Clinical Director, Leading UK Charity | Collingwood Executive Search

THE CLIENT

One of the UK’s leading charities who provide very specialist residential and community support. The existing Clinical Director had decided to move on from the organisation and this was an opportunity to review the role of Clinical Director. It was decided that a different type of person was required for this next stage of growth and an individual that was more strategic, outward facing and not as hands on.

THE ROLE & ITS CHALLENGES

The Clinical Director would need to have several traits. Firstly, they would need to have significant clinical experience in this organisation’s area of focus. This is one of the biggest roles in the UK in this field and would require someone with considerable leadership experience and ability. They would need to be highly strategic and be responsible for building and delivering the model of care. Finally, they would need to be commercial, being the face of the organisation both in the peer community and with the various organisation that buy and use these services.

One of the biggest challenges with this position was that there are a very limited number of people that were qualified to perform this role, with around 200 people on the specialist register. The role itself is one of the biggest roles of its kind in the UK and that further reduced the pool of applicable Candidates, with the level of experience required.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITY

THE SOLUTION AND RESULT

We had an exceptional briefing with the Client, and they very kindly made all the key stakeholders available. This gave us a true 360-degree view of the role which enabled us to hone in on the key areas to explore with prospective Candidates. We then proceeded to identify all the individuals within the UK that were qualified to perform this role.

We then devised a communication plan across multiple domains to ensure we could reach everyone. Not everyone was active on ‘social media’ platforms, so it was necessary to incorporate true head-hunting tactics from the beginning. We put together an information deck on the role and started to generate a good level of interest. After a number of discovery calls we reached a pool of 12 people that we interviewed further.

Having interviewed the 12 Candidates a total of 7 were presented to the Client. 6 were interviewed by two of the senior leadership team. The final interview round was a presentation and discussion with the CEO and one further SLT member. Five were progressed to this final round with one person being invited to a face to face tour of a few of the organisations facilities. An offer was extended that was accepted.

This appointment was made through Collingwood’s executive search work in private healthcare.