What does it take to lead the national voice for special schools at a time of real change?
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – National Association of Special Schools (NASS)
National – home-based, with regular travel across England and Wales, particularly London
£90,000–£110,000 per annum
Full-time, permanent.
About NASS
The National Association of Special Schools (NASS) is the membership association for special schools in England and Wales. We bring together independent special schools, non-maintained special schools, special academies, maintained special schools and multi-academy trusts with specialist provision.
We exist to inform, support and represent our members, helping specialist schools improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND and secure the place of specialist provision within the wider education system. NASS is known for being accessible, responsive and personal, combining national influence with practical support that members value as timely, human and trustworthy.
This is a pivotal moment for the organisation. In February this year, the Department for Education published a major white paper on SEND reform which will require NASS to both influence national policy on behalf of our members and children and young people, as well as support them to navigate the changes. Our new CEO will need to review our strategy while building on our strong platform and momentum to further deepen our influence and strengthen our internal capacity.
As our next Chief Executive, you will:
- Strategy & Impact: Lead NASS through a period of policy and structural change, ensuring the organisation remains clear on purpose, responsive to members and influential in the SEND landscape.
- Governance & Finance: Work closely with the Board of Trustees to provide strong governance, prudent financial stewardship, robust risk management and clear strategic oversight.
- Operational Leadership: Provide confident leadership to a small, remote team, strengthening collaboration, accountability, resilience and a positive, high-trust culture.
- Income Generation: Oversee budgeting, planning and reporting while developing thoughtful opportunities to diversify income through membership, partnerships, events and related activity.
- Community & Partnerships: Build and sustain trusted relationships with government, parliament, regulators, sector bodies and member schools, ensuring NASS remains relevant and well connected.
- Member Services: Protect and enhance the practical offer to members, from briefings and special interest groups to conferences, webinars, training and peer-to-peer learning.
- Brand & Profile: Act as a credible public ambassador for NASS, helping to modernise communications and broaden the organisation’s voice beyond a founder-shaped model.
- Future Growth: Shape a distributed leadership profile and support a more varied, accessible and engaging approach to membership, advocacy and communications.
- A seasoned senior leader with experience in a charity, membership body, education or public sector setting, and a clear track record of leading through change.
- A strong strategic thinker, able to absorb complex information quickly and translate it into clear, practical direction.
- A confident communicator with the gravitas to represent NASS with members, staff, trustees, MPs, peers, media and national partners.
- A politically astute relationship-builder, comfortable navigating a complex and fast-moving external environment.
- Experienced in governance, with a sound understanding of working with boards or trustees and supporting effective decision-making.
- Numerate and commercially minded, with experience of budgets, financial planning, income generation or partnership development.
- Credible, approachable and resilient, with the emotional intelligence to lead well in a high-profile, remote and sometimes uncertain context.
- Direct SEND experience would be a significant advantage, alongside understanding of specialist education or similarly complex stakeholder environments.
Why NASS?
- This is a chance to lead a respected, member-led organisation with a strong national reputation and a clear public purpose.
- You will help shape the future of specialist education at a time when SEND reform is high on the agenda.
- NASS has a loyal, experienced and collegiate remote staff team, supported by an active Board of Trustees.
- The organisation offers a genuinely influential platform, with strong connections across the sector and with government.
Application
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 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 8th June 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.
Thank you!
Crisis is the national charity for people experiencing homelessness. We have embarked on our 10-year strategy for ending homelessness. We know it is not inevitable. We know together we can end it.
Location: Based in Crisis Skylight Edinburgh, Cranston House 271 Canongate Edinburgh EH8 8BQ, based on-site
Job title: Strengths and Assets Coach
Contract: Permanent
Salary: £38,645 per annum
About the Role
As a Strengths and Assets Coach at Crisis, the national charity for people experiencing homelessness, you will play a key role in supporting people who have experienced homelessness to identify, develop, and build on their personal strengths. Your work will centre on empowering individuals to create sustainable housing situations through meaningful community connections, access to training and development, and opportunities in employment, volunteering, and leisure.
In this role, you will draw on a diverse toolkit of coaching and facilitation skills to support members in setting person-centred goals and taking practical steps toward them. Using a psychologically informed approach, you will help build confidence, resilience, and the capacity to access wider community resources—enabling members to thrive as active citizens. You will also work with the learning team to support the delivery of a range of engaging formal and informal learning opportunities focused on employability, volunteering, tenancy skills, and personal development.
This is an exciting opportunity to shape and grow the Strengths and Assets services at Crisis Edinburgh Skylight, working closely with colleagues and partners across multiple sectors. Together, you will contribute to the development of innovative learning and progression pathways that remove barriers and open doors for people moving out of homelessness.
Skills, Knowledge, and Experience Essential for Success
- Experience in community education, tenancy skills development, volunteering, training, and tenancy sustainment.
- Experience working alongside marginalised individuals or groups, using a coaching approach to build strengths and assets.
- A strong understanding of the needs, challenges, and sensitivities involved in supporting people facing homelessness and exclusion, with the ability to develop practical, person-centred solutions.
- Awareness of the barriers to engagement and participation experienced by people facing homelessness and an understanding of how these might be overcome.
- Knowledge of psychologically informed approaches, particularly when working with people who have experienced complex trauma or long-term marginalisation.
Please see the full Job Pack linked below, for a full list of requirements for this role. We realise that long lists of criteria can be daunting, and you may not want to apply for a role unless you feel 100% qualified. However, if you feel you have relevant examples to answer the screening questions, we encourage you to apply.
We believe diversity is a strength, and our aim is to make sure that Crisis truly reflects the communities we serve. We are actively working towards our organisation being a place where everyone can thrive and make their best contribution to our mission of ending homelessness for good. We know that the more perspectives, voices, and experiences we can bring to this work, the better. We particularly welcome applications from people who have lived experience of homelessness, and people from all marginalised groups, communities, and backgrounds.
Working at Crisis
Our values, Bold, Impactful, Collaborative and Equitable, are at the heart of everything we do as we continue in our mission to end homelessness.
Our staff, members and volunteers are vital to getting the right government policies in place, providing breakthrough services, and building a supportive community. We’ll lead by example to nurture a positive and ambitious workplace guided by ending homelessness.
As a member of the team, you will have access to a wide range of employee benefits including:
- A competitive salary. Please note, our salaries are fixed to counter inequity and we do not negotiate at offer stage
- Interest free loans for travel season ticket, cycle to work, and deposit to secure a tenancy
- Pension scheme with an employer contribution of 8.5%
- 28 days’ annual leave (pro rata) which increases with service to 31 days and the option to purchase up to 10 additional days leave
- Enhanced maternity, paternity, shared parental, and adoption pay.
- Wellbeing Leave to be used flexibly And more! (Full list of benefits available on website)
Alongside our excellent staff benefits, we will support your ongoing development to build your skills, experience, and career.
When you join us, you will have the opportunity to join our staff diversity networks, which aim to champion issues across the organisation, enable staff to be their authentic and best selves and contribute to making Crisis a truly diverse organisation.
How do I apply?
Please click on the 'Apply for Job' button below. Our shortlisting process is anonymised as part of our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. We do not ask for CVs, instead we ask you complete the work history section and answer the screening questions for us to be able to assess you fairly and objectively. At least two members of staff score all applications.
Closing date: Sunday 24 May at 23:59
Interview date and location: In person, on Wednesday 3rd June 2026 at Crisis Skylight Edinburgh, Cranston House 271 Canongate Edinburgh EH8 8BQ
AI in Job Applications
We understand some candidates use AI tools when applying. Whilst we welcome the use of technology to support clear communication and structure, we want to learn more about you, so please ensure that your application reflects your own skills, knowledge and experiences.
Accessibility
We want our recruitment process to be as accessible as possible. If you need us to make an adjustment or provide additional support as you apply for a role, please contact our Talent Acquisition team to discuss how we can help.
For more information about our work please visit our website
Registered Charity Numbers: E&W1082947, SC040094
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Lloyds Bank Foundation
Strategic Lead for Systems Change
Starting Salary: £59,098 (if London-based); £55,587 (if not London-based)
Contract: Full-time, 2-year Fixed-Term Contract (we are open to conversations about flexibility - so please ask)
Location: Remote role - can be based anywhere in England or Wales with an expectation of regular travel across England and Wales including overnight trips to London
About Lloyds Bank Foundation
Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales is an independent charitable foundation, backed by Lloyds Banking Group and the people within it. We want everyone to be in a good place - personally, in a home that’s a good place to live, and in a community that’s a good place to belong.
We play our role by connecting and catalysing community-led change, providing the money, time, tools and connections that build organisations’ capacity and capability, to make people’s lives better and their communities stronger.
We back people and communities across England and Wales, to make that happen, because when you back brilliant people, brilliant things happen. Our communities are full of ambitious, energetic and determined people stepping up to make their neighbours’ lives better and their communities grow stronger. Day in, day out.
About the Role
This is a key role strengthening the Foundation’s ability to work confidently within complex local systems and to support systems change across England and Wales. You will play a central role in shaping and developing our systems change approach, ensuring it is practical, consistent and embedded across our work in places.
You will work closely with regional teams and partners to support effective collaboration within local systems, ensuring our work is well-informed by context and lived experience. A key part of the role is enabling others - building confidence, capability and practical understanding of systems change across the organisation.
This is not a delivery-heavy role. Instead, you will focus on enabling, coaching and strengthening practice so that colleagues and partners are better equipped to work within complexity and drive meaningful change.
About You
We are looking for someone with strong, practical experience of working within systems change, place-based work or complex multi-stakeholder environments. You will bring confidence in working across boundaries and supporting others to navigate complexity.
You will be skilled in coaching, facilitation and capability building, with the ability to translate systems thinking into practical approaches others can use. Strong relationship-building skills and the ability to work credibly with a wide range of stakeholders will be essential.
A commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging is essential.
How to Apply
Please click ‘Apply’ to be redirected to our website, where you can download the Candidate Information Pack and find details of how to apply.
For an informal conversation about the role and application process, please contact our recruitment partner, Atkinson HR via the information available in the Candidate pack.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We hold Disability Confident Employer status (Level 2) and are working towards full status by 2027. If you are a disabled applicant and your CV and application answers clearly demonstrate that you meet the essential criteria, we will invite you to interview.
We are committed to building a diverse team that reflects the communities we work with. We actively welcome applications from people under-represented in the charity sector, including Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic communities, disabled people, and those with lived experience of the issues our funded charities address.
Key Dates
Closing Date: Midday, Monday 8th June 2026
Optional Q&A Session: Wednesday 6th May 2026 at 09:00-10:00
First Interview: Wednesday 17th June 2026
Second Interview: Friday 26th June 2026
Registered Charity
21 - 50
We support small, local and specialist charities across England and Wales.
