Director of Children and Young People Information pack 1
Introduction Dear Applicant, Director of Children and Young People Thank you for your interest in this key position with The Children s Society. At The Children s Society, our incredible team of 750 colleagues and more than 12,000 dedicated volunteers are striving to achieve our vision of a country where children are free from disadvantage. In today s challenging society our work to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged children is as critically needed as ever. Last year we achieved so much for young people, working directly with more than 13,000 and helping to create 27 national and regional policy changes, which in turn contributed to over 3 million positive changes for children s lives. More details of our work can be found in our 2016/17 impact report. Our ambitious strategy focuses on addressing the needs of young people who experience multiple disadvantage, aiming to disrupt the underlying causes and effects of disadvantage that stop young people flourishing. The direct services we run offer young people the best possible support; our campaigning and policy work is bringing real, lasting change to the lives of young people for generations to come; and our partnerships with businesses, councils and fundraising bodies are continuing to produce outcomes that allow thousands of vulnerable children to flourish. I am hugely proud of what we are achieving and I am confident that in the years ahead we will be able to do even more to support the young people who need us to be there for them. The role of the Director of Children and Young People is critical in our mission to change the lives of more young people. For this role, which reports directly to me, I am looking for a strong leader with a record of outstanding operational and safeguarding performance to join our Senior Leadership Team, with a shared responsibility for delivering our organisational strategy. The new director will also be fully supported by the trustee board and other directors to develop and deliver The Children s Society s frontline services to tackle multiple disadvantage, building on our current strengths and our specific market opportunities. This includes playing a key role in our pioneering Accelerating Impact Plan, more details of which are in this pack. If you are motivated to make a real difference to the lives of children and young people, and are ambitious to achieve challenging professional goals, then this role could well be for you. If you would like to discuss this opportunity further, please don t hesitate to contact me. I look forward to receiving your application. Matthew Reed Chief Executive 2
The organisation The Children s Society is one of the UK s leading children s charities, with over 130 years of experience in transforming the lives of disadvantaged children and young people. Our ambition is bold, challenging and demands that we go further than we have before. In 2017 we began a new five year strategic cycle, driven by a brave and ambitious new strategy. At the heart of our strategy sits our ambition to disrupt the cycles of severe and multiple disadvantage that prevent young people from thriving. The strategy focuses on where we can make the biggest difference to young people s lives, and all our work is underpinned by our core values: Brave, Ambitious, Supportive and Trusted. Our strategic commitment is that: We will support young people experiencing multiple disadvantage. We will enhance our ability to innovate and be a disruptive force in breaking the cycles of disadvantage experienced by young people. We will have an explicit focus on partnership and collaboration. We will continue to build a high performing, efficient and agile organisation. We are delivering our strategy through three core plans, each of which addresses choices that we have identified to help us tackle cycles of multiple disadvantage. Our Beneficiary Impact Plan sets out how we plan to develop our understanding of multiple disadvantage and disrupt its cycles. We will do this through integrated solutions of direct services and public policy interventions and partnerships that will ensure we continue to be financially fit for the future. Our Accelerating Impact Plan offers a roadmap for work over the next three years to complement and build on our current work while adding the capabilities, insights and resources needed to disrupt cycles of disadvantage. Our innovative Supporter Engagement Plan sets out how we will build supporter trust, commitment and satisfaction through new and improved ways of working with our supporters and volunteers. 3
1. Beneficiary Impact Plan Our experience has enabled us to identify three key areas in which young people encounter challenges: risks to their safety and well-being; compromised resources they need to flourish and thrive; and challenged resilience to draw on to respond to adverse experiences in life. Our Beneficiary Impact Plan addresses these three areas through integrating our direct services and our public policy and campaigning work. Our direct services Our direct service practitioners are at the frontline of supporting teenagers who are facing multiple disadvantage, running quality services that draw on clear evidence and good practice. We work locally where we can to make the greatest possible change for disadvantaged children. We know that when young people access our services for support with one aspect of their life, they are often having difficulties in other areas too. A young person is experiencing multiple disadvantage when they are facing issues that are affecting their physical or mental well-being in more than one area of their life. Whether they re helping young people address the risks they are facing, improve their access to important resources, or build their resilience, our specialist workers consider the whole young person. An example of this approach can be seen at our Pause service in Birmingham. To help support young people with their mental health issues, we partnered with Forward Thinking Birmingham to launch the Pause service, which aims to improve the mental health of young people in the city. Our partnership in Birmingham offers universal mental health support to young people aged up to 25. It offers them one-to-one support via a city centre drop-in service, identifies young people who require increased and specialist clinical support for their mental health needs and offers group work that focuses on mental health issues that commonly present. Pause works to make sure young people have their needs properly recognised and supported, so that they are better able to support their own mental health needs and less likely to escalate towards mainstream mental health services. Pause had 7,191 visits from 3,595 people in the last year and 2,486 one-to-one sessions were undertaken providing support to 1,330 individuals. Of respondents we surveyed 97% said they would recommend Pause to friends and family. Through our evidence-gathering and analysis, we now understand the most likely reasons young people will seek mental health support from a drop-in service, based on their age bracket. Understanding the needs of young people in this way has allowed the service to tailor its support to better meet young people s needs. A quote from a parent whose daughter has been supported by Pause tells its own story: Before I came to Pause I felt worried about my daughter who was in quite an emotional state. After spending time with Pause staff I feel much better! There is a space I know she can come to, to relax or find help and support if and when she needs it. 4
Our Campaigning for change Our public policy and campaigning work aims to ensure children s voices are heard, and change the systems and policies that negatively affect young people. Through being brave in our actions uncovering desperate situations, exposing injustice and addressing hard truths to improve children s lives our campaigning work brings together people from across the country who want to create change with and for young people, uniting people s voices to have a larger impact. Through our ambitious campaigns and determination to put children at the centre of all we do, we challenge misconceptions, change attitudes and influence government policy. At a national level our work can involve influencing Government legislation, or influencing the actions of national bodies and organisations such as the police, health services and private companies. Our Debt Trap campaign is calling for a Breathing Space to help families who are in problem debt. This will give families protection from mounting debt, fees, and bailiffs, and allow them to put a sustainable repayment plan in place. Fifty MPs have publicly supported this change, and there has been a Westminster Hall debate on the issue. As a result of our work, a statutory breathing space was included in both the Conservative and Labour 2017 manifestos. We will continue to campaign to ensure the Government make this change a reality for families in debt, and you can find out more about this campaign by visiting childrenssociety.org.uk/debttrap Our Seriously Awkward campaign aims to secure better protection for the most vulnerable 16 and 17 year olds. We know that this age group face particular challenges and aren t getting enough protection from laws and services something our campaign aims to change. Much of our work in 2016 focused on influencing the Policing and Crime Bill as it went through parliament. In autumn 2016 the Government agreed to set up a working group to look at how to better protect 16 and 17 year olds from abuse. The working group has been tasked by the Government to look into the issue and to report back by autumn 2017. We are playing a key part in the working group to make sure that police get the tools they need to disrupt child sexual exploitation. You can find out more about this campaign by visiting childrenssociety.org.uk/seriouslyawkward At local level, our work can include influencing the decisions made by councils, local schools and communities. This work can be targeted around the specific issues experienced in a local area, or the specific remit of local authorities. Council tax debt can be a particularly frightening experience for care leavers. Our Fairer Start for Care Leavers Campaign is calling on councils to make care leavers exempt from paying council tax until they turn 25; giving these young people a few valuable years to learn how to manage their finances and have a better chance at avoiding problem debt in the future. So far 27 councils have introduced these measures. You can find out about this campaign by visiting childrenssociety.org.uk/what-you-can-do/ campaign-for-change/a-fairer-start-for-careleavers 5
2. Accelerating Impact Plan Our Accelerating Impact Plan is enabling The Children s Society to work in partnership to bring about practical and novel solutions that break the cycles of multiple disadvantage young people experience. The Plan is working with a range of partners building products, services and systems responses for young people facing multiple disadvantage. It is run with and through our direct practice, with frontline staff taking a lead in informing, designing and delivering new programmes of work. Activity over the next year includes: redesigning system responses to young people facing multiple and complex needs with a city council; coaching new social technology ventures to build the next wave of YouthTech products; participating in a national programme looking to tackle digital disadvantage; chairing and facilitating a new cross-sector learning and research network into multiple disadvantage; and developing new service models alongside partners including police forces, social care agencies and a housing association. The Accelerating Impact Plan will draw on new innovative forms of funding including social investment. The CYP Director has a crucial role to play in defining the scope of the Plan as well as providing leadership for the enthusiasm, boldness, and quality required to improve young people s lives in this way. 6
3. Supporter Engagement Plan The Supporter Engagement Plan aims to increase the resources available to the whole organisation to support children and young people. The Supporter Engagement Plan aims to increase the resources available to the whole organisation to support children and young people. We are creating a holistic supporter-led approach that builds on supporter loyalty to create a growing and dynamic movement with and for children and young people. Innovation and the needs of our supporters are at the heart of this new approach. This strategic focus will add real value to the lives of children, supporters and staff; and deeply enrich the resources available for deployment across the whole organisation. The Director of Children and Young People has an important role to play in the delivery of this Plan, helping to build critical partnerships and key relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, as well as helping to secure new investment and funding. Our supporters and partners are essential to the delivery of our frontline services, from funding their existence to direct involvement in their design and provision; the Director of Children and Young People will work directly with colleagues to help maximise their impact. Across this approach we will play to our unique skills and strengths: Whole person approach drawing on our principle of seeing the whole child, by valuing and asking people to contribute everything they can as a volunteer, supporter or staff member we can build the resources available to our core mission. Voices of children and young people we can create a strong USP by co-creating and developing our relationships with children. Hard truths our hard truths brand essence holds strong values, behaviours and a position recognised by all stakeholders. Local and national connections we have strong local connections built up through practice and our retail shops, churches, supporters and volunteers. We can also scale up to national levels when required. Volunteering we have a strong base of volunteers who contribute in a variety of ways and add value, and we plan to build on this over time. 7
The role The Director of Children and Young People will play a key role in ensuring that The Children s Society delivers excellent frontline services and provides the evidence of our impact in order to help us achieve our strategic objectives in the coming years. The Director will also contribute to the future direction of the organisation as a full member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). The organogram for the SLT is as follows: CEO Director of Children and Young People Director of External Affairs Director of Finance and Corporate Services Director of Supporter Impact and Income Director of Marketing, Communications and Digital 8
The Children and Young People s Directorate The Children and Young People directorate provides national coverage, via three areas, each led by an Area Director, to deliver a range of services in the North, Midlands and South of England. Director of Children and Young People Executive Assistant Area Director North Area Director Midlands Area Director South Strategic Lead Quality Practice Strategic Lead Safeguarding Transitions Manager Grants Manager The regional frontline services teams are supported by small central teams of expertise in safeguarding and quality practice, a transitions manager and a grants manager. The team of 325 colleagues are dispersed throughout the country with key areas of concentration in Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Essex, Devon and Dorset and London. 9
The person specification Providing inspirational leadership and guidance, the Director of Children and Young People will: Drive high performance and operational compliance throughout our service delivery. Take lead responsibility for the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults across all directorates in the organisation. Lead the innovation, development and implementation of direct services which improve outcomes for young people. Be strong commercially, with prudent financial management of an annual expenditure budget of circa 14million. The successful candidate is likely to be in a senior operational role in an area related to the services we deliver eg charity, private or public sector, health or education and ideally will have all or most of the following: Senior leadership experience, with the ability to inspire staff and volunteers alike to create a highly committed workforce and volunteer base, unified around the mission and strategy of the organisation. Strong commercial and financial management acumen meeting financial targets in a medium to large sized charity or in the private sector; Experience of leading innovation and delivering work to a high standard in a sector specific to the services we deliver eg public sector children s services, mental health or education. Proven experience in strategic and operational planning, forecasting, developing and implementing strategies to realise success, and an ability to communicate this clearly to others. Proven ability to translate strategic imperatives into clear deliverable and working priorities and then deliver them. Appropriate experience to professionally lead on safeguarding, supervising service delivery managers and ultimately all frontline staff. Ability to build relationships with a range of stakeholders including donors and partners. Gravitas, with excellent networking skills. 10
Terms of appointment The role could be based at any of our offices around the country, with the expectation that there is regular travel (including to London) and occasional overnight stays. The role is a permanent appointment and reports into the Chief Executive, who is based at our offices in London. Remuneration for the role will be a market competitive salary and benefits package. How to apply For an informal conversation about this role please call 020 7841 4475 to speak to Fiona Sirkett, Head of HR Business Partnering, or Matthew Reed, CEO. To apply for this role please submit your CV and supporting statement by 12:00 on 21 September 2017. For further information or queries please contact Fiona Sirkett Fiona.Sirkett@childrenssociety.org.uk The supporting statement should indicate how your experience relates to the person specification. Please also provide the names of two referees and note that our referencing period for this role is five years. Timeline 21 September Closing date 27 and 29 September First round interviews 5 October Second round interviews with trustees and young people panel Assessments, including psychometric tests, may be used as part of the selection process and an enhanced DBS check will be required of the successful candidate. Equality and diversity We recognise the real benefits of having a diverse community of colleagues at every level of the organisation and are keen to recruit people to senior roles with a wide range of skills, experiences and backgrounds. 11
Too many children and young people in this country don t feel safe, loved or able to cope. Together we can change their lives. The Children s Society is a national charity that runs local services and campaigns to change the law to help this country s most vulnerable young people. Our supporters around the country fund our services and join our campaigns to show children they are on their side. For more information on this role, please contact: Fiona Sirkett The Children s Society e: fiona.sirkett@childrenssociety.org.uk t: 020 7841 4475 childrenssociety.org.uk The Children s Society 2017 Registered Charity No. 221124 HR007/0917