Role Details & Staff Benefits

Salary: Up to £55,000, depending on experience

Duration: Until 31st March 2025, with possibility of extension

Hours: Full time

Reporting to: Executive Director of Strategy

Secondments: We welcome applications for secondments or other alternative arrangements.

Location: Remote – however, NASP have a permanent office space at London’s Southbank Centre, and occasional travel to this site and others across the country for meetings, staff days, etc. will be required from time to time.

NASP offer a range of core benefits for staff on payroll, including:

30 days paid annual leave per annum, plus Bank Holidays

An additional day of paid leave per year on your birthday

Opportunities for Volunteering & CPD days each year

Opportunity to request flexible working arrangements, including compressed hours

Contribution to annual eye test, eyeglass purchase, and flu vaccination

Purpose of the role & responsibilities

Evidence is a rapidly growing and critically important area of NASP’s work. Evidence and access to high quality health data is one of our five key ambitions set out in our Strategic Plan 2023-26, in recognition of its importance in shaping social prescribing policy and practice at local, national and international levels. More recently, our publication The Future of Social Prescribing in England, 2023-2028 makes the case for better access to high-quality, real-time data to help drive continuous, system-wide improvements, and inform the design and commissioning of new social prescribing services, helping social prescribing to become business as usual in the NHS.

The post of Deputy Director of Evidence and Impact is a new and pivotal role for NASP and as such will be a key member of the Senior Leadership team, working across the organisation to ensure all our work with partners and stakeholders across government, the voluntary and private sectors is informed by the latest evidence and data to help achieve maximum impact.

The key responsibilities for this role are to:

provide leadership and direction across the whole of the organisation, looking to understand and address evidence and data needs for social prescribing by drawing on a range of expertise, data and information sources, working in collaboration with multiple partners such as NHS England, Natural England, Sport England, and Arts Council England, and with leading academics, to help build the case for social prescribing.

work with the Executive Director of Strategy and CEO to help shape and inform the development of the organisation’s national strategy, communications and political engagement plans.

working with the Executive Director of Strategy and CEO, provide leadership to shape, drive and deliver NASP Evidence and Evaluation Strategy, in order to support delivery of NASP’s Strategic Plan and the related priorities defined in The Future of Social Prescribing in England.

provide monthly updates and full quarterly reports on achievements, risks and opportunities to the Executive Director of Strategy, Senior Leadership Team and NASP Board when required.

provide strategic direction and leadership to the Evidence and Evaluation Team, including 2 Senior Evidence and Evaluation Specialists.

The responsibilities of this role as they relate to the three key workstreams set out in the Evidence and Evaluation Strategy 2023-26 are:

Workstream 1: Identify where evidence and data is most needed to help social prescribing to thrive

Lead development of NASP’s strategic evidence needs framework including access to high quality data, in consultation with our strategic partners, to build partnership and collaboration around a shared research agenda at national and international levels.

Use the strategic evidence priority framework to help identify how best to address strategic evidence and data needs to help inform policy makers, the health system and providers of social prescribing activities and services and to drive associated investment.

Work across sectors to identify the most appropriate suite of metrics for social prescribing that would enable data on the impact of social prescribing to be captured, analysed and reported at individual, community and system levels.

Assess the capacity of the existing social prescribing system to collect the necessary data.

Establish and lead a high-level UK advisory group to help shape and drive the strategic evidence needs framework and optimise use of available resources.

Workstream 2: improve the evidence base by addressing priority evidence and data needs and share evidence more effectively

Lead the growth and further development of the International Evidence Collaborative (currently ~260 participants over 8 countries) to build a consensus on what we know and don’t know about the impact of social prescribing on the individual, community and health system, and extend the network to support collaborations to address the strategic evidence and data needs of the UK and international partners.

Champion progression of evidence work in the areas of highest priority. Lead the development of evidence briefings and resources to maximize their value and impact on policy and decision makers, the health system and practitioners.

Workstream 3: To support the organisation to put evidence and evaluation at the heart of everything we do

Help build a culture that helps puts evidence and evaluation at the heart of NASP’s planning and delivery.

Lead delivery and further development of NASP’s Evidence and Evaluation Strategy.

Support NASP’s operational leads for our strategic priorities to build evidence and evaluation into their advocacy, planning and strategies and to support development of appropriate KPIs.

Build and maintain productive, collaborative relationships with key academic experts in social prescribing.

Work closely with NASP’s communications team and communication leads in partner organisations, to help promote and build awareness of social prescribing evidence.

Develop joint working with evidence leads in other organisations relevant to delivery of the NASP Evidence and Evaluation Strategy.

Ensure the Evidence and Evaluation Programme promotes diversity, equality, and the inclusion of all communities, including those with protected characteristics, in all aspects of the programme at all levels.

Experience & Knowledge

Senior management experience, including leading a team of staff through operational planning and delivery

Experience of influencing strategic development to ensure evidence and evaluation is embedded within an organisation

Excellent communication styles and techniques to meet the evidence needs of different audiences across communities of policy, research and practice

Excellent ability to frame and translate various types of evidence for partners and stakeholders

Good understanding of methods for assessment and synthesising of different types of evidence and information, including qualitative and quantitative data

Excellent understanding of evaluation approaches, methods and challenges, particularly in working with the voluntary and community sector

Good understanding of health and social policy context, including social prescribing

Good understanding of NASP's strategic ambitions, ideally with first-hand experience working in at least one of our partner sectors (e.g. Health, Arts & Culture, Natural Environment, Physical Activity, Heritage)

Skills & Attributes

Affinity with NASP’s Values as defined in the NASP Strategic Plan

Excellent partnership skills, able to build trusting long-term relationships

Skills in project management and delivery

Experience of working with a wide range of IT applications and packages including MS Office, Powerpoint, Excel and data analysis tools

Self-starter, proactive, energetic leader with a collaborative mindset

Ability to be work at pace, prioritise work and be flexible in delivery

How to Apply

Please complete the application form (available on the Careers page of the NASP website) and send to [email protected] by 12:00 (midday) on Monday 29th January. NASP have the right to bring the application deadline forward as they deem fit.

Ensure you complete all sections, including the Supporting Statement, and the details of 2 referees, including your latest employer or contracting organisation.

Please do not send your CV. We want to assess everyone in the same way, so we will assess your application solely on the information given in the application form.

Interviews will be held w/c 5th February so please keep this date free. For more information and an informal conversation, please email any questions to [email protected].

Please note that any personal data you share will be treated confidentially and will only be used for recruitment purposes.

All appointments are subject to proof of right to work in the UK, references and a 3 month probationary period.

Remote working/work at home options are available for this role.