Faith and Public Life Housing Project Manager
Post Introduction
The purpose of the Housing Project Manager role is to set up, lead and help deliver the Church of England’s first project designed to support dioceses and parishes in promoting solutions to the housing crisis.
The Archbishops’ Council has allocated £4.25m to this work over five years, starting in autumn 2024. This is a flagship project, building on the work of the Archbishops’ Commission on Housing and its report “Coming Home”. Your role as Project Manager is to be the main source of advice and expertise on housing matters in support of parishes and dioceses. In the early stages of the project you will work with the Chair of the Housing Project Committee (the Bishop of Chelmsford) and the Director of Faith and Public Life to put in place the governance and project management structures that will enable to work to flourish and ensure that key stakeholders, especially the Archbishops’ Council are able to own the work with enthusiasm. During the life of the project, you will have overall responsibility for ensuring that it delivers its objectives well.
Please note this is a 5 year fixed term contract for the duration of the project.
About the Department
The Housing Project team will comprise you and a Mapping and Grants Officer who will lead on mapping and advocacy for housing projects in dioceses and parishes. The Mapping and Grants Officer will also take responsibility, under your oversight, for the small grant scheme offering small grants (c.£10—20k per grant) to help local initiatives surmount initial hurdles as they develop housing proposals. The Housing project team will be supported by a half-time Executive Assistant who will be part of the Faith and Public Life Administrative team, ensuring that the project has full administrative support.
What you'll be doing
In this role you will:
- Oversee the set-up and delivery of the Housing Project.
- Establish and maintain relationships with key stakeholders to ensure delivery and regular review of project progress, including regular attendance at committee and working group meetings.
- Deliver authoritative advice and support to emerging housing projects in dioceses and parishes.
- Provide key stakeholders with regular, comprehensive reports on budget performance, financial projections, and any variances, ensuring transparency and informed decision-making.
About You
The Church of England is for everyone and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we would particularly welcome applicants from UK Minoritised Ethnicities (UKME)/Global Majority Heritage (GMH) and other under-represented groups. As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to recruiting disabled people. We offer interviews to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the role.
To be successful in this role, you will need:
- Expertise in: Housing policy and practice, Small local Housing Initiatives, Working with volunteers.
- Ability to be a strategic advocate for housing initiatives.
- Budget management, report writing and research skills.
- Experience of project management.
For a more detailed person specification, please see the attached job description.
Interviews are expected to be held on 27 September 2024.
What we offer
Our benefits include:
- A salary of £56,833 per annum plus age-related pension contributions between 8-15% of salary. We will also match any pension contributions you make up to an additional 3% of salary.
- 25 days annual leave (increasing to 30 days within 5 years) plus three additional days
- Flexible working hours and location
- Structured induction programme and access to a range of development opportunities including apprenticeships
- Access to Occupational Health, and an Employee Assistance Programme
- Opportunity to the Civil Service Sports & Social Club, and get involved in a range of staff networks, groups and societies
We try to be as flexible as we can in your work pattern to support you with other commitments, and to give a good work-life balance.
The National Church Institutions comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation - a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder.
We Include. You Belong.
Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.
Living out our values in all that we do, we:
- Strive for Excellence
- Show Compassion
- Respect others
- Collaborate
- Act with Integrity
We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward. The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith. We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you.
