Participation and Engagement Manager - Child Poverty Impact

Package Description

Job Reference: 21865

Band: D

Contract type: Continuing

Location: UK Flexible with travel to London & Salford as required

Salary: £38,800 - £48,800 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights. London Weighting may be applicable.

The role will be CPF mapped to Audience Research Manager, Charity.

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

•  Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.

•  Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.

•  Benefits - we offer a negotiable salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care and gym. You can find out more about working at the BBC by selecting this link to our candidate pack.

If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process please contact the [email protected]. For any general queries, please contact: [email protected].

Job Introduction

BBC Children in Need act where the need is greatest. Our ambition is to create positive and lasting change across the UK for the children and young people who need us most. We do this by investing in positive relationships that strengthen children’s wellbeing and help them navigate the challenges in their lives. Together with the BBC and our partners, we aim to inspire the nation and unite communities to support us in our work.

We are committed to the voice of children and young people being at the heart of everything we do, and ensuring our decision making and activity is driven by an understanding of their views, wants and needs.

This role will provide leadership and oversight across the development and delivery of participation and engagement activity across BBC Children in Need. This will include ongoing initiatives such as  youth panels, short term initiatives such as grant-making decision panels, or ad hoc initiatives such as co-creation sessions. It will encompass activity that informs our Impact as well as our Income & Engagement work.

Within the role, there will be a substantial focus (50% of time) on the participation and engagement elements of our new ‘Child Poverty Impact’ programme – a fund focused on empowering local communities to develop their own place-based solutions to the impact of child poverty in their area. This programme is a national strategic partnership with a number of other funders and stakeholders, operating in up to 10 locations across the UK. The voice of young people, families and adult communities is central to the development and delivery of this programme.

The role will sit in the Insight team, reporting to the Director of Insight. The role will also have a dotted line into the Child Poverty Impact Programme Lead, and will work very closely with the programme delivery team and the external learning partner day to day.

Main Responsibilities

Leadership and co-ordination of the youth participation and community engagement elements of the ‘Child Poverty Impact’ programme.

• Developing and overseeing a structured approach to elevating youth and adult community voice, both centrally and locally, in line with the principles of the place-based programme.
• Developing and leading all central participation and engagement activity throughout the programme.
• Co-ordinating and supporting local level participation and engagement activity (across up to 10 locations), ensuring consistency of approach across the programme.
• Supporting local partnerships to ensure that they are representing the voices of local children and young people with lived experience of poverty, to inform the local design and delivery of their programmes.
• Ensuring delivery against the voice-related outcomes as set out by the programme, both short and long-term.
• Consolidating all learning - at programme level, local level and also collectively through convening events – and ensuring that it is shared with the project team, funding partners and local partnerships.

Leadership and co-ordination of participation and engagement activity with children and young people, across BBC Children in Need.

• Overseeing the development and delivery of our Participation Roadmap, including:
  • having oversight of all participation activity across the organisation.
  • developing and delivering participation initiatives.
  • developing and delivering training, and supporting internal practitioners.
  • supporting colleagues in delivering and commissioning participation activity
  • partnering with external delivery partners.
• Playing a leading role in the internal Participation Learning and Development Group and working closely with group members in embedding best practice and a learning culture across the organisation.
• Partnering with the Senior Safeguarding Adviser to ensure that all activity is delivered safely and in the best interests of children and young people.
• Developing a centre of expertise for participation at BBC Children in Need - developing and sharing best practice; supporting and collaborating with grantees and funding partners; sharing our experience and the impact of our activity internally and externally.

The role will require travel around the UK, in particular our Salford and London offices for programme meetings, with occasional visits to the funded locations across the UK.

Are you the right Candidate?

• Experience of championing youth voice and working directly with children and/or young people across a range of different participatory approaches.
• Experience of place-based work and local community engagement.
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to create the right environment for people to engage, contribute and learn.
• Ability to shape and manage projects independently and work on own initiative.
• Great team player, with the ability to develop positive and collaborative working relationships with a range of partners, young people and local communities.
• Knowledge of the safeguarding principles that ensure the safety of children and/or young people.
• Understanding of the challenges and issues impacting children and young people today.
• Knowledge of the values and principles that underpin best practice in participation and engagement activity.
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to prioritise and deliver to deadlines.

About the BBC

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours here.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here.

Please note; If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory