About the organisation
The Birth Partner Project is located in Cardiff, Wales, and provides volunteer birth partners who work in small teams to offer support and friendship to women and birthing people seeking sanctuary. Our vision is that no woman seeking sanctuary faces birth alone. The Birth Partner Project was set up in 2016, became a registered charity in 2018 and now operates with a highly experienced and dedicated staff, cohort of trained volunteers, and board of trustees.
Our volunteers work with people in the latter stages of pregnancy, throughout labour and birth, and the first eight weeks postpartum. We also run a weekly drop-in meeting, which builds social support and friendship between mama’s. We provide continuity of care, specialist signposting and referral, resources, information and wellbeing support.
Each woman or birthing person referred to the service is supported by a small team of 3-4 volunteer birth partners, who meet together from week 36 of the pregnancy onwards, to build friendships and provide practical information and emotional support in the lead up to the birth.
When labour begins, the team provides 24-hour support using a rota system to ensure that the woman or birthing person has someone with them at all times. After birth, volunteers continue to meet weekly with mum and baby for a further 8 weeks, offering additional support and making sure they have everything they need.
Volunteer Birth Partners provide non-medical, emotional and practical support, comfort measures and a positive, nurturing presence, as well as information and signposting to assist women to access other relevant support during this period.
In addition to partnering women and birthing people during labour and birth, TBPP provides a weekly drop-in service focusing on access to health information and services as well as wellbeing activities.
We are currently making big strides to develop our small charity so it’s fit for the future, focusing on excellence, sustainability and growth. We are looking for dynamic and committed new trustees to join our superb existing team, including in the role of Treasurer.
We are very committed to increasing the diversity of our Board of Trustees. we are particularly welcoming applications from people with lived experience of the asylum process.
About the role
Our current treasurer is one of the co-founders of The Birth Partner Project, and is stepping back from doing a superb job over the past 8 years. We are looking for a new treasurer to review our financial governance processes, working hand-in-hand with our newly appointed Chair and our wider Board, and to act in an ongoing role as our Treasurer. We would hope that in the first instance, this would be for a period of 3 years.
We are a very small charity, with no sub-committees of the Board. The Board meets formally quarterly, and with a lighter agenda in the intervening months (i.e. there are monthly meetings, of which 4 per year are more lengthy). Currently all meetings are held online. We are keen to appoint the right person to this role, and would be happy to consider applications from people working 100% remotely.
It’s essential that our new treasurer can help guide and advise us on financial matters, and provide oversight of the charity’s finances. This includes:
- Supporting the Director to maintain financial governance in line with good practice
- Working with the Director to support the presentation of financial reports to the Board
- Providing due scrutiny to the Director, to ensure the the charity maintains proper financial conduct
- Providing an oversight function to ensure we are financially able to function, we have appropriate reserves, and we have accounting procedures and controls in place.
- Identifying and bringing to the attention of the Board any financial risks facing the charity, as well as possible actions for the Board to take
- Working with the Director and the Finance Officer to prepare the Annual Statement of Accounts for independent examination and present these to the Board of Trustees for approval
- Attending/being a member of any finance working groups or sub-committees Participating as a trustee in all the ways outlined below, in addition to performing the specific role of Treasurer
Trustees are not responsible for the operational work of our charity. We have a small and excellent team who manage things on a day-to-day basis. Our trustees are responsible for scrutiny and strategic oversight, to ensure that we operate effectively and in line with our charitable objects.
The work you do as a trustee will include:
- Guiding our team and helping to make decisions which affect our organisational structure, fundraising pipeline, and reach into the future
- Developing our strategy on an ongoing basis, reflecting on our ability to sustainably support the objectives of our charity and secure its long term future
- Ensuring we have set a clear vision, mission and strategic direction and that our aspirations are aligned with our budgets and operational plans
- Scrutinising activity to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements
- Ensuring we pursue our objects as defined in our governing document and apply our resources in pursuance of our objects;
- Providing oversight to ensure we are effectively evaluating our performance against goals and targets
- Scrutinising and robustly testing the resilience of our financial management
Our ideal candidate
We are looking for a Treasurer who understands good financial governance in charities, and is able to work effectively in the context of a tiny charity with very limited resources. We would very much value the skills of a candidate who has experience of growing a small charity to a position of long-term financial sustainability, who understands how fundraising pipelines operate, and who brings sound judgement and a clear perspective on how we do our work.
At The Birth Partner Project, the way we do our work is an important and integral part of the work itself. We are committed to providing culturally safe and trauma informed support, lifting the voices of the women and birthing people we work with, and finding ways to centre their voices and experience. We are looking for a treasurer who can commit to reflective, considered, and respectful practice.
All our trustees are expected to demonstrate the following behaviours
Actively listening to the women and birthing people we work with, centring their voices and respecting their experience
Commitment to and passion for The Birth Partner Project
Working effectively as a member of a team
Communicating effectively (in a timely and considered manner, mindful of audience)
Making sound, independent judgements which have put the interests of the women and birthing people we support at the heart of all decision-making
Thinking creatively, proactively and with optimism that we can create change
Taking the time and responsibility to understand and undertake the legal duties, responsibilities, and liabilities of trusteeship
Actively making time for the work of the trustee role, and giving it proper attention
What’s in it for you
The Birth Partner Project is a remarkable small charity with a big impact. You can find out more here in our 2023 impact report. In June 2024, we won the Nation of Sanctuary Award, the figurehead award in Welsh Refugee Council's 2024 Nation of Sanctuary Awards, which "celebrates an organisation demonstrating exceptional contributions to sanctuary seekers in Wales".
We have a very clear focus on the women and birthing people we support, and we are looking for more and more ways to centre them in our governance structures. We hope this journey will be a transformational one, and we believe our Board will learn and grow along the way.
This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in a charity which really holds its purpose at the heart of what it does, and is very connected with the impact it makes. We are at a time of change, looking to grow and develop, potentially expanding into other areas of Wales. We need to strengthen ourselves to do that with certainty. As a key member of our Board, you would have a guiding hand in helping us to make those shifts.
We want to bring the rigour of your financial skills and expertise to create a firm ground for the work we do, within the context of the way we work, which we believe you will find meaningful, connected, considered and human.
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