Gary Seath 5 days ago
Steven begins his role with the charity, having previously served as Chief Executive Officer at Voluntary Action South Lanarkshire.
Bringing a wealth of third-sector experience and a passion for mission and values, read more about Steven’s inspirations for applying, making a commitment to children and young people from armed forces communities, and building a happy, thriving, resilient organisation, laser-focused on delivering a mission full of purpose and drive in realising our strategic vision.
“There’s a bit of me that feels that Forces Children Scotland could be my calling to be honest. There are two things behind that thought – one around the mission, and the other one around about values.
From a mission point of view, it’s nearly the end of 2024, and I am a big believer that every child in Scotland should have an equal chance to flourish and that’s not the conditions at the minute. But when you think of children from the forces community and some of the specific disadvantages faced, that really got me going and enthused about exploring, from a two-way point of view, how we help them to realise their potential and thrive.
And then from a values point of view, I’m very much values led. That’s really important to me, so the fact that organisations out there know we’re passionate, we’re trusted, collaborative and honest; these things are really important to me. I’m very much a health-first family, all day long, type of guy; if feel that that really resonates. I bring lots of positivity, a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm; I feel that resonates as well. Collaboration is really important too. The way Scotland, the world, is just now, you can’t do anything yourself, and I’m a big believer in partnership and collaboration. I’m excited to see what we can achieve together.”
In this short video, learn more about his passion for committing to listening to the voice of this community in co-producing our future work.
“First and foremost, I need to get out there. I need to speak to people. Meet the team, children and young people, partners and, as human beings, get to know each other, get to understand shared missions, values, and goals, and then get innovating on some really exciting things moving forward.
As an organisation, we’ve said we want to co-produce a new strategy. So, it’s about speaking with the board, staff, children, young people about how are we going to do that? What’s the methodology? How are we going to approach that? And then get stuck into that. It would be great to get to the summer of 2025, and feel that we’ve made great progress, and so then we can then get on with the good stuff.
Moreover, coming into this role I have a great opportunity, if I fully exercise myself as a leader, to help this organisation become a best-in-class employer built on the fundamentals of connection, trust, respect, the team feeling safe, and happy to have conversations, connecting internally but importantly externally, and much more.”
“I think one of the key building blocks, and I made a point of this in my interviews, is that I want Forces Children Scotland to be a healthy and happy workplace, laser-focused on delivering one mission. So that comes back to understanding with all our colleagues, what does being a healthy and happy organisation look like? what does it feel like? Scratch underneath the surface and actually build something really special together in terms of the culture, so I need to integrate myself into that.
Developing our new strategy, we will reflect on our mission and that it is on point, I certainly don’t get a sense that there is a need for any transformation. Far from it. just slight evolution on the next stage of our journey. I don’t view a mission as simply a poster on the wall, a document or a bit of paper; we’re actually going to try and do it with intention, commitment, and relentlessly.
So, three years down the line, we will have a happy, healthy, thriving, and resilient organisation, laser-focused on delivering our mission with intention to best serve children and young people from armed forces communities.”
“We are delighted and thrilled that Steven will be joining Forces Children Scotland as the new CEO. At a time of uncertainty and change across the public and voluntary sector, it is fantastic to have someone of Steven’s experience, knowledge and talent leading the organisation into its next successful chapter making a real difference to young people from the Armed Forces community in Scotland and further afield.
Over the coming months, Steven will be working alongside the Board, Staff Team and key stakeholders to co-produce our new strategy and deliver on various commitments whilst honouring our commitment to young people. We welcome him to the amazing team and wish him the best of luck in the future.”
Stay tuned for our feature interview recorded with Steven coming very soon.
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