Chair and Trustee Unite Foundation

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Just 15% of care experienced people go to university, help us change this.

• Location: London

Who we are.

The Unite Foundation is an independent registered charity offering a unique accommodation scholarship to provide a home for care experienced and estranged young people at university. We believe that having somewhere of your own to call home matters and we that being a care experienced or estranged young person shouldn't mean being left behind.

With the Unite Foundation scholarship, scholars have accommodation and bills covered for up to 3 years of study. This means they have a rent-free, year-round home at university, which means they can go to university, stay at university and finish their course, just like everyone else. By providing a hassle-free home for scholars, sometimes for the first time in their lives, scholars are empowered to focus fully on their university experience, maximise the opportunities available to them during their studies and realise the dreams they have.

The Foundation works with 38 universities across England and Scotland, and the team works closely with colleagues and friends at Unite Students; the charity's accommodation partner and principal corporate donor. Since our inception, over 800 estranged and care experienced young people have gone to university on the Unite Foundation scholarship and 399 Unite Foundation graduates are pursuing their dreams.

Whilst we are proud of our achievements, the demand for our services exceeds the support we are able to provide with four applicants for each place we have.

Alongside our scholarship we support an online community space for all care experienced and estranged students - creating the opportunity for students to come together and connect on their terms.

This sits alongside our wider policy and advocacy work to improve the access, progression and post-graduate outcomes for care experienced and estranged students in the UK however there is much more to be done.

Our primary goal is to be able to increase the number of scholarships that are provided for care experienced and estranged students in higher education as the evidence shows they make a significant difference to the lives of scholars. This, coupled with the sectors ability to capture more data, access existing data and insight that exists, will enable us to grow our ability to provide the research and advocacy needed to influence and achieve systemic change to policy that can permanently increase the opportunities and life experiences of care experienced and estranged people.

Who we are looking for.

As we look to create our new strategy and our current Chair comes to the end of their term in the summer, we are looking for a new Chair to lead Unite Foundation. We are looking for a strategic Chair who can effectively balance good governance and advocacy for our mission. You'll bring strong relationship-building skills to work constructively with our funder while maintaining the independence needed to advance our mission supporting care experienced and estranged students. It would be helpful if our new Chair brought experience and knowledge of higher education, charity governance, and corporate foundations.

Our new Chair will possess an understanding of vulnerable student populations and the systemic challenges they face. You'll be comfortable leading trauma-informed discussions with a diverse board that includes trustees with lived experience. This is an opportunity to lead an organisation with clear purpose, working alongside a high-performing team to make university education more accessible for some of society's most marginalised young people.

We are also looking for a new Trustee to join our successful charity, we would benefit from someone with expertise in one of the following areas, charity governance, corporate foundations and policy/public affairs work.

We are keen to continue to have Trustees who have lived experience of care or estrangement and feel this would add significantly to the insight of the board.

Time Commitment

The time commitment for the Chair role is the equivalent to around 2 days per month, which includes quarterly board meetings in London, monthly 1-1's with the Director and a strategic away day per year. The time commitment for Trustees is the equivalent of around half a day per month, which includes sitting on our Governance sub-committee that meets twice a year.

For further information about the role or to arrange a confidential discussion, please contact our advising consultant at Peridot Partners:

If you would like to know more about this role please contact Jennifer Horan.