Director of programmes and learning jobs in Home based
The Organisation
LawCare is the mental health charity for the legal sector, providing free, confidential emotional support and information to people working in law across the UK, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man. While our primary focus is on direct support services, we also play a leading role in advocating for improved mental health practices within legal workplaces and driving cultural transformation through education, training, and research.
Established in 1997, we have spent almost 30 years supporting legal professionals by offering a safe, confidential, and non-judgemental space to talk, whether individuals are experiencing day-to-day pressures or more complex, enduring challenges. Our team of Champions, over 100 volunteers, and staff bring lived experience of the legal sector, enabling us to provide informed, empathetic support grounded in a deep understanding of the profession’s unique demands.
We serve all branches of the legal community, including barristers, solicitors, in-house teams, chartered legal executives, and business and support staff. From early-career professionals facing bullying or imposter syndrome to senior leaders managing risk, regulatory pressures, or professional isolation, we are a trusted and independent source of support.
In addition to our direct support services - including helpline, live online chat, and email support - we provide peer support and maintain a substantial, regularly updated online library of resources, including articles, personal stories, research, and multimedia content designed to promote mental health awareness and resilience across the sector. We also deliver training on mental wellbeing, management and supervision, vicarious trauma, and the new SRA workplace behaviour standards, and offer online sessions for legal workplaces and organisations to explain the support we provide.
By combining frontline service delivery with sector-wide advocacy, LawCare is uniquely positioned at the intersection of individual wellbeing and organisational cultural change. We are supported by a strong, capable team and a committed Board of Trustees, enabling us to continue making a meaningful impact across the legal profession.
The Role
LawCare is seeking an inspiring and values-led Chief Executive to lead the charity into its next phase of development at a pivotal moment for the legal profession. As the public face and strategic leader of the organisation, the Chief Executive will champion LawCare’s mission - ensuring the continued delivery of high-quality, confidential support services while strengthening its voice and influence across a rapidly evolving and increasingly commercial mental health landscape.
This is an exciting opportunity to build on strong foundations, guiding a respected and independent charity through a period of significant sector change. Working closely with staff, volunteers, funders and partners, the Chief Executive will drive sustainable growth, deepen impact, and help shape a more compassionate and mentally healthy legal culture for the future.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership & Impact
- Lead delivery of LawCare’s forthcoming strategy (2026 onwards), translating vision into measurable impact.
- Ensure LawCare sharpens its positioning and messaging in a crowded mental health marketplace.
- Balance direct support services, research, education and influencing work to maximise impact.
- Identify what the charity should prioritise and where it should collaborate rather than deliver directly.
External Relations & Sector Influence
- Act as the primary ambassador and spokesperson for LawCare across the legal sector in the UK, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man.
- Build and maintain senior relationships with:
- Professional bodies
- Regulators
- Law firms and chambers
- Legal educators
- Funders and charitable trusts
- Speak regularly at conferences, sector events, roundtables and award ceremonies. These are primarily London based, however, there will be occasions where representation is required across England, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
- Build alliances to influence policy, regulation and workplace practice around mental health and wellbeing.
- Position LawCare as the authoritative, evidence-informed voice on mental health in law.
Service Oversight & Quality
- Ensure the continued delivery of high-quality, confidential helpline and peer support services.
- Maintain robust safeguarding, confidentiality and data governance practices.
- Oversee volunteer recruitment, training and engagement.
- Ensure services evolve in response to emerging issues (e.g., stress, anxiety, workplace conflict, regulatory pressure, AI-related disruption).
Financial Sustainability & Governance
- Lead financial planning and sustainability, working closely with the Treasurer and Board.
- Manage relationships with core professional body funders and diversify income streams.
- Develop compelling funding cases and annual pitches to key stakeholders.
- Strengthen reserves and long-term financial resilience.
- Ensure strong governance, compliance and risk management.
- Support and work closely with the incoming Chair and a refreshed Board.
Research, Education & Prevention
- Build on the impact of the Life in the Law research programme.
- Promote preventative approaches for firms and educators.
- Strengthen LawCare’s role in vocational education and regulatory conversations.
- Ensure research informs policy influence and funding opportunities.
Organisational Leadership
- Lead, support and develop a small, experienced and fully remote team.
- Foster a culture of trust, collaboration, wellbeing and accountability.
- Provide clarity and reassurance during a period of leadership transition and financial strengthening.
- Ensure operational efficiency and effective use of technology in a remote environment.
The Person
LawCare is seeking a credible, strategic and values-driven leader with a deep understanding of the legal profession and the pressures shaping it today. You will bring senior leadership experience, strong commercial and financial acumen, and the ability to balance operational excellence with sector-wide influence.
An authentic and compelling ambassador for mental health and wellbeing, you will be an exceptional communicator who builds trust with ease. Emotionally intelligent, resilient and grounded, you will combine empathy with clarity and conviction, guiding the organisation confidently while remaining steadfast in your commitment to improving mental health across the legal community.
Essential
Professional Background
- Prior professional experience in the legal sector is required. Experience working in a qualified or regulated professional role is desirable.
- Deep, intrinsic understanding of the culture, pressures and structural dynamics of the profession.
- Senior leadership experience with responsibility for strategy, people and budgets.
Leadership & Influence
- Credible, visible and compelling leader with presence.
- Exceptional communicator - confident public speaker and strong writer.
- Knowledge of mental health systems, workplace wellbeing or addiction support.
- Able to influence senior stakeholders and bring sceptical audiences “on the journey.”
- A credible ambassador for mental health and wellbeing - knowledge of mental health systems, workplace wellbeing or addiction support.
- Comfortable operating at Board level.
Organisational Capacity
- Experience managing and motivating high-performing teams (ideally remote).
- Financial acumen, including budget oversight and income generation.
- Fundraising experience, particularly with trusts, foundations or membership bodies.
- Ability to balance operational delivery with strategic influence.
- Skilled at prioritisation in resource-constrained environments.
Personal Qualities
- Authentic commitment to mental health and wellbeing.
- Emotionally intelligent, empathetic and values-driven.
- Resilient and calm under pressure.
- Able to navigate sensitive conversations with discretion and diplomacy.
Desirable
- Experience within the charity or not-for-profit sector.
- Experience working with regulators or professional bodies.
- Understanding of research commissioning or evidence-led advocacy.
Further information
For further information about LawCare, the scope of the role and the person specification, please download the Candidate Briefing Pack.
How to Apply
If you are interested in this exciting opportunity, please provide the following with your application:
- An up to date CV, with the details of two referees (we will not contact them without your prior permission).
- A supporting statement outlining how you meet the criteria set out in the Person Specification, along with your motivation for applying for the role.
Closing date for applications: Monday 30th March 2026
Preliminary interviews with Russam: Wednesday 8th & Thursday 9th April 2026
Interviews with LawCare: Week commencing 20th April 2026
We look forward to receiving your application.
Recruitment Agency 
11 - 20
Thank you!
It is an exciting time to join RBL as we commence work on our new 10 year strategy. Much of our work already revolves around the connections made across our communities and wider society. But with the creation of three new roles we aim to lead this work across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and ROI, in order to better harness the power of those connections to support our communities in the most effective way possible and promote our important role in bringing people together.
This role will see you as Head of Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland, where you will be RBL’s key representative and point of contact in NI&ROI, building and sustaining networks and connections with key stakeholders and partners, including senior military, government ministers, charity partners and senior leadership.
The role places significant emphasis on matrix working internally, building connections across NI&ROI and will see you as RBL’s spokesperson providing a public face for the charity, attending events (eg Islandbridge) and meetings, speaking to the media and engaging widely across the region.
Come and be part of the leading Armed Forces charity, making a difference to the lives of those who have served to keep us safe and protect our way of life.
Reporting to our Executive Director: Membership, key responsibilities will include:
- Working closely with the Membership Council Representative, to act as the point of contact, focal point and voice for RBL as well as representing the unique needs of NI&ROI to RBL
- Liaising regularly with the NI&ROI Governments, elected representatives, the Veterans Commissioner for Northern Ireland, military bases, Reserve and Cadet Force Associations and charity partners
- Maintaining a good knowledge of all RBL activity in NI&ROI, acting as reference point for Services, Fundraising, Remembrance, Public Relations, Membership and Campaigns, Policy and Research
- Promoting and advocating RBL’s strategy in a way that is responsive to the specific context of NI&ROI and play a significant leadership role in the development and delivery of an organisation wide NI&ROI plan.
- Provide leadership and guidance on NI&ROI matters to the RBL Executive Board
You will be an experienced strategic leader, with excellent networking and communication skills and the ability to build strong strategic partnerships and influence at senior level. You will have a strong understanding of the political, cultural and social landscape in NI&ROI, with experience as a spokesperson or figurehead with media skills and exposure.
This role is 28 hours per week, to be worked as required by the role, with the ability to work flexibly (including evenings and weekends). You will be expected to travel regularly in the course of your work, including regularly across NI&ROI. You will be contracted to your home address, where you will be expected to work when not travelling.
Employee benefits include –
- 28 day’s paid holiday pro rata (plus bank holidays) increasing with service, with optional annual leave purchase scheme of up to 5 working days
- Private Healthcare
- Generous pension contributions, with Employer contributions ranging from 6% to 10%
- Range of flexible working options may be available, depending on your role
- Employee Assistance Programme providing confidential counselling, financial and legal advice
- Range of courses delivered by learning specialists to support your development goals and objectives
- Opportunities to volunteer
- Travel loans, Cycle to Work, and more!
For more detailed information about the role, please see our Vacancy Information Pack attached to our direct advert. Our shortlisting is performed on the evidence provided in your application against the Essential and Desirable criteria in the Person Specification.
RBL is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive organisation, reflecting the diversity of the armed forces community and of wider society. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and personal characteristics.
We may close this vacancy early if we believe we have enough strong applications to be able to successfully fill the role. Interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.
If you require the job advert or job description in an alternative format, please contact 0808 802 8080.
Thank you!
This role requires that you are resident and have the right to work in the UK.
Purpose of the role:
It is initially a 12 month role, but we are actively seeking longer term financing for it. The role will:
- Recruit a cohort of Scotland-based spokespeople to be trained by NEON and then booked into the media
- Run the Scottish Spokesperson Network - helping NEON position itself as an aide to broadcast journalists and helpful to NGOs, campaign groups and activists on the ground - with a particular focus
- Seek opportunities for long term funding of the role, alongside the co-director of Comms
About the Spokesperson Network
The Spokesperson Network trains and supports people to speak on television and radio. We are substantially boosting the number of progressive, diverse voices in this space to challenge opposition narratives and boost coverage of underrepresented issues.
The programme works by training, coaching and providing PR booking support for spokespeople from civil society working on social, environmental and economic issues. So far we’ve had over 11,000 high-profile media bookings including Question Time, Newsnight, Good Morning Britain, LBC, Channel 4 News, BBC 5 Live, Today, Sky News and ITV News plus many more.
What you will be doing
Here are the key responsibilities of this role:
- Run two Scotland-based Spokesperson Network Trainings
- Keep on top of the current trends and topics in the Scottish media and political environment
- Seek to book the spokespeople who have been trained into the media - with expectations of providing each person trained with ongoing media opportunities
- Support on the Spokesperson Network more widely - booking people into the UK-wide media.
- Be a key part of the Comms Hub - helping with other peoples projects, delivering training and bringing insight and ideas to team spaces.
- Play an active part in the whole NEON team, contributing to organisation-wide plans
Who you are:
- Experience in journalism, communications, media relations or a role that incorporates these skills.
- A great knowledge of the Scottish media and campaigning environment
- Experience delivering media, press or spokesperson training.
- Good writing and editing skills, including an eye for detail.
- Excellent interpersonal skills and communicating appropriately with different stakeholders.
- Project management experience demonstrated through being proactive and well organised, with the ability to meet tight deadlines and manage multiple priorities
- Ability to work well under pressure, meet the demands of a dynamic organisation and accommodate changing circumstances.
- An affinity with NEON’s aims and objectives and organisational values of solidarity, generosity and respect
- Proven understanding of anti-oppression work and commitment to tackling all institutional forms of oppression, bigotry and exclusion.
- Experience working in the economic and social justice campaigning community in any kind of capacity.
- Willing to continuously learn and grow - with good emotional intelligence and self awareness including around your own power, and an ability to give and receive feedback well, and sit in (and encourage) healthy conflict and disagreement
- Committed to NEON’s purpose of building the strength of movements for social, economic and environmental justice, and to learning how to align your actions with the values of NEON: solidarity; generosity and respect
Hours
Full-time, which for NEON is 28 hours a week - the equivalent of a 4 day standard work week. This can be done over 4 or 5 days, that’s totally up to you. Hours are generally flexible, with some core meetings everyone has to be at.
Benefits
A 28-hour week, 7.5% employer matched pension, genuinely flexible working, 20 days holiday per year (25 days pro rated for a 4 day week), plus bank holidays and Christmas break, a progressive Parenting Policy, Sabbatical Policy, and a generous staff development budget
Location
Scotland - but with occasional trips to London. Because this is a place-based hire you do not have to be in our London office 25% of the time, but you are very welcome to.
About us:
NEON is a capacity and infrastructure building organisation that seeks to accelerate the transition to a new economy by building the power of social movements - because without strong social movements we lack the power we need to win. We deliver trainings, develop resources, facilitate collaboration and work in partnership with key movement allies, especially in the climate, housing and migration movements. Our focus is on strengthening the organising, communications and strategy skills of social movement organisations, as well as deepening movement alignment, as we believe these are key to building collective power. As part of our work, we are looking to change the starting point in social movements from “what do we agree on” to “what can we win together?”
We also aim to mirror the change we want to see in social movements in the way we run the organisation internally. To that end, we are committed to building a workplace centred on joy, care and justice, whilst maintaining healthy boundaries of what a workplace is. We do this because it is important to live our values and principles, and because strategically an organisation with a healthy culture and strong foundations ensures we are always one step ahead in the fight for a just and sustainable future.
To build a culture and community that lasts, we organise around three values:
● Solidarity - we’re here to change the system and that requires working together across issues and sectors that aren’t normally in the same room. This means placing anti-oppression at the heart of our work and building the power of people most often affected by injustice to change the leadership of our movements
● Generosity is about sharing our time, resources and learning with one another as we support each other’s work. It means being open and honest with one another, especially when we hit problems, and thinking creatively about how we positively build from there
● Respect is the bottom line for all relationships in NEON. It means being respectful of different backgrounds and life experiences and giving space for all voices to be heard. This often means listening more than we talk and being open to changing ourselves as a result of what we hear.
We know that people from certain backgrounds and identities are often excluded in progressive movements and we’re committed to doing what we can to correct this.
So:
- We particularly welcome applications from marginalised groups, especially people of colour and other ethnic minorities, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Disabled people and those who identify as working class or have done so in the past.
- We know the work goes way beyond "diversity", it's about making the space inclusive too. So we are continuously working on that at NEON. So far this includes tangible things like a flexible work policy so people have genuine flexibility around where and when they work and a 28 hour week as standard; a gender-neutral parenting/leave policy, an anti-oppression strategy which is held at senior level given how important it is to the organisation. It also includes the day-to-day work of creating psychological safety for everyone at NEON and celebrating the wisdom of black, indigenous, queer, Disabled and other cultures in the way we work and behave
There are no formal education requirements for this role. As long as you can show us you have the skills we don’t mind where you got them from! Also important to us is your potential to learn and grow in the role so even if you don’t have 100% of the skills listed we want to hear from you.
Dates: Application deadline: 15 March 2026, 11.59pm
Interview dates: First round of interviews: 31st March and 1st April 2026 Second round of interviews: 8th April 2026
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.