Are you an ambitious, values driven leader with a health and social care background who's ready to grow in a senior role and make a real impact? If so, this could be the opportunity that shapes the next chapter of your career.

We are looking for a forward thinking leader to join us as Associate Director on a full time, permanent basis. This is a key role within our Senior Leadership Team.

Leading our services and colleagues across Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire. you'll ensure excellence in service delivery, regulatory compliance, financial viability and sustainable growth across your geographical area.

This is a hybrid working role, with an expectation of regular, meaningful engagement across our offices and services. You will therefore ideally be located within reasonable reach of one of our key hubs in Irvine or Dumbarton.

This is an exciting time to join Cornerstone as we deliver our new strategic plan, Improving Lives Together, built around the following organisational priorities:

The Foundation – Digital innovation: empowering everything we do

• Pillar 1 – Voices of the people we support at the heart of all decisions
• Pillar 2 – People: leadership, workforce and culture
• Pillar 3 – Financial sustainability: building for the future
• Pillar 4 – Partnership working: collaboration for greater impact
• The Roof – Quality: evidence based improvement

Purpose of the role

As a key member of our Senior Leadership Team, you will be accountable for delivering and growing high quality person-centred services across your geographical area (Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire). You will also play a key part in setting direction, leading transformation and ensuring the long-term success of the organisation.

Your leadership will reflect Cornerstone's values through authentic communication, local partnership building and disciplined operational management.

What you will bring

• Significant experience in an operational leadership role within health, social care or third sector settings
• Demonstrable knowledge of social care legislation, commissioning and regulatory frameworks
• Proven ability to lead teams, manage performance and foster psychologically safe cultures
• Strong skills in communication, influencing, analysis and problem solving
• Demonstrated experience in compliance, contractual delivery and regulatory standards
• Proven capability in budget management and financial discipline
• A good understanding of coaching, mentoring, reflective practise and values-led leadership
• Confidence in the use of digital tools, systems and data to support decision making

We are ideally looking for someone who has held a role at this level, but if you're reading this and wondering if you're quite ready, we'd still love to hear from you. Potential matters as much as expertise and you'll be supported by an experienced Senior Leadership team and given space to develop, stretch and succeed.

Finding strength through support

The Stroke Association is the UK’s leading charity providing lifelong support for all stroke survivors and their families. We provide tailored support to tens of thousands of stroke survivors each year. This support includes one-to-one and group support, funding vital scientific research into stroke prevention, acute treatment, recovery and long-term care, and campaigning to secure the best care for everyone affected by stroke.

We’re here for stroke survivors and their loved ones, from the moment they enter the new and frightening post-stroke world, supporting them every step of the way as they find their strength and their way back to life.

It’s only thanks to the generosity of our supporters and donors that we can provide vital support.

Stroke Association is driven by our ambition to improve the lives of everyone affected by stroke. This means we’re determined to create an equitable and inclusive workplace that benefits from the difference, and thrives on the diversity, of our people. Guided by Our approach to solving inequity in stroke, we are prioritising listening to, and learning from, lived experience across our charity.

We are working to improve the representation of this lived experience at all levels within the Stroke Association, and we are eager to recruit applicants from a variety of communities and backgrounds. We are keen to receive applications from people affected by stroke, people of colour, members of LGBT+ communities, and disabled people because these identities and experiences are underrepresented and would add enormous value to how we work.

We are a Disability Confident employer, and we are making great progress focusing on flexible working, reasonable adjustments and access to work. Our charity has a variety of staff network groups, and we're committed to continuously improving our diversity and inclusion efforts. If you have questions, or access needs, we’re happy to discuss any support and adjustments we can make throughout the recruitment process so that you’re able to contribute your best in a way that meets your needs.

We’re looking for an exceptional systems leader to drive our work across Scotland and ensure people affected by stroke have the support they need to rebuild their lives. You’ll shape and deliver our vision for Scotland, focusing on what matters most to stroke survivors and ensuring our work has real, measurable impact.

In this influential role, you’ll build strong relationships across health and social care, Scottish Parliament and Government, and the wider stroke community. You'll bring deep understanding of the Scottish context and ensure our work is grounded in the lived experience of stroke survivors and their families.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Lead the Stroke Association’s strategic direction and impact in Scotland, ensuring people affected by stroke receive high quality support.

• Build and manage relationships with key health, social care and political stakeholders, acting as a credible and respected systems leader.

• Adapt organisational priorities for Scotland and ensure effective delivery through strong planning and performance oversight.

• Lead and develop the Scotland team, addressing capacity needs and building volunteer capability to meet local priorities.

• Strengthen partnerships across the stroke community to improve access to support and tackle health inequalities.

• Lead engagement in local policy and pathway development, influencing improvements at health board level.

You will have:

• Significant senior-level experience in advocacy and influencing, including shaping policy change in values-driven, social-impact contexts within Scotland’s health and social care sector.

• Substantial experience developing and managing senior-level relationships across partner organisations, using strong negotiation skills and sound political judgement.

• Experience leading complex organisational change and transformation, ensuring people-centred and sustainable outcomes.

• Strong understanding of the Scottish health and social care landscape, including Parliament, Government, influencing systems, and awareness of UK-wide legislative procedures.

• Ability to balance local, national and UK-wide organisational priorities.

To fulfil the role, you must live in Scotland and have the right to work in the UK. This role requires travel and overnight stays across the UK. Candidates must be able to demonstrate how they can meet this requirement of the role.

The Head of Legal Services will provide line management, leadership, and professional support to legal staff, strengthening child-centred practice and building confidence and capacity across the team.

You will ensure the legal team is equipped to deliver high-impact, child-centred legal services that empower children and young people to use the law to make positive change in their lives.

The role will oversee the effective management of legal resources and the day-to-day operation of the legal practice, ensuring the smooth delivery of Clan’s services. These include child-centred legal outreach, the Children’s Rights Helpline, lawyer-led training, Legal Support for Advocacy, and the Lawyers for Children programme.

You will provide operational leadership across legal practice management, including finance and compliance, case-flow and resource planning, project delivery, partnership and stakeholder relationships, and the monitoring and evaluation of service impact.

The Head of Legal Services will also contribute to the strategic planning and development of Clan’s services, strengthening the organisation’s role within the communities we serve and supporting Clan’s strategy to work alongside others to improve children’s access to justice and their ability to exercise their rights.

About you

Showing a genuine commitment to the mission of Clan Childlaw you will be a proactive, solutions‑focused, confident leader who shapes positive team culture through integrity, clarity, and consistency. With a solid background in legal practice management or senior operations within professional services, you will have experience of leading operational change and allocation of resources to multiple workstreams to balance demand, sustainability, and staff wellbeing. You will be someone who delegates effectively and works alongside their team, taking ownership of performance, compliance, and effectiveness to ensure the teams success.

You will have the ability to deliver on plans and reporting frameworks for legal services that strengthen accountability and demonstrate impact. You will have experience of using insight from data, financial reporting, and feedback to drive continuous improvement and inform operational and strategic decisions.

About Clan Childlaw

Clan Childlaw stands with children and young people when they stand up for their rights.

Clan is an award-winning, independent children’s charity that actively supports children and young people to take ownership of their rights.

We are the only charity in Scotland that provides free, independent legal representation exclusively for children and young people, which is child-centred by design. Because our lawyers work directly with children and young people whose lives are affected by legal decisions, we bring that unique practice-based knowledge to every aspect of our work. This includes our specialist training, our helpline supporting others who help children to use their voices and their rights, and our work to influence children’s rights respecting changes to practice, policy and law.

What We Do

We stand with others who help children use their rights – Through our membership and training for legal professionals and in legal education we are making being a “children’s lawyer” an accredited legal skill set in Scotland. Our practical training and helpline and support for advocacy in Children’s Hearings provides adults that support children and young people information and guidance that they can use to empower young people to stand up for their rights.

We stand out through the excellence of our work – We want our work to have as much impact as possible. We listen to what children and young people tell us about what they need from lawyers and others who support them to use their rights. We use what we learn to develop and design the services they need and talk about why young people’s rights matter, and why children and young people need lawyers.

We stand for change – We are lawyers for children and young people representing children and young people in court, at Children’s Hearings, and in important meetings working to give them equal opportunity to heard and use their rights. We take cases that make change for individual children and young people and help shape better rights respecting policy and practice. We use our knowledge of the law, and experience as practising lawyers for children and young people, to ask decision makers and lawmakers to change the law and the way the law is used to make sure that children and young people's rights are respected, protected and fulfilled.

Our Values

Our values are the principles we uphold in all our work, no matter what. They are the foundation of our workplace culture. Everyone who works at Clan shows our values in all they do and say.

We are supportive: We listen and respond, we provide encouragement and emotional help to children and young people, to others who support young people, and to each other.

We are bold: We are confident and courageous in amplifying the voices of children and young people. We are prepared to take risks when we need to, to defend children and young people’s rights.

We are dynamic: We are always active, always progressing. We are positive, full of energy and new ideas. We ask for change where it is needed.

What we can offer you

Clan Childlaw’s mission is very important to us, but our people are important too. We recognise the importance of a good work-life balance and a friendly supportive work environment. We offer:

• 33 days annual leave (inclusive of public holidays) increasing to 35 after 2 years’ service
• Auto-enrolment into our pension scheme after 3 months service
• Offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the option to choose the base location that works best for you.
• Flexibility around your working day and the option to work from home some of the time.
• Access to our employee counselling service.

Learning and development is important to us and our team. We hope it’s important to you too. You will be encouraged to engage in learning and continued professional development.

"I have never worked in such a lovely organisation before! I feel valued, seen and heard as an individual here." - A member of the Clan Childlaw team

"I love my job at Clan. It's busy and varied and no two days are ever the same. We have a great team here and everyone is really supportive." - A member of the Clan Childlaw team