Chief Executive

Guide Dogs exists to help people with sight loss live the life they choose. There are around two million people in the UK living with sight loss, and this figure is expected to double by 2050. As one of the leading sight loss charities in the UK, we support thousands of people through our guide dogs and information and support services. Each year we support nearly 4,000 active dog partnerships, through our dedicated team of experts and over 14,000 highly committed volunteers who support our services. We are seeking to appoint a CEO who shares our determination to grow both the guide dog service to increase the number of life changing partnerships and our other non- canine services to enable people with a vision impairment live the life they chose.

Overall Role Purpose

The Chief Executive Officer helps people with sight loss to live the life they choose by leading and developing Guide Dogs as a sustainable provider of a broad range of high-quality services for people affected by sight loss, and a national and international voice campaigning on their behalf.

Key responsibilities:

• Work with the Board of Trustees to develop strategy and policy and take responsibility to deliver growth of services and income
• Build effective working relationships with the Board, senior team of Executive Directors, staff, volunteers and service users inspiring a culture of engagement, motivation and focus
• Represent the organisation as an advocate and ambassador, promoting Guide Dogs at the highest levels, nationally and internationally, in campaigning, communication and collaboration.

All applications should be submitted via our external recruitment partner Odgers Berndtson, full information can be found at this link

Diversity

Guide Dogs welcomes applications from all sections of the community and actively encourages diversity to maximise achievements, creativity and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or nationality.

We encourage applications from people with disabilities as they are currently under-represented in the organisation and guarantee an invitation to interview for all applicants with disabilities who demonstrate, within their application form, sufficient evidence to meet the essential criteria for the job.

Safeguarding

Guide Dogs is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children, young people and adults at risk of harm with whom we work. We expect all our employees and volunteers to fully share this commitment.

The closing day for applications is Sunday 23rd April 2023.

The candidate pack contains more information about this role & the recruitment process at Guide Dogs.

If you are successful you will need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. We cannot provide sponsorship for this role.

Guide Dogs follow Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding the vulnerable people we work with. As part of this, we require a full work history with any gaps accounted for & a minimum of 2 professional referee details fully covering the past 5 years. If there is not enough space in your application form to provide this information, please ensure you upload additional documentation containing the additional detail.

The closing day for applications is Sunday 23rd April 2023.