Trustees’ Week, 7th to 14th November, celebrates the achievements of over 1 million trustees across the UK. Dr Fran Hyde, senior lecturer in marketing at The University of Suffolk and one of St Helena Hospice's trustees, writes this blog...

My key takeaways from the Hospice UK conference have relevance for hospices but also people who might be involved as trustees for other organisations. Firstly, it was clear from discussions around the conference that hospices still need to remember that people don't always understand what a hospice actually 'does'. Or indeed the range and scope of the organisation, thus a potential trustee may not always be aware of the contribution that they could make to a hospice. To fix this is not rocket science but does mean not making assumptions. 

Secondly, trustees at the conference agreed that hospices still have work to do on being clear what 'the ask' is when recruiting trustees. Furthermore, hospices need to ensure that development, support and retention of trustees is planned, just as they would be doing for other members of their workforce as well as volunteers. 

Perhaps there needs to be some oversight of this by the chair of trustees – after all you can offer lots of training and events such as the conference I went to, but, unlike members of a workforce and volunteers, do organisations know how much of this is engaged with and how useful it is to trustees? 

Lastly, as the number of opportunities and potential collaborations is increasing for charities, as of course are the range of day-to-day challenging operational issues such a rising fuel bills, it seems fair to say that for a trustee 'wanting to do good' is not really enough anymore. Certainly in 2022 and beyond, charities need trustees who are prepared to be responsible and to do this appropriately are prepared to stay actively engaged with an organisation and to be informed by interacting with a range of a charity’s stakeholders.

So for me just right now I think that being a trustee at St Helena Hospice has never been more important, interesting, rewarding but also if I am honest in the current political and economic climate, challenging. But at times it has been a welcome and, for me, a useful antidote to other parts of my life!