JOB DSCRIPTION Title: Responsible to: Responsible for: Location: Director of Operations Chief xecutive Regional Directors, Quality Assurance Manager Cambridge or London office Salary: In the range 58,000-66,000. London Weighting (of 3,299) will be applied in addition to this if the post-holder is London based. Salary dependent on prior experience. mployer s pension contribution offered at 5%. Contract: Permanent, 5 days (37.5 hours) per week Role Summary: With strategic responsibility for VoiceAbility s services and their development, this post will play a critical role in ensuring we achieve our mission to enable people who face disadvantage or discrimination to have stronger voices, real rights, and better lives. We know that there is a pressing need for support of the type and quality that we can provide. We are developing the quality, reach and range of our services to respond to this. The key purpose of the role is to provide the leadership and management which enables us to deliver leading edge, consistently high quality, effective and cost-effective support. nsuring that our services are responsive to the diverse communities which we serve and further developing our approach to measuring and improving our impact, you will lead work to provide the best support to people and excellent value for money to funders and commissioners. Reporting directly to the Chief xecutive, you will act as a partner with other members of the xecutive Management Team to deliver our quality improvement and diversification plans, manage risk, and maximise organisational performance, effectiveness and commercial and financial sustainability. You will engender an effective performance culture in order to enable colleagues to provide great support to people, achieve the outcomes which matter and display the behaviours, values and ethos which we promote. You will have overall responsibility for people management within your directorate, promoting staff engagement and enabling members of staff to deliver on organisational objectives, policy, good practice, and ensure legal compliance. You will be an ambassador for VoiceAbility and our values, embodying these in your interactions internally and represent these in external, high profile, and business critical arenas.
Postholders at this level will: Be technical and professional experts in their areas of accountability, able to credibly represent the organisation and their profession to audiences both internally and externally. Contribute to strategy development and lead on delivering the outcomes within our annual plan relevant to their areas of accountability. Bring commercial acumen and use this to support the xecutive Management Team to develop and deliver sound and sustainable organisational growth. Build strong, productive working relationships within the xecutive Management Team and throughout the organisation. Be highly effective at negotiating and influencing at a senior level. ACCOUNTABILITIS The following accountabilities will apply to this role: Strategy and planning 1. To provide strategic leadership and direction across all VoiceAbility operational services, determining both the mix of services and driving the quality of delivery, ensuring operational services are delivered effectively in line with our mission and values, setting and meeting ambitious targets. 2. Working with the Chief xecutive and Board to contribute to the development of VoiceAbility s overall strategy. 3. To work in partnership with the Chief xecutive, Director of Finance and Corporate Services and senior management colleagues to complete the business planning and budgeting cycles and to integrate these with performance management, risk management and impact reporting processes. To set VoiceAbility s Business Plan in respect of operational developments and delivery and lead its implementation with a focus on setting and meeting targets to grow, retain and diversify our services in line with our strategy and mission. 4. To identify and ensure the right level and deployment of resources, skills-mix, staff and volunteers to ensure the effective delivery of quality, high impact services, maximise value for money and meet financial and commercial targets. 5. To keep up to date with trends, policy changes and other external influences and advise the Chief xecutive and the xecutive Management Team on the implications of these broader developments in the sector. 6. To identify opportunities to move the organisation and its social mission forward.
7. Working in partnership especially with the Director of Finance and Corporate Services, to identify and monitor risks and to be accountable for management of risks in relation to operational delivery. 8. In partnership with the HR Director ensure that workforce development strategy and initiatives reflect our operational needs and are embedded and supported effectively. Senior Management 9. To hold overall accountability for the management of our staff and volunteers in all operational services. 10. To be an excellent line manager and team manager to direct reports, modelling the use of our performance management policies, processes and tools, including appraisal, personal and professional development plans and supervision with them. To mentor your direct reports in best practices, commercial and operational skills, and working closely with the HR Director, continue to build their capability and performance and that of their teams. 11. To ensure robust operational practices and that effective people management processes are applied. 12. To ensure effective and high impact communication and strong engagement throughout our operational services. To fully utilise the support of colleagues across departments and in our Marketing and Communication team to ensure greatest impact and effectiveness. 13. To ensure an effective framework is in place and delivered to contract manage sub-contractors and to work well with partner organisations. Financial and commercial 14. To be accountable for setting and managing the budget for all operational services, holding delegated budget managers to account, develop and instilling the necessary commercial understanding and behaviours so as to meet or exceed financial and commercial targets. 15. To set and implement plans to maximise the effective use of our charity s funds, maintain financial sustainability, the ability to invest in development and meet targets; including by developing and putting into place productivity and value for money initiatives. Service development and business development 16. With support from the Director of Business Development, to design innovative services and adapt existing ones, ensuring that we meet people s current needs and anticipate their future ones and that we develop, market, sell and deliver the right mix of services in each region. 17. To work with the Director of Business Development, Chief xecutive, and other colleagues to support the selection, development and winning of bids, and business proposals and to mobilise and deliver contracts successfully, including
both personally contributing to this work and leading and managing the involvement of your directorate. 18. To represent VoiceAbility externally including promoting our social mission in high profile external meetings and conferences and negotiations, including acting as the senior lead for relationships with some of our most important commissioners, funders and partners. 19. To work proactively with the Regional Directors and other colleagues to build our profile, reputation and influence in order to retain and extend our existing services and to develop new ones within our current areas of operation and in new ones; ensuring the effective project-management and delivery of expansion into new regions where applicable. 20. To encourage and nurture strong partnerships with commissioners, funders, partner agencies and other influencers to ensure that contracts are retained and opportunities are created, providing regular feedback to the Business Development team on the status of key relationships. 21. Working in partnership with the Director of Business Development and other xecutive Management Team colleagues, contributing to effective joined up working across directorates with clear identification and understanding of accountabilities and responsibilities. Quality, impact and performance 22. To ensure that VoiceAbility holds, develops and implements effective strategies to measure, assure and continuously improve service quality and the use of feedback, including recommending and leading work on externally accredited quality assurance systems. 23. Working closely with the Director of Finance and Corporate Services to be accountable for the design, development, implementation, and improvement of a comprehensive process for impact, performance, quality and compliance measurement and management, including the effective use of powerful performance measures. 24. To ensure the development of quality standards, policies and processes across service delivery areas and to test and provide assurance on implementation. 25. To be accountable for the development, setting, implementation and review of plans to increase user leadership and involvement at a local and national level. 26. To ensure the implementation of all relevant policies and procedures in operational services. Safeguarding 27. To lead and be accountable for the effectiveness of VoiceAbility s work to safeguard children and adults at risk through our service delivery. You will ensure that statutory and policy requirements and good practice standards are in place, understood and met in our services and for continuous learning and improvement.
In this you will work in close partnership with the HR Director who has oversight of safeguarding with regard to our personnel practice. Diversity and equality 28. To enable our services to be ever more accessible, relevant, skilled and responsive to people from diverse communities and people with the greatest needs by ensuring effective strategies and plans are set, implemented, monitored and reviewed. To work in partnership with the HR Director who is accountable for the development of strategies to promote equality and diversity in employment and volunteering and ensuring their implementation. Health and safety 29. To ensure that health and safety requirements are implemented in operational services and in any and all departments and teams for which you are responsible, and working in partnership with the HR Director to ensure that these are developed and amended where required to ensure fitness for purpose. General duties 30. To take responsibility for your own personal and professional development. This includes keeping abreast of relevant changes in social care, health care and public policy more generally as well as sector trends. 31. To undertake other appropriate senior management duties as required. The role includes regular and frequent travel within ngland, considerable time in our main London office base and at our office in Cambridge. It will include overnight stays when required. All Job Descriptions and accountabilities may be subject to periodic review.
PRSON SPCIFICATION DIRCTOR OF OPRATIONS FACTOR QUALIFICATIONS 1. A*-C grade GCS level qualification in nglish and Mathematics or equivalent 2. Degree level education or equivalent D 3. An appropriate professional qualification related to social care, health or advocacy 4. Management and organisational management qualifications e.g. MBA XPRINC 1. Of working collegiately within a senior or executive management team with both strategic and operational responsibilities through the cycle of business planning and delivery 2. Of being the accountable lead for an organisation or having largely autonomous leadership of a large department or function. 3. Of effective financial, budgetary and profit and loss responsibility 4. Of line management, including of management of managers and preferably of geographically dispersed teams 5. xtensive senior management experience in service provision roles, preferably including in social care, health, social housing or similar 6. Of effective management of major change and delivering service improvement programmes 7. Of developing and delivering services to meet the requirements of diverse communities. 8. Of successfully managing major risks in relation to decision making, service delivery and people management 9. Of exercising commercial acumen, preferably in services commissioned by the public sector 10. Of using long-term healthcare or disability/ social care services or being a carer 11. Of working in the Third Sector D KNOWLDG 1. Of issues affecting adults or children who use long term health or social care support, for example people with learning disabilities, mental health issues, disabled people, people affected by dementia, or children at risk or in need 2. Of mental health and social care legislation at least at a general level, and of minimum compliance and best practice 3. Of equality, diversity and anti-discriminatory practice 4. Of the role of advocacy in health and social care contexts at least at a general level. SSNTIAL or DSIRABL D D D
FACTOR 5. Of quality assurance approaches and their implementation, preferably including in non-regulated services SKILLS AND ABILITIS 1. Ability to comprehend complex strategic and operational situations, opportunities and risks and develop solutions 2. xcellent communicator, orally and in writing 3. Financially astute 4. Ability to interpret social care and service contract law and apply it with relevance and with technical accuracy 5. Ability to prioritise in a fast moving and demanding environment 6. ffective management of direct and indirect reports to drive high performance 7. Confident IT skills including usual Microsoft packages, and a willingness and ability to pick up new software and applications quickly and to work with our monitoring systems PRSONAL QUALITIS/STYL 1. Thoroughly committed to achieve equality and human rights in practice 2. Credible, assertive, highly influential, and professional approach 3. High levels of empathy generally and with people with health and social care needs, and VoiceAbility s mission 4. Confident to provide overall leadership and be ultimately accountable for decisions and actions with organisation wide impact 5. Utmost integrity 6. Self-motivated and solution focused ADDITIONAL RQUIRMNTS 1. Willing and able to travel throughout ngland frequently including overnight stays and to work flexibly when required SSNTIAL or DSIRABL