SEN Trustee | Calibre Audio

Join the board of Calibre Audio and help to achieve their vision of an inclusive society where everyone with a reading disability can enjoy free and accessible books and content.

Calibre Audio is the only national charity in the UK to provide a completely free-for-life audiobook service and additional content such as reviews, podcasts and interviews with leading authors, to everyone who has a disability that makes reading print difficult. Our members have a range of disabilities that make reading and understanding text difficult, including visual or cognitive impairment, learning disabilities such as dyslexia, and physical conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Motor Neurone Disease (MND), Parkinson’s, and arthritis. We exist to connect our members to the books they love; to provide stimulation, companionship, inclusion, learning and escape.

Our vision is an inclusive society where everyone with a reading disability can enjoy free and accessible books.
With 1 in 10 people estimated to have dyslexia (British Dyslexia Association and NHS UK) and 4.1 million people to be affected by sight loss in the UK by 2050, Calibre Audio is working hard to ensure that more books are available to more people, and we believe that everyone deserves to lose themselves in a good book.

Currently, we are in an exciting period of growth and development as a charity and our new Trustee will join us at a fantastic time. This is your opportunity to support us with long-term strategic thinking and planning, and bring expertise in SEN, which we don’t currently have included on our board. We are looking to engage with younger members of our community, and we are aiming to make as many books as possible available on as many platforms as possible, including other partner apps and smart speakers. It is an exciting time to join us, as we look to continue to build new collaborative partnerships with publishers. Earlier this year, we announced Dame Judi Dench as our Patron and partnered with Penguin Random house Hachette UK to secure free book deals.

We are looking for SEN professionals from a wide range of backgrounds including, but not limited to, supporting people with learning disabilities. This person could have experience in SEN in special schools, mainstream or local authority and beyond. We are looking for SEN experts who understand the commissioning landscape and frontline services. One of the reasons SEN is important to us is because we are looking to engage more with our younger members to support educational achievement. We are aiming to be an organisation at the cutting edge of what is new and innovative in this space, anticipating and listening to what is important to our members. We are excited to invite first-time trustees to the board and are keen to ensure our board reflects the people we work with and support and our society more generally.

The board meets 4 times a year in Buckinghamshire with an option to meet virtually. Trustees may be involved in one of our subcommittees. We have an annual strategy away day once a year and Trustees are invited to events throughout the year. The overall time commitment including reading board papers, preparation for board meetings and ad hoc advice and support to the executive team is up to a day a month spread across the above commitments.


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