Job Description

We have an exciting opportunity for someone with a desire to make a difference to join our Board of Trustees. You will bring an enthusiasm for social impact and a keen interest in helping to shape the future of a vibrant and friendly charitable social enterprise.

Who are Acorn Early Years?

Acorn Early Years is a charitable social enterprise providing childcare and early education, with day nurseries, forest schools, out-of-school clubs, and specialist early years catering and training services.  We are growing rapidly, despite the challenges facing the sector, with just over 450 employees, 16 nurseries and an expected turnover of approximately £10m this year.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for an enthusiastic individual to join our friendly team of voluntary trustees. We are committed to being representative of our communities and aim to bring together a variety of skills and experience to shape how we work, and to continually develop our model of excellence.  We are particularly keen to recruit someone with knowledge or experience of Early Years and/or Forest School. You will need to be an excellent communicator with strong leadership skills. In addition to your expertise, alignment with our values is essential, and that you are able to bring broad life experience from other aspects of your professional and personal life. We recognise that the skills of a trustee can be developed through a range of different experiences and it is not necessary to have previous experience as a trustee to apply.

Being a trustee is an unpaid role usually lasting at least three years. To carry out the duties of a trustee you will need to take part in about five board meetings each year, held in Milton Keynes. There are also specialist trustee committees which further support our work.

What difference will you make?

Our board of trustees play a very important role in our organisation, shaping and supporting our current work and the future direction and development of the organisation. As a trustee you will be joining the Trustee Board which has been making an impact since our charity was established in 2012.

To find out more or if you would like the opportunity to discuss the role before applying, please contact Sue, our HR Manager (details on our website). If you would like to apply to be an Acorn trustee, please send your CV together with a covering letter detailing your experience in the management of Human Resources to the same email address.