Chair - Aldingbourne Trust
The Aldingbourne Trust works with people with learning disabilities and/or autism across a broad range of projects and initiatives, all with the common purpose of improving their lives. We are guided by the people we support, who help us create our programmes of work and lead them, wherever possible, a fundamental principle of our charity.
Our model relies on innovation and inspiration and has enterprise at the heart. These enterprises provide training and development for people with learning disabilities and/or autism. The more successful they are, the more we can reinvest our profits to create more opportunities.
The organisation is complex and multi-faceted, with 40 different projects providing services to thousands of people across West Sussex and Portsmouth. With a new CEO joining us in May 2026, organisational reviews and the creation of a new strategic plan have helped to design and begin the next chapter of this wonderful organisation.
These recent reviews have also highlighted some challenges. Some familiar external challenges which all charities are facing, some which are specific to social care and others related to how the Aldingbourne Trust might flex and evolve to meet them.
We are now searching for a Chair of Trustees, to lead the organisation through the next phase of its development and help create and deliver our new strategic plan with our board and senior managers.
We are open minded about the skills, experience and background of our new Chair. Your understanding of the challenges and opportunities for our organisation could come from any range of sources, and as equally important as your expertise would be your approach and values. We would expect that you would be comfortable with the level of financial and strategic information pertaining to a complex charity operating withing robust compliance frameworks.
You will need to foster a spirit of creativity, enterprise and innovation and enjoy supporting people to thrive. We operate in a tough climate and we cannot stand still; we must keep evolving. Our organisation exists to change people lives, the more we grow the more impact we will have. Most importantly, you will share our values and passion for creating opportunities for the people we support.
The Aldingbourne Trust is committed to championing equity, diversity and inclusion throughout all aspects of the organisation’s work. As part of this, the Board has made a commitment to achieving greater diversity.
For more information on this exciting opportunity, please click here or for an informal, confidential discussion with our recruitment partners at VBS, please call Rob Hilyer on 07952 316 654, or by email at aldingbourne@vbsearch.co.uk.
