Trustee - Secretary

Context and purpose

• Downright Excellent (DEx) is a small charity committed to enabling children with Down syndrome to maximise their potential. We deliver a range of specialist interventions and support to children with Down syndrome and their families.

·      The Trustee – Secretary will act as ‘company secretary’ for the Board.

·      The skills, experience and expertise of the Trustee-Secretary will help us ensure that we are delivering best practice in terms of board administration and wider governance of DEx

·      A specific background in charity governance or having been a secretary before is not necessary, but a commitment to learning and development in the area is.

Main responsibilities

·     Act as secretary to the Board – working closely with the Chair and Chief Executive to:

o   Coordinate Board meetings

o   Set Board meeting agendas

o   Circulate Board meeting papers and agendas

o   Take minutes of Board meetings

·     Keep up to date with best practice in charity governance and compliance

·     Monitor DEx’s compliance with best practice in charity governance, Charity Commission regulations using our own compliance monitoring tools.

·     As part of our trustee team, give firm strategic direction to the organisation, setting overall policy, defining goals and setting targets and evaluating performance against agreed targets.

·      Draw on your networks to support our work.

·      Help ensure that the operations team have the capabilities that they need to implement the safeguarding policies and processes.