Trustee

Trustee of the Parent Charity "King James Almshouses" (reg. 1198062), a Charitable Incorporated Organisation which is the sole trustee of the original unincorporated charity,The Hospital of King James in Gateshead (reg. 229942). Our objective is to provide sheltered affordable housing for elderly and disadvantaged persons in Gateshead; we are a member of the Almshouse Association. We are are well funded and as well as our functional property of 23 flats and 8 bungalows, we own a local property portfolio. There are however serious issues with the presnt building which dates from the 1970's.

The Ex-Officio Chair of Trustees is the Vicar of Gateshead, but at present this post is in vacancy and not supported by the Church at present.There are 6 other trustees of which this vacancy is one. The legal structure affords limited liability to Trustees.

The candidate should be comfortable with absorbing concepts such as Charity Governance and able to implement them in practise, as well as having a reasonable degree of competence in report writing and the ability to communicate with people from a range of backgrounds. We usually try to populate our Trustee Board with a range of skills; at present we have the following skills represented - medical, nursing, finance, social housing administration. While none of these are ruled out for this role, as we need to consider succession planning, the skills we are lacking are: Practical Building/architectural, Digital communications and I.T., Fund Raising.

The candidate should have a strong motivation to help disadvantaged people: although we employ a full time Warden, the role may occasionally include dealing directly with residents.

The charity has a long tradition, dating back to the 13th century, including a Royal Charter from King James 1st dated 1611. Our website is https://kingjamesalmshouses.org/ (link is external)