Trustee Secretary - Education Charity - Volunteer

We are seeking a Trustee Secretary with lived experience to support the governance of a growing education and digital inclusion charity. This role is central to how our board functions and helps ensure our decisions remain grounded, transparent, and accountable.

The Trustee Secretary will have a direct and lasting impact on the effectiveness of the Foundation’s governance. By ensuring meetings are well‑organised, decisions are clearly recorded, and responsibilities are followed through, the Secretary helps the board function with confidence and focus.

Strong governance supports better decision‑making. Clear minutes and records allow trustees to track progress, revisit decisions, and maintain continuity as the organisation grows. This is particularly important as the Foundation manages grant funding, works with partners, and plans for future development.

The Secretary’s role also supports transparency and trust. Funders, regulators, and partners expect charities to demonstrate good governance, and the Secretary helps ensure that this is evidenced in a clear and practical way. This strengthens the Foundation’s credibility and readiness for future opportunities.

By bringing lived experience into this role, the Secretary helps ensure governance remains grounded in the realities faced by the communities the Foundation serves. This perspective supports thoughtful, humane decision‑making and helps the board balance accountability with compassion.

Ultimately, the Secretary’s work enables the organisation to focus on impact. When governance is organised and reliable, the operational team can concentrate on delivering high‑quality programmes, knowing that oversight and accountability are being held at board level.

We are seeking a Trustee Secretary who brings lived experience relevant to the Foundation’s work, alongside a strong sense of responsibility and care for good governance.

Lived experience is essential and may include personal experience of inequality, exclusion, migration, justice involvement, substance misuse, disrupted education, or similar challenges. This experience brings valuable insight to board processes and helps ensure decisions are informed by real‑world understanding.

The ideal candidate will be organised, reliable, and comfortable supporting structured processes. Previous experience in governance, administration, or committee work is welcome but not essential. What matters most is the ability to support accountability in a calm, constructive, and non‑judgemental way.

The Secretary should be comfortable working collaboratively with the Chair and other trustees, helping to prepare meetings and ensuring that governance responsibilities are met. Clear communication, attention to detail, and follow‑through are important qualities.

We value emotional intelligence and humility. As a growing organisation, we are learning and improving our systems, and we are looking for someone who can support this process with patience and encouragement rather than criticism.

An interest in education, digital inclusion, and community development is important, as is a commitment to the Foundation’s values of dignity, partnership, and long‑term thinking.

We welcome applications from individuals who may not have followed traditional leadership or governance pathways but who bring insight, resilience, and a strong sense of purpose to the role.

Blue Magpie Foundation is at an important stage in its development. Having grown from a founder‑led organisation into a charity managing multiple grants and programmes, we are now strengthening our governance to ensure it remains effective, proportionate, and rooted in the lived realities of the communities we serve.

We are seeking a Trustee Secretary to support the effective functioning of the Board. This role is responsible for helping the board operate with clarity, consistency, and good governance practice. It is not an operational or delivery role. Instead, the Secretary helps ensure that trustee discussions, decisions, and responsibilities are properly recorded and followed through.

The Secretary…