A welcome from our Chair, Ubongabasi Obot

Dear applicant,

Thank you for your interest in becoming one of the Trustees at Platfform and for showing interest in our work. We are looking to appoint up to three new Trustees to our Board as two long standing Trustees will step down at our AGM in September of this year (2022). I hope that you find the information in this pack useful in your application.

I joined the Platfform Board as Chair Designate in September 2021 having been attracted by the work that the organisation carries out in the field of mental health. I was also impressed by the clarity and ambition of the organisation’s strategy, and its clear commitment to becoming an anti-racist organisation, explicitly stating the need to do a lot more and be a lot better. I was impressed by both the honesty and commitment.

I moved into the Chair role in March of this year, following in the footsteps of Debbie Green, one of our long-standing Trustees who is stepping down in September. Debbie graciously helped ease me into the role. I am proud to be part of the leadership of an organisation where we really do strive to live our values in all that we do. We work hard to deliver on our ambition. I am also happy to state that we do the work with smiles on our faces and with kindness and humour, even when things are tough. We work hard, and we laugh a lot.

For me, the culture of our Governance sets the bar for what we expect from the rest of the Platfform team – our values of connectedness, compassion, bravery, and curiosity are how we do our business together. Often using the scope of the Thinking Environment, we do our best to be welcoming, open, honest, and kind to each other. Our meetings, while focused and well-structured, are relatively informal and relaxed, and we meet regularly – every six weeks. We expect high standards of papers and presentation from our CEO and the Executive Team, and we keep things moving at a pace.

Honestly, the past two years have been hard, particularly for the 8,000 plus people that we support each year. However, we are coming out of the pandemic in a strong position. We are developing our 2040 vision and manifesto for change which will be launched in the Autumn, we are on an exciting internal transformation to become a truly strengths based and trauma informed organisation in all that we do, we are testing new approaches to system change and how we do our work, and we are growing. It is fair to say that there is never a dull moment at Platfform, and if successful in your application you would be joining us at an exciting time that feels full of potential as well as challenge.

I thank you again for your interest in our work and wish you well with your application. If you would like an informal discussion about the role, please see the attached recruitment pack.

With my best wishes,

Ubongabasi Obot

Chair of Board of Trustees