Children Advisory Committee Members

About BBC Children in Need

BBC Children in Need believe every child and young person deserves the opportunity to thrive and be the best they can be. We are local to people in all corners of the UK supporting small and large organisations. Thanks to the support of the public we currently fund around 1300 local charities and projects across the UK working with children and young people facing disadvantage.

The BBC Children in Need Appeal started in 1927 on BBC radio when it raised 1143. Since 1980 it has been an annual live television and radio the 1980s the charity was established as a grant‑making trust to distribute funds raised by the annual appeal throughout the UK. Since then BBC Children in Need working in partnership with the BBC has raised and distributed over 800 million to projects working with disadvantaged children and young people across the UK.

BBC Children in Need requires Committee Members from Greater London.

Advisory Committees advise the Trustees of BBC Children in Need on grant awards across the UK. Committee members are highly valued help to maintain the integrity of the Charity and help to achieve a balanced portfolio of grants based on our strategic priorities policies guidelines and criteria.

Each Advisory Committee member is part of a small team who collectively bring a range of skills knowledge and experience including:

• working with children and young people
• the voluntary sector
• disability
• social services
• equal opportunities
• business planning and finance
• the rights of the child and lived experience of some of the challenges we seek to address

An Advisory Committee Member must be able to work as part of a team communicate effectively and evaluate the merits of a grant application in an objective manner. Grant applications are reviewed by local Children in Need staff and assessed by a team of assessors. They then go to the Committee who review and discuss the applications with staff representatives during the Grant Allocation meeting.

Recommendations on those to be funded are then made to the BBC Children in Need Trustees who make the final decisions on applications.

In addition to the Grant Allocation meetings two Planning and Portfolio meetings will be held each year for Advisory Committee members to collectively review the National or Regional grant portfolio and plan.

At present Committee Members are expected to attend at least two Grant Allocation meetings and a minimum of one of the Planning and Portfolio meetings each year. The total time commitment for this will be around 3-5 days per year. This includes time spent reading and absorbing the overview summary of all applications in readiness for participating in the discussion and decision-making process as part of the Grant Allocation meeting and the Planning and Portfolio meetings.

It is expected that the Grant Allocation meetings will be a mix of Teams or face‑to‑face and take around three hours. Where held face to face this will usually be at a BBC location within the region you are a member and travel overnight and other related expenses will be recompensed.

Planning and Portfolio meetings will ideally be held face‑to‑face usually at a BBC location in the region and travel overnight and any other related expenses will be covered. Provision for the meeting to be held over Teams will be made if required.

Committee members are also expected to take part in a minimum of one additional meeting during the year to undertake relevant training and development activities.

Appointments are of a voluntary nature and would be for an initial three‑year term starting in Winter / Spring 2026.

BBC Children in Need requires Committee Members from Greater London.

We are keen to receive applications from people with knowledge / experience of any of the issues facing children and young people and / or knowledge of the voluntary sector.

We welcome applications from anyone regardless of their age disability ethnicity heritage sexuality gender and socio‑economic background. For these roles we are particularly encouraging applications from those from the Black Asian or other minority ethnic…