The UK's network of vetted fractional directors — finance, marketing, technology, operations, sales, product, people and data. Founder-led, operator-built, with 70+ senior directors available now.
Leadership Services is a UK consultancy built on a single founding belief: every ambitious UK SME deserves access to senior fractional leadership without the cost and commitment of a permanent C-suite hire. Founded by Managing Director David Bailey, the firm exists to give growing businesses the executive horsepower that has historically been the exclusive preserve of large corporates.
Fractional directors are not consultants. A fractional CFO, fractional CMO, fractional CIO, or fractional COO sits inside your management team, owns their function, and is accountable for outcomes. The economic model is simple: senior board-level experience at one to three days a week, for a fraction of the full-time cost, with no recruitment fees, no employer National Insurance, and no long-term tie-ins.
We work with UK SMEs from £1m to £100m revenue across every C-suite function: fractional CFO and fractional FD for finance, fractional CMO and fractional Marketing Director for marketing, fractional CIO and fractional CTO for technology, fractional COO and fractional Operations Director for operations, plus fractional Sales Directors, fractional CPOs and fractional Data Directors. Our 70+ active directors carry an average of 20+ years of board-level experience, and our wider network of more than 500 senior UK directors means we can match the right executive leadership to almost any sector or situation.
Most engagements run from brief to first day on-site in around one week. Here's what happens at each stage.
On your initial call with David Bailey, our Managing Director, we map your business situation, the function you're hiring into, the outcomes you need in the first 90 days, and the practical constraints — budget, time, geography, sector experience.
Within 48 hours you receive a short proposal: shortlist of two or three matched fractional directors, recommended engagement model (advisory, fractional retainer, interim, or project), expected time commitment, and a fixed monthly fee. No long contracts, no complicated terms.
You meet your shortlist. We pick the director with the most relevant sector experience and the right temperament for your team. Every director in our network has a minimum of 10 years of board-level experience and a track record of measurable commercial outcomes.
Your fractional director joins your management team and takes full responsibility for their function — setting strategy, driving execution, mentoring your team, and reporting at board level. Most clients see measurable improvements within the first 60 to 90 days.
We are not a recruiter, a consultancy, or an interim director agency. We are a fractional director network, operator-built, with one clear focus: putting senior executive leadership inside UK SMEs at a price point the market can absorb. Whether you need a fractional CFO, fractional CMO, fractional CIO, fractional CTO, fractional COO or an interim director for vacancy cover, our model is the same.
Your fractional director is supported by 70+ peer directors across every C-suite discipline. When a CFO needs IT input on a system selection, or a CMO needs commercial input on a pricing model, that expertise is one Slack message away. No standalone consultant can match that collective intelligence.
Our fractional directors don't write a strategy deck and walk away. They embed inside your business, sit on your management team, and own the outcome. The work is hands-on, accountable, and measured against the same KPIs the rest of your leadership team are measured against.
Most clients have a fractional director in the chair within five working days. That's three to nine months faster than permanent executive search, and there are no recruitment fees, no employer NI contributions, no pension or benefits costs, and no equity dilution to consider.
Advisory engagements start at £1,795 per month for around 4 to 8 hours of senior input. Standard fractional engagements (one to two days per week) run £4,000 to £8,000 per month. Intensive fractional and interim mandates scale up from there. Full pricing in our Rate Report.
We ask for a short initial commitment — typically one to three months — to let the engagement gain traction. Beyond that you can continue, scale up, scale down, or conclude with minimal notice. Our entire model assumes the client should remain in control.
Every fractional director in our network has operated at board level in UK businesses. We understand the UK regulatory, tax, accounting and commercial environment, and we don't dress junior operators up as senior ones. Average experience across our network: 22 years.
Eight of our 70+ fractional directors below, with a discipline breakdown of the rest. Every director is a senior practitioner with a minimum of 10 years of board-level UK experience.
Leadership Services is founded and led by Managing Director David Bailey, an IT director by background with more than two decades of senior leadership and transformation experience across UK businesses. David is the firm's first point of contact for every new client conversation and the editorial author of the UK Fractional Director Rate Report 2026 published on this site.
Before founding the consultancy, David spent more than 20 years in senior IT and business roles across professional services, healthcare and the public sector. That operating experience underpins how Leadership Services thinks about director placement — the firm is run by an operator who has sat in the chairs it now fills, not a recruiter or a consultancy executive who has not. Read more about David's background and editorial standards on his author page.
Every fractional director engagement we run is shaped by five operating values.
We take ownership of outcomes, not activity. Our directors are measured on the results they deliver, not the hours they log. If something isn't working, the director is the first to say so — and the first to fix it.
We give honest advice, even when it isn't what a client wants to hear. Our reputation is built on directors who will tell a founder when their pricing is wrong, their board pack is broken, or their cost base needs cutting. That candour is the whole point of the model.
We work alongside your team, not above them. The best fractional director engagements blend our directors' senior expertise with your team's in-depth knowledge of your customers, your products, and your operating context.
The UK business landscape changes constantly — AI, regulation, hiring, capital markets, cost of debt. We keep our directors close to current practice and challenge our clients to keep raising the bar.
We focus on what works in practice, not what looks tidy in a strategy deck. Our advice is grounded in real commercial experience across hundreds of UK SME and mid-market engagements.
Most fractional director engagements follow the same shape in the first quarter. Here's what to expect.
Your director maps the function from the inside — interviews with your management team and key reports, review of historical data and existing strategies, identification of the highest-impact priorities. By day 30 you have a one-page prioritised plan endorsed by both the director and the founder or MD.
Your fractional director begins execution. Quick wins land first — the visible improvements that build confidence and momentum. Longer-term initiatives kick off in parallel: new reporting cadences, system selections, role redesigns, pricing reviews, board pack rebuilds.
By the end of the quarter you have clear KPIs in place, early commercial results to point to, and a team that is better aligned around the director's plan. Your director runs a formal 90-day review with the founder or board, then sets the next quarterly objectives.
Different businesses need different engagement intensities. Most UK SMEs we work with sit in the fractional retainer band, but we run all five models below.
From £1,795/month for 4 to 8 hours of senior input. Ideal for founders who need a sounding board, a board observer, or a monthly numbers review — without the cost of a fractional engagement.
From £4,000 to £8,000/month for one to two days a week of embedded leadership. Our most common engagement model — used by UK SMEs of £1m to £25m revenue across every discipline.
From £7,000 to £14,000/month for two to three days a week. Used during fundraises, post-acquisition integrations, major system implementations, or turnaround year one.
Full-time cover for a defined period — vacancy bridge, transformation programme, or PE-backed value-creation mandate. Typically £22,000 to £30,000 per month at SME and mid-market scale.
Fixed-fee engagements for specific deliverables: fundraise preparation, ERP implementation oversight, financial due diligence, board pack rebuild, marketing audit. Typically £4,000 to £25,000 depending on scope.
Three of our clients on the difference a fractional director made to their business.
“Within three months our financial controls were transformed. The part-time Finance Director paid for herself many times over.”
Founder, Manufacturing SME
“We had tried consultants before and been disappointed. Having a director who was actually part of the team made all the difference.”
Managing Director, Professional Services Firm
“The speed of start was the unlock. Within a week we had someone in the chair making decisions we'd been stuck on for months.”
Board Chair, PE-backed Scale-up
We provide fractional and part-time directors across Finance (CFO, FD), Marketing (CMO, Marketing Director), Technology (CIO, CTO, IT Director), Operations (COO, Operations Director), Sales and Commercial (CSO, CCO, Sales Director), Product (CPO, Director of Product), HR and People (CHRO, HR Director), and Data and AI (CDO, Data Director). We can also provide Managing Directors and Non-Executive Directors where required.
A consultant typically delivers advice, analysis and recommendations, then hands over to your team to implement. A fractional director takes an active leadership role — they embed within your business, manage people and budgets, attend board meetings, and are accountable for results. The key distinction is ownership and accountability for outcomes, not just for the document on the desk.
Our fractional directors are available from £1,795 per month for advisory engagements. Standard fractional retainers at one to two days a week run £4,000 to £8,000 per month. Intensive fractional engagements at two to three days a week run £7,000 to £14,000 per month. Full-time interim mandates are typically £22,000 to £30,000 per month. There are no recruitment fees, employer NI, pension or benefits costs, and no equity dilution. Full pricing detail is in our UK Fractional Director Rate Report 2026.
In most cases we have a director in place within one week of your initial consultation. Once you approve the proposal and we confirm the match, your director can begin attending meetings and reviewing materials within a few working days. That is three to nine months faster than a typical permanent executive search.
There is no long-term contract. We ask for a short initial commitment — typically one to three months — to let the engagement gain traction. Beyond that, you are free to continue, scale, or conclude the arrangement with minimal notice.
It rarely happens because of the matching process up-front, but if it does we act fast. Leadership Services will arrange a replacement at no additional cost. Our network of 70+ directors gives us the depth to re-match quickly. Our goal is a long-term working relationship, and that only works when the fit is right from the start.
We have placed fractional CFOs across UK manufacturing and professional services, fractional CMOs in SaaS and B2B technology, fractional CIOs and fractional CTOs across regulated FinTech and product organisations, and fractional COOs across multi-site operations and post-acquisition integrations. Our director network spans 25+ defined UK sectors including healthcare, education, retail and ecommerce, hospitality, construction, public sector and not-for-profit.
Yes, and roughly one in five of our engagements eventually do. The fractional model is often used as a structured route to identify whether a permanent C-suite hire is the right call. If the business outgrows the fractional model and both sides want to convert, we facilitate that without a recruitment fee.
You do. Every strategy document, financial model, board pack, system specification, marketing plan, and operating procedure produced by your fractional director is the property of your business. We work under standard UK commercial terms with explicit IP assignment.
Our primary market is the UK and the Republic of Ireland. We have selectively supported UK-headquartered clients with operations in mainland Europe, the United States, and Asia where one of our directors has relevant cross-border experience. We do not place directors into businesses headquartered outside the UK and Ireland.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call with David Bailey, our Managing Director. We'll talk through your situation, the function you're hiring into, and whether a fractional, interim, or advisory engagement makes the most sense for where the business is now.
30-minute discovery call. No obligation. Same-week response guaranteed.