The role

Line Manager and Budgetary Responsibilities:

Direct reports: Assistant Director and Relevant leadership roles, Personal Assistant or equivalent

Indirect reports: Responsible for circa 4500 colleagues organised in teams across the directorate and throughout the UK

Budget managed: In the region of £200 Million

About Barnardo’s

Barnardo’s is the UK’s leading children’s charity, working with over 300,000 children, young people and families in need of support each year, through more than 650 services across the UK. We are focussed on the delivery of excellent and inclusive services and using evidence from practice and the voices of children, young people and families to influence change in policy and public attitudes.

With an annual turnover of £333 million and a workforce of over 6,900 colleagues and over 19,000 volunteers, Barnardo’s operates at significant scale and complexity, underpinned by a strong commitment to evidence-based practice and continuous improvement.

What you can expect in an Executive Director Children’s Services Operations role at Barnardo’s:

• The Executive Director of Children’s Services – Operations, is a critical executive leadership role with accountability for the strategic direction, governance and delivery of all Children’s Services operations across the charity. The post-holder will have a high-profile role in the charity and on the Executive Leadership Team, and act as a key adviser to the CEO, Board and Trustees on matters relating to Children’s Services.
• This role operates in the recently remodelled Children’s Services’ directorate, led by the Chief Operating Officer for Children’s Services (COO-CS), which integrates and streamlines operational and development capacity and capabilities, to deliver our ambitions for children, young people and families.
• The Executive Director will lead the strategic direction of Children’s Services Operations, shaping and influencing the development of service models, operating frameworks and delivery approaches that maximise impact, improve outcomes and ensure Barnardo’s remains responsive to current and emerging need.
• Leading a team of operational directors responding to the needs of children and young people in their respective geographical and functional areas, bringing a focus on impact and innovation to the delivery of excellent and inclusive services, and driving increased reach and growth for the charity.
• With a clear focus on ensuring that in all we do we are focussed on safe and effective, high quality, high impact service provision which delivers our purpose of changing childhoods and changing lives, so that children are safer, happier, healthier and more hopeful as a result of our work.
  
  

Key Responsibilities:

Executive Strategic Leadership

• Provide strategic, informed leadership on the development and implementation of Children’s Services models and operational frameworks, ensuring Children’s Services knowledge and expertise inform and underpin design and a focus on innovation to improve impact.
• Oversee the continued management and modernisation of Children’s Services to build culture and practice that supports the voice of children, young people and their families being elicited from operations and amplified to achieve our strategic aims.
• To work with the Chief Executive and other members of the Executive Leadership Team to drive and embed agreed behaviours across the charity and to accelerate progress against our corporate Strategy commitments.
• Provide strategic advice and assurance to the Chief Executive, Trustees and Board Committees on operational performance, emerging risks, safeguarding, service quality and sector developments.
• Be an active, visible and accountable member of the Executive Leadership Team, contributing beyond Children’s Services to the leadership, direction and success of Barnardo’s as a whole.
• Lead organisational change and transformation initiatives that improve outcomes for children and young people while enhancing organisational effectiveness.
• Champion a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, learning and evidence-informed decision making across Children’s Services.
• Our ways of working are critical to our success. We know we can achieve more together than we can alone, and therefore place a high value on collaboration, integrated working, clear communication and shared accountability. The post-holder will be expected to build strong relationships across directorates, convene colleagues around common goals and model a leadership style that enables others to deliver their best work in pursuit of Barnardo’s strategic ambitions.
• Provide leadership which demonstrates a commitment to, and shared responsibility for, the delivery of Barnardo’s People and Culture strategy and ambitions, including Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion objectives.

Governance, Risk and Compliance

• Ensure the highest possible standards of safeguarding and quality across the charity, holding corporate accountability and responsibility for safeguarding, including regulatory requirements and standards, and the associated reporting of serious incidents to all relevant regulators, following reporting policies and procedures.
• Lead and coordinate organisational responses to national and local reviews, inquiries, inspections and thematic investigations relating to children, young people and families, ensuring organisational learning is captured, implemented and communicated effectively across Barnardo’s. Maintain and develop relationships with relevant government departments.
• Develop and maintain a robust financial plan, delivering efficiency and maximum impact, and supporting Directors to achieve income generation and growth targets.

Leadership

• Drive cultural change, creating the right pre-conditions for colleagues to do their best work, modelling and embedding Barnardo’s leadership and management behaviours across teams. Build strong relationships across the organisation to enhance financial literacy and ownership.
• Model and promote curiosity, growth mindset, and ongoing professional development across the workforce. Guide teams to adapt work practices in response to evolving needs, strengthen collaboration, and drive meaningful participation so that learning, improvement, and trust are embedded in everyday ways of working.
• Create and maintain a culture of psychological safety where colleagues feel valued, heard, and empowered to contribute. Champion adaptive and inclusive leadership practices that support teams through complexity and change with a focus on continual improvement.

Financial and Commercial Leadership

• Lead the strategic deployment of more than £200m of resources, ensuring alignment between financial investment, workforce capacity and the charity’s strategic priorities.
• Drive a culture of strong financial stewardship, accountability and value for money across Children’s Services, building financial literacy and ownership throughout the leadership community.
• Work closely with the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Finance Officer and Director colleagues to develop and deliver sustainable financial plans which balance impact, quality, growth and affordability.
• Work closely with the Director of Commercial Development to identify opportunities for growth, service development and innovation, ensuring commercial opportunities align with Barnardo’s mission and strategic objectives.
• Oversee financial forecasting, performance monitoring and recovery planning, ensuring operational leaders take ownership for financial performance and associated risks.

How you’ll work:

• Flexibility in working hours and location, as per contract of employment.
• Able to travel to a number of locations, and to attend meetings outside normal working hours.

Who you’ll work with:

Internal: Chief Executive, Trustees, and members of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT)

External: Not limited to but to including Corporate Partners, Third parties, Commissioners, Government Departments, Regulatory & Statutory bodies.

This Job Description outlines the current responsibilities of the role, which may be adjusted in response to departmental needs. The post-holder may be required to undertake additional duties commensurate with the salary and competency requirements of the role as necessary. Line managers are responsible for performance management, absence management, and any other process captured as a part of our policies.

Please note: Applicants must demonstrate in their application form that they currently use the skills outlined below or have used them previously in employment, education, training, volunteering etc.

Qualifications & Knowledge

• Educated to graduate level or equivalent relevant professional qualifications in social care/child welfare services with evidence of related continuing professional development.
• Extensive knowledge and understanding of government policy, social care and children services’ legislation and regulation related to service delivery and development for a large national charity like Barnardo’s.
• Able to demonstrate and articulate a clear understanding of diversity, equality and inclusion, opportunities and barriers and the implications for service planning and delivery.
• Demonstrable experience of contributing to the delivery of strategic objectives through effective planning, prioritisation and stakeholder engagement.
• Evidence of active continued professional development to support delivery in a senior role.
• Extensive knowledge of commissioning, public sector reform, regulated services and the evolving policy landscape affecting children, young people and families.
• Deep understanding of large-scale organisational transformation, system leadership and complex adaptive organisations.
• Comprehensive understanding of financial planning, commercial management and sustainable growth within large and complex organisations.

Experience & Skills

• Experience in a voluntary or public sector environment is beneficial but not required. (D)
• Demonstrable executive-level leadership experience within a large and complex children’s and family services within an organisation of comparable scale and complexity.
• Significant experience of leading organisational transformation and cultural change programmes across geographically dispersed teams.
• Significant experience of accountability for large-scale budgets in a complex organisation, financial planning and achievement of demanding financial and operational targets.
• Proven ability to influence at Board, Trustee, government and system leadership level.
• Experience of leading through complex external scrutiny, inspections, inquiries or significant organisational risk.
• Demonstrable success in developing high-performing senior leadership teams and creating cultures characterised by accountability, inclusion and continuous improvement.
• Demonstrable experience of working in a demanding commercial environment, driving commercial impact and outcomes through income generation, cost reduction, and commercial negotiations. Ideally with experience of contracting and the provision of services.
• Experience of assuring compliance with statutory and regulatory frameworks.
• Demonstrable experience of appropriate handling of confidential or sensitive information (in accordance with data protection principles).
• Extensive experience of partnering alongside and providing assurance to executive and senior leaders including, Trustees and Committees.
• Experience working with inter-agency and inter-professional groups and with senior level colleagues, preferably in the public/voluntary/political sector.
• Understanding of leadership in a complex and adaptive system alongside evidence of building an inclusive, psychologically safe and high performing team in a remote workforce.
• Extensive experience of partnership development, multi-stakeholder working, including with sponsors/income partners.
• An excellent standard of numerical, written, listening and oral communication skills, including report writing and presentation skills, for a diverse range of audiences, situations, and settings.
• Confident user of standard “Office” applications including word processing, spreadsheets, E-Mail and presentations, and professional use of social media and AI.
• Able and willing to confidently represent the organisation on various media platforms, including TV, radio, and public events.

Our Values & Behaviours

• Actively demonstrate Barnardo’s Values & Behaviours, and compliance with our EDI Policy and Code of Conduct in all areas of work:
• Respecting the unique worth of every person
• Encouraging people to fulfil their potential
• Working with hope
• Exercising responsible stewardship

Leadership at Barnardo’s

Being a Barnardo’s leader means embodying our values and behaviours, while creating an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive. Our Leadership Enablers offer a framework for the behavioural, technical, and inclusive leadership skills we expect our leaders to develop and role model, delivering excellence, fostering a sense of belonging and empowering those around them to do the same.

To deliver excellence as a leader in Barnardo’s, you will be expected to demonstrate a commitment to our Behavioural Leadership Enablers and a foundational understanding of the Technical Leadership Enablers. Some roles and/or teams will require specific expertise within one or more of the Technical Leadership Enablers – those relevant to this role have been included within the Qualifications & Knowledge, or the Skills & Experience sections of this document (Person Specification for the role). Our Learning & Development approach means that you will be supported to further enhance your behavioural and technical leadership skills throughout your time as a Barnardo’s leader.