Director of Finance & Operations
- Hours: 37.5 hours per week
- Location: Oxford
- Salary: £85,000 per annum
- Closing date: 26th March 2026 at 12 noon
Join Helen & Douglas House as our next Director of Finance & Operations
Help to shape the future of the world’s first children’s hospice and make a profound difference to the lives of local families.
Helen & Douglas House has been supporting children living with life‑limiting conditions and their families for more than 40 years. We are a place of compassion, expertise and unwavering commitment — and now, we are searching for an exceptional Director of Finance & Operations to help ensure we build upon our unique legacy of innovative and impactful care and support.
A role with purpose. A role with impact.
As a key member of our Executive Team and working closely with our CEO and Board of Trustees, you will be at the heart of strategic decision making — ensuring our resources, systems and operations are effective, efficient, and aligned with the needs of the children and families we serve. This is an opportunity to influence the long-term sustainability of a truly special organisation at an important and exciting time for the hospice sector.
What you’ll lead
In this role, you will provide strategic leadership across Finance, Estates & Operations, Information Systems, Data & Governance, Risk, Health & Safety and our Project Management Office.
- Providing insightful financial leadership to help shape our strategic plans.
- Oversee the annual corporate planning and budget cycle.
- Ensure strong governance, regulatory compliance and effective risk management.
- Lead our Estates & Facilities strategy, ensuring our buildings and environments remain safe, high quality and fit for purpose.
- Guide the development of an effective organisational information systems strategy.
- Support and empower a talented cohort of Heads of Department — fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability and excellence.
- Act as a trusted ambassador to regulators, partners, advisors and donors.
Who we’re looking for
You will be:
- A qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or CIPFA).
- A strategic and inspirational leader with experience overseeing diverse operational functions.
- Skilled at navigating complexity, shaping strategy and driving organisational performance.
- An exceptional communicator, able to build trust and confidence with stakeholders at every level.
- Passionate about making a meaningful difference through high quality, sustainable charitable services.
Experience in the non‑profit or healthcare sector is welcome but not essential — what matters most is your leadership, values and ability to deliver impact.
Why join us?
At Helen & Douglas House, every decision you make directly supports children and families facing life-limiting conditions. You will join a committed, values driven Executive Team and help to lead an organisation with a powerful mission and deep community roots. If you’re motivated by our purpose and ready to bring your expertise to an organisation where your leadership will truly matter, we would love to hear from you.
Apply today and help us secure an impactful and sustainable future for Helen & Douglas House and the families we serve.
Please note that everyone working for Helen & Douglas House are required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service check. Helen & Douglas House is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We are an equal opportunities employer and value the benefits of a diverse workforce. We positively encourage applications from all areas of the community.
Registered Charity
101 - 500
Hospice charity based in Oxford, providing palliative, respite, end-of-life and bereavement care to life-limited children and their families.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Job Title: Assistant Director of Philanthropy & Strategic Partnership
Reporting To: Deputy CEO/Director of Fundraising and Communications
Manages: Head of Trusts and Foundations, Head of Corporate Partnerships
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time (36 hours per week, flexible)
Salary band: £58,000 - £66,000 per annum
N.B. To ensure fairness and consistency across Home-Start UK, new colleagues usually join at the first point of the pay band for their role. This helps us maintain a clear and equitable approach to pay for everyone joining our team.
Location: Remote – with regular travel to meetings with donors, for events and to our central office in Leicester for collaborative meetings and team activities.
About Home-Start UK
Home-Start is a federated charity consisting of a central national office – Home-Start UK - and over 170 geographically dispersed local Home-Start organisations, all working together under the same identity.
We recognise that being a parent has never been easy. Every Home-Start volunteer is trained to work alongside parents to overcome the challenges they are facing. We work with parents to build on their strengths and give them the support that they tell us they need. We offer no judgement – just compassionate, confidential help and expert support. This peer-to-peer support is key to the difference Home-Start makes and often our volunteers have lived experience of the challenges their families are facing themselves.
About The Role
This is an important moment for us and for the families we support. Parents of babies and young children are facing huge pressures, and strong, values-driven partnerships matter more than ever. We’re looking for a senior leader who can help us meet this moment with confidence and ambition.
As Assistant Director of Philanthropy & Strategic Partnerships, you will help shape the future of our national work and support our federation of 170+ local Home-Starts working in communities across the UK. You will lead a talented team, build long-lasting relationships, and help make sure Home-Start has the funding, partnerships, and influence it needs to give every child the best possible start in life. This role will suit someone who is motivated by purpose, who values people and relationships, and who is comfortable working across a large and varied network.
We are looking for someone with a strong track record, someone who has already delivered high-value fundraising and partnerships at a senior level and is ready to take on a role with significant national influence. With responsibility for an annual income portfolio of circa £4 Million – with strong potential to grow this over the next 3-5 years to between £6Million-£8Million plus, you will work with a supportive Leadership Team and Board, who have already engaged external philanthropy expertise to develop a strategy and roadmap that you can build on. You’ll need to be confident working with high-value supporters: able to build trust, communicate clearly, and nurture long-term relationships with people who want to invest in families and early years support. You’ll bring the skills and confidence to grow a portfolio that is already strong and take it further, along with the ability to work well with others in a fast-moving environment.
You will be joining a warm, collaborative organisation that believes in the power of community, the strength of families, and the importance of early help. If you feel excited by the chance to make a national difference, to build partnerships based on trust and shared purpose, and to help shape the next chapter of Home-Start’s impact, we would be delighted to hear from you.
The people at Home-Start are its most important resource. Home-Start UK has been accredited with Investors in People since March 2005, which recognises the commitment we give to developing our staff.
Benefits of working for Home-Start
- Flexible working
- Family friendly policy
- PayCare health cash plan
- Enhanced employer contribution pension
- Learning and development
- DAS Employee Assistance
If it sounds like your type of challenge, we would be delighted to hear from you.
The closing date for applications is Friday 27th March at 4pm.
As part of our recruitment process, shortlisted candidates will be invited to participate in a full-day assessment centre at our Leicester office on Tuesday 14th April.
The assessment centre will include a mix of individual and group activities designed to understand your strategic thinking, relational approach, and leadership style.
Interested?
If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.
Home-Start UK is committed to Equality of Opportunity and Diversity. We wish to encourage applications from all parts of the community irrespective of gender, race, colour, age, sexual orientation or disability.
No agencies please.
Thank you!
About the Role
Advice Giving
• Deliver a multi-channel advice service, including home visits, to clients regarding their energy needs and income maximisation support, ensuring advice provided meets the requirements of Citizens Advice quality standards.
• Ensure all case recording and other record keeping is completed within agreed timescales and conforms to the Office Manual and the Advice Quality Standards
• Use sensitive listening and questioning skills in order to allow clients to explain their problem(s) and to identify the next course of action.
• Use a range of information sources to find relevant information, then interpret and communicate this to clients, enabling them to tackle fuel poverty and financial hardship for the long-term.
• Assist clients with other related problems where they are an integral part of their case and refer internally or to other specialist agencies as appropriate.
• Meet the individual performance targets set as part of this project.
Research & Campaigning
• Take an active role in the research and campaigns process by identifying trends and social policy issues and communicating these to the Project Supervisor and Research & Campaigns Co-ordinator.
• Keep up to date with current research and campaigns priorities, initiatives and plans.
Administration
• Collect and record all relevant information given during interviews on to Casebook to meet the monitoring and evaluation requirements of the project.
• Be self-administering and undertake general administration tasks e.g. taking messages; photocopying, collating, filing; processing post etc.
Professional development
• Pass the City and Guilds NEA Level Energy Awareness exam within 2 months of starting the role.
• Keep up to date with relevant energy advice issues and maintain an up to date working knowledge of all new relevant legislation through:
o Attending training opportunities.
o Reading monthly subscriptions, relevant publications and Citizens Advice Updates.
• Prepare for and attend supervision sessions/team meetings/staff meetings/forums, as appropriate.
• Identify and implement your own learning and development needs.
Other duties and responsibilities
• If required, work from a variety of Citizens Advice Liverpool outlets across the city as required over the course of the week.
• Promote the aims, policies, and membership requirements of the Citizens Advice service.
• Ensure all processes and procedures that relate to the responsibilities of the role are delivered with a high level of awareness of the organisation’s equality and diversity ethos and policies.
• Be a positive ambassador for Citizens Advice Liverpool.
• Abide by health and safety guidelines and share responsibility for own safety and that of colleagues.
Requirements
Desirable
1. One year’s experience of delivering generalist advice within Citizens Advice or another quality assured environment such as AQS.
Essential
2. Experience of using interpersonal skills, including sensitive listening and questioning skills to understand the needs of others, especially in the context of telephony.
3. Ability to give and receive feedback objectively and sensitively.
4. Effective oral and written communication skills, with good IT knowledge to support delivery of service
5. Ability and willingness to work both on own initiative and as part of a team.
6. Willingness to learn and develop skills and be flexible with service delivery.
7. A good understanding of fuel poverty issues and the issues affecting society and their implications for clients and service provision.
8. Ability to assist with research and campaigns works by providing information about clients’ circumstances
9. Understanding of and commitment to the aims and principles of the Citizens Advice service and its equal opportunities policies.
10. Ability to pass City and Guilds NEA Level 3 Energy Awareness exam within the first 2 months of starting the role.
About us
Citizens Advice Liverpool is a charity that provides free, confidential and impartial advice to people who live and work in the city. We depend on a workforce of paid staff and over 120 trained volunteers. We give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward – whoever they are, and whatever their problem. We are the leading provider of advice and advocacy services in Liverpool and have helped clients with over 106,000 issues in 2022/2023.
CAL have achieved accreditation with the Workplace Wellbeing Charter, showing we are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our workforce. We've also gained an award for outstanding contribution by an employer to workplace health and wellbeing 2022 by Merseycare NHS Foundation Trust.
We've gained awards from Citizens Advice National recognising our Advising Margainalised Communities Team for championing equity, diversity and inclusion in both 2021 and 2021. We were also named volunteer team of the year in 2022.
