The Charity & The Vision

Scotty’s Little Soldiers is a charity dedicated to supporting military children and young people (0 to 25 years) who have experienced the death of a parent who served in the British Armed Forces.   

Inspired by the experience of Army widow Nikki Scott, following the death of her husband Corporal Lee Scott in Afghanistan in 2009, the charity, which was set up in 2010, provides support and guidance to hundreds of bereaved military children and young people throughout their childhood.   

In 2023 Scotty’s supported 659 young people but aims to be supporting 1,000+ bereaved military children and young people annually by 2030.  Having established a key role within the Armed Forces charitable sector over the past decade, Scotty’s is now embarking on a growth phase to build a charity capable of delivering its 2030 goals.  

View our full list of current UK military charity job vacancies here.

The Head of Education Programme

The mission of this role is to lead our Education programme and ensure we always put bereaved young people at the centre of everything we do. Your role is to continue to develop, deliver and drive our Education offer. Our Education programme, STRIDES, aims to improve the educational outcomes of bereaved young people. The programme has small grants available to families and young people, and it works with schools and other organisations to ensure that bereaved young people feel understood and supported in the classroom. The programme also seeks to influence national policy which could improve outcomes for bereaved young people such as exam accessibility arrangements, navigating sensitive content in the curriculum, and bereavement support in school.

The voice of children and young people is central to our charity, and you will work closely with our Scotty’s Council, made up of Members (0-17) and Springboarders (18-25).

Safeguarding is a priority at Scotty’s, and as Head of Programme you will be one of our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads.

Responsibilities:

• Building relationships with key stakeholders including other charitable organisations and schools, colleges and multi academy trusts and vocational training and employment providers.
• Working with the Head of Service to influence national policy.
• Developing training materials and resources for schools and other education providers.
• Delivering training as needed to stakeholders across the education, charitable and military sectors.
• Overseeing and delivering the grant programme for children and young people.
• All duties associated with being a Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead.
• Working with the Council to inform our decision making on the STRIDES programme and ensuring the voice of CYP is listened to.
• Working with the Head of Services and the Council to develop the strategic plans for the STRIDES programme.
• Working with Scotty’s Support and Engagement team to secure and report to funders including managing impact data.
• Ensuring that our Education offer meets the needs of all our members.
• Ensuring that our Education offer is accessible to all, including CYP with SEND.
• Working with the Head of Finance to report on programme expenditure and develop budgets.
• Overseeing the budget for the programme with support from our Head of Finance.
• Provide direct support to any additional team members in STRIDES.
• Helping the charity to become a thought-leader across the education sector when it comes to bereavement in the military community.
• Working with the Head of Service to ensure that appropriate impact data is collected.

Job Requirements

Role specifications

• A passion for education (E).  
• Experience working in or with the Education sector (E).  
• Excellent communication skills (E).  
• Ability to talk about sensitive subjects like death and dying on a daily basis (E).  
• A commitment to safeguarding with excellent knowledge of legislation, policies and processes (E).  
• Strong IT skills (E).  
• Experience of creating training and/or education resources (E).  
• Ability to build relationships with stakeholders (E).   
• Understanding of national Education policy (D).  
• Understanding of the needs of bereaved children, young people, and their families (D)  
• Experience of working with bereaved children and young people (D).  
• Relevant professional qualification in working with children and young people or with bereaved families (D).  
• Knowledge of the military community (D).  

Some evening and weekend work is required. Previous experience of working with bereaved families, or the military is not a requirement.  We recognise that this might suit someone who is looking to take their skills and make a career change into the charity sector.  We think this role could suit someone who has worked as a project or programme coordinator (where there are lots of moving parts that need to be delivered), a great administrator (who is used to working with a lot of people – such as in a university), or as an executive assistant to someone who hosted a lot of events.   If managing the logistics of all the activities that we describe above sounds like something you’d be great at- we want to hear from you.  

We can offer:

• Unlimited holiday
• Flexible working
• Hybrid remote/office working
• A flat structure where everyone has a voice
• Wellbeing first aiders
• Birthday day off
• Free fruit Mondays
• Bike to work scheme

Working at Scotty's Little Soldiers

Safeguarding

Safeguarding is of the utmost importance to Scotty’s. All employees may come into contact with our beneficiaries and therefore have a duty of care to safeguard and promote their welfare. There is a legal duty placed upon us to ensure that all adults who work with, or on our behalf, with our children and young people are competent, confident, and safe to do so and all employees will be required to have an enhanced DBS check completed. 

BestWork

We operate a BestWork model which allows team members to choose the location that best suits the work required.  All team members are required to spend a minimum of 6 days in East Anglia for team building days, strategy sessions etc.  This role will also require days to attend Council meetings, and events with a strong bereavement element, some of these events may take place at weekend or evenings but are planned well in advance.  Team members are typically expected to be available to work on key events that involve our families and members including Remembrance weekend and our Winter festival weekend. 

The Scotty’s Way & our non-negotiables.  

At Scotty’s, our personal performance is only 50% of what success looks like.  Our culture is as important to us as anything else.  If you agree to join the team, you are signing up to The Scotty’s Way. At the heart of The Scotty’s Way are our four core values and four behaviours as created by the whole team.  

Our values are: 

• Families Come First
• Everyone a Supporter, Every Supporter a VIP
• Love What You Do
• Remember, Every Day

Our behaviours are: 

• Speak Up
• Actively Collaborate
• Embrace Change
• Show Respect

How to apply

To apply for this role, please note that we will require the following:

A completed application form – Download our application form here.

A covering letter detailing why you think you’re a good fit for this role.

An up-to-date CV.