The armed forces charity Forces Children Scotland has appointed Steven Sweeney as chief executive.

Sweeney joined this week from the same role at Voluntary Action South Lanarkshire and succeeds Laura Falconer, who stepped down in June to pursue semi-retirement plans after three and a half years in post.

Harvey Tilley and Max Young, co-chairs of Forces Children Scotland, which supports more than 13,000 children and young people from armed forces communities, said: “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.”

They said that over the coming months, Sweeney would work with the board, staff team and stakeholders to co-produce a new strategy “while honouring our commitment to young people”. 

Sweeney said: “As an organisation, we’ve said we want to co-produce a new strategy. So, it’s about speaking with the board, staff, children and young people about how we are 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.”

He said the vision was that in three years “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”.