Project Manager (Stoke) for Thrive at Five

THRIVE AT FIVE PROJECT MANAGER (STOKE)

Location:          Stoke

Reports to:       Chief Executive Office of Thrive at Five

Responsible for: Stoke Local Programme office and local team

Term:               Full time role for 3-year term (with potential to extend by additional 2 years)

Start date:        As soon as possible

Salary:             Up to £60k pa

JOB PURPOSE – SUMMARY

This is an exciting opportunity for a highly experienced project leader, with passion for social change focussing on early childhood and with a strong belief in the power of communities. The right individual will be a self-starter who is excited by a new venture and, a team player who drives collaboration.

The Project Manager will manage Thrive at Five’s local programme office and a small team that will act as the backbone organisation supporting delivery of the Thrive at Five local early years strategy. Work on the ground will focus on 2 wards in Stoke: Bentilee and Ubberley, and Abbey Hulton and Townsend.

Thrive at Five will work with local stakeholders, from across the public, voluntary and private sector, enabling them to collectively support parents and children under 5, to improve outcomes in the early years and particularly rates of school readiness. Engaging with, and empowering local parents will be key to the successful delivery of the initiative.

Initially, the Project Manager will work hand in hand with Dartington Services Lab and Nesta who are leading on a Discovery and Design process all geared towards identifying a common strategy with the local stakeholders and community, to transform outcomes in the early years

The purpose of the local programme office is to foster, build and maintain relationships with all who have an interest locally in the early years; to facilitate collaboration between all the key stakeholders in the delivery of the  common strategy for the early years; to ensure that data and information is gathered so the initiative can be robustly evaluated; to share learnings to inform Thrive at Five’s national operations; and to help build a strategy for long-term sustainability, looking at ways to integrate the Thrive at Five model into local systems.

Local parents - and the views and lived experience of local parents – are an integral part of designing, implementing, and sustaining Thrive at Five in Stoke, both in terms of key decision-making and in being a key part of joining up local services, programmes and initiatives for local parents and early years children services in Stoke. The Project Manager will be responsible for ensuring that the voice of parents and involvement of parents is embedded in Thrive at Five in Stoke and will provide opportunities for parents to be recruited (and if necessary) trained to work with and for the local programme office.

During the Discovery and Design phase the Project Manager will help establish an appropriate local governance structure (the Local Partnership Board and Local Project Group), the local programme office and recruit a local team. They will support local fundraising, lead the implementation, and oversee the evaluation of the strategy and its impact as it is rolled out.

The Project Manager will report to the Local Partnership Board and manage the Local Project Group. They will serve as a local spokesperson for Thrive at Five and will be responsible for developing and delivering a communications strategy in Stoke, helping to raise the profile of Thrive at Five with a wide group of stakeholders including the local community; local delivery and potential delivery partners; and local funders.

Stoke is a pathfinder Project for Thrive and the Stoke Manager will work closely with local partners, the Learning Partner, the Monitoring and Evaluation Partner and the national team to ensure that information and learnings from Stoke are captured and fed into strategic thinking around sustainability, replicability, and scaling.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Candidates should submit a copy of their CV and a covering letter supporting their application by latest 15 September 2021 via the form below. 

Please ensure you download the job description and person specification at the bottom of this advert. Candidates are asked to pay close attention to the person specification and should highlight how they meet the requirements for essential knowledge and experience in their application.

Further information about Thrive at Five will be posted on www.thriveatfive.org.uk