Chief Executive

Welcome 

Age Scotland, our national charity for older people, works tirelessly to improve the lives of everyone over the age of 50. Our vision is a Scotland that is the best place in the world to grow older. To achieve this, we’re dedicated to inspiring, involving and empowering older people, and influencing decision-makers to have a positive and lasting impact.

The challenges and issues facing older people in Scotland have never been greater: only one in five tell us that they feel valued by society. Ageism is found in a wide range of settings while hundreds of thousands of older people live in poverty or low incomes that will not meet the surging costs of living. Health and care needs are often not being met, and digital exclusion is making it much harder to access information and secure financial support. The devastating impacts of Covid-19 claimed a huge number of lives and led to severe harm to physical and mental health. Loneliness and social isolation have become even greater challenges than before.

Our national helpline has never been busier, making a vital difference to the lives of tens of thousands of older people, their families and carers. Similarly, our strong work in communities, supporting and enabling older people’s groups across Scotland, and working with those affected by dementia, is a vital and growing priority.

The majority of issues affecting the day-to-day lives of older people are decided here in Scotland, so our influencing and policy development work with key decision makers, the Scottish Government, the media and others is a key part of what we do. We have developed very effective relationships with policy makers, but we still have much to do given the challenges Scotland faces with our rapidly ageing population and the loneliness epidemic.

We wish to appoint an exceptional leader as our next CEO, a confident and experienced person who is visible, impactful and outcome focussed and who is as comfortable working with a highly experienced Executive and Board as they are interacting with and serving the interests of the most important of our stakeholders, our older population in Scotland. Therefore, the candidate must be able to demonstrate at least 5 years senior experience at CEO or senior Executive leadership level and, ideally, have awareness of the development of devolved and UK government responsibilities. Most importantly, our CEO will have the capability to lead effectively and to represent Age Scotland to a range of key stakeholders.

Our CEO will assess and prioritise the opportunities for us to develop and innovate and allow us to serve more of our older people in Scotland. This inspirational leader will develop and support the excellent capability and capacity in our team and our Charity while operating with our values very much front and centre.

If this unique opportunity is of interest, and you feel you could lead this remarkable charity in our future strategic direction, deliver on our goals, ambitions and grow our impact, then we would love to hear from you.

I look forward to meeting you.

Stuart Purdy

Chair, Age Scotland