Independent Director (Voluntary)
Welcome
Dear Prospective Applicant,
I am delighted to invite you to consider joining Dartington Service Design Lab as a voluntary Independent Director.
At a time when the futures of many children and young people remain unequally at risk, Dartington stands as a bold and ambitious force for change. For over sixty years, we have worked to ensure society works better for children and young people. Today, our work has never been more vital or more urgent.
We have recently undertaken a strategy refresh to enhance our impact and ground our work in alignment to our vision: Where people, communities and services work together to shape effective systems that give all children and young people a fair chance to grow up happy, safe, healthy and thriving. To achieve this, we bring together evidence, lived experience and design to address the root causes of systemic challenges and inequity not just the symptoms. Whether it’s strengthening early years support, strengthening mental health support, protecting children from harm, or unlocking youth opportunity, we act as catalysts for systemic change.
You can read the strategy here
As we enter the next phase of our journey, and following the retirement of the previous incumbent, we are looking for a new Independent Director to join our Board. This role, along with two other directors (who are also Trustees), provides the governance structure for Dartington. The role of the Independent Director is crucial for the governance of the organisation as a whole. The majority of the charity's activities, research and consulting work, are delivered by the trading company. The Independent Director helps both the Executive leadership of the charity and the Trustees of the charity to ensure that the activities of the company are considered from a commercial perspective, and that the trading company is governed in a manner consistent with the requirements of various duties whilst at the same time ensuring that the charitable purposes of funding are achieved.
Welcome
We are looking for someone who is passionate about improving outcomes for and with children and young people and who shares our core values of equity and inclusion. We are particularly interested in broadening the perspectives on our Board and encourage applications from individuals with expertise in fields such as public service transformation, research and evaluation consulting, community organising, youth leadership, or philanthropy.
We have benefited enormously from increasing the diversity of our Board in recent years, in a variety of ways. We wish to continue this, and encourage applicants from a diverse range of racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Being a Director at Dartington is a fantastic opportunity to shape and steward a truly values-driven organisation working at the cutting edge of systemic change. It’s a chance to support an extraordinary team, and to play a meaningful role in creating the conditions for all children and young people to thrive.
If our mission resonates with you, and you feel you could bring fresh insight, leadership and challenge to our Board, we would be thrilled to hear from you.
Kind Regards,
Ruth Dobson, Chair of Trustees / Director
About us
Vision: Where people, communities and services work together to shape effective systems that give all children and young people a fair chance to grow up happy, safe, healthy and thriving.
Mission:
To use the power of evidence, experience and design to tackle complex challenges with and for children and young people.
About us
Approach:
To make society work better for children and young people we need to shift the underlying conditions that hold them back from thriving. We need preventative and systemic approaches that address the underlying root drivers of challenges that children face, rather than reactive and sticking-plaster responses.
At Dartington, we’re working for a future where people, communities and services work together to shape effective systems that give all children and young people a fair chance to grow up happy, safe, healthy and thriving. To do that, we use the power of evidence, experience and service design to tackle complex challenges for and with children and young people.
We think change is possible when all of these elements are considered together and that policies, services or interventions designed with consideration of rigorous evidence, the experience of children and families using those services and the wider systems and context are most likely to succeed.
About us
Curious - Collaborative - Evidence informed - Strive for social justice
Values:
With our focus on addressing root drivers, we pride ourselves on creating a deep and nuanced understanding about what really matters to children and young people. We forge new relationships and bring together different forms of evidence and insight to collaboratively design a better future in a way that shifts mindsets and redistributes power.
We are particularly focused on viewing this work through an anti-racist lens and ensuring that systemic change efforts are equitable and inclusive. This means recognising that the burden of the challenges facing children and young people falls unequally in our society, with the poorest, and those from racially and ethnically minoritised backgrounds, amongst those bearing the heaviest loads.
We are constantly learning - and sharing that learning. We believe in iteration, adaptation and experimentation to create a network of efforts that work together to change the systems around children and young people.
And by demonstrating what is possible and building confidence over time, we incorporate these new ways of thinking and working into civic and public service architecture, so that change is sustained over the longterm.
“The challenges that children and young people face require everyone to reexamine what the most impactful role they can play is. We’re here to accelerate systemic change and collaborate with all of those invested in tackling inequality for children and young people.”
- Tim Hobbs, CEO
Strategy
To elevate our unique value proposition and to become the sector-leading voice in systemic change for children and young people, we have conducted a recent strategy review and refresh. We have recently published an external representation of this, which you can
see here.
This strategy will drive important shifts in how we are positioned in the sector, and how we operate. We will continue to offer high quality, rigorous research and design consultancy, as well as develop new partnerships to leverage our learning and insight and drive systemic change with and for children and young people.
Equity, diversity and inclusion
If we're going to design impactful supports with and for all children and families, we must ensure that our team and board represent a diversity of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. Dartington encourages applications from all, including individuals from minoritised or marginalised groups.
Explicit in our values is a commitment to embedding equitable and inclusive approaches across all our work. In particular, we are focused on becoming an anti-racist research organisation and creating an open, inclusive working environment where everyone feels safe, included and can voice challenge, be heard and backed-up (both for our team and those we work with). We don’t claim to have figured all this out, but we are committed to continually learning and improving our practices.
Through our stakeholder engagement and partnerships work, it is clear that our approach to anti-racism and EDI within our work is valued by our external partners and we are seen as a values-led organisation. Our current focus includes embedding and developing a more nuanced and tailored approach to antiracism when working with funders or partners and equipping the team to do this well, as well as continuing to nurture an organisational culture of inclusion and belonging. You can read more about our progress against commitments and current priorities here. One of these priorities - given the poor state of board representation across the sector - is to strengthen the diversity of our board, with a particular emphasis on increasing racial and ethnic diversity, inclusion and belonging.
Finances
Our running costs for 2025/26 across the charity and subsidiary total £1,677k - which includes a modest investment from reserves in new roles to support mobilisation of our new strategy. Income is projected to be a minimum of £1,544k as a platform for modest income growth from 2026/27 onwards.
The Warren House Group at Dartington holds circa £900k of unrestricted reserves.
Our new strategy and financial position puts us in a stable and secure position for longer-term sustainability and continued impact.
Organisation chart
Our organisational structure is a charity (the Warren House Group at Dartington), which houses a trading subsidiary (Dartington Service Design Lab).
Our governance structure of the charity comprises a Chair of Trustees and currently 7 Trustees (including a Vice-Chair and Treasurer). We are also in the process of recruiting for new charity Trustees.
The governance of the trading subsidiary comprises two trustees acting as subsidiary Directors. We are seeking to appoint a new Independent Director, to sit alongside them.
The staff team comprises a highly skilled group of researchers and designers, led by an experienced and high performing CEO and SLT.
Role description
Independent Director of Dartington Service Design Lab
Remuneration: Voluntary (reasonable expenses reimbursed).
Location: Usually remote with some Board meetings held face-to-face, which are usually in London.
Time commitment: Around 1-2 days a month including meetings, preparation and ad hoc support. The Director will serve a three-year term to be eligible for re an additional 3 year term (maximum 9 years continuously).
Role description
Purpose:
We are seeking an Independent Director to join the Board of our trading subsidiary to support strong governance, strategic oversight, risk management and develop our impact for children and young people. As an Independent Director, you will bring external perspective, expertise, and critical challenge to ensure Dartington is well-governed, sustainable, and aligned to the charity’s overarching goals. You will work collaboratively with fellow Board members and senior management to steward the organisation’s growth, innovation, and social impact.
Key responsibilities
• Provide independent perspectives and strategic insight to the Board's decision-making.
• Ensure effective governance, risk management, and regulatory compliance within the trading subsidiary.
• Support the development and implementation of the charities strategy and initiatives aligned to systems change for children.
• Safeguard the charitable mission and ensure trading activities are consistent with the charity’s values and legal obligations.
• Act as a critical friend to the executive team — supporting, challenging, and advising where appropriate.
• Promote ethical behaviour and decision-making across the organisation.
• Attend quarterly Board meetings and contribute to Board sub-committees as needed.
Person specification
Essential
• Experience at Board level (executive or non-executive) or in a senior governance or leadership role.
• Strong understanding of corporate governance, preferably in a not-for-profit, social enterprise, or purpose-driven commercial environment.
• Commitment to the charitable purpose — especially improving outcomes for children and young people.
• Independent thinker with high integrity, sound judgment, and willingness to challenge constructively.
• Ability to understand financial reports and assess organisational risk.
• Excellent communication skills and collaborative approach.
Desirable
• Experience in sectors such as children's services, social innovation, education, health, or public systems reform.
• Experience of operating models of consultancy-based organisations.
• Knowledge of charity trading regulations and social enterprise models.
• Understanding of systems change approaches.
How to apply
To apply for the role, please upload your CV together with a supporting statement (of no more than 1000 words) onto the Prospectus website via the link.
For guidance on formulating your supporting statement, please review our
guide here.
Recruitment timetable:
Deadline for applications: 15th June
Interviews with Prospectus: w/c 16th June
Interviews with Dartington: w/c 7th July
Please ensure that you have included a telephone number, as well as any dates when you will not be available or might have difficulty with the recruitment timetable.
If you wish to apply using an alternative format please contact Prospectus on 020 7691 1920 or email executive.admin@prospect-us.co.uk
Applications via the Prospectus website should be made at: https://prospect-us.co.uk/jobs/191605
At Prospectus we believe passionately that a truly inclusive workplace leads to increased social impact. We are committed to supporting our clients build more inclusive teams. To understand how we are performing, we ask that you kindly complete the brief equal opportunities questionnaire when you submit your application via our website. Please be assured that your responses are kept confidential, separate from your candidate record, are not part of any application you make, and that the consultants never see individual responses to the questionnaire.
If you wish to have an informal discussion about the opportunity, please contact our retained advisors Harjit Bola or James Rice at Prospectus: Harjit.Bola@prospect-us.co.uk
James.Rice@prospect-us.co.uk