Overview

The Church of England is on a journey to continually improve its safeguarding practices. The 2020 report by IICSA on the Anglican Church highlighted some of failures in respect of child sexual abuse and, more broadly, the challenges facing the Church to get safeguarding right.

The Church’s aspiration is that safeguarding is not experienced and approached as a matter of administrative compliance. Rather, it should be what the Church is – something that flows from its core beliefs and values, part of its DNA. The Church has made important and positive strides over recent years. But there is still much to be done to keep children and vulnerable adults safe, and to promote their well-being.

The Church is a complex collection of different bodies. The majority of safeguarding work is carried out locally within the 42 dioceses and 42 cathedrals in England. This work is supported by a central National Safeguarding Team (NST).

Every diocese employs at least one Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser (DSA). DSAs take the lead on safeguarding matters for the diocese – in particular, the investigation of allegations of abuse by Church Officers. Some cathedrals employ a Cathedral Safeguarding Adviser (CSA) or have an agreement with their diocese for the DSA or Assistant DSA (or equivalent) to take the lead on safeguarding operational matters. As well as a DSA, many dioceses employ or commission safeguarding trainers.

The Church of England has accepted the recommendations made by IICSA; and Recommendations 1 and 8 were grouped together in one project, in which we will also be piloting a regional model and establishing a quality assurance framework with a set of national safeguarding standards. This role will be part of the project team implementing these changes in pilot dioceses and cathedrals to begin with, and subsequently the rollout of the approved model.

Recommendation 1 requires the creation of a new role of Diocesan Safeguarding Officer (DSO) which will replace the role of DSA. The DSO role will have enhanced responsibility and, whilst continuing to be employed locally by a diocese (or cathedral in the case of CSAs), will be professionally supervised and quality assured by the NST. Recommendation 8 is that the Church continues to have regular independent external auditing.

For this project, the church will first be co-designing and piloting the changes with a group of Pathfinder dioceses and cathedrals over an 18-month period. The approved model will then be rolled out nationally over another 18-month period.

Post Introduction

The purpose of this role is to manage and lead on all aspects of change activity for this project. The Business Change Specialist will be creating and implementing change management strategies and plans that maximise user adoption and minimise resistance. This will include changes to roles, organisational design,  policies, business processes, and legislation.

The Business Change Specialist will be responsible for  assessing impact and change readiness, communications, benefits mapping and realisation, and the continuous alignment of the project’s objectives with organisational strategies and goals.

Three year fixed term contract - hybrid working and remoting working available

For an informal discussion about this role, please email alice.lewis@churchofengland.org in the first instance to arrange a time.

Candidates are encouraged to apply early.  Interviews may be held on a rolling basis and we reserve the right to close the advert earlier than the date advertised.

Although empathy for the aim and values of the Church is important, we are welcoming applicants from all faith or none.

Role Responsibility

The main responsibilities for this role are:

Change Management

• Managing and leading on all aspects of change activity for the project, ensuring change readiness and successful delivery of key objectives on time and within budget.
• Ensuring the interests of the Project Sponsors, including the Archbishops’ Council, are met by the project
• Obtaining an understanding of the management structures, politics and culture of the organisation, and managing change within this.
• Assessing business change readiness for this project across the Church
• Developing and owning a change management framework and strategy
• Developing the stakeholder engagement strategy, including:
  • Governance
  • Stakeholder Analysis & Engagement Toolkit (type, means and frequency for each stakeholder group)
  • Communications Plan (type, key messages, and frequency of communication for each stakeholder group)
  • Plan for managing resistance to change (internally and externally, including senior leaders)
  • Plan and lay out the user adoption model
  • Help the project manager to identify and analyse risks, and prepare for risk mitigation with regards to stakeholder engagement
• Undertaking a Training Needs Analysis to identify the skillset gaps and propose a plan and activities to address these; including planning and delivering Business As Usual (BAU) training.
• Business process modelling and re-design
• Prepare affected areas for transition to new ways of working
• Working with the project manager to ensure that the work of the project covers the necessary aspects required to deliver the outputs and outcomes that will lead to operational benefits
• Take the lead on transition management, ensuring that business as usual is maintained during the transition and the changes are effectively integrated.
• Act as a coach for senior leaders and executives to help them fulfil the role of change sponsors. Direct support and coaching may also be provided to all levels of managers and supervisors as they help their direct reports through transitions.

Benefits Realisation

• Design, lead and manage benefits realisation for the project and ensure that continued accrual of benefits can be achieved and measured after the project has been completed.
• Establish and implement the mechanisms by which benefits can be delivered and measured, including a benefits realisation framework and plan.
• Work with the project manager to identify workstreams that will contribute to realising benefits and achieving outcomes.
• Optimise the timing of the release of project deliverables into operations.

Reporting

• Report the progress at regular intervals to the relevant Church bodies as well as to the Project Board, Programme Board and/or Programme Director

The Ideal Candidate

Qualifications/Education

• Educated to degree level in a relevant field (e.g. social science, business management, ) or relevant and demonstrable work experience that enables demonstrating analytical skills and an understanding of managing people, operations, data, information systems, finance, policy and strategy.
• Formal qualification in Change Management e.g. CCMP or equivalent certification
• at least 3 years’ experience in a change management role

Knowledge and Experience

• A robust understanding of and compliance with the industry standard Change Management Framework and best practice
• Demonstrable knowledge of relevant management and business change techniques such as business process modelling and re-engineering
• Extensive experience of leading, delivering and managing change via significant projects with demonstrable impact on the organisation
• Knowledge and application of Business Analysis Framework and techniques such as process modelling, root cause analysis, use case models, change control and traceability management
• Experience of working with and to project and programme management processes
• Experience of reporting to senior leadership and governance.
• Experience of leading communications and internal and external stakeholder management in a context of internal and public scrutiny
• Proven track record of proactively delivering successful results in transformation projects
• Experience of working within matrix management structures
• Experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams in a complex environment
• Experience of change management within complex governance systems

Skills/aptitudes

• Ability to build relationships, trust and credibility with a wide range of diverse stakeholders, including senior leaders within the NCIs and across the dioceses and cathedrals.
• Effective communication skills to sell the project vision to and secure commitment from stakeholders at all levels
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills including ability to clearly and credibly communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to adapt and take a pragmatic approach in order to obtain an effective outcome
• Good analytical skills, attention to detail and ability to process difficult/complex information
• Strong critical-thinking skills with a proactive, solution-focused approach
• Ability to be rational, objective and unbiased when making decisions and taking action
• Strong leadership and influencing skills

Personal attributes

• Confidence to work with senior people at a national level, including senior Church leaders and other stakeholders
• Willing to challenge others constructively and to be self-reflexive, welcoming feedback.
• In sympathy with the aims of the Church of England

Desirable

• Certification in Business Analysis and/or at least 2 years’ experience in a business analysis role
• Understanding of the structures of the Church of England and sympathy with its work and aims
• Experience working for the Church of England, for Christian Charities, in the public or charity sectors.
• Previous experience of a similar role in the Safeguarding context and/or in a faith setting

About Us

We in the National Church Institutions support the mission and ministries of the Church all over England. We work with parishes, dioceses (regional offices), schools, other ministries and our partners at a national and international level.

Excellence, Respect, Integrity

We follow these three values in everything we do, whether we are of Christian faith, another faith or no faith. To learn more about working for National Church Institutions and our benefits, please click here

As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively look to attract, recruit and retain those of you who are disabled.

As a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, we welcome applications from those of you who have served in our Armed Forces and their families.

We are committed to being an equal opportunities employer and to ensuring that everyone, job applicants, customers and other people with whom we deal, are treated fairly and not subject to discrimination.  We will do whatever is necessary to provide genuine equality of opportunity. We continuously review our policies and processes to support our aim to create a workforce as diverse as the nation the Church of England serves.