Partnership Services Lead (South)

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People

Princes Risborough

Hybrid

GBP 42,000 - 47,000

Full time

5 days ago

Be an early applicant

Get a reply from this employer

Your resume and cover letter, tailored to exactly what they’re hiring for.

Get past ATS filters

Benefits offered by this job

Employee Assistance Programme

Annual leave enhancements

Birthday day off

Pension plan

Job summary

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People is seeking a Partnership Services Lead (South) to drive transformation of our Partnership Services and lead a team of Partnership Advisors. You will shape strategy, KPIs and budgeting with the Head of Partnership Services, aligning resources and outcomes to a holistic recipient journey.

You will manage up to eight Advisors, partnering with Dog Training, Healthcare and Support Pathways to deliver a consistent, proactive, person-centred service.

Qualifications

Significant experience leading change and developing people.
Proven track record managing performance and addressing underperformance.
Experience leading through organizational or service change.
Experience setting or managing standards and KPIs and using data to improve performance.
Experience improving a service or customer/recipient journey.
Strong coaching, communication, influencing and relationship-building skills.

Responsibilities

Directly lead and line manage up to 8 Partnership Advisors with support from specialist teams.
Set clear expectations for behaviour, standards and impact.
Coach and develop staff to build confidence and independent decision-making.
Create a culture of accountability, openness and continuous improvement.
Address poor performance promptly and fairly.
Lead delivery of a person-centred service across the Hearing Dog partnership.
Contribute to workforce planning and resource decisions.
Embed new approaches, processes and systems into practice.

Skills

Leadership

Change management

People management

Performance management

Data-driven decision making

Cross-functional collaboration

Coaching

Strategic thinking

Job description

Partnership Services Lead (South)

Application Deadline: 23 November 2026

Department: Services

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: The Grange

Compensation: £42,000 - £47,000 / year

Description

Job title: Partnership Services Lead

Location: Hybrid / Community based in and around South England

Hours: 35 hours per week, Monday to Friday

This is a pivotal leadership role, driving the transformation of our Partnership Services. As one of three Partnership Services Leads, you will be on the department senior management team and will work together with the Head of Partnership Services to co-shape the strategy, performance indicators, and budget of the department. You will hold accountability for implementing the strategy and will have accountability of the budget relating to your area.

You will lead a team of Partnership Advisors through a significant change programme and help transform how we support recipients with their hearing loss. You will ensure that the service responds to the whole person and their changing hearing journey, not simply the maintenance of the dog partnership.

You will combine strong people leadership with service improvement, change leadership, performance management and data-informed decision-making. You will translate the Partnership Services strategy into clear day-to-day expectations and professional standards, build capability within the team, and ensure recipients receive a consistent, proactive and person-centred service.

This is not a technical dog-training role. Specialist expertise will be available from colleagues across Dog Training, Healthcare, Support Pathways and other specialist teams. Your role is to bring the right expertise together around the recipient and make sure it results in better experience and outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Person-centric service delivery

Lead the delivery of a consistent, proactive and person-centred service throughout the Hearing Dog partnership.
Ensure Partnership Advisors understand each recipient’s wider hearing loss journey, needs and circumstances, not only their immediate Hearing Dog partnership.
Ensure advisors identify wider hearing-related needs and connect recipients to appropriate Hearing Link or external services.
Champion, and proactively share as appropriate, recipient experience and outcomes in cross-functional discussions and service decisions.
Use recipient feedback, complaints, compliments and case insight to improve service delivery.
Ensure redesigned recipient journeys and service standards are translated into practical, consistent ways of working. People leadership and culture
Directly lead and line manage up to 8 Partnership Advisors, with support from specialist teams including Dog Training, Healthcare, and Support Pathways.
Set clear expectations for behaviour, professional practice, service standards, performance and impact.
Coach and develop Partnership Advisors to build confidence, capability, professional judgement and independent decision-making.
Create a culture of accountability, openness, learning and continuous improvement.
Address poor performance and behaviour promptly, fairly and consistently.
Model the leadership behaviours required for the future service and constructively challenge practices that do not meet agreed standards.

Performance, quality and standards

Implement and maintain agreed critical KPIs, service approaches, standards and quality measures.
Use performance information routinely to identify variation, risk and improvement opportunities.
Hold regular performance conversations and act promptly where standards are not met.
Use case review and quality assurance to improve consistency and professional practice.
Provide meaningful performance insight, learning and mitigation to the Head of Partnership Services rather than simply reporting activity.

Change and transformation

Lead the implementation of the new Partnership Services model within the team and drive the change in orientation required.
Build understanding of why change is required and address resistance constructively and robustly.
Embed new approaches, processes, standards, systems and behaviour into everyday practice.
Identify barriers to implementation and work with colleagues to resolve them.
Maintain momentum and accountability after implementation. Data, insight and continuous improvement
Use data and insight as a core leadership tool.
Interpret and act on trends in workload, quality, recipient outcomes, wellbeing impact and other agreed measures.
Turn data and insight into action, improvement plans, positioning of new recipients, and management decisions.
Identify systemic issues and elevate them to the Head of Partnership Services with practical solutions.

Contribute Person-centric service delivery

Lead the delivery of a consistent, proactive and person-centred service throughout the Hearing Dog partnership.
Ensure Partnership Advisors understand each recipient’s wider hearing loss journey, needs and circumstances, not only their immediate Hearing Dog partnership.
Ensure advisors identify wider hearing-related needs and connect recipients to appropriate Hearing Link or external services.
Champion, and proactively share as appropriate, recipient experience and outcomes in cross-functional discussions and service decisions.
Use recipient feedback, complaints, compliments and case insight to improve service delivery.
Ensure redesigned recipient journeys and service standards are translated into practical, consistent ways of working.

People leadership and culture

Directly lead and line manage up to 8 Partnership Advisors, with support from specialist teams including Dog Training, Healthcare, and Support Pathways.
Set clear expectations for behaviour, professional practice, service standards, performance and impact.
Coach and develop Partnership Advisors to build confidence, capability, professional judgement and independent decision-making.
Create a culture of accountability, openness, learning and continuous improvement.
Address poor performance and behaviour promptly, fairly and consistently.
Model the leadership behaviours required for the future service and constructively challenge practices that do not meet agreed standards.

Performance, quality and standards

Implement and maintain agreed critical KPIs, service approaches, standards and quality measures.
Use performance information routinely to identify variation, risk and improvement opportunities.
Hold regular performance conversations and act promptly where standards are not met.
Use case review and quality assurance to improve consistency and professional practice.
Provide meaningful performance insight, learning and mitigation to the Head of Partnership Services rather than simply reporting activity.

Change and transformation

Lead the implementation of the new Partnership Services model within the team and drive the change in orientation required.
Build understanding of why change is required and address resistance constructively and robustly.
Embed new approaches, processes, standards, systems and behaviour into everyday practice.
Identify barriers to implementation and work with colleagues to resolve them.
Maintain momentum and accountability after implementation. Data, insight and continuous improvement
Use data and insight as a core leadership tool.
Interpret and act on trends in workload, quality, recipient outcomes, wellbeing impact and other agreed measures.
Turn data and insight into action, improvement plans, positioning of new recipients, and management decisions.
Identify systemic issues and elevate them to the Head of Partnership Services with practical solutions.
Contribute evidence and operational insight to Service Design and wider improvement.

Cross-departmental working

Collaborate with and influence specialist support colleagues to embed, continuously improve and measure the impact of recipient journeys.
Work in partnership with specialist teams where their input is required, including Dog Training, Healthcare, Support Pathways, Strategy, Performance and Impact.
Collaborate with Support Pathways to ensure recipients can access appropriate wider support.
Develop effective relationships across teams and influence without relying solely on formal authority.
Ensure information, learning and good practice move effectively across the organization.

Risk, safeguarding and resources

Ensure safeguarding, risk, confidentiality and information governance requirements are understood and followed.
Identify and elevate significant or systemic risks.
Manage workload and team capacity effectively and respond to changing demand.
Manage delegated budget within agreed parameters.
Contribute to workforce planning and resource decisions.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Essential skills, knowledge and experience

Significant experience of leading change and developing people.
Demonstrable experience of successfully managing performance and addressing underperformance.
Experience of successfully leading people through organizational, cultural or service change.
Experience of setting or managing standards and KPIs and using data to focus effort and improve performance.
Experience of improving a service, process or customer/recipient journey.
Strong coaching, communication, influencing and relationship-building skills.
The ability to create and maintain clear, effective and uncomplicated systems that enable people to focus on recipient support rather than unnecessary administration.
The ability to work effectively across departmental teams, bring people together around shared outcomes and drive action.
Strong professional judgement, swift decision-making and the ability to manage complexity, risk and competing priorities.
A commitment to person-centred services and measurable outcomes.

Please note: This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 due to its duties involving the protection of children and/or adults at risk. Applicants are therefore required to disclose all spent and unspent convictions, cautions, warnings, and reprimands, as well as any relevant non-conviction information. The successful candidate will be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check in accordance with the Police Act 1997 (Part V).

Benefits