Welcome to the communities, if you use the search functions you will find lots of people with similar questions and hopefully lots of helpful advice.

Sadly sometimes to move on one has to take risks. A three month secondment "might" be the breakthrough you need.

Broadly speaking many recruiters will not see experience as a line manager (no matter how many HR tasks you think you perform) as experience directly in HR. Sadly at the moment and for the foreseeable future there are likely to be lots of qualified and experienced HR candidates you will come up against for every opportunity.

Changing your job titles is unlikely to help as when interviewed it will be discovered. What some people would do is to create a competence based CV which brings front and center your competencies rather than your job history (leaving that to the end) Might be worth experimenting with. 

Other than that its really just a question of keeping trying and hopefully you will get the break you need. It wont be easy but it is possible.

I had lots of HR relevant experience working in payroll for 5 years however recruiters told me without being in an HR role I won't get into an HR role... This is the case in many industries with junior roles also asking for experience. Eventually I was able to secure a role as the hiring manager was open to no-experience candidates, but recognised I definitely did have relevant and transferrable experience. This was a role I applied directly for so no agency was involved to filter me out.

Perhaps thinking a bit outside the box such as writing articles on your LinkedIn profile can help you stand out more, and to demonstrate you do know what you're talking about?

I worked for 10 years in hospitality management before moving into HR. You need to make sure your CV details all HR related work that you did. I took a job as HR admin for the first step in my HR career and had to take quite a large pay cut, something I was prepared to do. Are you applying to HR Management roles? Maybe you need to look at something like admin or officer role to get some practical HR experience? Good luck. It takes time and took me about 8 months to get my first HR role

In reply to Keith:

Thank you. It's so frustrating knowing that I can do the job and bring value through my experience to a company, but having all my hard work and knowledge disregarded so easily and not being given a chance. I will definitely take your advice and centre my CV on HR relevant competencies

In reply to Tracey:

Thank you, Tracy. I am applying to HR Admin or Advisor, recruitment consultant, training specialist. Basically any entry level position I can find. It's hard and disappointing, but good to know that there is hope

Hi Loredana,
Networking in HR circles may help. Are you involved in your local CIPD branch, for example. Are there any HR related discussion events online that you can join?