Director of Quality,
Inclusion & Practice.

The client

Certitude is a leading not-for-profit social care provider, supporting people with learning disabilities, autistic people, and those with mental health support needs to live the lives they want. With a strong reputation for high-quality, person-centred support, the organisation continually invests in leadership capability to drive improvement, innovation and inclusion.

As part of this commitment, Certitude created a new strategic leadership position: Director of Quality, Inclusion and Practice. Recognising the significance of the appointment and the specialist nature of the role, Certitude engaged Blakely Scott exclusively to lead the search.

The challenge

This was a pivotal appointment. The successful candidate would shape and lead Certitude's approach to quality, professional practice and inclusion, keeping the organisation at the forefront of excellence in the sector.

The learning disability and social care sector is highly specialised, with a relatively small pool of senior leaders who combine strategic leadership, quality assurance expertise, regulatory knowledge and values-driven practice. Beyond technical capability, the right person needed a genuine commitment to inclusion, continuous improvement and person-centred support, and the ability to influence at executive level and drive organisational change.

Our approach

Working closely with Certitude's leadership team, we invested time in understanding the organisation's culture, strategic priorities and long-term ambitions. That shaped a candidate profile reflecting not only the technical requirements of the role, but the leadership qualities and values needed to succeed.

Our search combined a targeted attraction campaign with proactive market mapping and direct candidate engagement. Alongside a carefully designed LinkedIn campaign, we researched extensively across the learning disability and wider social care sectors — reaching passive candidates who may not otherwise have considered the opportunity.

The response generated more than 250 applications. Each was reviewed and evaluated, producing a longlist of 78. Detailed screening and competency-based assessment refined this to a shortlist of 19, from which 12 candidates were presented to Certitude. Eleven progressed to first-stage interviews and three to the final stage — a clear sign of alignment between the search, candidate quality and the client's requirements.

The outcome

The assignment resulted in the successful appointment of a Director of Quality, Inclusion and Practice with the leadership capability, sector expertise and values alignment to support Certitude's strategic objectives — strengthening the senior team and reinforcing its commitment to outstanding, person-centred support.

For organisations recruiting at executive and director level, specialist sector knowledge, market intelligence and established networks are increasingly what secures the very best talent.