Rethink Mental Illness
Head of Area
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Head of Area (Midlands)
Location: Field-Based (Midlands)
We're now looking for an experienced and strategic Head of Area to lead our operational services across the Midlands and play a pivotal role in shaping the future of mental health support.
About the Role
Reporting to the Regional Associate Director, you'll provide leadership across a diverse portfolio of mental health and social care services, ensuring they deliver outstanding outcomes, meet contractual requirements, and remain financially sustainable.
You'll work closely with NHS Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), Local Authorities, commissioners, funders, and community partners to influence service delivery and identify opportunities for growth and innovation. You'll also lead a team of Service Managers, Contract Managers, and Registered Managers, creating a culture of excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Services within your remit may include:
- Community mental health support
- Housing and supported living services
- Employment and vocational programmes
- Crisis cafés
- Carer support services
- Criminal justice services
- Care navigation
- Peer support and mentoring
- Suicide prevention and bereavement services
- Helplines and registered groups
What You'll Be Doing
- Providing strategic and operational leadership across services throughout the Midlands.
- Managing large-scale contracts, budgets, and performance frameworks.
- Building influential relationships with commissioners, NHS partners, Local Authorities, and voluntary sector organisations.
- Driving quality, compliance, safeguarding, and risk management standards.
- Identifying opportunities to expand services, secure new contracts, and support income growth.
- Leading service transformation and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Ensuring people with lived experience remain at the heart of decision-making and service design.
- Representing Rethink Mental Illness externally and strengthening our reputation across the region.
About You
We're looking for an inspirational leader with a strong track record of delivering high-quality health, social care, or mental health services.
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You'll bring:
- Significant senior leadership experience within health, social care, NHS, or mental health services.
- Experience managing complex service contracts, large budgets, and operational performance.
- Strong understanding of commissioning, procurement, and service development.
- Proven ability to lead dispersed multi-site teams and drive organisational change.
- Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the credibility to engage commissioners, government bodies, and sector partners.
- Experience using data and insights to influence strategic decision-making.
- A genuine commitment to co-production, inclusion, and person-centred care.
- A full UK driving licence and willingness to travel regularly across the Midlands.
Apply Today
If you're a strategic leader with the drive, expertise, and passion to improve mental health outcomes at scale, we'd love to hear from you.
Join us in building communities that care.
IND1
Why Work With Rethink Mental Illness?
At Rethink Mental Illness, we believe that when you feel supported, you can make the biggest difference. That’s why we offer a range of benefits to help you thrive:
- Inclusive Culture: Join staff networks that champion diversity and inclusion.
- Wellbeing Support: Access our Wellbeing Hub, Employee Assistance Programme, and the Unmind mental health app.
- Recognition & Rewards: Enjoy discounts, cashback offers, and celebrate achievements through our PULSE platform.
- Flexible Working & Generous Leave: Starting at 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays and your birthday off), with options to buy or sell extra days.
- Learning & Development: Grow your career with structured onboarding and training opportunities.
- Financial & Family Support: Contributory pension scheme, enhanced family leave, and travel benefits like season ticket loans and cycle-to-work schemes.
- Referral Bonus: Earn up to £300 for introducing someone to our team.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
Diversity is important to us, and we appreciate difference through inclusiveness and belonging. It gives us a deeper understanding of the world, our society and the diverse communities we’re working with. By including everyone, we are able to draw on the unique experiences and expertise of our people to help shape and enrich our workplace and improve our services. One way we are doing is through our valued staff networks which play a critical and highly valued role in keeping us focused on creating a diverse, inclusive and engaged employer. We recognise and support staff networks and support groups for our ethnically diverse and LGBTQIA+ colleagues. We are also proud to have been awarded Disability Confident Employer status and are a signatory to the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter.
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We aim for our workforce to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve; for those who work for us to feel heard, valued and feel they belong; and for our work to help tackle wider mental health inequalities. We therefore actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including applicants with lived experience of mental illness, those who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and any other gender identity not expressed here (LGBTQIA+); people who are neurodiverse, have a health condition, or a disability or hidden disability and people from an ethnically diverse background - regardless of your age, religious or spiritual belief, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, political view or socio-economic status.
Becoming a truly anti-racist organisation
We have an ambition of becoming a truly anti-racist employer, campaigning organisation and service provider - and in our efforts to influence policy and wider societal factors impacting on mental health set out in our anti-racist statement. We have designed a multi-year anti-racist programme of work contained in our Race Equality Action Plan which demonstrates our intention to hold ourselves accountable and be judged on our progress on becoming a truly anti-racist organisation.
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