Why apply for this role?

This is a unique opportunity to lead Children’s Hearings Scotland tribunal delivery, enabling CHS tribunal panel members to make decisions that support 10,000 infants, children and young people across Scotland every year. Ensuring that the young person is at the heart of every decision taken – because every decision, no matter how big or small, has an impact.

You will help deliver excellence within Children’s Hearings Scotland and to effect real change across the largest Tribunal in Scotland.

You will lead and inspire multi disciplinary teams, enabling them to provide high quality, effective and continually improving support to our tribunal Panel Members and Panel Practice Advisers to realise our aim to be a “forward looking and evolving children’s hearings system, working as a community to ensure infants, children and young people are cared for, protected and their views are heard, respected and valued”.

Impact - CHS is undergoing an exciting period of reform designed to make a step change in improving the outcomes for infants, children and young people who need us most. You will play a pivotal leadership role, working internally across CHS volunteer and staff teams and with national external partners to lead and influence implementation of legislative and non legislative reforms, supporting our mission to uphold and protect children’s rights and deliver the Promise by 2030.

If you are an inspiring leader, passionate about children’s rights and making a real impact, this role offers the platform to do just that.

Key Responsibilities

Reporting to the National Convener/CEO you will contribute to a respected, sustainable and outcomes focused Children’s Hearings System.

As a member of the Children’s Hearings Scotland Senior Leadership Team, you will contribute to the effective strategic and operational leadership of Children’s Hearings as we enter an exciting period of reform.

You will provide strategic and accountable leadership, management and support to our nine regional Tribunal Delivery teams across Scotland and our central Resource Allocation Team, ensuring high quality, effective and continually improving support and wellbeing to our tribunal community to enable the effective delivery of the National Conveners statutory duties around the provision of Children’s Hearings across Scotland.

You will have a critical role in ensuring that relationships with key stakeholders at a national level are developed and maintained and that excellent relationships are established that enable successful delivery of CHS’ commitments to meeting The Promise by 2030. This will specifically include key stakeholders in Scottish Government, Local Authorities and The Scottish Children’s Reporters Administration (SCRA) and require close collaboration with the CHS Chief Executive.

About You

You will be courageous and ambitious, a strategic and visionary thinker who is able to bring people together across the organisation. Above all you will be inspired by the work of CHS in improving the outcomes for infants, children and young people.

You will be able to lead from the front; You will be able to build collaborative relationships quickly; and you will be relentless in your pursuit of making a difference as part of the Senior Leadership Team. You will be a role model to the organisation, demonstrating through actions, decisions and behaviours the values of CHS. Critical to this will be listening to and valuing the voice of children and young people, and the expertise of our volunteers.

You are outcome focussed, with a proven track record of leading high performing teams and consistent high quality delivery across multiple regions or teams. You have proven experience of leading change in complex stakeholder contexts; with the ability to communicate, engage and motivate diverse teams including volunteers.

You are an excellent communicator, building links and networks with internal and external stakeholders, effectively initiating dialogue across and between organisations recognising that we have a shared responsibility to provide the best experience for infants, children and young people, our volunteers and colleagues and wider stakeholders.

Life at CHS

As an organisation that works within the children’s hearings system, we are passionate about making a positive contribution to improving outcomes for Scotland’s infants, children and young people. Our values are at the very heart of what we do every day. By working with us, you’ll be joining a diverse community of colleagues and volunteers. At CHS we are proud to celebrate difference. We all have different skills, experience and backgrounds and we strive to have a friendly and inclusive culture where you can be yourself. We offer an excellent benefits package, from health and wellness to finances and family. including: generous annual leave, flexible working and other leave policies, fantastic pension, Employee Assistance Programme, development opportunities and wider employee wellbeing initiatives.

You can read more about our core values as well as view an introductory video to our organisation. We also offer a generous benefits package from hybrid working, flexi hours and a fantastic pension scheme - you can check out our full benefits summary