Head of Service for Dorset

Service: Dorset

Contract: Permanent

Salary: £43,895 to £49,665 per annum (Solent Mind Band G). In line with organisational policy, new appointments will ordinarily be made at the starting salary point of the advertised grade.

Hours: 37 hours per week

Location: Dorset combined with home working

Interview Date: Week Commencing 5 October 2026

Closing Date: Wednesday 26 September 2026 11.59pm

About the role

You will provide strategic and operational leadership for Dorset Mind’s services across Dorset, ensuring that services are safe, high quality, cohesive, person-centred and well embedded in the communities they serve.

You will lead the development of a strong Dorset locality offer, with a particular focus on service quality, performance, integration, stakeholder confidence and commissioner relationships. You will ensure services meet contractual expectations, demonstrate impact, respond to local need and contribute to Dorset Mind’s wider strategic aims.

You will have a central role in building trusted relationships with commissioners, statutory partners, voluntary and community sector organisations, people who use services, carers, staff and volunteers. You will also act as a senior ambassador for Dorset Mind, ensuring the organisation is visible, credible and recognised as a high quality partner in the local mental health system.

About you

We are looking for an experienced senior leader with a strong track record of leading and developing high-quality services within health, social care, mental health, public health or the voluntary sector. You bring both strategic vision and operational expertise, with the ability to lead complex services, drive continuous improvement and ensure excellent outcomes for the people and communities you serve.

You will have experience of managing service performance, quality, budgets and teams while building trusted relationships with commissioners, funders and partner organisations.

You will be an inspiring and inclusive people leader, able to motivate, support and develop managers and teams to deliver their best. You are comfortable balancing strategic thinking with hands-on operational oversight, using data, insight and feedback to improve services, demonstrate impact and inform decision-making.

A skilled communicator and relationship builder, you will be confident representing Dorset Mind with a wide range of stakeholders, influencing across systems and developing effective partnerships that improve outcomes for local people. You will have a strong understanding of community-based mental health services, safeguarding, equality, diversity and inclusion, and the wider factors that affect mental health and wellbeing.

Most importantly, you will share Dorset Mind's commitment to delivering person-centred services, championing the voice of people with lived experience and making a meaningful difference to mental health and wellbeing across Dorset

About us

Dorset Mind and Solent Mind are mental health charities in Hampshire and Dorset. They are part of a network of 125 local Minds in England and Wales, which are independent charities affiliated to Mind. We are working closely together with a view to a full merger in the near future.