Case Study
Supporting a regional charity with Board-level succession planning
About Caring Together
Caring Together is a regional charity supporting unpaid carers across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Norfolk. For over 40 years, it has worked alongside people of all ages caring for family or friends living with illness, disability, mental health challenges or addiction.
With more than 150,000 unpaid carers in the region, many without formal support, the charity provides advice, regulated homecare, counselling, emergency planning and respite services. As a CQC-registered provider, its aim is simple: no unpaid carer should face crisis, isolation or burnout alone.
The Brief
Operating with fixed-term trustee roles, the board was entering a planned period of transition, with several trustees stepping down and the Chair in his final year.
Pure Executive was appointed to deliver a coordinated succession programme, ensuring continuity while refreshing the board. A phased approach prioritised trustee appointments before progressing the Chair search.
Our Approach
Raising awareness with the right audience was critical. Alongside targeted search, we delivered a profile-raising campaign using LinkedIn and a dedicated microsite to showcase the opportunity and the charity’s impact.
We focused on individuals with strong commercial awareness and governance experience, particularly those with Non-Executive or trustee backgrounds and the ability to contribute strategically, including around income generation.
We mapped trustee boards across comparable and larger charities, identifying individuals nearing the end of their terms, and extended this into adjacent sectors such as health, social care and the NHS.
A structured schedule of fortnightly updates with the appointments committee ensured transparency and allowed the brief to evolve. David Culley partnered closely with the organisation, attending monthly board meetings to provide insight, challenge thinking and shape the assessment process.
Candidates were invited to informal meetings with the CEO and Chair ahead of formal selection, helping ensure alignment and informed commitment. The final assessment process included service users and commissioners, providing a well-rounded evaluation and candidate experience.
The Result
The programme delivered a full cohort of trustee appointments on plan, with every candidate accepting and joining with a clear understanding of the role. The quality and breadth of experience strengthened the board at a key point in its evolution.
The Chair appointment was completed in March 2026, five months ahead of the planned transition, allowing for a smooth and structured handover.
Caring Together emerged with a more confident, well-balanced board, better equipped to support its long-term sustainability and impact.
“From the very beginning of the process we were so impressed with how well David Culley grasped our brief and took time to really understand what we wanted. His experience and networks were essential to us reaching such a high quality pool of applicants and being able to appoint such high calibre trustees and a new chair. I would certainly recommend David to any other chief executive or board looking to make non-executive appointments from a range of different sectors.”