Charity Commission - Chair
- Body
- Charity Commission
- Appointing Department
- Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
- Sectors
- Charity & Public Sector, Regulation
- Location
- Most of the Chair’s work will be based at the Charity Commission’s London office (remotely at present). The successful candidate will be expected to undertake some travel in connection with the role, for which reasonable expenses will be paid (in line with the Charity Commission’s policies).
- Skills required
- Regulation
- Number of Vacancies
- 1
- Remuneration
- £62,500 per annum - no pension is payable for the appointment
- Time Requirements
- Two and a half days per week
Campaign Timeline
-
Competition Launched
09/03/2021
-
Closed for Applications
16/04/2021 at 23:00
-
Panel Sift
w/c 26th April
-
Final Interview Date
w/c 6th and 20th September
-
Announcement
08/03/2022 at 16:00
Announcement
An announcement has been made on the outcome of this appointment.
Date: 08/03/2022
Assessment Panel
- Panel Member
- Polly Payne and Ruth Hannant
- Positions
- Director General for Culture, Sport and Civil Society (job-share) Departmental Official
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| Political Activity | - |
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| Notes | - |
- Panel Member
- Fionnuala Jay-O'Boyle
- Positions
- Senior Independent Panel Member
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- Panel Member
- John Booth
- Positions
- Independent Member
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| Political Activity | John has declared he has made a recordable donation to a political party. |
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| Notes | - |
- Panel Member
- Mike Ashley
- Positions
- Other Panel Member
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Vacancy Description
Overview
The Charity Commission is the independent registrar and regulator of charities in England and Wales. Its role is to register and regulate the charities in England and Wales, and to ensure that the public can support charities with confidence. It regulates over 168,000 registered charities and £81.2 billion of charitable income. A non-Ministerial Department, it is based across four sites, employing approximately 420 staff and in 2019/20 had a budget of £29.3 Million. Its current Strategic Plan comes to an end in 2023.
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport wishes to appoint a new Chair to the Charity Commission for England and Wales. This is a public appointment and will be conducted in compliance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments and under the principles of merit, fairness and openness.
The successful candidate will be required to attend a pre-appointment hearing before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee. The proposed date for a pre-appointment hearing for this role will be confirmed as soon as possible after the launch of this campaign.
The role
The appointment is for a term of up to three years. The role is for two and a half days per week, remunerated at £62,500 per annum. No pension is payable for the appointment.
Most of the Chair’s work will be based at the Charity Commission’s London office (remotely at present). The successful candidate will be expected to undertake some travel in connection with the role, for which reasonable expenses will be paid (in line with the Charity Commission’s policies).
Job Description
The Charity Commission’s Board is ultimately responsible for all that the Commission does. In order for the Commission to discharge its responsibilities appropriately and effectively, day-to-day and operational management is delegated to the Chief Executive.
The Chair of the Board is responsible for leading the board in:
- ensuring the Commission:
- effectively fulfils its statutory objectives, general functions and duties and appropriately exercises its legal powers
- is accountable to Parliament, the courts, and the general public
- delivers its services within its funding agreement
- setting the Commission’s strategic priorities and direction of policy over the next three years;
- supporting the Commission in securing the resources it needs to effectively and efficiently discharge its functions and duties;
- regulating independently, proportionately and impartially and acting in good faith and in the corporate interest;
- maintaining and developing strong relationships with government, Parliament, sector bodies and other major stakeholders and key influencers;
- supporting and managing the Chief Executive, including agreeing objectives and undertaking an annual appraisal;
- along with the Chief Executive, communicating the Commission’s role to stakeholders including the public, charities and their users, the Government and Commission staff;
- ensuring that the Board and its members observe the highest standards of propriety and operate in accordance with the Commission’s Governance Framework and the Nolan principles of standards in public life.
The Commission’s Governance Framework sets out in detail the respective roles and responsibilities of the Commission, Board, Chair and the Executive.
Person Specification
The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate the majority of the following essential criteria:
- the ability to be an accessible and engaging ambassador for the organisation, and have the ability to influence high level stakeholders within government and Parliament, the media, the charity sector and the business world;
- the ability and skills to lead a board and make strategic decisions within a high profile organisation operating within a complex external landscape;
- a commitment to the charity sector’s effective, independent, proportionate, and impartial regulation;
- a strong commitment to ensuring charities remain focused on delivering their core charitable purposes and ensuring that trustees understand their legal duties, including on campaigning and political activity;
- the ability to, and past experience of, providing a high quality service and delivering value for money for the taxpayer and/or shareholders;
- an understanding of and interest in the charity sector, including an awareness of the multifaceted challenges it faces resulting from changing social and economic circumstances;
- the ability to build and recruit a high-performing Board and support the organisation through a period of significant change;
- a strong commitment to diversity, inclusion and providing opportunities for all.
Additional Information
Conflicts of Interest
Candidates must note the requirement to declare any interests they may have that might cause questions to be raised about their approach to the business of the Charity Commission. They are required to declare any relevant business interests, shareholdings, positions of authority, retainers, consultancy arrangements or other connections with commercial, public or voluntary bodies, both for themselves and for their spouses/partners. The successful candidate will be required to give up any conflicting interests and his/her other business and financial interests may be published.
Political Activity
Given the need for the Charity Commission to be, and to be seen to be, impartial and independent in its regulation of charities, engagement in significant political activity (holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation or candidature for election) is likely to prove a significant conflict of interest for candidates applying for this role.
To allow the panel to explore conflicts of interest, and in particular political activity, with the candidates in the context of their ability to perform in the role, candidates should declare any significant political activity which they have undertaken in the last five years. This information will only be provided to the panel for those applicants selected for interview.
Details of the successful candidates declared political activity will be published when the appointment is announced.
Due Diligence
As part of our due diligence checks we will consider anything in the public domain related to your conduct or professional capacity. This will include us undertaking searches of previous public statements and social media, blogs or any other publicly available information. This information may be made available to the Advisory Assessment Panel and they may wish to explore issues with you should you be invited to interview. The information may also be shared with Ministers and Cabinet Office.
Eligibility Criteria
You cannot be considered for a public appointment if:
- you become bankrupt or make an arrangement with a creditor
- your estate has been sequestrated in Scotland or you enter into a debt arrangement programme under Part 1 of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 17) as the debtor or have, under Scots law, granted a trust deed for creditors;
- you are disqualified from acting as a company director under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986;
- you have been convicted of a criminal offence, the conviction not being spent for the purposes of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (c. 53);
- you become subject to a debt relief order or a bankruptcy restrictions order;
- you fail to declare any conflict of interest.
How to Apply
To apply, please send the following four documents:
- A CV of no more than two sides of A4; this should provide details of your education and qualifications, employment history, directorships, membership of professional bodies and details of any publications or awards;
- A supporting statement of not more than two sides of A4, setting out how you meet the criteria – please make sure you refer to the contents of this document;
- The Conflicts of Interest Form;
- The Diversity Monitoring Form – the Diversity Form will be kept separately from your application.
Completed applications should be sent to: publicappointments@dcms.gov.uk , please put ‘Charity Commission Chair’ in the subject title. Applications should arrive no later than 23:00 on Friday 16th April. Please note that applications after this time will not be considered.
For queries about your application, or the application process, please contact the Campaign Manager, Rhianna Bridgewater at rhianna.bridgewater@dcms.gov.uk.
For queries about the Charity Commission itself, please contact Sarah Plant at Sarah.Plant@charitycommission.gov.uk.
Diversity and inclusion
DCMS values and cares passionately about the diversity of it’s public appointments. Boards of public bodies should reflect our diverse society in order to ensure the sector has a leadership that draws fully on the different skills and perspectives our country has to offer.
We strongly encourage applications from all candidates and particularly welcome applications from women, those with a disability, and those from a black or ethnic minority background.
We ask all applicants to complete a diversity monitoring form. We hope you will help us by providing this information. Your data is not disclosed to the panel, but allows us to constantly evaluate any potential barriers to becoming a public appointee and whether there are any changes we could make to encourage a more diverse field to apply.
Disability Confident
We guarantee to interview anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the role. By ‘minimum criteria,’ we mean that you must provide evidence in your application, which demonstrates that you meet the level of competence required under each of the essential criteria. If you want to apply under this scheme, simply state this in the covering email or letter when submitting your application.
If you would like a confidential discussion regarding any reasonable adjustments during the process, please also indicate this in the covering email or letter.
If you are not completely satisfied
We aim to process all applications as quickly as possible and to treat all applicants with courtesy. If you have any complaints about the way your application has been handled, please contact publicappointments@dcms.gov.uk.
The appointments process adheres to the Cabinet Office Governance Code on Public Appointments, which is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. All applicants are expected to have adhered to the Seven Principles of Public Life.