Trustees
Sense’s board of trustees is known as "Council".
The trustees are the people responsible for overseeing the management and administration of Sense. They have responsibility for:
- the key decisions on the strategic direction of the organisation,
- ensuring legal compliance,
- ensuring charitable funds and property are used in accordance with the objectives of Sense and that all funds not immediately required are invested wisely.
Sense can have up to 25 trustees and they can each serve two consecutive terms of four years (i.e. up to eight years) before they are required to stand down. Trustees are volunteers and are not paid for the work they do.
View a list of current trustees
Management
Reporting to the Trustees, the Chief Executive is responsible for ensuring that Sense plans and carries out its activities in line with the strategic priorities and its mission.
He must also ensure that all parts of Sense have good control and management of both quality and finance, and that we comply with all the legal requirements of a charity and company.
Sense's Chief Executive is Dr Tony Best.
The Chief Executive is supported by a corporate management team made up of five directors with responsibility for:
- Finance
- Children and Adult Services
- Community Support and Information
- Fundraising
- Human Resources
Sense regions
Most of Sense's direct services are planned and delivered at regional level. View contact details for your Sense region
Membership and groups
Joining Sense brings people together and keeps members up to date. A strong membership also gives us a greater campaigning voice. Sense branches and groups are a way for deafblind people and family members to come together to support one another and share the good times and the bad. They also give people a say within Sense. Become a member of Sense today
Working in partnership
Sense works with a wide range of partner organisations at both national and international level. Click on the links for more information about our partners.
Sense is a member of a number of umbrella bodies, including UK Council on Deafness and Vision 2020, the infrastructure bodies for organisations working in the field of deafness and visual impairment respectively. And we belong to the Council for Disabled Children (CDC).
We also work with other organisations that provide social care services through the Social Care Employers' Forum, which campaigns to improve the status, pay and conditions of care staff. Recently, we have campaigned successfully for the Mental Capacity Act, as part of a coalition of charities called the Making Decisions Alliance.
In 2003-4 Sense worked with a consortium of other organisations to develop the deafblind diploma, which is validated by the University of Birmingham. Our partners were Sense Scotland, Deafblind UK and Deafblind Scotland as well as CACDPand the RNIB. The course combines formal taught modules with part-time study and has been validated by the University of Birmingham.
Each year Sense and Deafblind UK jointly organise the annual Deafblind Friendly Awards, which recognise the efforts of companies to make their services more accessible to deafblind people. We have campaigned jointly on a range of other issues.
Sense provides services to deafblind people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We have sister charities that work in Scotland and overseas. For more information visit the Sense Scotland and Sense International websites.
On an international level we play an active part in the European Deafblind Network (EDBN) and Deafblind International (DBI).
