Scotty's Little Soldiers - Head of Service

Cobseo; Hartford; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A charity supporting bereaved families is seeking a leader in service delivery to oversee all aspects of support programs. The role requires expertise in service delivery and operations, team leadership, and the ability to foster partnerships with other organizations. The successful candidate will enhance services for bereaved military families and drive projects aimed at reaching over 25,000 individuals by 2035, ensuring mission alignment and high-quality support delivery.

Qualifications

• Senior experience in service delivery, operations, or programme leadership.
• Strong skills in team leadership and service system design.
• Ability to turn strategy into operational structure and rhythm.
• Confident working cross-functionally and building external partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Overall accountability for the service provided to the bereaved military community.
• Lead and work closely with Programme Heads to ensure impactful activities.
• Accountability for Safeguarding within the organisation.
• Develop adult-focused services aligned with long-term vision.

Skills

Service delivery

Team leadership

Operational strategy

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Leadership & Service Delivery

• Overall accountability for the service provided to the bereaved military community.
• Leading, and working closely with, the Head of each delivery Programme to ensure all activities are impactful and meeting the needs of our community.
• Mapping and maintaining the full beneficiary journey across all programmes and cohorts (CYP and adult).
• Developing our first adult focused services and building them in line with the charity's long-term vision to be supporting more than 25k bereaved people by 2035.
• Being the link between our service delivery and both internal and external technology partners to ensure our systems match, and meet the needs of, our processes.
• Alongside our Operations Team, lead the scoping of a full future CRM (Salesforce) rebuild and related beneficiary tech interfaces such as websites, future app development etc.
• Oversee the design of a 2026 'light' CRM phase to support individual adult service delivery.
• Ensure that lived experience remains at the heart of our services.
• Accountability for Safeguarding within the organisation.

Team Leadership

• Support Programme Leads (e.g. Heads of START, SMILES, SUPPORT), providing direction and support as well as ensuring clarity of ownership and goals.
• Create a strong, empowering culture within the service (Families) team, aligned with The Scotty's Way and shared leadership philosophy.
• Work with our Head of People to oversee service recruitment and onboarding.

Quality, Measurement & Improvement

• Define and embed service-level Success Measures (KPIs) across all activities ensuring we know what success looks like for all our activities.
• Collaborate with the Head of Research & Impact to ensure data collection is usable and meaningful.

External Partnerships & Collaborations

• Proactively develop senior-level partnerships with other military and bereavement charities, Armed Forces support organisations, and relevant service providers and stakeholders.
• Explore and propose strategic collaborations where they strengthen the support we offer to families.
• Ensure the new START (single point of contact) Programme becomes an active network-builder in the space.
• Represent Scotty's externally at events, conferences, meetings etc within the sector.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Act as a key link to Outreach and Fundraising – providing insight and service stories to fuel content.
• Work with the Ops team to align delivery processes with systems, IT, and compliance.
• Support bid development and reporting for funders by sharing service insight and outcomes.

30‑Day Goals

• Build a deep understanding of Scotty's mission, our audience, the services we provide, and strategic direction.
• Spend time with the Families Team and understand everyone's role within the charity.
• Understand the 'as-is' current situation for the charity's service delivery.
• Start to document gaps, delivery inconsistencies, opportunities, risks, etc.
• Understand the landscape we operate in, particularly the military and bereavement charitable environment.
• Fully align with the operating rhythm of the charity, leading team meetings, holding 1:1s, ownership of relevant OKRs, etc.

60‑Day Goals

• Meet with counterparts at key partner organisations.
• Highlight key organisations not currently partnered with to meet.
• Created a stakeholder engagement map for our service delivery.
• Visually mapped existing beneficiary journeys across our four Programmes.
• Began work (with Ops) on requirements for initial-phase CRM for adult services.
• Fully aligned plans and goals with existing Programme Heads, incoming Head of START Programme, and incoming Head of Research & Impact.
• Held one in-person session with Families team.

90‑Day Goals

• Visually mapped year one of adult services plus any proposed changes to existing services to create a final 2026/27 service 'to-be'.
• Planned the launch of our new START navigating entitlements casework Programme.
• Development underway of 'Light' CRM to launch adult services having supplied detailed brief.
• Taken full accountability for the success of our Family Programmes and associated impact.
• Attended 2-3 sector group meetings representing Scotty's solo.
• Developed a stakeholder engagement plan with Head of PR & Comms.

Must-Have

• Senior experience in service delivery, operations, or programme leadership.
• Strong skills in team leadership and service system design.
• Ability to turn strategy into operational structure and rhythm.
• Confident working cross-functionally and building external partnerships.

Nice-to-Have

• Experience working with or supporting Armed Forces families.
• Familiarity with CRM system scoping and procurement.
• Experience launching new services or scaling delivery teams.
• Background in bereavement or mental health support.

About Scotty's Little Soldiers

For over 15 years, Scotty's Little Soldiers has been supporting children and young people who have been bereaved of a parent who served in the British Armed Forces. We are about to embark on an exciting journey which will see the charity evolve to support anyone affected by a military-connected bereavement and ultimately empower a community of more than 25,000 bereaved individuals and their families by 2035. Founded in 2010 by Nikki Scott following the death of her husband, Corporal Lee Scott, the charity currently offers a unique blend of emotional, practical, and educational support to over 750 young people. We are proud of our vibrant, non-traditional culture, which puts the needs of bereaved children and young people at the heart of everything we do. We embrace innovative approaches, are committed to creating smiles and believe in the power of community, resilience, and connection. Role Mission. To ensure Scotty's delivers high-quality, consistent, and scalable support to those affected by military-connected bereavement, by leading all aspects of service delivery. You'll own the structure, systems, standards, and team needed to deliver support across all four Family Programmes (SMILES, SUPPORT, STRIDES, and the planned START programme) and help ensure our support reaches the growing number of families who need us.

Practical Considerations

• The role may require occasional evening or weekend work.
• Enhanced DBS check required.
• Travel will be required to events and team training days.

The Scotty's Way

The Scotty's Way: At Scotty's, our personal performance is only 50% of what success looks like. Our culture is equally important. When you join our team, you sign up to The Scotty's Way, rooted in our four core values:
1. Families Come First
2. Everyone a Supporter, Every Supporter a VIP
3. Love What You Do
4. Remember, Every Day Our values are further supported by our four non-negotiable behaviours:
Show Respect, Speak Up, Take Ownership and Actively Collaborate. We are looking for an individual who embodies these values and behaviours.