Strategic planner jobs in letchworth garden city, england

Purpose of the Job

Advice Quality and Operations Managers will make sure clients get accurate and appropriate advice and that advisers are supported and can develop their skills.

Maintain a consistent quality of advice and help for clients by providing support, guidance and feedback on a day-to-day basis and using those insights to drive advice service development.

This role is vital in fostering a culture of quality and excellence within the agency, ensuring that both staff and volunteers are well-equipped to deliver exceptional advice services to clients.

Job Description

Strategy and planning

• Work with the Head of Advice to develop and deliver an operational plan to support delivery of the strategic priorities, which is measured, monitored and reported up to the CEO and Board of Trustees.
• Co-ordinate activities, procedures and systems so as to promote the common policies and practices with the appropriate advice services.
• Ensure that the strategy is accessible to and understood by all staff and volunteers and they know the role they play in achieving our goals.

Risk management and compliance

• Regularly review the risks to which the charity is exposed to relating to Advice Services and provide assurance that systems or procedures are in effective operation to manage those risks.
• Ensure the use of systems in place to meet the requirements of all applicable regulatory bodies relating to the Advice Service Delivery.
• Working with the rest of the management team ensures that good data protection practices are embedded in our day-to-day operations.
• Assess requests made in relation to GDPR.

People management and development

• Support team members in continuous learning that will equip and develop people to deliver outstanding advice delivery. Responsibility for the delivery of the training and development plan for the Advice Services Department including, sourcing, delivering, evaluating and maintaining records.
• Supervise the work of paid staff and volunteers
• Maintain and develop standards of service delivery.
• Advise the Head of Advice on staffing and service-related issues.
• Plan and allocate work, monitor achievements of deadlines and key performance indicators and provide support as appropriate.
• Ensure that the service area and projects are adequately resourced.
• Ensure recruitment and selection of paid staff and volunteers as appropriate.
• Develop inclusive learning and development activities to meet quality standards and the organisation’s learning and development plan. Facilitate inclusive group and / or one-to-one learning and development activities. Organise internal and external learning and development activities to ensure the competence and continuing development of staff and volunteers.
• Contribute to the assessment of competence of staff and volunteers. Co-ordinate assessment activities and make final decisions on competence.
• Working with the rest of the leadership team ensures the organisation delivers a fair, inclusive, equitable and transparent employee and volunteer experience, taking account of our EDI aims and in line with employment law and the Equality Act 2010.
• Ensure Open and timely communication that provides information about the organisation and context for decisions that are made, helps to build trust and confidence and earn legitimacy. 
• Ensure the effective performance management and development of staff through regular supervision sessions, appraisals and learning and development.
• Ensure Training is delivered and records confirm all client facing paid staff and volunteers that may be involved in providing money and debt information and advice have completed an accredited training programme
• Direct reports: Dependent on advice area, between 5 to 11 Advisors per AQOM, plus volunteers.

Operational performance management

• Maintain, develop and monitor effective and relevant performance indicators and management processes, with particular emphasis on the application of customer insight data and feedback on complaints.
• In line with the Advice Quality Standard, work with the Head of Advice and the other Advice Quality and Operations Managers to ensure that staff and volunteers have adequate supervision and that advisers have access to support at all times when delivering advice to clients. 
• Ensuring quality - actively supporting the quality of advice by guiding the team to information sources, checking that all aspects of a client's situation have been considered, checking that follow up work is progressed, and that research and campaigns issues are identified.
• Monitor the quality of advice given to clients to ensure that standards meet Citizens Advice requirements. Completing Case Checking, QAA Audits and independent file reviews (IFR) to ensure quality assurance at a whole service level. Using the insights to further develop the services to clients and skills of advisers.
• Maintain and develop standards of service delivery. 
• Take part in internal consistency exercises at least quarterly.
• Providing support - actively supporting each team member to develop their skills and competences, by explaining, guiding, demonstrating, encouraging, suggesting, coaching, giving constructive feedback and challenging appropriately - adapting the level of support to individual competence and need, and taking account of the team as a whole.
• Manage the practicalities of the service: Including overseeing all practical issues relating to the service delivery, ensuring service delivery and adequate cover is in place, allocating the team to face-to-face work and other communication methods, checking waiting times and interview lengths, and if necessary, dealing with client or Citizens Advice emergencies.
• Provide technical support and act as consultant to the advisers.
• Monitoring of service delivery and advice service contracts performance to report against KPIs, with reference to outcomes for clients, identifying any issues and proposed actions. Reporting significant risks to the Head of Advice. Ensure that appropriate systems are developed and maintained for case recording, statistics, follow up work and quality control.
• Client Experience: Use our written process for dealing with complaints, ensuring that regulatory requirements are met (for debt and money advice complaints) to ensure Complaints are handled effectively and data is used to drive improvements where appropriate. 
• Ensuring that appropriate data protection procedures are in place and are followed by all workers.
• Lead on safeguarding and gender violence issues in accordance with policies.

Other duties and responsibilities

• Understanding and acceptance of the need to work occasional evenings and weekends, both on site and on-call, as required.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with management and other departments to align quality standards with organisational goals.
• Engage with external partners and regulators to ensure compliance with industry standards and share best practices.

Reporting and Analysis

• Prepare and present reports on advice quality metrics to management and stakeholders.
• Utilise data to identify trends, risks, and opportunities for improvement.

Confidentiality and safeguarding

• Confidentiality is a core principle of Citizens Advice. Support the team with the application of the confidentiality policy.
• Implementing adult and child safeguarding policies and training staff and volunteers how to identify and deal with safeguarding concerns.
• Dealing with a conflict of interest and ensuring our service takes the right action to protect the client, our staff and volunteers and the service.

Research and Campaigns

• Ensure that staff and volunteers consistently and accurately generate Advice Issue Codes (AICs), evidence forms and profile data and participate in the Network Panel Surveys

Person Specification | What you need to do this job

Essential Criteria 

• Ability to lead and contribute to a team, including the ability to prioritise own work and the work of others, and take decisions in the day to day running of a busy service area.
• Ability to plan and manage projects.
• Commitment to continuing professional development.
• Experience of monitoring and maintaining service delivery against agreed targets.
• Ability to plan and prioritise own time and work and work of others in a pressured environment.
• Experience of analysing information to produce reports.
• Leadership and management ability within the context of understanding the needs of a voluntary sector organisation.
• Ability to communicate effectively in person, in writing and over the telephone with individuals and with a wide variety of organisations and audiences.
• Ability to meet Citizens Advice competence with a minimum of three years’ experience of involvement with advice giving.
• Ability to research, analyse and interpret complex information and to produce and present clear verbal and written reports. 

Desired Criteria

• Significant experience managing large advice and helpline services which includes supporting individuals within at least one of the areas of – (for example) welfare benefits, debt management, housing, or health and social care issues.
• Demonstrable experience of driving innovation and service improvement within an advisory/customer focused service.
• Experience of supporting change.
• Well-developed staff management and leadership skills, with strong experience of implementing robust performance management processes.
• Proven ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing, including excellent IT skills.
• Proven ability to create a positive working environment in which equality and diversity are well managed, dignity at work is upheld and staff are empowered and motivated to do their best.
• Experience in managing budgets.
• Ability to ensure best use of IT systems and packages in the provision of advice services and the ability to monitor and maintain casework systems and procedures.
• Ability to work with a variety of organisations and to earn and maintain the trust of those people with whom the Bureau deals.
• Ability to contribute to the team combined with willingness to learn and develop and have a positive attitude to change with an ability to plan ahead.
• Access to own transport and able to work at any service location in the Bureau’s area of operation as required.

Application Process:

To apply, please complete the application process on CharityJob. Please submit a concise supporting statement which includes examples and evidence of when you have demonstrated the attributes listed within the person specification. You will be expected to address each point separately and, in the order listed.

If you do not complete a full supporting statement in the requested format, your application may be rejected.

Addressing each point of the person specification

This is a key section of the application which allows you to provide evidence of your experience, knowledge, skills and abilities that are relevant to the role as described in the role profile.  Selection is based on an assessment of the evidence you provide against the requirements of the role as set out in the person specification.  It is important that you tailor your response to clearly demonstrate how you meet each requirement. No assumptions will be made about your achievements and abilities. 

Please provide one example for each requirement.  You should choose examples of past experience that clearly demonstrate what we are looking for, and be precise about what you did, how you did it and the outcome or result of your actions. Please try to limit your response to each criterion to a maximum of 200 words. 

A useful guide might be S.T.A.R:

• Specific – give a specific example
• Task – briefly describe the task/objective/problem
• Action – tell us what you did
• Results – describe what results were achieved

Please provide recent work examples wherever possible.  However, do remember that relevant examples from other aspects of your life, for example: voluntary or unpaid work, school or college work, family or home responsibilities, can also be given.

We are an equal opportunity employer. If you have any requirements (e.g. for attending an interview) please note these clearly on in your letter.

Interview Process:

The closing date is Friday 2nd May 2025, 6pm

Shortlisted candidates will be contacted by telephone, so please give a daytime telephone number or somewhere we can leave a message to arrange an interview.

Our selection process consists of three stages:

• Stage 1 – Telephone Interview:

            Initial interviews will take place via telephone on Thursday 15th May 2025.

• Stage 2 – Formal Interview (In-Person):

            Candidates who are successful at Stage 1 will be invited to our Stevenage office for a formal face-to-face interview                on Monday 19th May 2025.

• Stage 3 – Practical Activity & Final Q&A:

            Following the formal interview, candidates will complete a short activity and have the opportunity to ask any final                   questions.

Please note that Stages 2 and 3 will take place on the same day.

Hours: 35 hours per week. We are open to considering a job share arrangement for the right candidates.  

Salary: £39,000.  

Location: Homeworking.  

Reports to: Head of Programmes.   

Oversight of a delivery team: Yes (currently 30 plus self-employed coordinators).    

Travel: Travel across the country to visit our activities, including overnight stays, is part of this role. All related expenses will be covered by The Country Trust.  

Annual leave: 25 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays (FTE).  

Benefits: Workplace pension. Homeworking, some flexibility on working hours.  

Are you passionate about connecting disadvantaged children with food, farming, and nature? 

We're looking for a dedicated and experienced Programme Manager—an inspiring, child-centred educator with a deep commitment to tackling poverty of opportunity. 

Through effective team management and leadership, and collaboration with colleagues, this role enables a large team of expert practitioners to deliver the charity’s mission of providing high quality, educational, relevant, safe and impactful Farm Discovery visits and related activities for disadvantaged children across England and North Wales.  

Could you:  

• Lead our dispersed Farm Discovery team of expert practitioners, ensuring all our processes - recruitment, training, administration, reporting, information management, communication, budgeting, evaluation and of course our delivery - enable us to achieve amazing things with primary school communities in disadvantaged areas around the country?  

• Work with others to grow and shape our programmes to achieve our vision?  

• As an inspiring advocate of our work, build our contribution to the national conversation around food, farming and nature education? 

 If so, would love to hear from you! 

 
Due to our safer recruitment process we are not able to accept CVs for this position. 

Applications close: noon 30th April  

First round interviews (held virtually) will be on Wednesday 7th May. Second round interviews will be held face-to-face in London on Wednesday 14th May.

Make a Change 

Make a Change is a community-wide, early response approach to people using abusive behaviours (or who are concerned that they might be) towards a current or ex-partner. The model has been developed by Respect in partnership with Women’s Aid Federation England, drawing inspiration from their Change that Lasts approach. It includes three strands: expert support programme for perpetrators with parallel support for survivors, workforce development and community outreach.

Improving the safety, freedom and wellbeing of adult and child survivors of domestic abuse is a key outcome for our work with perpetrators.  The Make a Change model is a multi-partner project offering local areas a framework for delivering perpetrator work. Where feasible, we aim to establish partnerships with local survivor domestic abuse service to deliver parallel support for survivors (referred to as Integrated Support Service) as part the expert support strand.

This is a new and exciting role within the Make a Change team. This exciting new role offers a unique opportunity to join our team at a pivotal moment.  As the first person to fill this position, you'll play a key role in shaping its development and collaborating with the team to define its future direction.  This is a fantastic time to join us as we grow, and you'll be an integral part of establishing this important function and contributing to our collective and continued success 

We are seeking a Make a Change Development Lead to drive the development and innovation plans for the model for 2025-28. This pivotal role will focus on enhancing the three core strands of Make a Change: Expert Support, Workforce Development, and Community Outreach.

This role requires innovation, leadership and collaboration with a range of stakeholders, ensuring these strands work seamlessly together to achieve meaningful, measurable outcomes for individuals and communities.

You will need to think long-term and understand how different components of the programme fit together. Strong leadership skills are necessary to guide teams, inspire collaboration, and make decisions that will influence both the direction of the programme and its day-to-day operations. You will have a passion for innovation and continuous improvement to develop and test new strategies, tools, and methodologies, ensuring that the programme remains dynamic and responsive to changing needs.

This is an exciting opportunity within a creative and proactive team, where members are encouraged to seek out and share learning. The role focuses on continuously developing our work with perpetrators, contributing to the growing evidence base on effective behaviour change and strategies to keep survivors safe. 

About the role

As one of two Regional Programmes Manager, you’ll inspire and lead a team of Senior Programmes Officers and Kinship Family Workers to effectively deliver high quality support services for kinship families across Greater London, the South of England and the Midlands.

You’ll do this by working in close collaboration with local authority teams who have commissioned our services and other funders where appropriate.

You’ll have accountability and ownership for ensuring we deliver impactful services for kinship carers and that we meet targets for our commissioned services. Working collaboratively with our other managers in other services, you’ll ensure we’re delivering high impact programmes.

You’ll ensure your team have real clarity and direction on their role and responsibilities - encouraging curiosity, learning and solutions-focused thinking. As a leader in the organisation, you are a key model for the team.

Your team will deliver the following programmes:

• Kinship Connected – in-person one-to-one support and support groups in the community
• Kinship Reach – remote one-to-one support and virtual support groups
• Kinship Ready – online workshops to prepare new and prospective special guardians for their role, as well as wraparound one-to-one support (in one local authority)

You will also manage a new role of Grants Officer - London, funded by the Aviva Foundation.

As one of our deputy safeguarding leads, you’ll be part of our key safeguarding structure.  This means you’ll take ownership to make sure our people feel confident and well supported to demonstrate best practice and making sure safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

Key responsibilities include:

• Oversee the day-to-day running of programmes, supporting mostly home-based Senior Programmes Workers and Kinship Family Workers to ensure high quality, consistent and impactful programme delivery.

• Meet performance targets as directed.

• Create and keep developing processes and systems which support consistency across all programmes, ensuring good quality documentation and manualisation on Notion.so

• Develop quality assurance frameworks with other service managers and directors.

• Support your team to establish and deliver in-person and virtual peer support groups regionally and generate engagement with kinship carers.

• Line management and supervision of Senior Programmes Workers and Kinship Family Workers as required.

• Actively encourage personal development and support staff to deliver key targets and outcomes and ensure high levels of wellbeing.

• Work with the Director of Services and Digital, Head of Programmes and the Business Development team to develop proposals and present to local authorities to secure commissions.

• Manage the delivery of commissioned contracts through collaborative relationships with local authorities, ensuring targets are met.

• Manage the programmes and services within budget, in accordance with Kinship’s financial procedures and ensure the reporting of progress in line with funder requirements.

• Work actively and positively with other managers within Kinship to ensure sharing of best practice, problem solving, relevant connections and consistency of delivery across England and Wales.

• Act as a deputy safeguarding lead at Kinship

Essential requirements include:

• Substantial experience in managing a regional service or programme with high quality outputs (national experience desirable but not essential).
• Substantial experience of managing, developing and evaluating effective and innovative services for families experiencing crisis and experience in reaching ‘hidden communities’ and a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
• Experience of leading and managing continuous improvement in changing contexts.
• Experience of governance and managing risk on high profile service delivery.
• Experience of ensuring that services are designed and led with user needs at the heart, ensuring that the voices of our kinship carers inform ongoing design and development of our programmes.
• High quality digital and data literacy and using technology to help us to be better in our processes. You’ll have to own Salesforce and be a massive champion for the team. You will be accountable for ensuring they use it well.
• Substantial experience of leading high-performing service teams including managing wellbeing, development and performance.

How to apply

In place of a cover letter, you will be asked to answer the following five questions, alongside providing your CV. Please keep your answers to a maximum of 250 words.

1. Tell us why you’re interested in working for Kinship in this role and what experience you bring that would make you successful? This is an opportunity to tell us about you, your experience and your values.
2. Please give an example where you have managed a successful regional programme or service (this could also be national). Please include scale, key performance indicators and outcome. What made it a success?
3. What makes you a great team manager? Give one example of how you have supported teams and individuals to flourish and one example when you have had to step in to address behaviour or performance issues. (This is an opportunity to share your enthusiasm for supporting others to develop and deliver to a high standard. You can share evidence of how your approach has worked and how you’ve tackled challenges and difficult conversations along the way).
4. Quality assurance and consistency is key to making sure our programmes deliver impact for our kinship carers. This includes ensuring your team are following processes, using our case management system effectively and have the tolls to do their role. Please describe how you would approach this at Kinship using a previous example.
5. In this role you will be a deputy safeguarding lead at Kinship. This is a key role, the lives of kinship carers are incredibly complex.  Give one example of a safeguarding situation that required your response in a previous role. Explain what your rationale and thought process was. How did you hold appropriate boundaries and progress actions to effectively safeguard vulnerable children and adults?

Key Dates

• Application deadline: Wednesday 30 April, 9am
• First interview: Online – Tuesday 6 May
• Second interview: In person (Vauxhall, London) – Tuesday 13 May (travel expenses covered if required)

About Kinship

We are Kinship. The leading kinship care charity in England and Wales. We’re here for kinship carers – friends or family who step up to raise a child when their parents aren’t able to.

We are made by and for our community of kinship carers. Like family, relationships run deep. And we hear their experiences; for too long they have been isolated without the help they need.

We support, advise and inform kinship carers. Connecting them so they feel empowered. Because a child needs the love and warmth of a thriving family.

We develop research, campaigns and policy solutions. Creating positive change across society. Because for kinship families, love alone is not enough.

Through our work we harness frustrations to fuel passion for change. And tough experiences to inspire ideas that transform lives.

And as we see momentum building, we keep using evidence to demonstrate the value of kinship care. Helping kinship carers navigate challenging circumstances. Believing in a child’s potential.

Join us. Together, let’s commit to change for kinship families.