Senior Manager Education

The Youth Endowment Fund

Senior Change Manager, Education

Reports to: Head of Change for Education

Salary: £51,300 per annum, depending on experience

Location: Central London or Hybrid (see below)

Contract: (2-year fixed term - potential to extend)

Closing date for applications: Tuesday 29th April 2025 at 12pm

Interview dates: Week commencing 12th May 2025

About the Youth Endowment Fund

We're here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. We do this by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.

In recent years violent crime has risen significantly. Homicides, assaults, robberies and offences involving weapons have all seen sustained growth. We have also seen large increases in violent crime involving children and young people. This is a tragedy. Every child captured in these numbers is an important member of our community and society has a duty to protect them.

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is a charity with a £200m endowment and a mission that matters. We exist to prevent children becoming involved in violence. Our mission is to find what works and build a movement to put it into practice. A big part of the movement that we need to build is in the world of education. We need to inspire and connect with education leaders across England and Wales to spread what works and make our country safer for some of our most vulnerable children. We are looking for someone to lead on making this happen.

Key Responsibilities

We are making good progress building the evidence of what works within and around education to reduce violence, including launching our new Education, Children and Violence Guidance in May 2024 which provides school, college and alternative provision leaders with five evidence-based recommendations to help prevent children's involvement in violence. We also have our Toolkit, annual Children, Violence and Vulnerability Report and new implementation resources due next year. But the big risk is that we publish these resources and nothing changes. That's where you come in.

Your role is to help us ensure more senior education leaders within schools, colleges and alternative provision settings use our Guidance, toolkit, research and implementation tools to inform day to day operations and strategic decision making. This will involve:

• Developing great relationships and partnerships with executive and senior leaders in education, making connections and building credibility and trust with the sector.
• Managing our new online digital self-assessment tool for sector leaders, driving awareness and engagement with education leaders and refining and optimising the system in collaboration with the software developers.
• Synthesizing and analysing data from the self-assessment tool, using findings to produce value insights reports for YEF and the sector.
• Creating implementation resources which respond to need and support education leaders to put evidence into practice.
• Continuing to develop a strong understanding of education practice and policy across England and Wales.
• Working out other effective ways to connect people with the evidence, then making those things happen, from regular virtual learning events to presentations.

As a senior member of staff in the organisation you also:

• Build a culture where it is natural to perform well and support colleagues brilliantly.
• Contribute to setting the strategy, delivering results and building and modelling the culture that we need to succeed.

You are this sort of person:

• You are fascinated about change and are experienced in making it happen. You have outstanding analytical judgment alongside the emotional intelligence and experience needed to identify the right opportunities for change, then make them happen.
• You understand why people find change difficult. You come alive talking about how people make decisions and why they do the things they do.
• You understand the education sector. You really understand how schools, colleges and/or Alternative Provision settings tick. You have experience of working with/supporting senior and executive education leaders to facilitate change and improvement that improves the lives of young people. You might have previous experience of supporting a school to reflect on and adopt evidence-based practice.
• You are digital and data savvy. You have experience of working with data and systems to support evaluation, improvement and meaningful change. You have experience of translating complex information into plain writing and impactful visuals that everyone can understand.
• You have excellent project and time management skills and the ability to design and deliver high quality outputs such as reports and digital resources to a high standard.
• You win people over. People tend to warm to you and respect you. You have built good relationships with very senior people and with very junior people. You are good at chairing meetings, connecting people and having good introductory meetings. You are comfortable talking to a government minister, a youth worker, a company CEO, a teacher and a 15-year-old student. Listening to people from all backgrounds matters to you.
• You have experience of developing resources which support schools/education settings. You understand and take a curious approach to learning about the needs of leaders from across the education spectrum. You are able to skilfully translate these insights into helpful resources and tools which support leaders to improve practice.
• You learn fast but remain humble. You are very quick at getting your head around things. You like learning. You are very good at synthesising information. You know how much you don't know. You know that you can learn more. You know that it's easy to assume you know when you don't. You care more that good things happen than who gets the credit. You are a great and supportive team player.
• You don't want your days to pass without making a difference. You want to play a significant part in reducing violence.
• You understand young people. You understand what the lives of vulnerable young people can be like, and you understand some of the organisations that work with them, ideally through first-hand experience.
• You are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion.

You must have this sort of experience

• Delivering positive change within education: You have significant experience of working with education leaders to support the development and improvement or practice.
• Working as a senior leader within the education sector, preferably in a role/setting specifically working with young people who are vulnerable to or involved in violence.

While it's not a criteria, we're especially interested to hear from applicants who have lived experience of violence affecting children and young people.

It's also important to us that the people we hire do not discriminate. We believe in being inclusive and giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race, sexual orientation, transgender status or social economic background.

All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process. In line with the Equality Act 2010, however, the organisation may employ positive action where candidates from underrepresented groups can demonstrate their ability to perform the role equally well.

Hybrid Working

The office is based in Central London. Those living in and around London are expected to be in the office a minimum of 2 days per week. If you live outside of London and work remotely, you'll be expected to work from the London office 2 days per month.

To Apply

Please click on the "Apply for this" button and submit your CV, your completed monitoring form and ensure your covering letter answers the following three questions below. Please submit your application by Tuesday 29th April at 12pm

Application Questions

1. How have you successfully supported education leaders to improve their practice or leadership? Please be specific about the scale and context of your experience working with senior leaders in education settings.
2. Describe your experience using data and digital tools to gather insights, inform decisions, and drive improvement in education. What data did you use, how did you present it, and what impact did it have?
3. What personal and professional experiences shape your understanding of the education sector and its role in preventing youth violence?

As part of our commitment to flexible working we will consider a range of options for the successful applicant. All options can be discussed at the interview stage.

Interview Process

This will be a one stage interview process. Interviews will take place the week of 12th May 2025

Please Note: We do not sponsor work permits and you will be required to provide proof of your eligibility to work in the UK.

Benefits Include

• £1,000 professional development budget annually
• 28 days holiday plus Bank Holidays
• Four half days for volunteering activities
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