Inclusive Education Collective Lead

You will need to login before you can apply for a job.

The Vacancy

Hiring : Wates Family Enterprise Trust ,

Hours: 5 days a week, (37 hours)

Location: flexible and remote options with presence in the Leatherhead/London offices alternatively, once a week.

Salary range: £48,000 p/a plus benefits

Length: initial term of 9 months with expectation this will extend into a 24 month post in total.

Start date - Autumn 2024

Purpose of the Role

We recognise a momentum is building, networks are emerging and there is a renewed appetite for change regarding inclusive education practice, addressing exclusions and ensuring all children and young people have the opportunity to enjoy a full and positive education. However, the sector remains siloed in its conversations and sharing of learning and experience.

We are looking for a dynamic Collective Lead to strengthen this voice by:

• working across existing local and national inclusive education networks, (approx. 3 days a week)
• support the IntegratED Partnership (approx. 1 day a week)
• and manage a small portfolio of WFET grants (circa £230,000 p/a) (approx. 1 day a week)

With responsibility for building communities of practice across the education sector, this role requires someone:

• who is expert in building partnerships,
• understands the concept of relational governance,
• who can bring data and research to life and, above all,
• is deeply passionate about the power of convening and that of collective impact for systemic change in the education sector.

The role has three core deliverables:

Convening & Collective Impact

• This is a priority pillar of delivery, where the role will bring strategic vision and expertise in convening key stakeholders to generate genuine, sector-wide innovation through the cross-fertilisation of ideas and best practice.

• Inspire collaboration and collective action by using the growing network to convene communities of best practice on key thematic areas and to generate learning, insights and policy recommendations.

• Develop key insights from newly formed communities of practice and through effective and engaging dissemination activities ensuring coordination with CSJ, WFET, Mission 44 and The Difference's - Who's Losing Learning? - these are existing networks. Others are emerging.

Work closely with the Communications team at Mission 44 in the development of an online resource/website providing evidence from key partners and the collective, supporting the development of Mission 44's campaign on inclusive education to create lasting systemic change for young people.

Create opportunities for cross-sector collaboration (both within the UK and across the world), by building a network of peers within other grantmaking foundations and education focused organisations.

Build a culture of learning across the IntegratED Partnership and wider Collective, improving our collective understanding of the impact of school exclusion, the barriers to national inclusive education practice and what works to address those issues.

Learning, Evaluation and Evidence: Work with RAND Europe , Mission 44, WFET and Porticus in the development of the evaluation of the IntegratED Partnership. The role will support collective learning and sharing across all networks, outlining the problems and best practice solutions to the various systemic issues of school exclusions and the promotion and adoption of more inclusive education practice. Participatory practice is important to ensuring that everything we do is informed by the views and experiences of young people and by the very latest in research and evidence.

WFET Life Opportunities for Young People - Programme Strategy & Design

Sitting within the WFET team, you will ensure that WFET programmatic activity under Life Opportunities for Young People has a learning element built into the design. You will work with the Trust's handful of funded partners alongside the IntegratED Partnership and other Collective members.

Ensure the impact of WFET's Exclusion/Inclusion funding can be evaluated effectively and that the Trust can use this information to continually refine our programmes to deliver maximum impact towards our charitable goals and objectives.

Manage the WFET LOYP grant making budget (Circa £250k p/a) and the Integrated Partnership Collective Budget.

Essential Candidate qualities

Engagement, convening and collective impact:

• A strong track record of overseeing the development of online communities of practice and the use of innovative digital approaches to engage members in robust discussion and knowledge and best practice sharing.
• Strong experience of convening stakeholders in events that are engaging, inclusive and thought-provoking. This includes the design and facilitation of such events.
• Extensive experience in building and managing successful partnerships, particularly with new stakeholders / partner organisations / funding organisations.
• Expertise in developing collaborative relationships with senior colleagues, board members and external partners, supporting them to apply a strategic approach to programme design and decision-making.
• Strong oral and written communication, in addition to interpersonal skills.

Sector-specific expertise:

• Good knowledge of the issues around prevention of mainstream exclusions, promoting inclusive education and the growing disengagement with the formal mainstream education system.
• Experience in a grantmaking organisation
• Experience of working in a small, growing team

Personal Qualities

To be successful in this role, you will be:

• Creative; you are curious about new and innovative ways to tackle problems
• Curious and committed to learning; you are motivated by learning and testing new ideas, you welcome feedback and are continually seeking to develop the knowledge and skills of yourself and others
• Highly collaborative; you enjoy working in teams and in partnership with others, you embrace collective impact models and you are able to adapt to the needs of various teams and stakeholders
• Proactive and self-starting; you thrive in a dynamic organisation and are able to seize new opportunities, you are comfortable managing a busy workload within a start-up environment
• Ambitious and focused: you're driven by an urgent need for change, and are passionate about creating meaningful systemic change that enables young people from a diverse range of backgrounds to succeed
• Values-driven: you act with integrity and are committed to embedding the values of equity, diversity and inclusion in everything that you do,
• A good sense of humour and an ability to navigate strongly held and sometimes opposing views.

Applications by letter of application and cv to felicity.mallam@wates.co.uk by 9pm on Wednesday 4th September.

Interviews will be held, virtually, on Weds 11th, Friday 13th and Tuesday 17th of September.

Work for Wates

Wates is one of the UK's leading family-owned development, building and property maintenance companies. Founded over 125 years ago, we have a proud legacy in the built environment.

We are driven by our purpose, 'reimagining places for people to thrive' and our three promises:

Thriving places - working with customers, partners and communities to create places that are more sustainable, inclusive, and full of opportunity.
Thriving planet - protecting nature and taking action on climate change by collaborating and innovating with our partners.
Thriving people - creating opportunities and relationships so that everyone who works for and with us feels included, invested in, and treated with care.

We are proud to be recognised as Gold Investors in People and as a Disability Confident employer. We also ensure that our recruitment processes do not treat anyone less favourably due to an offending background.

Company

We employ almost 4,000 people, working with a range of clients and partners from across the public and private sectors.

At Wates, we are driven by our purpose of working together to inspire better ways of creating the places, communities, and businesses of tomorrow. We need the right people from whatever background to help us make this happen and we are always looking for talented people from all walks of life to reflect the diverse communities where we work.

There’s a huge variety of job opportunities across our businesses, working on challenging and exciting projects for customers across both the public and the private sector. No two days are ever the same.

By joining Wates, you’ll be working for an organisation which invests in your continued professional development, regardless of which stage you might be at in your career.To discover what it is like to work for Wates, click below.

Working for Wates

There’s a huge variety of job opportunities across our businesses, working on challenging and exciting projects for customers across both the public and the private sector. No two days are ever the same.

By joining Wates, you’ll be working for an organisation which invests in your continued professional development, regardless of which stage you might be at in your career.

Our Guiding Framework

Our Guiding Framework shapes everything we do. It incorporates our driving purpose, it outlines the behaviours we work by, and the goals we are all working together to achieve. These are our values and vision.

As a family-owned business, we know it’s our people who make us successful. And just as in a family, everyone should feel welcome, included, and connected at Wates. We strive to be an organisation where everyone loves to work and to provide a safe space where everyone can be themselves.

Wates Together

Our Diversity and Inclusion plan is our long-term blueprint to create a business where everyone is welcomed, included and connected. We call this #WatesTogether.

Inclusion and Diversity

We are committed to building an organisation which is more representative of the communities we serve, offering equality of opportunities to diverse talent and an inclusive work environment where this talent thrives. We have set ourselves bold targets that will take time to achieve, but we are moving in the right direction and we are committed to achieving sustainable change.Find out more about our inclusion and diversity strategy

Social Value

Our approach to social value is rooted in our belief that how we do business, is as important as what we do. Our programmes and activities are focused on creating work and training opportunities, particularly for people furthest away from the workforce, such as care leavers, ex-offenders and ex Services personnel; building sustainable communities through employment, skills and awareness, and advocacy of trade with the social enterprise sector.

Environmental Sustainability

The Wates Group is committed to the long-term sustainability of the built environment and we’re working to eliminate carbon from our operations by 2025.

We’re committed to having a workforce that more accurately reflects society and providing an environment that positively encourages flexible working through working arrangements and benefits. Following the introduction of sector-leadingFamily Leave Policies in 2020, we have become one of the first construction companies to support flexible working across every part of our business, including for site-based employees. By 2025, we intend all our roles to be flexible, and we already advertise all new vacancies as flexible.Our six flexible working principles are designed to allow our colleagues and teams to develop working patterns that take into account individual preferences, allowing everyone to perform at their best.

Create a job alert and receive personalised job recommendations straight to your inbox.