Permanent | Full-time
Salary: £58,560 – £71,480 per annum
Hours: 35 per week
Location: Home-based with regular national travel
Job reference number: 1766
Help shape the future of Cranstoun’s services
Cranstoun is a social justice and harm reduction charity supporting and empowering people to live healthier and safer lives. Each year, we support more than 45,000 people through services including substance use, criminal justice, domestic abuse, housing and services for children and young people.
Following a successful five-year strategy and significant growth, we remain ambitious about the difference we can make. As we enter our next phase, we are investing in the leadership and operational capability needed to support our continued development. We are now recruiting an Assistant Directors of Service to join our senior management team.
This is a significant senior leadership role offering the opportunity to lead substantial service portfolios while helping shape how Cranstoun’s services are led and delivered across the organisation.
The role
Reporting to the Director of Operations, you will lead a substantial portfolio of complex commissioned services and senior operational managers.
You will lead eight services with nine direct reports, spanning substance use and services for children and young people. You will have clear accountability for ensuring services are safe, effective and well-led, with strong contractual performance, financial sustainability and positive outcomes for the people and communities we support.
You will provide operational grip and evidence-based assurance, strengthen safeguarding and management accountability, build effective relationships with commissioners and partners, and ensure risks and underperformance are identified, escalated and addressed early.
You will also work collectively with fellow senior operational leaders to embed a One Cranstoun approach, strengthening common standards, sharing learning, developing leadership capability and improving quality and resilience across our services.
What you will be accountable for
As an Assistant Director, you will take senior operational accountability for:
- Safe, effective and well-led services – ensuring strong safeguarding, quality, operational risk management and service user outcomes.
- Contractual performance – ensuring services deliver against contractual requirements and KPIs, with strong commissioner relationships and timely action to address underperformance.
- Financial sustainability – maintaining strong financial oversight, effective workforce management and oversight of the sustainability of individual contracts.
- Evidence-based assurance – using reliable performance, quality, workforce and financial information to identify risks and drive improvement.
- Collective organisational leadership – working beyond individual portfolio boundaries to build consistent standards, stronger leadership and shared ways of working across Cranstoun.
You will lead and develop senior operational managers, set clear expectations and create a culture in which support and accountability operate together.
You will also lead and contribute to service mobilisation, transformation, workforce planning and continuous improvement.
Who we are looking for
We are looking for established senior operational leaders with substantial experience leading complex commissioned services and geographically dispersed teams.
You will bring a strong track record of:
- leading safe, high-quality services for people with complex needs;
- safeguarding, quality and operational risk management;
- contract and performance management;
- managing significant service budgets and improving financial performance;
- building effective relationships with commissioners, regulators and strategic partners;
- leading service improvement, mobilisation and organisational change;
- developing senior operational managers and addressing underperformance; and
- using performance, quality, workforce and financial information to provide assurance and drive improvement.
You will need to combine strategic leadership with operational pragmatism, understanding the detail when necessary while maintaining oversight of performance, risk, quality and sustainability across a complex portfolio.
Above all, we are looking for collaborative, credible and values-led leaders who can support and challenge in equal measure, build leadership capability and bring people together around common standards and organisational priorities.
Specialist experience
For this role, significant senior leadership experience within substance use services is essential, including experience of leading CQC-regulated provision and maintaining high standards of quality, safety and regulatory compliance.
You will also need a strong understanding of safeguarding and the governance required to deliver safe and effective services for children and young people. Direct operational experience of Children & Young People services would be valuable, but we are equally interested in candidates who can demonstrate strong safeguarding and CYP governance experience alongside substantial substance use leadership.
This permanent appointment offers the opportunity to provide long-term leadership to a significant portfolio and help shape the future development of Cranstoun’s services.
Be part of Cranstoun’s next chapter
Our successful five-year strategy has seen Cranstoun grow considerably, extending our reach and the range of services we provide. We remain ambitious and innovative, committed to developing services that respond to the changing needs of people and communities.
As we look to the future, we are investing in the leadership, operational capability and organisational infrastructure needed to support our continued development, strengthening operational governance, consistency and assurance across our services.
This role offers the opportunity to do more than manage established portfolios. You will help shape the future of our services and build an Operations Directorate characterised by high standards, clear accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.
Find out more
Please refer to the accompanying recruitment pack for the full Job Description, Person Specification and details of the application process.
Please note: All posts are subject to an Enhanced DBS check.
How to Apply:
For more details and to apply, please visit our website via the apply button. Please quote the appropriate Job Ref in all correspondence.
Applicants must be able to provide satisfactory evidence of their right to work in the UK at the application stage.
Sponsorship is not available for this post. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK that does not require employer sponsorship for the duration of the appointment.
Closing date: Sunday 20 September 2026.
We are an inclusive employer, committed to promoting equality and diversity in all areas of our work.
Registered Charity No: 1061582
Registered Charity 
101 - 500
Thank you!
Just Finance Foundation (JFF) is looking for an experienced Governance and Operations Manager to join us at an important point in our development.
We are a national charity working to change how children grow up with money. Every day, children are learning about money - through what they see, hear, and experience - but not all of it builds confidence or choice. By supporting parents, carers, and educators to teach money in ways that are simple, practical, and engaging, we make financial learning part of everyday life. This means children can grow up confident in making choices and equipped with skills that support their wellbeing now and into the future.
JFF currently operates within the Church Urban Fund (CUF) group, which has supported our development and provides a number of shared services. We are now preparing to become an independent charity and this new role will play a central part in making that transition work.
Working closely with our Director and trustees, you will help coordinate the move to independence while building the governance, systems and ways of working we need as a small, well-run charity.
This is a broad, hands-on role for someone who enjoys making organisations work better. You might be keeping a complex transition plan moving, supporting effective Board governance, improving an operational process, working through an issue with a supplier or adviser, or helping the Director make sense of a complex organisational question.
You won’t need to be an expert in everything. What matters is that you have strong operational judgement, can bring clarity to complexity, know when to involve specialist expertise, and are comfortable taking responsibility for getting things done.
We are particularly interested in people with significant experience in governance, operations or organisational management who can work confidently with senior leaders, trustees, advisers and external partners. Experience in a charity or purpose-led organisation, or of organisational change or separation, would be an advantage.
For full details of the role, responsibilities and person specification, please read the accompanying Job Description.
The role is home-based for three days per week, with occasional travel and approximately six evening Board meetings each year.
How to apply
Please submit a CV and supporting statement explaining how your experience meets the role requirements to email address provided by 11.59 on 13th September 2026. If your experience covers most, rather than every, point in the person specification, we still encourage you to apply.
JFF is an inclusive organisation and we welcome all applications. We want our workforce to be truly representative of the communities we serve. Diversity is an asset to our organisation and helps us create an inclusive, welcoming environment for all.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.