chat to find out more, please contact enquiries@medicalresearchscotland.org

About Shelter Scotland

Shelter Scotland believes home is everything. Our strategic purpose is to defend the right to a safe home. Our enemy is social injustice.

Shelter Scotland provides information and advice online and through our national Helpline, backed up by specialist legal advice and advocacy. We have Community Teams covering each of Scotland’s 4 largest cities, engaging with communities and partners to understand local issues and to work together to take action on the problems that matter the most. We defend housing rights and ensure every story we hear about the housing emergency counts towards our fight for home: the nationwide movement we are building to demand social housing.

We are looking for people who are passionate about challenging social injustice and who understand of charity governance. We would be particularly interested in hearing from you if you have specific insights and experience regarding anti-racism or if you have experience and knowledge of political influencing in a Scottish context.

If you do and want to help Shelter Scotland deliver our strategic purpose and objectives, we would love to hear from you. We are seeking to recruit two co-optees, to replace existing Committee members.

About the role

Shelter Scotland is a Directorate of Shelter and the Shelter Scotland Committee is a sub-committee of Shelter’s Board of Trustees, providing devolved governance for Shelter Scotland. The Committee ensures there is dedicated oversight, support and specialist scrutiny of Shelter’s work in Scotland. Three members of the Committee are also Board Trustees and the remaining members are co-optees.

This is an exciting and dynamic time for Shelter Scotland, with a highly successful first year of delivering our Strategic Plan for 2022 to 2025, but with huge challenges ahead given the record numbers of homeless cases in Scotland. Your role would be to provide support and scrutiny for the work of the Shelter Scotland Executive Team, in their work to deliver the Strategic Plan. Candidates are not required to reside in Scotland, however you must have up-to-date knowledge and insight of the Scottish context in which we operate and Scottish audiences.

At Shelter, we welcome and encourage applications from everyone. We are facing diverse problems, so need diverse people to tackle them.

Safeguarding is everyone's business. Shelter is committed to protecting the health, wellbeing and human rights of those we support, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. All our staff and volunteers will be expected to observe professional standards of behaviour and conduct their work in line with our Safeguarding Policies.

Scottish Book Trust is recruiting up to three Trustees to the Board to aid our ongoing development as one of Scotland's best loved charities.

Have you got what it takes?

Scottish Book Trust believes that reading and writing for pleasure has the power to transform lives, from supporting mental health and wellbeing to breaking the poverty cycle, improving employability, and inspiring creativity.

As Scotland’s only national reading charity, our mission is to ensure people living in Scotland have equal access to books and, every year, we deliver our world-class programmes and annual awards to well over two million people. From introducing books and storytelling to pre-school children to inspiring and empowering adult readers and writers, we believe it's never too early – or too late – to begin a magical journey with words.

We believe that Trustees with different backgrounds and experience are more likely to encourage debate and to make better decisions. We are looking for people who will be passionate supporters of our mission, whose lived experience can help shape the impact of our programmes and improve how we engage with our beneficiaries.

We are particularly interested in candidates who have experience of:

• working for or in partnership with local authorities
• the social and educational effects of poverty
• fundraising and building a donor base
• financial planning and oversight
• working for or in partnership with the Scottish Government.

About QNIS:The Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland (QNIS) is a small charity doing big things to promote excellence in community nursing to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Scotland. We support, encourage and inspire nurses employed by the NHS, independent or charitable sector who work in a huge range of roles across Scotland to really make a difference for the communities they serve.We do this by supporting nurses and midwives to:

1.initiate and lead community projects that tackle health and care inequity, sustainably and in partnership with local people

2.be compassionate, creative and courageous leaders in their communities by providing challenging and inspiring transformational development programmes

3.build connections with a wide range of stakeholders to co-produce hopeful, research-informed responses to Scotland’s public health challenges

4.demonstrate their extraordinary scope and impact on Scottish societyby advocating for the professions

5.focus on their own wellbeing and promoting the fellowship of retired Queen’s Nurses

QNIS Council:QNIS Council includes up to 15 Trustees. It meets four times per year to discuss governance issues, and an AGM takes place usually in November. The meetings are currently held online during working hours, although we are planning at least one meeting this year in Edinburgh. Council papers are sent out a week in advance.

The role:The Institute is currently looking for a new Chair to oversee the highest standards of governance for a flourishing organisation in line withOSCR’s Guidance on Charity Trustee Duties. We are looking for a Chair who will lead this ambitious small charity as it seeks to unleash the potential of nurses across Scotland’s communities.

The role of the Chair is to:

·Lead the Council of Trustees, ensuring that collectively there are the right skills and expertise for good governance.

·Work with Trustees to make sure that the charity is operating sustainably, strategically, effectively and there is sound financial governance.

·Establish a great working relationship with the Chief Executive and Nurse Director providing support and advice while respecting executive responsibility.

·Facilitate meetings with energy and good humour so Trustees enjoy their governance role.

Further information can be found on the QNIS website