Job Description

Summary

The Redress Scheme will require participation by all parts of the Church of England, from signposting people towards the Scheme to helping fund an individual application where required. The particulars of local church engagement will be prescribed by legislation through General Synod and Parliament, and will introduce new responsibilities to parishes, cathedrals, Theological Educational Institutions (TEIs), religious communities, mission agencies, dioceses and others.

Each diocese will participate in the Redress Scheme and, given the complexity of the organisation, a professional with strong experience in church engagement is required to help the various parts of the Church of England to prepare for this project. In addition, many groups of other stakeholders will also feel impacts of change.

The role will help all parts of the Church of England to participate by reconfiguring roles, organisational design, policies, business processes, and legislation where necessary. The role will support dioceses, cathedrals and other Church bodies nationally to understand the potential impact of the Redress Scheme and to assess their readiness to respond; to understand and embrace the benefits the Scheme will bring to the Church; and to welcome the Scheme as part of the overall mission and ministry of the Church.

Package

Our aim is for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

The Church of England is on a journey to continually improve its safeguarding practices. The Church’s aspiration is that safeguarding is not experienced and approached as a matter of administrative compliance, rather, it should be what the Church is – something that flows from its core beliefs and values, part of its DNA. The Church has made important and positive strides over recent years. But there is still much to be done to keep children and vulnerable adults safe, and to promote their well-being.

The 2020 IICSA report on the Anglican Church highlighted some of failures in respect of child sexual abuse and, more broadly, the challenges facing the Church to get safeguarding right and made a number of recommendations, which the Church has taken seriously. It is currently running a Programme to manage a suite of projects to implement these. Recommendation 7 is about support for victims and survivors and the Church has committed to developing a redress scheme, in collaboration with a group of survivors, offering financial and bespoke redress to victims and survivors of church related abuse. This scheme will be introduced across all parts of the Church of England and more information can be found here: Redress Scheme | The Church of England

The Church is a complex collection of different bodies. The Church has 42 dioceses in England, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man as well as the Diocese in Europe and each diocese has a cathedral. There are around 12,500 Church of England parishes with some 16,000 churches. The majority of safeguarding work is carried out locally within the 42 dioceses and 42 cathedrals in England. This work is supported by a central National Safeguarding Team (NST).

There are a wide range of stakeholders, including religious orders and teaching institutions, that will be affected by change related to this project.

Main Responsibilities

The main responsibilities for this role are:

  • Managing and leading on agreed aspects of activity for the project, ensuring that local bodies of the Church are supported to prepare for the Redress Scheme, delivering key objectives on time and within budget.
  • Making sure that the decisions made by the Redress Project Board and the requirements of the Archbishops Council (the overseeing body) are implemented fully.
  • Working with dioceses and others to understand local contexts, concerns and opportunities relating to the Redress Scheme within the wider context of safeguarding and helping dioceses and others to understand and embrace their role in delivering the Redress Scheme.
  • Identifying specific concerns within dioceses and other church bodies in relation to the Redress Scheme and developing a deep understanding of them, in order to help the Redress team to address these concerns by designing a Scheme which is feasible and accessible for local church bodies to participate in.
  • Developing and owning a strategy to address these challenges and concerns, and building solid working relationships across the Church in order to generate trust and participation.
  • Working with others, to contribute to and build upon best practice, with particular focus on joint working across the programme.
  • Working with the Stakeholder Engagement Manager on adding to the stakeholder engagement strategy, including:
  • Governance
  • Stakeholder Analysis & Engagement Toolkit (type, means and frequency for each stakeholder group)
  • Communications Plan (type, key messages, and frequency of communication for each stakeholder group)
  • Contingency planning where adoption of the Redress Scheme is not embraced in time for implementation (internally and externally, including senior leaders)
  • Design and disseminate of training and practical materials for church bodies to use when responding to applications made through the Redress Scheme, specifically the ways different parts of the Church will work together to express apology and repentance to survivors of abuse
  • Help the project manager to identify and analyse risks, and prepare for risk mitigation with regards to stakeholder engagement
  • Assess gaps in training needs and propose a plan of activity to address these; including planning and delivering training to help local church bodies respond when applications are made through the Redress Scheme.
  • Help dioceses and other parts of the Church to identify different ways of working so that they can help to deliver Redress sensitively and well.
  • Working with the team to deliver the project together, to agreed milestones and outcomes.
  • Take the lead on helping various parts of the Church to prepare to deliver Redress sensitively and well ensuring that business as usual is maintained during the transition from existing practice to delivering the Redress Scheme, and that necessary changes are effectively integrated.
  • Arrange and attend meetings with key stakeholders undergoing change. Be an integral part of stakeholder meetings with survivors and senior clergy, at events like General Synod.
  • Act as a coach for senior leaders and executives to help them champion the Redress Scheme and lead by example in embracing it. This role may also provide direct support and coaching to all levels of managers and supervisors to help them explain and implement changes with their staff.

Reporting

  • Provide progress reports (including identifying emerging opportunities, risks and concerns) at regular intervals to the relevant Church bodies as well as to the Project Board, Programme Board and/or Programme Director.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate should have:

Qualifications/Education

  • Educated to degree level or relevant and demonstrable work experience that demonstrates working with churches at various levels
  • Strong communication and listening skills and an understanding of managing people, operations, data, information systems, policy and strategy.

Knowledge and Experience

  • Substantial experience of working with Christian churches, which might be gained from working for the Church of England, for Christian Charities, in the public or charity sectors.
  • An understanding of the Church of England, it’s structure and ways of working, being able to foster good working relationships whilst understanding the pressures across the various local and national bodies.
  • At least two years’ experience in a role with complex stakeholders and which required substantial elements of consultation or working in a secretariat for a national (preferably church-based) project.
  • Extensive experience of leading, delivering and managing change via significant projects with demonstrable impact on an organisation.
  • Experience of working in project teams.
  • Experience of advising and reporting to senior leadership and governance bodies.
  • Experience of leading communications and internal and external stakeholder management in a context of internal and public scrutiny.
  • Experience of working within matrix management structures

Skills/aptitudes

  • Building rapport quickly
  • Actively listening and quickly taking on ideas and opinions and able to synthesize the detail to feed back
  • Ability to build relationships, trust and credibility with a wide range of diverse stakeholders, including senior leaders within the NCIs and across the dioceses and cathedrals.
  • Effective communication skills to generate excitement about the project vision to and secure commitment from stakeholders at all levels
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills including ability to clearly and credibly communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
  • Ability to adapt and take a pragmatic approach in order to obtain an effective outcome
  • Good analytical skills, attention to detail and ability to process difficult/complex information
  • Strong critical-thinking skills with a proactive, solution-focused approach
  • Ability to be rational, objective and unbiased when making decisions and taking action
  • Strong leadership and influencing skills.
  • An inspiring team member, able to build and contribute to high performing teams, that will deliver impactful outcomes for the wider community.

Personal attributes

  • Experience of listening to and communicating effectively with colleagues and stakeholders at all levels, including survivors and senior people at a national level, as well as including senior Church leaders and other stakeholders.
  • Willing to challenge others constructively and to be self-reflective, welcoming feedback.
  • In sympathy with the aims of the Church of England.

Desirable

  • Change qualification or willingness to undertake a change management course
  • Understanding of Business Analysis and/or at least 2 years’ experience in a business analysis role
  • Previous experience of a similar role in the Safeguarding context and/or in a faith setting
  • Proven track record of proactively delivering successful results in transformation projects
  • Some experience in working with either vulnerable people or service users, in local communities or other sectors, charitable or otherwise, to build a good working knowledge of safeguarding challenges in the Church.

Click here to apply.