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 Vision and Strategy team has been established to support the whole Church in its embrace of, and engagement with the national Vision and Strategy for the Church for the 2020s which has three strategic priorities: missionary disciples, younger and more diverse, and mixed ecology. 

The team is also the lead owner of the strategy within the NCIs, and therefore responsible for ensuring that the work of other teams within the NCIs is aligned to the strategy and helps ensure its delivery across the Church.  The Vision and Strategy team consults on, and manages the distribution of around £60 million per annum of national funding and helps the delivery of projects funded by previous grants.  

Post Introduction

This is a key role in the Vision and Strategy Diocesan Support team working pro-actively with diocesan leadership teams to support and shape their strategy development and resource allocation in line with the priorities of the Vision and Strategy.  The Diocesan Support Team comprises consultants and senior consultants.

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 Minority Ethnic Backgrounds. 

We are taking a flexible approach to work, with many colleagues opting for a hybrid approach to their working week, with a mixture of home and office-based working. Further details will be discussed at interview.

To ask any questions about the post, please email lorraine.hibbert@churchofengland.org

First stage interviews will be held on the 22^nd June 2022 with second stage interviews on the 28^th June 2022.

In return 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 annual team objectives, but their duties and responsibilities will fall within the following broad headings:

• Provide strategic consultancy to help, support, advise and partner with Dioceses, to deliver the bold outcomes and strategic actions of the Vision and Strategy, supporting their strategy development and delivery and cultural change plans in a variety of contextual ways.
• Support senior consultants in engaging and building relationships with senior diocesan leadership teams, working on particular programmes or strategies as directed by the Deputy Director of Diocesan Support, to support the development of dioceses’ work with the Vision and Strategy.
• Support national Church’s strategic support of senior diocesan leadership teams in alignment with the Vision and Strategy. This will include acting as a single point of contact for a small portfolio of dioceses to ensure strategic alignment of all national initiatives across all the NCIs.
• Support and advise diocesan leadership teams in the design, review and implementation of their strategic funded programmes, moving from planning to delivery, aligning ministry and discipleship activities, introducing appropriate programme governance, attending programme boards, and advising on implementation.
• Working with the Funding and Insights team to provide assurance to the Strategic Investment Board on the effectiveness of the national funding distributed to dioceses including supporting an agreed programme of monitoring and evaluation.
• Support the development of appropriate resources, including strategy development tools and playbooks, project and programme best practice tools and digital resources, to help dioceses, churches and networks to deliver the bold outcomes and strategic actions.
• Working closely with colleagues across the Vision and Strategy Team and wider NCI Teams for the furtherance of the Vision and Strategy, in particular working closely with the Funding and Learning team to share insight and learning in terms of what is working well in mission, growth and programme delivery, and the theological and practical insights this generates. Collaborate with other national Church teams to provide the best support to diocesan teams.

It will be expected that about 20% of working time would be used on cross team projects, most of which would involve offering for particular limited term groups. These groups would be decided together by the whole team and it would be expected that the line manager would sign off such requests.

The Ideal Candidate

The Requirements

Essential

Skills/Aptitudes:

• Significant experience of working as an advisor with a variety of senior stakeholders in an internal or external consultancy role within or outside the church context.
• Excellent relationship management and communication skills (including experience of  working with senior colleagues).
• Experience in the development of strategy in a large and complex organisation or as a consultant.
• Aligning strategy alongside people planning and financial planning.
• The knowledge and ability to support the delivery of complex transformation programmes.
• Ability to think strategically, and to see both the wider picture and attend to detail – including an ability to get to the root cause of issues.
• Knowledge of programme and project management approaches from inception through to delivery.
• Experience of monitoring and evaluating the impact of projects, programmes and other initiatives.
• High intellectual capacity with strong analytical abilities, able to assimilate and analyse quantitative and qualitative information quickly, confident in using data and insight, identifying issues and priorities.
• The ability to present work attractively, persuasively and accurately, orally and in writing.  
• 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.

Education:

• Education to degree level or equivalent, or relevant professional qualification.

Personal Attributes:

• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills.
• High intellectual capacity with 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, demonstrating resourcefulness and energy with a commitment to making a difference.
• Ability to apply understanding, judgement, tact and discretion.
• Ability to lead by example, demonstrating enthusiastic commitment to the priorities of the Church of England.

Circumstances:

• Willingness and ability to undertake local and diocesan visits (including residential events) and work outside office hours (including evening and occasional weekend working). Additional time worked will be given back in line with our TOIL policy.

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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