CONSULTANT, NCVO CES JOB DESCRIPTION AND PERSON SPECIFICATION

Transcription

1 CONSULTANT, NCVO CES JOB DESCRIPTION AND PERSON SPECIFICATION 1

2 1. Job details Job title: Consultant Responsible to: Lead consultant Team: NCVO Charities Evaluation Services Department: Enterprise and Development 2. Job purpose This role has two aims. To help our clients become more effective To generate income for NCVO 3. Job dimensions The post-holder will work within the NCVO Charities Evaluation Services team to provide highquality training, capacity-building and consultancy. 4. Team chart The team chart below illustrates the line management structure of our team. Head of NCVO Charities Evaluation Services Lead consultant Lead consultant Senior consultant Consultant Senior consultant This role: Consultant Consultant Administration and training assistant Assistant consultant 2

3 5. Main accountabilities of the post The post-holder will receive support, and where appropriate, work under the supervision of more senior consultants, to: support our marketing activities, draft proposals and win consultancy work lead on small-scale external evaluations work as part of a team on larger projects support the delivery of consultancy work, for example by coordinating and supporting workshops, focus groups and interviews, or by helping to analyse data or prepare reports provide technical support to clients on self-evaluation, helping them to do impact and evaluation for themselves, often using theory of change or developing evaluation plans and approaches promote our work through writing reports and contributing to publications deliver high-quality training courses throughout England work with the team to maintain a bank of high-quality training materials meet agreed financial and operational targets to help us contribute to the work of NCVO be self-servicing, using ICT in the delivery of work contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of our work to ensure it continues to the high quality and impactful take on other duties consistent with the grade through negotiation and discussion with the line manager. 6. Work context Each day, millions of people make a difference to the causes they believe in through voluntary organisations and volunteering. This thriving voluntary sector and volunteer movement are essential for a better society especially in times of challenge and change. That s why, inspired and empowered by our 13,000 members, NCVO champions the voluntary sector and volunteering. We do this by connecting, representing and supporting voluntary organisations, from the smallest community groups to the largest charities. The enterprise and development department is led by the director of enterprise and development and is of one of three departments at NCVO. It comprises the following. NCVO Charities Evaluation Services team Marketing and Membership team Volunteer Centre and Quality Standards unit Funding Central programme 3

4 The department s objective is to help improve the performance, sustainability and contribution of voluntary organisations. It achieves this by generating sustainable income, maintaining and developing membership services and marketing. The department is also dedicated to providing high-quality consultancy, support and advice, training, events, business development and collaborative ventures which meet customer needs and improve the effectiveness of both members and non-members. The other departments are: public policy and volunteering planning and resources. NCVO is Positive About Disabled People NCVO CES is an income-generating team within NCVO. That means that while we are passionate about delivering high-quality, impactful work, we are also passionate about making a good contribution to NCVO financially. We provide consultancy, training and information to put our clients in a much better position to improve their work, raise their profile and achieve more for their causes 7. Autonomy and decision-making We support and train all our staff on an ongoing basis; new post holders in particular get a significant amount of training and mentoring. This post holder will be expected to: represent NCVO independently on a regular basis manage their own smaller contracts, and be part of a team on larger contracts manage associate consultants on some projects be responsible for expenditure within defined limits manage no staff directly but may supervise temporary staff. 8. Communications Internally, the post-holder communicates with staff across NCVO at all levels; we collaborate across teams wherever possible. 4

5 Externally, this post-holder will do a lot of client-facing work. Our team is highly professional and we are also known for being approachable and voluntary-sector friendly. However, we are starting to work more in other sectors so the post-holder will need to be able to communicate with a wide range of organisations. The post-holder will need to be comfortable talking to a wide range of people. Clients will range from service users through frontline staff, management and trustees. 9. Main areas of difficulty As a team we are passionate about our work. This is a real chance to make a difference to voluntary organisations and improve the lives of their service users. However, the role is not without challenges and demands. These include: unpredictable, time pressured and diverse workload a highly-visible, external-facing role within a team with a great reputation to maintain travel this work will involve fairly regular travel and overnight stays. 10. Essential knowledge, skills and experience Knowledge 1. Educated to degree level in social research or equivalent professional development or critical and analytical skills 2. Working knowledge of the voluntary sector Experience 3. Undertaking research and/or evaluation projects 4. Experience of project management 5. Supporting organisations to become more effective, ideally through the use of evaluation or research 5

6 Skills 6. Excellent communication skills, both written and oral 7. Excellent interpersonal and relationship-building skills with people at all levels 8. Working under pressure and to tight deadlines 9. Working highly independently as well as being strong team player 10. High levels of accuracy and excellent attention to detail 11. Understanding and processing complex information quickly 11. General information The post-holder shall at all times adhere to NCVO s policies on: equal opportunities diversity and dignity at work health and safety confidentiality no smoking environment and sustainability. 6