Overview

Our aim is 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.

The Strategy and Development Unit plays a key role in helping the Church of England to arrest its decline and to renew and reform its mission. It advises on and manages the distribution of around £60 million per annum of national funding to support the Church’s growth and provides consultancy support to bishops and senior leadership teams in the Church’s dioceses on their growth strategies. The Unit comprises 13 staff and has three teams: consultancy; funding; and learning and data analysis.

The national funding currently includes the Strategic Development Funding, which provides major (£1m+) grants to support diocesan growth projects; the Strategic Transformation Funding, which invests in diocesan-wide transformation programmes to develop and align dioceses’ resources to strengthen their mission and financial health; and the Lowest Income Communities formula funding which supports mission in the poorest communities. Additionally, a smaller grant funding stream – the Innovation Funding – will be launched later in 2021 to support projects which will generate learning about Church growth.  Other funding streams may be created in future years.

The Unit seeks to share learning between senior diocesan teams through monitoring and evaluating the grant programmes and serves key Church of England bodies such as the Church Commissioners and Archbishops’ Council, and the Strategic Investment Board which oversees the distribution of national funds to dioceses.

Post Introduction

As Head of Funding, you will be responsible for the strategic management and governance of the national Church funding streams, leading a Funding team comprising two employees. You will also work with consultancy colleagues as they support dioceses in developing applications for funding and in delivering the grant-funded projects.

You will communicate the overall impact of the funding programmes to trustees and to the wider Church and work with colleagues to ensure the effective evaluation of the programmes and to identity and disseminate key learning.

For an informal conversation please contact philip.james@churchofengland.org

We are currently reviewing our working arrangements post-lockdown but we envisage that the post-holder will work 2/3 days a week in the office at Church House, Westminster, and work remotely on the other days of the week.

Interviews will be held remotely on Monday 7th June 2021, using Zoom.

We offer a unique environment with opportunities for continuous learning, generous annual leave for work life balance, season ticket loans and a range of benefits including discounted entry to attractions and what we feel is a market leading package when it comes to our pension scheme.

Role Responsibility

The Role

The actual work of the post-holder will vary over time in line with the Unit’s evolving objectives, but their duties and responsibilities will fall within the following broad headings:

Lead the management and support the governance of the national Church funding streams to develop dioceses’ mission and financial strength:

• Strategic Development Funding (a 10-year funding programme, totalling c. £270m in 2017-2026).
• Strategic Transformation Funding (totalling £44m in the 2020-22 funding period).
• Innovation Funding (totalling £4.8m in 2021-22).
• Lowest Income Communities Funding (totalling c. £27m p.a.)
• Sustainability Funding (£35m in 2020-21 to support dioceses in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic).

• Contribute to the development of overall funding strategy and assessment criteria for the funding streams – including any new streams created by the national Church.
• Working with the consultancy team, assess funding proposals and project change requests in line with the overall funding strategy and relevant assessment criteria.
• Retain an overview of the progress of the funding streams towards meeting their goals.
• Manage the Funding team’s staff in their delivery of the processes and supporting documentation for grant funding applications, assessments, consideration by Trustees, awards, change control and payments.
• Support the Director of the Strategy & Development Unit in servicing the Strategic Investment Board which has trustee responsibility, on behalf of the Archbishops’ Council, for making decisions on the use and distribution of national funding for dioceses.
• Oversee the agenda planning for Strategic Investment Board meetings and lead the Funding team in preparing and presenting papers for the Board and, as required, for the Archbishops’ Council, Church Commissioners, General Synod and other church bodies.
• Manage the Funding team staff in their financial management and reporting of the funding programmes and in liaison with colleagues in Finance Operations.
• Deal with high level enquiries relating to the funding programmes and make presentations to church bodies about the funding as required.

Communicate the impact of the funding programmes

• Develop and deliver strategy to communicate the impact of the funding programmes to the Strategic Investment Board, House of Bishops, Archbishops’ Council, Church Commissioners, General Synod and other bodies as required (e.g. through papers and presentations, visits to SDF projects).

Contribute to the Unit’s work to ensure that the funding programmes are effectively evaluated and that key learning from the programmes is identified and shared with trustees, diocesan leaders and practitioners.

• Work with the consultancy team on the ongoing development of methods and processes to evaluate the funding programmes and projects.
• Work with the learning and data analysis team on the development and delivery of learning products (e.g. thematic and whole programme learning summaries from the Strategic Development Funding; development of learning communities for practitioners).
• Work with the learning and data analysis team to support independent reviews of funding streams (as required) and report on the findings.
• Manage the budget for the national Church’s research, evaluation and dissemination budget (totalling £0.6m in the 2020-22 spending period).

Management Responsibilities

• Co-ordinate the work of two staff members to deliver the Funding team’s responsibilities.
• Line manage the Senior Funding Manager.
• Supervise the work of the Financial Administrator (in the Finance Operations team) for the part of the postholder’s time spent on supporting the financial management of the funding programmes.
• Participate in the Unit’s senior management team.

The Ideal Candidate

The Requirements

Essential

Skills/Aptitudes:

• Significant experience of managing major grant-making programmes (including financial management and reporting).
• Excellent relationship management and communication skills (including experience of working with trustees and senior colleagues).
• Ability to think strategically, and to see both the wider picture and attend to detail.
• Experience of working at a senior level within a governance framework, including preparing and presenting Board/Committee papers to trustees.
• Ability to influence others at all levels of seniority.
• Experience of monitoring and evaluating the impact of funding programmes and projects.
• Experience of identifying and sharing key learning from grant funding programmes and projects. The ability to present work attractively, persuasively and accurately, both spoken and in writing.
• Experience of staff management and development.
• An understanding of how to support the mission and ministry of the Church effectively and a passion for encouraging the growth of the Church.
• An understanding of the structures and workings of the Church of England and an ability to work effectively within them.

Personal Attributes:

• Strong analytical abilities, able to assimilate and analyse information quickly, identifying issues and priorities.
• Ability to meet tight deadlines and work under pressure when required.
• Highly pro-active and resilient, demonstrating resourcefulness and energy with a commitment to making a difference.
• Ability to apply understanding, judgement, tact and discretion.
• Demonstrates enthusiastic commitment to the priorities of the Church of England.

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..

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