Position: Head of Community & Connections
Hours: 22 hours/3 days per week (hours can be spread across 4/5 days)
Pension: 5% employer’s contribution
Annual Leave: 32 days annual leave, increasing to 37 days in year two of employment (pro- rata); includes some set public holidays and closure over Christmas and New Year
Benefits: Access to award‑winning Employee Assistance Programme from day one of employment
Location: The Broomhouse Hub (EH11 3RH)
PVG: This post requires membership of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme; Space will pay for and process the application as part of onboarding
Term: Permanent
Closing date: Monday, 8 June 2026
The Role
The Head of Community and Connections is a key leadership role, taking ownership of our frontline services, which includes our varied and diverse work with Children & Young People, Adults & Older People, and Community Learning & Development.
You’ll be line managing a team of experienced, skilled, and passionate individuals, enhancing their strengths and supporting them to further develop.
Working closely with our board, CEO, and management team, you’ll help shape strategy, strengthen partnerships, and ensure the standard of our services remain high quality, sustainable, and rooted in community need.
This is a rare opportunity to step into a pivotal leadership role at a defining moment for Space.
You’ll play a central role in shaping our next strategy, influencing what our services look like over the next three to five years, and helping translate ambition into meaningful impact.
You’ll also support the development of an emerging Community Health Service, building on strong foundations to create something ambitious, responsive, and genuinely impactful for local communities.
If you’re someone who enjoys shaping direction, developing people, and turning ideas into reality, this is a role with real scope and influence.
Key tasks:
* Help develop and deliver Space’s organisational strategy
* Shape services to be impactful and responsive, spotting opportunities to grow, improve, or reimagine what we do—always guided by community voice
* Represent Space confidently across networks, partnerships, and collaborations
* Support and develop project managers to flourish in their role, coaching and creating space for reflection and learning, sharing learning, and championing continuous improvement
* Ensure safeguarding, compliance, and HR responsibilities are understood and embedded
* Lead change thoughtfully, bringing people with you
* Oversee service budgets and support managers to feel confident with finances
* Work alongside fundraising team to identify, secure, sustain funding
* Build strong, transparent relationships with funders and partners
* Be a key leader in Space team, building positive working relationships across organisation
Qualification/Skills:
* Experience leading or overseeing frontline health and social care or community‑based services at senior level
* People‑first mindset and strong, values‑led people management experience
* Good judgement: Know when to stick to policy and when to exercise common sense to make balanced decisions
* Positive, can‑do attitude, ready to roll sleeves up and take on challenges
* Clear communication, able to naturally connect with people on all levels across the organisation and stakeholders; easily build reputation for being approachable and trustworthy
* Confident working with budgets and financial information; able to understand and translate to others; knowledge of charity finances an advantage
* Experience working with a Board of Trustees and reporting to funders
* Ability to plan well, write business cases, manage multiple complex projects at the same time
* Strong digital skills, confident using Microsoft Office (Outlook, SharePoint, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and digital collaboration tools
* Solid understanding of health and safety practices and safeguarding
* Flexibility with working hours to provide occasional on‑call telephone support to services running outside typical office hours
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