• Registered charity number 1127620
• Unseen UK is a registered charitable company limited by guarantee in England and Wales
• Registered company number 06754171
© Copyright 2021 Unseen UK
Website developed by www.milkandtweed.com
Purpose of the role:
The Volunteer Company Secretary will play a crucial role in supporting the Unseen’s governance, ensuring legal compliance, and helping the Board of Trustees operate effectively. This role is ideal for someone with a strong sense of integrity, a passion for social justice and exceptional organisational skills, looking to make a meaningful contribution to our mission.
To apply:
Please send a copy of your CV and a personal statement (no more than one page) outlining why you are interested in this volunteering opportunity and how your skills and experience align with those outlined above to: [email protected].
We would be grateful if you completed our Equal Opportunities Form for this role. The form is stored anonymously and processed separately from your CV and personal statement.
Please email [email protected] or call us on 0303 040 2888 if you have any questions relating to this volunteering opportunity.
For an informal chat about the opportunity, please contact Rosey Hurst, Chair of the Board of Trustees via email: [email protected].
The deadline for applications is midnight on 27th July 2025.
Informal interviews will likely be held during the week of 4th August 2025.
As an organisation focused on equity, diversity and inclusion, we welcome interest and applications from all sections of the community we serve including those with lived experience of modern slavery, those with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and religion, people of colour, those with disabilities and those from the LGBTQ+ community.
Thank you for your interest in this vacancy which you can download below. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and recognise the value that diversity adds to our work and organisation. We encourage applications from BAME, disabled and LGBT people that are under-represented in this area of our workforce.
To apply:
Any queries, please email [email protected].
• Registered charity number 1127620
• Unseen UK is a registered charitable company limited by guarantee in England and Wales
• Registered company number 06754171
© Copyright 2021 Unseen UK
As I came to understand more about the issue, including through a visit to an Unseen safehouse, I knew I needed to do more to stop this abuse and exploitation.
For the last five years of my Civil Service career, I was the Modern Slavery Senior Policy Advisor in the Home Office and led on development of the Modern Slavery Act, including the transparency in supply chains provision and business guidance.
I joined Unseen to lead the development of the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline, and Unseen’s work with businesses. I am regularly called upon to present at national and international conferences and use my experience of working with Ministers to influence other governments internationally to take action to address modern slavery and, in particular, business supply chain issues.
In my spare time I enjoy keeping fit, music, reading and travelling.
What ultimately compelled me to act was a report on how people from Eastern Europe were being trafficked through Bristol airport to the USA. Kate Garbers, who went on to be an Unseen Director, and I wrote to all the city councillors, MPs and the Police Chief Constable challenging them on the issue. The challenge came back to us: this city needs safe housing for trafficked women. And so Unseen began.
But we never wanted Unseen to be just about safe housing. We wanted to end slavery once and for all, and that remains our driving focus.
I chaired the working group for the Centre for Social Justice’s landmark report “It Happens Here: Equipping the United Kingdom to Fight Modern Slavery”. This is now acknowledged as the catalyst behind the UK’s Modern Slavery Act of 2015. It was a great honour to be awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours that year. On the other hand, I’ve also been described as “the loveliest disrupter you could ever hope to meet”.
This job has taken me from building flat-pack furniture for safehouses, to working with businesses to address slavery in supply chains, to delivering training, raising awareness and advising governments around the world.
When not at work, I enjoy travelling, spending time with my dog Harley, cooking, supporting Liverpool and Yorkshire CC, music (I’m a former DJ) and endurance events such as the Three Peaks Challenge and Tribe Freedom Runs – which I vow never to do again. Until the next time.
