This blog is based on an interview with Robert Laycock, trustee and chair of Youth Focus North East, about their recent drive to get younger trustees on board. Robert is an experienced trustee and has held five chairing roles. We also talked to Charlie Lamb (22), one of the young trustees Youth Focus North East has recruited to their board.
Starting conversations
Robert became chair of Youth Focus North East in 2024 and noticed that although their constitution requires them to have trustees that are 30 or younger, they didn’t have any current trustees that met this criteria.
“I started a conversation with trustees about this. One of the things I did early was to undertake trustee one to ones, which were done in June and July 2024. I met one to one, in person when possible, with the trustees, using an adapted version of the AoC guidance, that gave me a chance to talk to trustees about getting younger trustees on board.”
Involving young people in the charity’s governance was explored at the staff and board away day in October 2024.
Identifying the barriers
Younger trustees are a rarity (only 1% are aged 30 or under). Robert outlined the potential barriers which are getting in the way of progress when it comes to board diversity:
“Time commitment – if it’s too onerous, we shouldn’t be surprised when our boards are populated by older, retired white people, because they tend to be the only ones in an economic position to put in the time. Being explicit about the time commitment in our recruitment process was really important, maximum 3-4 days in a calendar year. And you’ve got to stay true to this in your meetings, your paperwork, your governance processes.”
“As a sector, I think we tend to over complicate charity governance. Seems to me our governance processes are created in the image of white professionals. The information is often overly, and in my opinion unnecessarily, complicated. Board meetings can drain the living daylights out of people! We seem to forget inclusion, as we rattle through our agendas and complex paperwork. So how do we expect a young person, or someone with a learning disability, or someone for whom English is a second language, to take part equally, rather than leaving them thinking – though perhaps unable to express “I don’t understand” and “this isn’t for me”?”
Recruitment: Creating a process that works
The board, and the staff team worked in collaboration, especially Robert and Laura Bush, Director of Youth Work. Here are some of the key principles they asserted through their process of recruiting younger trustees:
Not overstimulating demand – “I didn’t want to get loads of applications and say yes to 2 or 3 while turning down 6 or 7 of them. I don’t think that is a good first experience of applying to be a charity trustee for them.”
Ensuring this did not mimic a job recruitment process – “We thought really carefully about how they applied, with options to send a video. We asked for a short CV with a maximum one-page cover letter responding to the following prompts: tell us about yourself, what you are passionate about, why you would be a fantastic trustee. We designed the prompts to start a conversation and make it relatively easy to apply. We also thought asking for a short CV would be useful practice for a younger person who may be still in, or recently left, an apprenticeship, further or higher education.”
Conversations, not interviews – “We didn’t want an interview process, we wanted a sharing process. A two-way conversation, the start of a relationship, not a recruitment process.”
Seeing how things work – candidates were invited to attend two board meetings, one online and one in person, with full access to all the papers, and check ins with Robert before and after.
Charlie Lamb, who was one of the young trustees recruited, said: “I’d been interested in governance for a while, but seeing the Youth Focus North East opportunity made it feel relevant and achievable.” He described the application process: “It was welcoming and supportive. The organisation ensured that the recruitment process was straight-forward and explained the governance jargon well.”
Retention: Making governance as accessible as possible, for everyone
Youth Focus North East’s approach was to make sure that not only was there an accessible and inclusive recruitment process, but that all the processes of the board would enable younger trustees to engage, contribute, and stay on the board.
With colleagues at Yes We Can – a social enterprise he co-leads supporting social leadership in the north east – Robert has developed a framework to help trustees understand their legal duties called the Hand of Governance, which helps to break down the duties of a trustee into a more memorable and accessible framework. This feeds through into all the board papers and agendas, supported by training, ensuring the information a trustee receives is clearly linked to their duties, and making clear the purpose of the information, for example, if it’s for discussion or decision.
Trustees receive clear, manageable chunks of information, including a Board Essentials pack for each year. This pack contains the board calendar for the year, key parts of the constitution, and crucial information such as the organisation’s values, vision, mission, key strategic pillars, the Charity Governance Code principles, and the trustee’s legal duties. It’s a short, well-designed document that’s highly accessible, and ensures a clear focus on what a trustee needs to know and understand in order to fulfil their role. (To find examples of the papers please head over to the AoC online member community).
“Having clear guidance and feeling able to ask for help made settling into the role much easier,” Charlie said.
Charlie’s additional tips for helping younger trustees to settle in and contribute: “Create an inclusive and supportive environment, value younger trustees’ perspectives, and don’t assume they already know how governance works – a good induction and mentoring make a huge difference.
Many thanks to Robert and Charlie for sharing their insights and tips.
