Head of Programmes

My client is a small grassroots charity who are doing amazing work in their local community; supporting vulnerable women through childbirth and FGM survivors. They have been firmly established in East London for almost 40 years, created by a group of passionate and determined women to support disadvantaged women living in one of the most deprived areas of the country.

The Head of Programmes will lead a team who coordinate and deliver services.

This is a really great opportunity to be a member of the senior management team and play a pivotal role in my clients mission to transform the lives of vulnerable women with multiple complex needs during pregnancy and those who have survived FGM.

A strategic thinker, you will be responsible for the planning, implementation and delivery of the programmatic services as well as supporting their plans to expand. You will have extensive experience of using data analysis and be interested in creating a learning culture. You will develop strong working relationships with senior stakeholders and high level partnerships to ensure the needs of their beneficiaries are met. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic leadership guiding the team with operational planning and delivery to achieve agreed targets and performance goals individually and organisationally. (setting clear objectives, coaching, supervisions, appraisals etc.)
• Design, develop and implement agreed plans using project management tools, processes and surveys.
• Ensure data collection is completed on time, accurately and meets the programme output requirements, using this intelligence to determine improvements.
• Maintain meaningful relationships between the team and volunteers e.g. supervision and support.
• Work collaboratively with the Training Manager, Coordinators and other members of staff to create ‘best’ experience for volunteers.

Programmatic development:

• Together with the Chief Executive, create a learning culture, use learnings from extensive data analysis to increase the impact of the programmes on the lives of the women they support.
• Working in partnership with the Chief Executive, build partnerships and generate financial commitments to sustain and expand their programmes. This includes proposal development, negotiating and managing funder contracts and implementing programme pilots (with the support of CE).
• Conduct Value for Money (VfM) analysis and implement ways to improve the value of their programmes without detracting from the quality, reach and impact on women’s lives.
• Prepare, review and manage financial budgets (budget tracking, expenditure analysis and forecasting).
• Risk management analysis and reporting on these in a timely manner to CE and funders
• As a member of the senior management team provide input into organisational and programmatic strategies.
• Prepare high quality annual programme reports to illustrate impact to funders, stakeholders and promotional channels, ensuring reporting deadlines are met.
• Represent the charity at a local level, liaise and build effective working relationships with partners, agencies and other stakeholders to ensure the smooth operation of the programmes.
• Preparing and delivering presentations and contract negotiations.
• Prepare reports for the Board of Trustees and attend meetings to report on programme activities (4 to 5 times a year)
• Identify issues of strategic significance and ensure these are shared with colleagues; individually and collaboratively make recommendations for responding to these in a timely manner.
• Support colleagues with organising events to generate awareness of the charity and programmes.
• Support the Chief Executive with fundraising, tendering and bids for services.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

• Degree or equivalent (health related is desirable)
• Project Management e.g. PRINCE 2 (desirable, not essential)
• A minimum of 5 years’ experience of programmatic management working with local communities and a wide range of disadvantage.
• A minimum of 3 years in a management position where you will have developed significant experience of supervising and coaching staff to achieve their full potential and successfully deliver targets.
• Programmatic delivery experience and technical competence in women’s health and FGM or related field.
• Demonstrable success of working with commissioning and/or major funding bodies and partner relationship management.
• Demonstrable success of identifying opportunities for programmatic enhancements and improvements for greater benefit to beneficiaries. 
• Demonstrable success with achieving programmatic targets and outcomes. The ability to recognise problems, identify and implement solutions before they happen.

Knowledge:

• Familiar with the maternity and FGM landscape (desirable, not essential)
• Familiar with women’s empowerment and gender violence issues
• Familiar with the commissioning and funding landscape
• Theory of change models, validated, monitoring and evaluation tools
• Volunteering management
• The use of digital platforms/IT to deliver services effectively and efficiently (desirable)

Skills:

• Excellent leadership skills
• Performance management
• Advanced skills in strategic and analytical thinking, financial management, problem solving and negotiation
• Produce concise high quality reports and presentations for different audiences, including funding bids
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to conduct relationships at a senior level and a range of different audiences
• Determination and resourcefulness, self-motivated and ability to work independently and collaboratively
• Ability to prioritise workload, which is occasionally heavy.
• Meet deadlines and work flexibly within a small charity
• Committed to on-going self-development and or organisational learning
• High level of computer skills including CRM database
• Ambassador role and networking
• Passionate about women’s empowerment  
• Sense of humour

Your CV will be carefully considered during the initial screening process, only candidates with relevant skills and experience will be contacted about this vacancy. I wish you every success.