Head of UK Safety Transformation

The Scouts Association; London; Hybrid; GBP 84,000; Full time

Job summary

Join The Scouts Association as the Head of UK Safety Transformation, responsible for leading safety initiatives across all scouting activities. You will shape the safety culture, develop strategies, and engage with volunteers to enhance scouting safety standards. This role is ideal for an experienced safety leader passionate about impact in community and youth services.

Benefits

Generous pension and leave arrangements

Flexible working hours

Supportive and collaborative culture

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in Health and Safety leadership.
• Experience in managing high-risk activities.
• Proven ability to influence compliance with safety requirements.

Responsibilities

• Lead the safety function for the Scouts to ensure a safe environment.
• Develop and implement safety policies and guidance.
• Internal advisory role on safety matters and external representation.

Skills

Leadership

Health and Safety Strategy

Communication

Volunteer Engagement

Courageous Approach

Education

Chartered Member of IOSH

Job description

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Head of UK Safety Transformation, London

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Client:

The Scouts Association

Location:

London, United Kingdom

Job Category:

Other

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EU work permit required:

Yes

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Job Reference:

7c7d0d1e275d

Job Views:

6

Posted:

20.06.2025

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Job Description:

Scouts is an equal opportunity employer. We're committed to diversity and actively seeking applicants from a wide range of backgrounds, in particular, Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities.

Will you be our next Head of UK Safety Transformation?

Responsible to: Chief Resilience Operations Officer

Department: Safe Scouting

Base location: Gilwell Park with Hybrid Working

Term: Fixed Term

Salary: £84,000 per annum

Hours: 35 hours per week

Line management responsibility: Yes

A bit about the role

Irwin and Colton are delighted to be engaged by The Scouts Association to recruit a new Head of UK Safety Transformation. The Scouts Association is an award-winning Charity of the Year (Charity Times Awards 2022) with over 400 employees across multiple locations within the UK. They prepare young people with skills for life, believing that hard works pays off and to always invest in their staff; becoming Investor in People Gold 2022. The culture is collaborative and supportive, and employees are encouraged to work in a highly flexible way. Their pension, health and leave arrangements are generous and you would become part of a high performing, innovative and ambitious leadership team whose primary focus is on changing young people’s lives.

Over 500,000 young people take part in scouting nationwide each year, spread across 8,000 Scout Groups, involving over 145,000 volunteers. The volunteers are the key to safe scouting, so the successful candidate must have a courageous and collaborative approach in order to lead and develop this charity’s safety function confidently and decisively. Each of these Groups provides the opportunity for young people, from aged 4 upwards to undertake outward bound, adventurous activities on a regular basis, so therefore incur challenging risks.
This role is an ideal opportunity for an experienced health and safety leader to shape and develop the recently strengthened HQ safety team to enhance the work being undertaken in respect of safety policy development, training, advice, and services to the thousands of volunteer Scout Leaders across the UK.
The role will require some regional travel around the UK and a considerable amount of evening and weekend working to facilitate collaborative work with senior volunteers.

Responsibilities of the Head of UK Safety Transformation will include:

• Leading the safety function for the Scouts to drive the right culture and practice throughout all scouting activities and within the HQ operations
• Working closely with senior volunteers, embedding our safety strategy for scouting, based on analysis of need across the organisation and monitoring its effectiveness
• Proactively developing and implementing ‘on the ground’ appropriate rules, policies and guidance relating to the safe provision of Scouting and maintain these in line with best safety practice
• Providing a high-quality advisory service to the movement and to the Scouts’ managers on safety matters
• Representing the Scouts externally on matters of safety, including liaison with families, courts and external regulatory bodies

The successful Head of UK Safety Transformation will have:

• Chartered Member of IOSH (with relevant qualifications)
• Extensive experience, with examples, to creating, rolling out, and continuously driving positive strategy across a business in order to improve health and safety from board-level down
• Extensive experience in Health and Safety/leading high-risk activities
• Excellent communication skills with proven experience engaging colleagues, volunteers, and staff
• Ability to fully appreciate the nature of a volunteer delivered service and ability to influence and sensitively achieve compliance with safety requirements
• Enthusiasm and the desire to really make a difference in health and safety
• Knowledge of outdoor and adventurous activities, including residential experiences, including new and developing trends
• Flexible and pragmatic, bearing in mind the need to work some weekends/bank holidays/evening times (with time off in lieu)
  This is an excellent opportunity to work for one of the UK’s most historical and respected charities.

For more information and to apply please contact Matthew Cathcart at [emailprotected] or 01923 432 636.