Research and Community Engagement Manager

The Research and Community Engagement Manager will have significant knowledge and experience of health and social care services and community engagement including managing key research projects and working with people who use services.  We are excited to be managing the Healthwatch North Northamptonshire Service and appointing new staff for the service. Our aims and mission are to give voice to the public and engaging communities especially those who are least heard and the most vulnerable. You will also be committed to working collaboratively with communities, VCSE and statutory sector services.

You will be able to lead all the key functions including:

•         Carry out priority areas of research, using a range of methods and sources of data, on health and social care. 

•         Produce high quality analysis, reports and presentations for a range of audiences. 

•         Facilitate co-production activity, working with experts by experience, service users, carers, and peer researchers.  

•         Work with Healthwatch NN staff and volunteers

We are looking for someone who is committed to social justice and equalities and able to translate this into practice. We need a confident research specialist who is credible and can lead an effective work research and community engagement programme relevant to meeting the needs of local communities and informing change to policy and practice of health and social care services.

Job Purpose:

A core element of Healthwatch NN’s work is the management of research, collection, analysis, and subsequent reporting on information and data relating to people's experiences of publicly funded health and social care services. The Research and Community Engagement Manager is responsible for overseeing this crucial function, ensuring its effective delivery.

In addition to managing research activities, the Research and Community Engagement Manager takes the lead in developing and executing the CRM system. Furthermore, they spearhead the creation of impact measures for the organisation, ensuring that our efforts are aligned with our mission to improve health and social care services in North Northamptonshire.

Our aim is to raise awareness amongst commissioners, providers and other agencies about the importance of engaging with communities, and the expertise and value that individuals can bring to discussion and decision making on local and national issues.

We hope to carry out activities across a number of different programme areas to enable us to fulfil our statutory functions and the Research and Community Engagement Manager will be responsible for:

·         By capturing community views through people’s experiences and by understanding and reporting on these experiences to health and social care services.

·         By actively promoting community involvement in the commissioning, provision and scrutiny of health and social services, giving people and communities a stronger voice to influence and challenge how health and social care services are provided within their locality.

·         By undertaking community-led research in priority areas to examine the impact of health and social care services, its pathways and make any recommendations for change.

·         Healthwatch can monitor and review how local services are planned and run (except for social care facilities for children and young people) and have the statutory power to ‘Enter and View’ premises delivering health and social care services. This enables authorised representatives of Healthwatch to observe the nature and quality of services, report on their findings and make recommendations so that local authorities and health services can exercise their duty to respond. 

·         By providing Information & Signposting Service to help people understand the services available in their local area and to make informed choices about different health and social care services.

KEY TASKS:

To work closely with the Healthwatch Service Manager, Healthwatch NN Advisory Group and the Support Northamptonshire’s CEO to:

Main duties and responsibilities

·         Organise, design and carry out participatory qualitative fieldwork. 

·         Designing peer-research models of social research investigation.

·         Conducting qualitative analysis of data conducted through interviews, focus groups, workshops or other methods, with a focus on lesser heard voices.

·         Carrying out quantitative data analysis using Excel.

·         Utilising a wide variety of research approaches, particularly participatory approaches, which inform, involve and bring together individuals, groups, service providers and decision makers.

Research and analysis

·         Carry out priority areas of research, using a range of methods and sources of data, on health and social care. 

·         Produce high quality qualitative analysis, reports and presentations for a range of audiences. 

·         Facilitate co-production activity, working with experts by experience, service users, carers, and peer researchers.  

·         Work with Healthwatch NN staff and volunteers and provide regular progress feedback.  

·         Analyse quantitative information gathered through research and engagement collected by Healthwatch NN to draw out trends in relation to health and social care service provision. 

·         Translate research findings into practical learning for developing and improving health and social care services.

·         Take responsibility for data and project management and administration as it relates to our social research activity. 

·         Collaborate with stakeholders and colleagues to develop the annual research programme.

·         Lead and oversee the delivery of the annual research programme, ensuring alignment with organisational objectives.

·         Utilise creative and appropriate methodologies to design and manage research projects, employing both quantitative and qualitative methods.

·         Apply various research techniques, including document analysis, surveys, focus groups, interviews, and case studies, to gather relevant information.

·         Produce research-based briefings and provide support to stakeholders in understanding key points.

·         Analyse and evaluate research findings, interpreting data to identify key issues and develop actionable recommendations.

·         Present research data in formats suitable for different audiences, including reports and infographics.

·         Collaborate with CEO and team to gain insight into themes identified through community-based activities.

·         Support in developing engagement activities based on service user feedback and intelligence.

·         Identify simple interventions that Healthwatch NN can implement to impact service improvement.

·         Develop an impact reporting system to measure and communicate Healthwatch NNl's impact effectively.

·         Liaise with admin regarding information requests, research promotion, and evidence collection from web and social media.

·         Analyse the Healthwatch NN database to produce representation reports for commissioners, providers, stakeholders, and the Executive Board, informing them of current trends.

·         Provide regular performance reports for the Advisory group.

·         Produce reports from the Healthwatch NN database for multidisciplinary boards such as the Health and Wellbeing Board, Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, Overview and Scrutiny Committee etc.

Team working

·         Train and support people to take on peer research roles, putting control and ownership of the research process with people interested in and affected by health and social care services. 

·         Support those actively involved in Healthwatch NN to develop a shared understanding of the implications of gaps in involvement of people from different communities.

In consultation with the Healthwatch NN Service Manager and Support Northamptonshire CEO:

·         Represent Healthwatch NN at strategic meetings, conferences and public engagement events as required, acting as a spokesperson for Healthwatch NN at such events.

·         Deliver presentations to the public, stakeholders and partner organisations. 

·         Engage with the Healthwatch network, and health and social care system partners across Northamptonshire and neighbouring area as appropriate.