Medical Trustee

Job summary

Help Shape the Future of Children's Neurorehabilitation

The Children's Trust is the UK's leading charity for children with brain injury and neurodisability. We are seeking an experienced Medical Trustee to join our Board and help shape the future of our specialist services.

As a Trustee, you will provide strategic clinical insight and support Board discussions on clinical quality and safety, governance, service development, workforce standards, risk management, and regulatory compliance. Working alongside fellow Trustees and Senior Leaders, you will help ensure children and families remain at the heart of decision-making.

Main duties of the job

About You

We are looking for a registered medical practitioner with senior-level experience and expertise in areas such as paediatrics, rehabilitation medicine, neurology, neurodisability, intensive care, complex care, or related specialties.

You will bring a strong understanding of clinical governance and patient safety, alongside the ability to contribute strategically and independently.

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to:

• Influence the future of a nationally recognised children's charity.
• Support services that transform the lives of children and families.
• Develop your governance and leadership experience.
• Contribute to an organisation renowned for clinical excellence and innovation.

We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive Board and welcome applications from all backgrounds.

About The Children's Trust

Based in Tadworth, Surrey, The Children's Trust is the UK's leading charity for children with brain injury and neurodisability. Through specialist rehabilitation, education, therapy, community, and residential services, we support children and young people with some of the most complex healthcare needs in the country.

Every day, our teams work together to help children achieve the best possible quality of life and maximise their independence and potential.

Deadline for applications: Monday 31st August

About us

About Us

The Childrens Trust is the UKs leading charity for children with acquired brain injury, providing expert rehabilitation, education, therapy, and care at our national specialist centre in Tadworth, and to children and their families across the UK, via our Brain Injury Community Service.

Boasting a beautiful 24-acre site in Surrey, we are located just outside of London, close to the M25 (accessible via Junction 8, A217 to Tadworth) and easily accessible via National Rail, by way of: Clapham Junction, Sutton, and Epsom.

Job responsibilities

Trustees of The Childrens Trust play a critical role in the leadership of our Charity, ensuring that it achieves its objects to the benefit of children, young people, and their families.

With one of our trustee members of the Quality, Safeguarding, Experience & Assurance Committee (QSEAC) having recently resigned from the board, we are looking to appoint a new trustee with recent board level experience as a strategic medical or clinical leader, ideally with senior paediatric experience.

This is an exciting time to join the Trustee Board as we roll-out our new strategy to ensure the Charity continues to thrive into the future, fulfilling its duties and responsibilities to its beneficiaries.

Our most important objective is to appoint trustees who are motivated and excited by the charitys work and ambition and who display a strong affinity with the needs and experiences of its beneficiaries.

We are particularly looking for someone who can bring strategic medical leadership, strong clinical governance insight, and an understanding of how specialist services operate and develop within the NHS. The successful candidate would be a full Board member and member of QSEAC.

At the heart of our new strategy, is our role as a provider of clinical services working increasingly closely as part of a wider local, regional, and national healthcare systems.

Providing safe and effective care for all children and young people at The Childrens Trust is and will continue to be our number one priority. We continue to further strengthen our clinical governance system and processes in line with national policy.

We would like to hear from you if you are, or have been, a senior medical or clinical leader with experience in paediatrics or a closely related specialty and can help the Board provide strategic oversight of quality, safety, service development, and clinical governance. Experience of paediatric neurodisability, acquired brain injury, rehabilitation pathways, specialised commissioning, or service growth would be welcome, but is not essential.

Key responsibilities

As a trustee and full board member, you will be responsible for:

Ensuring The Childrens Trust (TCT) is carrying out its purpose for public benefit, maximising its reach and impact.

Ensuring compliance with TCTs governing document, charity law, and all other relevant regulations.

Ensuring the board acts in the charitys best interest, exercising reasonable care and skill in its decision making, managing TCTs resources responsibility, and avoiding exposing the charitys assets or beneficiaries or reputation to undue risk.

Contributing to the strategic development and planning process, including providing commercial acumen, insight into the external market and wider sector, or brining experience of strategy development at similar organisations.

Ensuring the organisational culture and values, governance arrangements, management, and operational structures are fit for purpose, helping TCT achieve its strategic aims and objectives and minimise risk.

Reviewing and approving budgets and business plans to ensure alignment with strategic objectives.

Supporting the board to fulfil the full range of its statutory and oversight responsibilities. This includes oversight of operational and financial performance, risk management, governance (corporate, clinical, and educational), quality and regulatory compliance and in providing assurance on these matters to the board.

Coaching and mentoring senior leadership or providing subject matter expertise on specific topics/ challenges.

Participating and contributing to the activities of any working party groups, the board or its committees may set up from time to time to lead specific projects and initiatives.

Supporting fundraising events and initiatives including through personal networks.

Ensuring the organisation has robust safeguarding arrangements in place.

Person specification

Experience

Essential

• A senior medical or clinical leader, likely with consultant and board-level experience, who brings credibility in paediatrics or a closely related specialty and a strong understanding of quality, safety, and clinical governance.
• A senior clinical leader who can contribute effectively to the broader organisational strategy, quality oversight, and Board-level assurance, including through constructive challenge and an understanding of clinical risk.
• NB: The trustee does not necessarily need to be practising clinically but should still be viewed as a credible senior medical or clinical leader.

Desirable

• Service level experience: Experience in paediatrics or a relevant specialty, with knowledge of specialist or complex care pathways. Experience of acquired brain injury, paediatric neurodisability, rehabilitation, community paediatrics, complex long-term conditions, or multi-disciplinary services would be particularly helpful.
• Strategic thinking, service improvement, transformation, innovation, and development. The ideal candidate will have ability to help the Board answer:
• Where should TCT expand?
• Which services should we prioritise?
• Where should we invest?
• How will NHS strategy and policy affect demand?
• What are the future commissioning opportunities?
• System influence: ability to contribute external perspective, understand NHS systems and clinical networks, support stakeholder engagement and help raise TCTs profile appropriately.
• Clinical governance: Strong understanding of quality governance, patient safety, clinical risk, regulatory assurance, and outcomes measurement. Strong grasp of current patient safety principles, such as Freedom to Speak up, models for continuous improvement, complaints procedures, PSIRF.
• Regulatory: Familiarity with regulatory requirements, including CQC requirements for children and young people.
• Safeguarding: Good understanding of best practice safeguarding policy and practice and familiarity with current legislation.
• Patient experience: Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of the impact of brain injury on the whole family. Experience in the oversight of patient and family experience initiatives.

General Personal Attributes

Desirable

• Understanding of the responsibilities of charity trustees.
• A well-developed, continuous improvement mindset.
• An effective communicator who can express ideas clearly and concisely, listen actively to other views and engage stakeholders in a positive future vision.
• Able to build relationships with key stakeholders.
• Able to absorb sometimes complex information and rationalise appropriately.
• Able to think laterally and independently in order to arrive at proportionate and pragmatic solutions.
• Able to commit sufficient time to help drive the charity forward through a period of change.
• High standards of ethical behaviour and avoidance of any personal conflicts of interest.
• Able to recognise, declare and manage actual or perceived conflicts of interest, particularly where current or recent roles involve organisations that commission, provide or compete with similar services.
• A clear commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion through either lived experience or allyship towards under-represented communities.
• Lived experience or proximate exposure to brain injury and neurodisability.