Head of Engagement - London, United Kingdom - West London Zone

West London Zone

Verified Company

London, United Kingdom

4 days ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

Head of Engagement

Salary:
£50,000-£55,000 per annum

Location:
Head Office, Freston Road, W10 6TR with some home working

Reports to:
Partnerships Director

Contract:
Full-Time (35 hours per week)

Purpose of Role

Following the commencement of a new organisational strategy, we are looking for a new Head of Engagement who will drive and develop the partnerships we need to deliver our new national ambition.

West London Zone's model has generated national attention in the policy sphere, and we envisage and hope our new partnership model in the Northwest of England will provide further pathfinding evidence in the next strategy cycle of how our principles of delivery can be tailored and used to support model co-design outside of London.

We are looking to build partnerships across government and wider policy stakeholders and organisations that will ultimately support us to realise a new way of supporting children and families for communities across England.

The Head of Engagement role will lead this work in four ways.

They will develop and hold the plan for public/policy sector engagement and 'ways to market' for central government funding partnership.
They will hold and develop external partnerships themselves.
They will choreograph, coordinate, and support external stakeholder management of senior colleagues (especially the CEO and CDO), and drive stakeholder engagement in the policy sphere as a whole.
They will work internally to produce highquality position papers, materials and insight overviews that convey the experience, learning and insight we glean from our delivery in a way that is useful to policymakers (as the main means of driving the partnership development they and others will develop)

Specifics of these partnerships and associated responsibilities are outlined below.

Responsibilities

Partnership Development

Ensuring positive awareness of WLZ's model from key policy and sector audiences inside the Zone and nationally, and ensure WLZ is well positioned to capitalise on development and awareness opportunities.
Develop and hold partnerships to support policy formation and advocate for the principles of our delivery approaches. This is expected to include partnerships with Think Tanks, politicians/policy teams, aligned organisations or coalitions in our sector, regional authorities (e.g. GMCA)
The majrity of these partnerships will be guided by our Learning, Insight and Advocacy strategy, and specifically focus on selected topics that are both important to policymakers but also on which we hold experience, learning and insight
Types f partnerships could range from participation in formal coalitions to a series of engagements with politicians. There will also be a range of engagement pathways some dictated mainly by the partner (e.g. opportunity to join a formal cross sector working group on persistent absenteeism) to ones that are initiated and driven by us (albeit needing to hold relevance and interest to the partner)
Public representation of WLZ at influential events
Maintaining awareness of new opportunities for influencing government and key audiences both proactive and reactive and lead and coordinate delivery of influencing activity e.g. Roundtables, ad hoc events

Person specification

Experience of a policy/influencing role in a similar or adjacent organization
Experience of stakeholder management and partnership development towards business development aims
Understanding of the operation of Central and Local Government and how to effectively influence it
A strong understanding of public policy relevant to West London Zone
Excellent analytical and writing/presentation skills, including effective use of PowerPoint and Word to tailor and create high quality materials for external use
The ability to summarise and communicate complex/specialist evidence in a persuasive manner to a range of internal and external audiences
Experience of working with senior staff in preparation for key stakeholder meetings
A good networker, and desire to be external facing
Experience of line management
Prepared to work in line with our values and to demonstrate behaviours consistent with these.

How to apply

Deadline: 9am 4th March 202
Interview will be on rolling basis

West London Zone is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.

It celebrates, supports, and thrives on equality and diversity for the benefit of its employees, its partners, and the communities that it works with.