Your Voice Counts
Winner – Board Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
About the Charity
Your Voice Counts was established in 1991 by a small group of family carers in Gateshead to help people with learning disabilities in the community to speak up. By delivering advocacy services, Your Voice Counts developed expertise and now serves other vulnerable groups. Many of the people the charity works with need its help to improve their circumstances, so YVC has developed services that can meet those needs, aiming to build resilience for its beneficiaries by supporting them to be better connected with their communities, to have more choice and control in their lives, and to have a say about what matters to them. People whose lived experience reflects that of the charity’s beneficiaries (‘Experts By Experience’) work with it to achieve this aim, and to create solutions that lead to fairer, more inclusive communities.
Charity number: 1125719 | Yvc.org.uk
Advocacy / Disability Services | England – North East| 26-100 paid staff | 4-10 volunteers
What the Board Achieved
‘It’s important for people with learning disabilities to be on boards, because we all have a right to be equal and to have a voice.’ (Lisa Kelly, Co-Chair, Your Voice Counts).
Through an annual self-assessment, the board is dedicated to representing those it serves, to live up to its own goal as a charity to empower vulnerable people in making decisions that affect them, and to ensure it has the expertise to deliver its crucial services to its beneficiaries. Recruiting directors with HR experience or with lived experience of accessing mental health services is one example of this. The board of directors has welcomed ‘Experts by Experience’ who have learning disabilities and or/autism, including the co-chair, and people who have family members with learning disabilities and/or autism. Other directors on the board bring expertise across finance, organisational management and development, coaching and mentoring, and more to help the charity deliver against its main objectives. An investment in supporting the directors appointed as ‘Experts by Experience’ has been key to the board’s success. Recruitment of these Experts involves practical workshops that enable applicants to showcase the skills they can bring to the board and demonstrate the values they hold. Accessible and interactive training programmes utilise videos, role playing, quizzes and more to develop these experts as trustees and support them in understanding and fulfilling their responsibilities. Support workers are available to help these Experts review papers ahead of meetings and help them contribute to wider discussions. Accessibility guidelines are in place for board meetings – including papers and presentations – to facilitate inclusive meetings and the genuine desire to learn and improve is evident.
A six month review of mission, vision and values as well as a recent board restructure with subcommittees for finance as well as EDI (among others) are helping the board monitor progress against its key objectives. Training programmes to support those taking on new responsibilities have been put in place. The charity is also working to share its work and insights with other organisations, with the aim of demonstrating how its approach to involving trustees with learning disabilities or ‘Experts by Experience’ can be tailored to all boardrooms.
What Inspired Our Judges
‘Our Board EDI award goes from strength to strength. This year, judging the award gave us considerable food for thought. We think this is because a tide is turning, and boards across our sector are at last recognising the power of diverse leadership and taking concrete actions to make this a reality for themselves. The competition is pleasingly fierce and our decision to shortlist three very different organisations on different points of their journeys towards inclusive leadership is evidence of just that – the bar is being raised on inclusive leadership, and diverse approaches to reaching it create opportunities for all to learn from and adapt to fit their own circumstances.’ Board EDI Judge Jackie Driver OBE (Chair, SignHealth; Chair, BreakthroughUK).
Judges felt that, like Manchester Action on Street Health, Your Voice Counts proved itself to be a ‘user-led organisation’. The board embraced the challenge of involving people with learning difficulties in a meaningful way, balancing the input of trustees with that of both lived experience and sectoral working to bring about necessary change together. Judges applauded the appointment of a co-chair who has learning difficulties and represents the charity’s beneficiaries as a way for the board to fully realise the charity’s mission to give a voice to the people it supports and for whom it advocates. Your Voice Counts provided evidence that the board had allocated the time and resources necessary to make its EDI work effective and ensured that trustees with learning difficulties are able to participate fully in the board meetings and in governance discussions. A good example of this is how a trustee with learning difficulties is part of every interview, demonstrating how the board’s recruitment practices reflect its values, and making inclusion an integral part of their process. Furthermore, judges felt confident that the charity will continue its journey with EDI and were impressed with the efforts Your Voice Counts is making to share their learning and successful strategies with other organisations.
