Corporate Services Director

Fixed Salary Banding: £65,427 – £70,731 plus pension contribution and flexible working conditions

The Organisation

Blackwood is a leading specialist housing and care provider across Scotland. Founded in 1972, the organisation is a charity and a registered housing association and is entirely focused on creating personalised and individual solutions to help people live independently.

Innovation and customer engagement are at the heart of everything Blackwood does. By investing in new technology, high quality services and accessible homes, it helps people live their life to the full. Co-designing with customers, it develops and delivers a truly personalised homes and care service across Scotland.

With over 600 employees, 1500 properties, 3 care homes and delivering over 10,000 care at home hours per week, Blackwood operates in 28 out of 32 local authorities. It provides homes, care and support for adults with disabilities and older people to enable them to live independently. It aims to be a great place to work, offering flexible conditions, a friendly culture, and job satisfaction across the wide range of its services.

Blackwood’s neighbourhood bases in Stirling, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee and Edinburgh facilitate a unique and streamlined housing and care service. Combined with its CleverCogs technology this ensures its teams are in the best position to support people at a personal level and enable them to live their life to the full. The organisation recently secured funding of £13 million to further develop its neighbourhood model to support independent living and healthy ageing.

The Opportunity

This is a newly created position, reporting to the Chief Executive. Blackwood seeks to appoint an experienced corporate services leader, to drive the development of support services across the organisation, and work closely with the Chief Executive, senior team and Board to implement and operationalise strategy.

The postholder will manage corporate functions for Blackwood which include Strategy preparation Business Improvement and Business Solutions, Governance and Executive support, and Communications. Importantly, the Director will lead the operational implementation of strategy.

They will work with the Executive to embed corporate strategy in line with the 5-year strategic plan, helping develop services and drive change. They will play an important role in influencing and implementing strategic change with external bodies such as Health and Social Care partners, Scottish Government, local authorities, and regulators.

It will be the Director’s responsibility to ensure the following;

• Blackwood’s strategy, delivery plan and supporting plans are designed and rolled out to deliver excellent customer satisfaction and sustainable growth, and that all plans are designed in conjunction with external policy and market context.
• Blackwood has good governance processes, including assurance, compliance and risk frameworks to fulfil legal and regulatory requirements in the best interests of customers.
• Blackwood has strong relationships with key external stakeholders in health, care and housing to influence the shape of independent living services in Scotland and grow the business in a sustainable way.
• Organisational performance, service improvement, assurance, quality control and risk management systems support the delivery of the strategy and ensure excellent customer satisfaction.
• The organisation’s digital shift with customers and employees continues through the development and implementation of its corporate business processes and systems and back-office support.

Candidate requirements

The postholder will be an inspiring and strategic corporate services leader with the gravitas to influence and make strong and informed business decisions. With a track record in the execution of strategy and operational delivery, excellent communication skills, and commitment to collaborative working, the Director will join an ambitious and innovative senior team.

They will also possess most of the following;

• Significant experience within a corporate/business/shared service operational position leading teams within a regulated environment
• Business and service improvement experience and a working knowledge of improvement methodologies
• Experience of performance framework design and delivery experience to align with strategy
• Experience of developing communications for employees and external customers or stakeholders
• Good business solutions leadership in IT and information system management or digital service design
• Experience of designing planning and business processes
• Experience of managing compliant information systems and processes within a GDPR, Data protection and FOI service environment,
• Experience of Board and governance processes
• Experience of digital change management including customer inclusion and support

Values & Attitudes

• Commitment to Blackwood’s values and to embedding these within all that we do
• Inspiring leadership behaviours and attitudes
• A growth mindset with the ability to recognise opportunities open to Blackwood
• Commitment to equalities and human rights for Blackwood’s customers and employees
• Commitment to innovation in Independent Living and re-imagining services and products, using design and technology

For further details please see the full candidate brochure.

Application Closing Date: 17th October

Interview Dates: Week commencing the 25th October

Guaranteed Interview Scheme: Blackwood is committed to diversity and inclusion and as a Disability Confident Employer, will interview all disabled candidates who meet the minimum requirements for the post.

To discuss this opportunity in more detail please contact Jamie Brown at FWB Park Brown, on 0131 539 7087, or by emailing a cover letter and resume to jamie@fwbparkbrown.com.