Coo jobs
Join VAST and lead the mission committed to developing a thriving VCSE sector across Stoke-on-Trent to improve the quality of life for local communities.
We are looking for a reliable and proactive leader with senior leadership experience and strong partnership development skills. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of strategic planning, organisational leadership, and managing change, as well as good understanding of financial management, and significant knowledge of charity governance, funding environments, and commissioning landscapes.
The Chief Executive will provide the professional, strategic and leadership expertise required to direct and manage VAST, ensuring the organisation achieves its strategic aims and objectives. The postholder will lead the organisation’s staff and volunteers and ensure that the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector in Stoke‑on‑Trent can contribute fully to strategic planning, regeneration, inclusion and the wellbeing of local people.
Registered Charity The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Our Service
Trauma Recovery CIC is a female founded not-for-profit Community Interest Company dedicated to providing vital support services for victims and survivors of trauma. Founded in 2020, our mission is to build a safe, supportive, accessible, and sustainable service for the community.
Butterflies Lived Experience Community is an integral part of Trauma Recovery CIC, bringing together people with lived experience of sexual, domestic and/or relational trauma to form a community that supports each members ongoing recovery journey.
Every member of the Butterflies team has direct personal lived experience of sexual, domestic and/or relational trauma and use their own courage to support others to connect with theirs and use this to fuel their recovery.
The team consists of level 1,2 and 3 Lived Experience Facilitators, Volunteer Ambassadors who come together to support community members and develop the service on a co-production model.
The Level 3 LEF Role
Our Level 3 LEF role requires a Social Work qualification and registration.
As well as facilitating groups and key working, Level 3 LEF’s take responsibility for:
-
Completing initial appointments with new community members to ensure that the team has a good
understanding of their support needs and that they can be safely supported through Butterflies LEC. -
Mentoring and supporting the Level 1 and 2 LEF’s and Ambassadors
-
Working with community members, team members, Trauma Recovery leadership team and partner
organisations to develop the service. -
Facilitating the understanding trauma programmes
-
Providing reporting data to Trauma Recovery CIC Business Operations Lead and working with them to complete
reports for funders and funding/grant applications. -
Co-chairing the Lived Experience Forum
-
Contribute to the newsletters, social media, attend events to promote the service (at times this may require
attending events outside of usual working hours). -
Ensure that all team members complete required admin accurately and in a timely manner and processes are
followed. -
Highlight concerns about team members to the leadership team, identify ways to support the team or team
member and offer the support.
Our ideal candidate
- Is someone who has walked their own recovery journey, experienced therapeutic support as part of this and understands the benefits on both a personal and professional level of therapy and group support.
- They will be a qualified, registered Social Worker with relevant social work experience of co-ordinating a service, mentoring team members and working from a systemic perspective.
- They will have experience of completing risk assessments, keeping records and using software and systems to do this effectively.
- They will be able to communicate and connect with people from a variety of backgrounds, understand their individual needs and work creatively to meet them in way that supports recovery.
How to apply
As well as facilitating groups and key working, Level 3 LEF’s take responsibility for:
-
Completing initial appointments with new community members to ensure that the team has a good
understanding of their support needs and that they can be safely supported through Butterflies LEC. -
Mentoring and supporting the Level 1 and 2 LEF’s and Ambassadors
-
Working with community members, team members, Trauma Recovery leadership team and partner
organisations to develop the service. -
Facilitating the understanding trauma programmes
-
Providing reporting data to Trauma Recovery CIC Business Operations Lead and working with them to complete
reports for funders and funding/grant applications. -
Co-chairing the Lived Experience Forum
-
Contribute to the newsletters, social media, attend events to promote the service (at times this may require
attending events outside of usual working hours). -
Ensure that all team members complete required admin accurately and in a timely manner and processes are
followed. -
Highlight concerns about team members to the leadership team, identify ways to support the team or team
member and offer the support.
How to apply
Application is through our website where you will find an application pack with further information about our service and the role. Please read through the pack and complete the application form, when we read your application we hope to read not only about your experiences, but how they relate to this role and our service.
Please read the application pack in full before answering the questions.
This role requires you to have relevant personal lived experience, when completing the application, please be mindful of your own self care.
Please email your proof of professional qualifications as per the information in the application pack.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Team Domenica
Location: Brighton & Hove (hybrid; 2-3 days per week on-site)
Salary: Circa £85,000
Contract: Permanent, Full time
Could you lead a warm, community-centred charity that turns specialist education and hospitality enterprises into sustained employment for young people with learning disabilities?
About Team Domenica
Team Domenica exists to help young people with learning disabilities build independent, fulfilling lives through sustained employment. Founded in 2016 by Baroness Rosa Monckton, the charity combines a Department for Education-recognised Specialist Further Education college, employment coaching and long-term employer support to achieve unrivalled outcomes for young people with learning disabilities - around 80% of programme graduates move into paid work.
Over the last decade the organisation has supported more than 200 candidates and built a portfolio of social enterprises that provide genuine workplace training: Café Domenica and a coffee roastery. Most excitingly, we have recently opening The North Star pub. The North Star is a purpose-acquired, prime-location commercial venture adjacent to the Royal Pavilion, operating as a full-scale hospitality business (circa £1.3m turnover) and functioning as a peerless, day-to-day training environment for candidates while contributing vital unrestricted income. Now that the pub is fully up and running, it presents a major opportunity for commercial development. Growth to date has been rapid and successful, but the organisation now needs a Chief Executive who will consolidate operational foundations, secure sustainable trading and fundraising, and protect the quality and culture that make Team Domenica distinctive as we prepare for further growth.
As our next Chief Executive, you will:
• Strategic Leadership & Direction - Set and deliver a strategy that balances growth, financial sustainability and strong employment outcomes for candidates.
• Commercial & Social Enterprise Performance - Lead the charity’s commercial enterprises, primarily The North Star pub, but also Café Domenica and the roastery - ensuring strong commercial performance and high-quality training opportunities.
• Fundraising & Income Growth - Diversify fundraising beyond founder-led networks, building sustainable income from trusts, corporates, major donors and individuals.
• Education & Programme Quality - Work with the Executive Director for Education to maintain high-quality, compliant specialist FE and supported internship provision.
• Organisational Leadership & Infrastructure - Strengthen operational foundations across finance, HR, systems and communications to support a growing, multi-site organisation.
• People & Culture - Provide visible leadership that supports staff, strengthens management and protects the charity’s candidate-centred culture.
• Partnerships & External Profile - Act as ambassador, building relationships with employers, partners and supporters to expand employment opportunities.
• Governance & Board Partnership - Work closely with trustees and the founder to strengthen governance and ensure long-term sustainability.
Who you are
• Seasoned senior leader with experience of running organisations of similar scale and complexity, including multi-site operations.
• Proven strategist with a strong track record of delivering organisational change, restructuring and sustainable growth.
• Confident commercial leader with P&L ownership and demonstrable success improving trading performance in hospitality, retail or other trading businesses.
• Experienced income generator in the charitable sector - trusts, major donors, corporate partnerships and individual giving.
• Credible and committed to specialist education and employment pathways for people with learning disabilities.
• Strong communicator and public spokesperson, comfortable with high-profile fundraising and stakeholder engagement.
• Financially literate, resilient and emotionally intelligent; visible, hands-on and pragmatic as a leader.
Desirable: direct hospitality experience, experience scaling social enterprises or knowledge of FE regulation/Ofsted would be advantageous.
Why Team Domenica?
• A proven, distinctive model that delivers real, long-term employment outcomes for young people with learning disabilities.
• A rare leadership role that combines mission-driven practice with commercial stewardship across cafés, a roastery and a training pub.
• Hybrid working with regular on-site engagement at Pavilion Buildings and social enterprise sites, offering visible day-to-day impact.
• The opportunity to shape national growth, with London the priority for careful expansion and a high-profile platform to influence practice nationally.
For full details of the role including how to apply, please download the full appointment brief. For an informal and confidential conversation about this position, please contact Jenny Hills at Harris Hill via the apply button with times to speak and (optional but appreciated) a CV or professional profile which will be treated with the strictest confidence.
Closing date for applications: 9am, Monday 6th April 2026
As leading charity recruitment specialists and a certified B Corp, Harris Hill is committed to high and ever-improving standards of equitable and inclusive recruitment. We actively welcome applications from all sections of the community regardless of age, disability, gender, race, religion, sexuality and other protected characteristics.
21 - 50