The social care charity PSS UK has appointed Jill Sheldrake, deputy chief executive and director of services at the care and education charity the Together Trust, as its next chief executive. 

Sheldrake will take up the top job at PSS, which supports adults with learning or physical disabilities, older people, those facing mental health challenges and people with lived experience of the criminal justice system, in January.

She succeeds Lesley Dixon, who has been at the charity’s helm for nearly 15 years and is leaving in September to semi-retire and spend more time with her family. 

Dixon will continue in her position of chair of the housing charity Regenda Group and plans to look at some non-executive director work further down the line, Third Sector understands.

In the three months before Sheldrake joins the charity, PSS directors Sharon Edwards and Harriet Michael-Phillips will lead the organisation.

Sheldrake brings more than 30 years’ experience to her new position, having started her career working in a finance role at Together Trust. 

After qualifying as a social worker in 1996, she moved into roles supporting people and later joined the charity’s senior leadership team in 2010 as a service director.

Sheldrake became the Together Trust’s deputy chief executive in 2014, which she carries out alongside her service director role. 

She was recognised with an MBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours for her services to children.

Sheldrake said she was excited to become part of an organisation that she has “admired for a long time”. 

She said: “I’m looking forward to working with our team, partners and people we support to carry on making our services better and our impact bigger. Together, we’ll make sure that PSS stays a strong pillar of strength and support in our communities.”

She added her thanks to Dixon for her “outstanding leadership”, which she said had “laid a solid foundation for us to keep growing from”.

Julie Cooke, chair of PSS, said: “Jill will be a brilliant role model, an inclusive leader and will challenge how we do things to make sure we’re around for future generations to come. 

“She’s clearly someone who will relish the PSS culture and she’s going to do great things with us.”

Cooke added that the charity’s outgoing chief executive, Dixon, had been an “incredible leader” who “created a happy, growing organisation”.

Dixon said: “The people I’ve met, the stories they’ve told me about their experiences in life, and the ways our work has supported them will stay with me forever. 

“I’m pleased for Jill, because this is the best job ever and she’ll get to work with the most big-hearted, committed and brave people who are willing to go the extra mile for others every day, and I’m pleased personally, because I’m leaving PSS knowing it’s in the best hands.”