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Research and
learning
co-ordinator
April 2015
1. Introduction
Welcome to the recruitment pack for the research and
learning co-ordinator at Local Trust.
Local Trust is a unique organisation supporting resident
and community led solutions to create lasting change
throughout England. We use a community development
approach to resident and community led regeneration of
areas. We believe that those who make up the community
know best what’s needed and are the most likely to come up
with the solutions to make a lasting positive difference to the
places where they live, work and socialise. We also believe
that we can help them to make that happen.
We have recently devised a new evaluation plan for the Big
Local programme which means we are looking to increase
our research capacity and recruit and an experienced
researcher who is passionate about communities. This is a
fantastic opportunity for a creative and proactive individual
who is enthusiastic about enabling us to learn as much as
possible about our approach and to improve practice in how
we, and others, work with communities.
This pack is designed to give you background information
about our organisation, our work and our future ambitions,
as well as what we are looking for in terms of people.
If you think you can work collaboratively with a dedicated
trustee and staff team and are keen to be part of our ground
breaking journey, we’d like to hear from you.
This is a unique opportunity and I very much look forward to
your application.
Debbie Ladds
Chief executive
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2. Local Trust
Our vision of the future is that each community we work with
is resilient and confident and their area is a good place to
live. Our mission is to enable residents to make their
communities and their areas even better places in which to
live.
We take a collaborative approach to all that we do;
building alliances and relationships to the benefit of each
community we support because we know that this makes the
best use of the skills of others, growing and building the
capacity of all those we work with whilst also achieving our
vision and mission. In communities we support organisations
that are trusted locally and selected by the community. We
are flexible and do our best to be responsive, humble and
friendly in all that we do.
Our resident and community led approach is both a
philosophy and a methodology and informed by our learning
from past community based programmes, which indicates
that the things that matter most are:
pace of development
starting with assets not deficits
willingness to take risks
light touch support
peer support and opportunities for reflection.
We believe that a community and resident led approach to
creating lasting change:
develops the skills and confidence of the people
involved and enables them to work with others to the
benefit of their community
builds on the opportunities and assets available in
each community
creates lasting, long-term solutions.
We are keen to share our experiences and influence
others to use a resident and community led approach to
creating lasting change and to that end we place importance
on learning and influencing others to make use of what we
are learning to enhance their support to communities they
support. We think that we could, over time, develop this
approach for communities of interest, but, for the time being,
we are focused on a place based approach.
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3. Big Local
Big Local is an exciting opportunity for residents and
communities in 150 areas around England to use at
least £1m each to make a massive and lasting positive
difference to their communities. Big Local brings together
all the local talent, ambitions, skills and energy from
individuals, groups and organisations who want to make
their area an even better place to live.
The aim of Big Local is to ensure that people are connected,
people have choice, and people are supported to achieve
lasting change in the place where they live. Underpinning
this is our commitment to support residents over the long
term to learn skills and gain the confidence to make
decisions in their communities to bring about
transformational change. We believe that change should be
resident and community led so enabling change through
ownership.
The outcomes for Big Local are:
1. Communities will be better able to identify local
needs and take action in response to them.
2. People will have increased skills and confidence, so
that they continue to identify and respond to needs in
the future.
3. The community will make a difference to the needs it
prioritises.
4. People will feel that their area is an even better place
to live.
Underlying our approach is a belief that residents have a
capacity and desire to drive change, and can achieve
lasting and positive results when supported by those they
trust and respect thereby building skills, confidence,
networks, relationships and expertise in each community.
We have a dynamic and evolving approach based on what
we and Big Local areas are learning. We are not afraid to
take risks, experiment or fail as we learn from those
experiences and can improve things for the future.
We work with a range of experienced and trusted partner
organisations nationally to delivery Big Local. In addition,
each Big Local area works with locally trusted organisations
and together we help people achieve their vision for their Big
Local area.
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4. Staffing
There is a small, friendly and effective staff team at Local
Trust, based at our office near the Angel, Islington, in
London. We commission or grant fund suitably experienced
organisations for the majority of Big Local delivery, nationally
and locally. Using this approach, we aim to make the best
use of skills in other organisations, growing and building the
capacity of others whilst delivering the programme.
Staff say that some of the best things about working at Local
Trust are:
relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff
interesting work
getting to work directly with areas
learning culture gives chance to change and improve
able to make a difference in communities
varied work and a supportive manager
progression, creativity and flexibility.
Local Trust staff chart
Programme co-ordinator
Zoe Sykiotis
Programme co-ordinator
Nicola Birch
Communications and learning co-ordinator
(role changing to programme delivery in summer 2015)
Programme manager
Rachel Rowney
Leila Wong
Monitoring and learning co-ordinator
(temp role until October 2015)
Jeremy Yung
Chief executive
Debbie Ladds
Research and learning co-ordinator
vacant
Programme manager
Jayne Humm
Research and learning co-ordinator
Daniel Pearmain
(on secondment until October 2015)
Communications co-ordinator
vacant
Finance manager
Nicola Hutcheson
Finance administrator
Karen Keenan
Office administrator/PA
Wendy Joynes
Research and office administrator
vacant
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5. Organisational values
Having the right experience, skills and knowledge as defined
in the person specification is important; but so too is how you
go about your work. These are the key drivers that define
our aspirations and guide our organisational behaviour. Our
core values as follows:
encourage residents to have greater control over the
things that matter most to them; supported by those
they trust
work with others to make a positive, lasting difference
are open, honest, friendly and supportive
do our best to keep things simple and clear
value equality and diversity
continually seek and learn from experience to
develop better ways in which people locally can
improve the quality of their lives.
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6. Job description
Job title
Research and learning co-ordinator
Accountable to
Programme manager
Responsible for
The research and learning co-ordinator does not have direct line management
responsibility, but may do so in the future.
Purpose of the role
The purpose of this role is to design and conduct research, evaluation and strategic learning across the Big
Local programme and the organisation, the co-ordination of research and production and sharing of
learning.
Job description (key duties)
1 Design, implement, maintain and develop suitable, user-friendly research, evaluation and strategic
learning across the Big Local programme and Local Trust.
2 Design, gather, analyse and write up research and evaluation data (qualitative and quantitative) and
present findings in suitable formats.
3 Provide support on the integration of learning elements across Big Local and Local Trust, working
with relevant staff and partners.
4 Co-ordinate the plan review process in individual Big Local areas and provide areas with support
and possibly training in self-evaluation.
5 Support the programme manager in managing the strategic learning programme of activities for Big
Local.
6 Support research and learning meetings and advisory groups including through the production of
high quality documents and information and co-ordination of activities.
7 Lead on working with other staff and partners to prepare consolidated monitoring, evaluation and
shared learning reports for stakeholders including the Big Lottery Fund.
8 Manage contacts and maintain communication with external partners, Big Local areas, funded
organisations, the Big Lottery Fund, wider stakeholders and the general public to provide
appropriate support, guidance and learning for the programme.
9 Support the co-ordination of research activities with partners and assist with messaging to areas and
stakeholders about research projects, including contributing to social media and ad hoc blogs to
assist with communication.
10 Maintain an overview of external activities/programmes devised and delivered at local, regional and
national levels that support the use of community development methods and values in their
implementation, bringing relevant developments to the attention of staff and partners.
11 Actively contribute to productive working relationships with all staff and external stakeholders,
including those contracted to deliver work for Local Trust.
12 Attend and speak at conferences and external events, as appropriate.
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6. Job description
13 Attend relevant training courses and maintain awareness of external affairs relevant to Big Local.
We expect you, as a member of the Local Trust staff team, to:
a
b
c
d
demonstrate the organisation’s vision and values in your daily work
take a proactive role in promoting equality and anti-discriminatory practice
help Local Trust deliver its environment and sustainable development policy
be aware that you have a duty of care for the health and safety of yourself and others.
Local Trust job descriptions are subject to amendment from time to time, in consultation with the individual
concerned and in line with the organisation’s needs.
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7. Person specification
Criteria
Experience
Essential/
Desirable
1
Experience of research, monitoring, evaluating and sharing
learning for large, complex capacity building support
programmes in the voluntary and community sector.
E
2
Experience of community development work or related
practice
E
3
Experience of building and maintaining relationships with
grant holders
E
4
Experience of people management, including consultants
and organisations operating on contracts
E
Education/training/previous 5
work experience
Relevant degree/professional qualification or equivalent
work experience
E
Competencies/technical
skills
6
Excellent communication skills (including writing skills) and
the ability to produce reports and other dissemination
materials for a wide range of stakeholders, to a high
standard
E
7
Thorough understanding of community development policy
development and implementation
E
8
A thorough understanding of evaluation, monitoring, and
learning systems to continuously improve performance
E
9
Competence in the use of information technology, social
media and software (including MSOffice, research software
and database management) and an understanding of its
potential uses in managing and communicating about Big
Local
E
10
Ability to confidently build and maintain professional
relationships across a wide sector
E
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Excellent verbal and interpersonal communication skills
E
12
Significant personal accountability, with the ability to work
on your own initiative with a high level of autonomy at a
strategic level, as well as work as part of a team with
complex relationships and diverse responsibilities
E
Soft skills
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7. Person specification
Criteria
Essential/
Desirable
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Ability to maintain high standards in your work, through
self-evaluation, seeking feedback from others, and selfinitiated professional development
E
14
A flexible, entrepreneurial approach to your work
E
15
Ability to travel, as required, throughout England and to
stay away from home
E
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8. Terms and conditions
Salary: the salary for this post is £34,164 per annum. Salary
is paid monthly in arrears. The following other benefit
schemes are available to staff: childcare voucher scheme,
cycle scheme, time off for volunteering (two days per
annum) and interest-free season ticket loan.
Pensions: we operate a group personal pension run by
Scottish Widows using a salary exchange scheme. We will
pay a contribution of 10% of basic salary into a pension
scheme with a 3.5% contribution from the individual being
required.
Hours: the full time hours of work for this post are 36 per
week (excluding lunch breaks). Fixed hours are not
appropriate to this position. The actual hours worked will be
determined by the duties and responsibilities of the post but
will usually be during normal office hours, Monday to Friday.
You are not eligible for overtime pay, but you may take time
off in lieu of extra-long hours worked.
Training and development: staff receive training and
development relevant to their role to help us achieve our
objectives and we support staff to develop their own skills
and interests via discretionary training and development.
Holidays: in addition to public holidays, there are 25 days
leave per year (pro-rata for part time staff) with the potential
to gain an additional day of annual leave each year after
being in post for two years, up to a maximum of 30 days
leave (pro-rata for part time staff).
Probation: this is a permanent post subject to the
successful completion of a six month probationary period.
During this time your performance will be reviewed. At the
end of the period, you will either be confirmed in post, the
probationary period extended (up to 12 months in total) or in
the case of unsatisfactory performance your employment will
be terminated.
Notice: during the probationary period, notice is one month
on either side. After satisfactory completion of the
probationary period, this will be one month notice on either
side.
Location of post: this post is based at our office near the
Angel, Islington, London. Some England-wide travel is
required.
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8. How to apply
This appointment is being made by Local Trust,
which has enlisted the support of Tank Consulting
for the recruitment process.
If you are interested in applying, you should read
this pack carefully in the first instance.
If you have any queries about the work of Local
Trust or the recruitment process, then please
contact Graham Finegold at Tank on 020 7553
6090 or [email protected]. Please DO
NOT contact the Local Trust office directly.
If you decide to apply, then please send the
following:
your latest CV
a personal statement that uses clearly
referenced, numbered points to show how
you meet the areas of the person
specification (your personal statement
should not exceed six sides of A4)
a completed equal opportunities monitoring
form.
Please send you completed application by email to:
[email protected]
All applications MUST be received by 10.30am on
Tuesday 5 May 2015. Any applications received
after this time will not be accepted.
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend an
assessment centre on 20 May and final panel
interviews will be held on 2 June.
Disabled candidates should contact Graham
Finegold if there are any reasonable adjustments
that need to be made to the recruitment process to
accommodate your disability.
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