HR Support for Charities and Purpose-Led Organisations in Liverpool
Senior HR leadership for charities, social enterprises and purpose-led organisations . Without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
HR Support for Charities and Purpose-Led Organisations in Liverpool
Liverpool has a third sector shaped by decades of community organising, regeneration and response to some of the deepest pockets of deprivation in England. The city's voluntary and community organisations are concentrated in areas where statutory provision has historically been thin, and they carry a significant share of the social infrastructure.
The Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services (LCVS) and wider Merseyside infrastructure support the sector, but many organisations, particularly those working in welfare rights, homelessness, mental health and youth provision, are operating at the limits of their capacity.
The HR challenges facing Liverpool's third sector
Demand outpacing organisational capacity. Liverpool charities have faced years of rising demand driven by welfare reform, the cost of living crisis and cuts to local authority services. Teams are stretched, and the people management implications of that, burnout, sickness absence, performance issues, staff conflict, are landing on the desks of CEOs and operational managers who don't have HR support.
Complex employment arrangements. Liverpool's third sector includes organisations with mixed workforces of employed staff, sessional workers, secondees from statutory bodies and volunteers. Managing the employment status, rights and expectations of these different groups requires clear policies and careful handling, particularly where tribunal risk is involved.
Succession and leadership capacity. Many Liverpool charities are led by founders or long-serving CEOs approaching retirement. Succession planning, leadership development and the governance arrangements around leadership transitions are rarely addressed until they become urgent. By then, the options are limited and the risk is high.
Local authority commissioning and decommissioning cycles. Liverpool City Council's relationship with the VCSE sector involves significant commissioned delivery. When contracts change, the HR implications are immediate: TUPE obligations, potential redundancies, staff uncertainty and the challenge of maintaining service continuity through transition.
How we support Liverpool organisations
We work with charities across the North West from our Sheffield base. Liverpool is comfortably within reach for on-site work when needed, and most ongoing advisory support is delivered remotely. We provide fractional Head of People services, ongoing retained advisory, and scoped strategic projects.
Three services. Each one built for where you are right now.
Fractional Head of People
Your organisation needs a Head of People but can't justify — or fund — a full-time hire. We embed as your senior people leader on a part-time, ongoing basis. Attending board meetings. Building your people strategy. Handling the complex ER cases. Giving your CEO back the headspace to focus on mission delivery. This is our lead service for charities that are growing, going through change, or simply past the point where the CEO can keep doing it all.
HR & People Advisory (retained)
Ongoing access to senior HR advice on a retained basis. Not a helpline — a named, dedicated advisor who knows your organisation, your people, and your context. For charities that need consistent, reliable HR support without the overhead of a fractional appointment. Covers employee relations, compliance, policy, manager coaching, and the steady stream of people questions that don't stop coming.
Strategic People Projects
Defined-scope projects with a clear beginning and end. Restructures. TUPE transfers. Handbook and policy builds. Employment law readiness, including the Employment Rights Act changes rolling out through 2026 and 2027. Pay and reward reviews. Investigations. The one-off pieces of work that need senior expertise and proper process.
We don't just work with charities.
We understand how they work.
Most HR consultancies list "charities" as one of fifteen sectors on a dropdown menu. We've chosen this sector deliberately because the people challenges here are different, and they deserve an advisor who genuinely understands them.
Governance matters more. Trustees carry legal responsibility for how a charity manages its people, but most boards don't have HR expertise around the table. We bridge that gap, providing the board-level assurance that employment decisions are sound, proportionate, and compliant. We've sat on charity boards ourselves.
Funding shapes everything. When income depends on grants, contracts, and donations, workforce planning can't follow a standard corporate model. Restructures happen when funding shifts, not when strategy says so. TUPE transfers are common when contracts move between providers. We've managed these situations and understand the pressure they create.
Safeguarding is non-negotiable. Charities working with children, young people, or vulnerable adults operate under additional employment obligations — DBS frameworks, safer recruitment, Charity Commission reporting. Getting this wrong doesn't just create legal risk, it puts people in harm's way.
Mission and management pull in different directions. Purpose-led organisations attract people who care deeply. That's a strength — until it means poor performance goes unaddressed because everyone's too kind to have the conversation, or a grievance escalates because the CEO doesn't want to seem heavy-handed. We help you manage people with both compassion and clarity.
The experience behind the advice.
Jason King — Chartered MCIPD, MSc in Human Resource Management, 15+ years of senior HR leadership across charities, financial services, care, manufacturing and regulated environments. Experience of being a Board trustee at two Yorkshire charities, the Children's Heart Surgery Fund and Age UK Sheffield.
That trustee experience isn't a CV line. It means we understand Charity Commission expectations, governance tensions, safeguarding obligations, and the reality of volunteer-led boards from the inside, not as observers.
Becky King — co-founder and operational lead, with a decade of leadership experience across not-for-profit and hospitality sectors.
We're based in Sheffield and work across the UK.
Why this sector. Why it's personal.
Our daughter Amelia was seriously ill as a young child. During that time, the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund provided support to our family that we didn't know we needed and couldn't have asked for. It changed how we understood what these organisations actually do, not in the abstract, but when it matters most.
That experience is part of why we chose to focus King HR Advisory on charities and purpose-led organisations. Not as a niche to fill, but because we've seen first-hand what happens when these organisations work well. We want to help them stay that way. The people behind the mission are where that starts. Your people strategy isn't separate from your impact. It's what makes it sustainable.
