Job description
About The Role
We have an exceptional opportunity to take on a critical and exciting leadership role at Alzheimer’s Society — one that will shape how we protect, support, and empower everyone connected to our charity!
Location: Homebased including travel across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
As Head of Safe Practice, you’ll bring a proven expertise and sector knowledge of health and social care to lead three pivotal functions: Safeguarding, Health and Safety, and Information Governance. We’re not looking for a specialist in all three fields — we’re looking for a leader who understands what great, safe practice looks like in real-world service delivery, who knows the power of strong relationships between operational delivery and assurance, and who can champion continuous learning, improvement, and transparency. … and so much more.
The successful individual will work across boundaries to monitor, report, and provide assurance on organisational and service-level performance relating to these areas of legal and regulatory compliance. Championing ongoing developments and improvements to build on behaviours and activities across the charity which provide openness, transparency, and knowledge to inform employee and volunteers of their joint responsibilities to ensure that Alzheimer’s Society continues to champion best practice in all these areas. Your leadership should foster a sense of community and belonging across your teams, promoting opportunities for face to face working for collective problem-solving and promoting learning and development.
About you
You are an accomplished, system focused leader thriving on creating clarity and accountability, bringing strength-based professional expertise in safe practice. You will showcase a robust understanding of the standards and quality of practice needed across our corporate responsibilities within the charity, its work, its people, and its spaces, and to our direct frontline services work making a direct difference to people affected by dementia.
What you’ll focus on
- Ensuring the establishment of controls, and that robust assurance processes and activities in all areas of safeguarding, information governance, health and safety, are embedded across the Society
- Leading, and effective management of:
- Our Safeguarding Team; including the effective and efficient delivery of safeguarding risk, and case management and consultation.
- Our Information Governance Team; line managing and championing the role of the Society’s Data Protection Officer and acting as the Deputy Caldicott Guardian for the Society. Ensuring high quality compliant and effective management of information, including data protection, records management, and information security.
- Our Health and Safety Team; ensuring that the Society delivers a safe, secure, healthy, and compliant environment for all employees, volunteers, involvement participants, service users, and all others that the Society interacts with.
- Keeping the Society abreast of best practice, regulatory and legislative changes, and the external landscape, to ensure that the Society is well prepared to adapt to future changes in line with the delivery of our strategy.
- Management and escalation of all serious incidents and reportable incidents are identified, managed appropriately, reported, and escalated as required within our governance frameworks, and in accordance with Charity Commission, ICO, and HSE requirements.
- Facilitate cross-functional collaboration and promote the visibility and value of Safe Practice teams within the wider organisation.
About Alzheimer's Society
Dementia is the UK’s biggest killer. One in three people born in the UK today will develop dementia in their lifetime.
At Alzheimer’s Society, we’re the UK’s leading dementia charity and the only one to tackle all aspects of dementia by giving help and hope to people living with dementia today and in the future. We give vital support to people facing the most frightening times of their lives, while also funding groundbreaking research and campaigning to make dementia the priority it should be.
Together with our supporters, we’re working towards a world where dementia no longer devastates lives.
Our values make sure that our focus is clear for the challenges and opportunities ahead and remind us of what we all stand for.
Our commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
We need to ensure the voices around our table better reflect and understand the communities we exist to serve. We strongly encourage individuals to apply who have a disability, impairment or health condition or individuals who identify as Black, Asian or from another minority ethnic background, as these groups are currently under-represented at Alzheimer's Society.
We want everyone we work with, as a colleague, volunteer, supporter, or someone we support, to feel included and that they belong at Alzheimer's Society.
Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy here along with our internal employee forum and Employee Lived Experience network groups help us promote inclusion and belonging, becoming an engaged and inclusive organisation for all our people.
Our hiring process
During your recruitment process we want to make sure that you bring your whole self and can be at your best. We are working hard to ensure our recruitment process is as inclusive as possible, so please do inform us of your experience and anything you think we could do better by completing our candidate survey when you apply. Please also contact Alzheimer’s Society Talent Acquisition Team via [email protected] for application support or any adjustments you might need.
To ensure fairness and consistency to select the best candidate for this role, all our applications are anonymised up until an interview has been confirmed. We recognise the benefits of AI, but if you're considering using it to submit your application, we encourage you to reflect on the value it truly adds. AI tools often lack the personal touch and authenticity that set candidates apart. We want to hear your unique perspective, experiences, and skills, so we encourage you to showcase them in your own voice.
We try to avoid closing roles early where possible, however if we receive a high volume of applications, we may close earlier than the advertised closing date. Should this occur, we will aim to provide you with at least 48 hours' notice.
We are committed to safer recruitment and ensuring the welfare of those we work with, due to the nature of some of our roles, we might need to carry out a DBS check at the relevant level.
Giving back to you
Our employees work hard every day to make a true difference in people's lives. We are proud to support them with a range of benefits, recognition and many options for working agilely, all contributing to a strong work life balance. We also have various learning programmes to support you in your development and help you grow to realise your potential and shape a career with Alzheimer's Society.
You can also visit our Working for Us pages, which give you more information about what it’s like to be an employee at the Society.
We have an exceptional opportunity to take on a critical and exciting leadership role at Alzheimer’s Society — one that will shape how we protect, support, and empower everyone connected to our charity!
Location: Homebased including travel across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
As Head of Safe Practice, you’ll bring a proven expertise and sector knowledge of health and social care to lead three pivotal functions: Safeguarding, Health and Safety, and Information Governance. We’re not looking for a specialist in all three fields — we’re looking for a leader who understands what great, safe practice looks like in real-world service delivery, who knows the power of strong relationships between operational delivery and assurance, and who can champion continuous learning, improvement, and transparency. … and so much more.
The successful individual will work across boundaries to monitor, report, and provide assurance on organisational and service-level performance relating to these areas of legal and regulatory compliance. Championing ongoing developments and improvements to build on behaviours and activities across the charity which provide openness, transparency, and knowledge to inform employee and volunteers of their joint responsibilities to ensure that Alzheimer’s Society continues to champion best practice in all these areas. Your leadership should foster a sense of community and belonging across your teams, promoting opportunities for face to face working for collective problem-solving and promoting learning and development.
About you
You are an accomplished, system focused leader thriving on creating clarity and accountability, bringing strength-based professional expertise in safe practice. You will showcase a robust understanding of the standards and quality of practice needed across our corporate responsibilities within the charity, its work, its people, and its spaces, and to our direct frontline services work making a direct difference to people affected by dementia.
What you’ll focus on
- Ensuring the establishment of controls, and that robust assurance processes and activities in all areas of safeguarding, information governance, health and safety, are embedded across the Society
- Leading, and effective management of:
- Our Safeguarding Team; including the effective and efficient delivery of safeguarding risk, and case management and consultation.
- Our Information Governance Team; line managing and championing the role of the Society’s Data Protection Officer and acting as the Deputy Caldicott Guardian for the Society. Ensuring high quality compliant and effective management of information, including data protection, records management, and information security.
- Our Health and Safety Team; ensuring that the Society delivers a safe, secure, healthy, and compliant environment for all employees, volunteers, involvement participants, service users, and all others that the Society interacts with.
- Keeping the Society abreast of best practice, regulatory and legislative changes, and the external landscape, to ensure that the Society is well prepared to adapt to future changes in line with the delivery of our strategy.
- Management and escalation of all serious incidents and reportable incidents are identified, managed appropriately, reported, and escalated as required within our governance frameworks, and in accordance with Charity Commission, ICO, and HSE requirements.
- Facilitate cross-functional collaboration and promote the visibility and value of Safe Practice teams within the wider organisation.
About Alzheimer's Society
Dementia is the UK’s biggest killer. One in three people born in the UK today will develop dementia in their lifetime.
At Alzheimer’s Society, we’re the UK’s leading dementia charity and the only one to tackle all aspects of dementia by giving help and hope to people living with dementia today and in the future. We give vital support to people facing the most frightening times of their lives, while also funding groundbreaking research and campaigning to make dementia the priority it should be.
Together with our supporters, we’re working towards a world where dementia no longer devastates lives.
Our values make sure that our focus is clear for the challenges and opportunities ahead and remind us of what we all stand for.
Our commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
We need to ensure the voices around our table better reflect and understand the communities we exist to serve. We strongly encourage individuals to apply who have a disability, impairment or health condition or individuals who identify as Black, Asian or from another minority ethnic background, as these groups are currently under-represented at Alzheimer's Society.
We want everyone we work with, as a colleague, volunteer, supporter, or someone we support, to feel included and that they belong at Alzheimer's Society.
Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy here along with our internal employee forum and Employee Lived Experience network groups help us promote inclusion and belonging, becoming an engaged and inclusive organisation for all our people.
Our hiring process
During your recruitment process we want to make sure that you bring your whole self and can be at your best. We are working hard to ensure our recruitment process is as inclusive as possible, so please do inform us of your experience and anything you think we could do better by completing our candidate survey when you apply. Please also contact Alzheimer’s Society Talent Acquisition Team via [email protected] for application support or any adjustments you might need.
To ensure fairness and consistency to select the best candidate for this role, all our applications are anonymised up until an interview has been confirmed. We recognise the benefits of AI, but if you're considering using it to submit your application, we encourage you to reflect on the value it truly adds. AI tools often lack the personal touch and authenticity that set candidates apart. We want to hear your unique perspective, experiences, and skills, so we encourage you to showcase them in your own voice.
We try to avoid closing roles early where possible, however if we receive a high volume of applications, we may close earlier than the advertised closing date. Should this occur, we will aim to provide you with at least 48 hours' notice.
We are committed to safer recruitment and ensuring the welfare of those we work with, due to the nature of some of our roles, we might need to carry out a DBS check at the relevant level.
Giving back to you
Our employees work hard every day to make a true difference in people's lives. We are proud to support them with a range of benefits, recognition and many options for working agilely, all contributing to a strong work life balance. We also have various learning programmes to support you in your development and help you grow to realise your potential and shape a career with Alzheimer's Society.
You can also visit our Working for Us pages, which give you more information about what it’s like to be an employee at the Society.
Posted on: 16 October 2025
Closing date: 31 October 2025 at 00:00
Job ref: 3279 (7573)
Tags: Governance / Management