Insights

“Being a trustee is something that I’d often thought about but never pushed forward with due to time pressures. When you’re working in a time-demanding day job, have a family, and lots of outside interests, it leaves little or no time for taking on more responsibility.

But when the right role came up, it was too good an opportunity to turn down. So, in 2022, I decided to apply to become a trustee of The Turner Home, a care home for gentlemen in Liverpool that had particularly ambitions plans to become the best care home it could possibly be.

 I’ve plenty of personal experience of seeing how much a well-run care home can benefit a family member, and wanting to improve Turner for the benefit of its residents and their families and friends was a huge motivator in my decision to become a trustee.

My specialism is finance and, straight away, I was able to add value through my role on the Finance Committee. Very quickly, I felt that I was ‘giving back’ and could see how my input was starting to benefit the home. 

As well as being a trustee, Tony, pictured, is Director of Finance at the North West Air Ambulance Charity

Being a senior manager in a charity myself meant that I had lots of experience in dealing with trustees, but I found that being a trustee helped me to fully appreciate their role. This has greatly influenced how I deal with trustees in my own charity – my focus is on helping them to discharge their responsibilities in the most efficient manner possible and it’s only when you become a trustee yourself that you can fully appreciate this.

Overall, I’d highly recommend becoming a trustee. It’s great personal development and using your skills in a trustee role is so rewarding. You’ll even find you have skills you didn’t know you had. And it’s great fun too!”