Dear Candidate,

Thank you for your interest in joining Hft at this pivotal moment in our journey. These are exciting, stretching and immensely rewarding opportunities to join our Trustee Board at a time when both our organisation and our leadership are entering a new chapter.

Hft is a national charity with a proud history of supporting learning disabled adults to live their best lives. In recent years, however, we have navigated significant challenges. Like many organisations in our sector, we were impacted by Covid, Brexit and widespread workforce instability. By 2022, our financial position had become unsustainable, requiring urgent and decisive action.

Since then, we have delivered a remarkable turnaround. Through resolute leadership, difficult decisions and a whole-organisation effort, we have cut a £16 million deficit by over £12 million, significantly reduced our reliance on agency staffing, and begun to rebuild service quality. This progress has created the foundations for our next phase, which is firmly focused on transformation. We are embedding sustainability, re-energising our culture and delivering services that are both excellent and values-led.

To support this next chapter, we have reshaped our Executive Team, bringing in the skills and leadership needed for long-term transformation. We are now renewing our Trustee Board too. Our Board have been an integral part of our Turnaround story. As we move into Transformation a number of trustees have reached the end of their terms of office, allowing us to take stock an d renew the Board with the professional skill sets that will support us through transformation.

We are therefore seeking six new Trustees, including our next Chair, to help steer Hft into its future. These roles will play a vital part in ensuring that our strategy is delivered with clarity and confidence, that our culture continues to strengthen, and that the people we support remain at the heart of every decision we make.

You will be joining an organisation with a clear strategy, an honest and open culture, and a leadership community that values courage, collaboration and clarity of purpose.

As part of our recruitment process, we are proud to include the voices of people with learning disabilities. You will meet them throughout the process and they will play a key role in the final stages of selection. Their perspective shapes how we lead, listen and make decisions at Hft.

We are looking for Trustees who can bring both challenge and support. People with the confidence to operate in complexity, the humility to work in partnership, and the ambition to help shape a brighter future for Hft and for the people we support. These are roles where you can make a genuine difference and leave a meaningful legacy.

If that sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you.

Warm regards,

Steve Veevers - Chief Executive

Paul Morgan - Chair of People, Remuneration & Nomination Committee