PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT LEAD – EDUCATION, TRAINING & EMPLOYMENT SPECIALIST

Salary scale: £55k.

Position: One-year fixed term (with potential to extend), full time, open to flexible and hybrid working, with an expectation of at least 2-3 days a week in our Practices (London, North West England, and North East England).

Location: London / Greater Manchester. Flexible and hybrid working with an expectation of 2-3 days a week working from our Practices as well as occasional working from our national office at Coram Campus, Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AZ.

Reporting to: Head of Practice & Learning.

Line manages: No formal line management responsibilities but supports Lead Guides and Guides to deliver excellent practice in organisations that host SHiFT Practices.

Start date: Immediate.

THE ROLE

Working as part of the Practice Development Team under the leadership of SHiFT’s Head of Practice & Learning, together you will ensure consistently excellent practice that delivers exceptional outcomes across all SHiFT Practices. Within this, as SHiFT’s education, training, and employment specialist, you will take particular responsibility for educational, training and employment outcomes. You will lead practice development through three key activities: (1) getting alongside Guides, schools, colleges, employers, and other professionals in a highly ‘hands on’ way to drive progress in education, training and employment work with children and families; (2) developing SHiFT’s learning and development offer; and (3) building relationships with other organisations to enrich SHiFT’s practice, leveraging those relationships to the benefit of the child we support.

This is a role for an expert practitioner, driven to radically improve outcomes for young people, with the skills and professional confidence to influence, challenge, and support others to deliver results within complex systems. Working with the support of SHiFT’s Head of Practice & Learning, you’ll be proactive, comfortable thinking on your feet and speaking up, and combine forensic ‘terrier’ like tenacity for individual children with an ability to pull up towards the ‘big picture’ of SHiFT’s Vision, Values and Breaking Cycles. You’ll be an agile ‘connector’, an accomplished advocate for children, and thrive on curiosity, built on foundations of substantial professional expertise and experience of supporting children to flourish in education, training and employment.

Key responsibilities:

Working closely with the Head of Practice & Learning, and alongside other Practice Development Leads, in this specialist Practice Development Lead role, your key responsibility will be developing practice to drive up educational, training and employment outcomes for the children we work with.

You will:

Get alongside Guides in their work with children and families to show/model exceptional practice, directly improving educational, training and employment progress and outcomes for children.

Support SHiFT Practices to identify and respond to challenges that might be obstacles to the Practice achieving its intended education, training, and employment outcomes.

Develop and deliver learning and training to support practice excellence, specifically in relation to education, training and employment outcomes.

Build relationships with other organisations to enrich SHiFT’s educational, training and employment related practice, leveraging those relationships to the benefit of the child we support and SHiFT’s system change ambitions.

Ensure fidelity within Practices to the core commitments and concepts of the SHiFT Programme, taking necessary steps to ensure that they are upheld, with specific responsibility for delivering against SHiFT’s vision for education, training and employment for children and young people.

Act as a conduit to SHiFT nationally and to other SHiFT Practices, helping them to learn from and share innovation.

General requirements:

Work within a flexible framework to meet the demands of SHiFT Practices.

Ability to travel as frequently as required, including overnight stays.

Skills and experience to ensure adherence to appropriate protocols and guidance to safeguard the welfare of any children, young people or vulnerable adults who are known to SHiFT Practices.

Carry out duties in line with organisational policy on equality and diversity and be sensitive and caring to the needs of others, promoting a positive approach to a harmonious working environment, and contributing to a healthy, happy workplace.

Carry out any other duties that are commensurate with the role as required by the Head of Practice & Learning or Chief Executive.

Person Specification

Qualifications and background:

Experience of managing/delivering services to children and young people with complex needs within statutory, health or third sector settings.

Experience of delivering exceptional education, training or employment outcomes for children and young people with specialist experience of preventing/overcoming some of the key challenges the children we support experience e.g. exclusion.

Degree (or significant relevant experience) in Teaching, Social Work, Youth Work, Health services (including nursing) Psychology, Counselling/Therapeutic services, Criminal Justice, Substance Misuse, or equivalent fields; registration to relevant professional body as required.

Knowledge and experience:

Substantial current or previous senior level experience in improving outcomes for children and young people in an education / training / employment setting.

Varied and substantial experience of teaching and learning including with children who have experienced trauma or are otherwise especially vulnerable.

A thorough knowledge and understanding of education and employability challenges for children who are caught in cycles of crime and exploitation.

A good understanding of law and statutory guidance in relation to school exclusion, SEND and responsibilities and expectations for ETE in relation to children who are in care.

Understanding of a wide range of learning opportunities that are designed to re-engage young people in education, training, and employment.

Experience of developing professional pathways and partnerships, ensuring these are embedded within delivery.

A demonstrable understanding and commitment to the underlying ethos of SHiFT and its aims, including ‘doing things differently’, and the ability to build and maintain trusted relationships with others, influencing them to also ‘do things differently’.

Experience in the development and implementation of practice and learning.

Ability to use quality assurance systems to interrogate, analyse and apply data and evidence to inform programme performance management and service improvement.

Confidence and experience in working across the public, charity, private and voluntary sectors.

Knowledge and understanding of interventions and methodologies such as: relationship-based practice, social learning theory, strength-based approaches, crisis intervention, attachment, and trauma.

Experience and/or enthusiasm in the use of Systemic ideas when working with children and families would be beneficial.

Experience of setting up new services and/or programmes would be beneficial.

Skills and attributes:

Confident and clear communicator across different sectors at a strategic and frontline level, moving at pace and adapting to fast-moving change and deadlines, with a particular focus on education, training, and employment settings.

Ability to inspire across professional disciplines using evidence and practice to improve outcomes for the children and young people with whom SHiFT works, with a particular focus on education, training, and employment settings.

An expert understanding in delivering practice and learning opportunities across professional disciplines, including supporting practitioners to understand how to maximise their impact and influence in relation to education, training, and employment settings.

Ability to understand, consider and apply Practice and QA frameworks and evidence and embed this into practice and learning nationally.

Confidence in positively challenging colleagues in SHiFT Practices, with the tenacity to pursue deadlines and priorities across multiple streams of work.

Ability to work confidently within an entrepreneurial start-up environment, working flexibly and in a proactive and solution-focused fashion.