‘In whom we trust?’ The experiences of trustees in learning disability charities

Abstract

2018) '`In whom we trust?' : the experiences of trustees in learning disability charities.', Voluntary sector review., 9 (3). pp. 293-309.The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of volunteers who are trustees in learning disability charities. Addressing a gap in the study of charity governance, we consider (i) what it means to be a trustee; (ii) what trustees do and (iii) what it is like to be a trustee. We argue that the complexity of the trustee volunteer experience suggests a need for a dynamic understanding of trusteeship. Drawing upon Saward (2010, 2009, 2006, we discuss "what is going on in trusteeship?'' and the experiences of trusteeship as a series of representative claims. This is particularly pertinent to charities that work with and/or for people with learning disabilities where questions of representation are highly complex and politicised. The article presents a novel perspective on trusteeship to further our understanding of how trustees negotiate and address the demands of the position.

Pathways through trusteeship: Responding to the trustee recruitment crisis

“…In addition to concerns that it leads to "groupthink", it is also linked with boards that are lacking in diversity (ibid). Moreover, for disabled people it has the potential to reinforce concerns raised by disability activists about charity; that disabled people are talked about or at, sometimes in demeaning and/or offensive ways, but their voices are not heard (Daly et al, 2018;Beresford, 2016;Longmore, 2015, pp. 187-199).…”

“…Our focus is on charities that work with and/or for people with learning disabilities. The research findings reported here are part of a wider study of these charitable organisations (Daly, Biddle, Brandon and Slack, 2018). We have situated this paper in the context of debate about recruitment, underpinned by analysis of motivations of individuals who become volunteer trustees.…”