Are you passionate about challenging unequal power and leading work on anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice within the charity sector? Are you committed to working in a way that ensures dignity and equity to those of us facing financial insecurity and holds people and organisations to account for the people they exist for? Come and join Turn2us at an exciting time in our history as we seek to challenge unfair and unjust practice and systems.  

Turn2us is a national charity tackling financial insecurity and the structural causes of poverty. We work with co-producers and partners to provide people facing financial shocks with the means and agency to get back on their feet, build resilience, move forward with their lives and thrive. 

The Head of Accountability & Inclusion is a new role for Turn2us, leading a team that brings together organisation wide approaches to Equity Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB), co-production, partnerships, accountability and safeguarding in one place. All these areas involve deep considerations of inclusion and accountability to people with lived experience of financial hardship and we are committed to progressing this work and creating consistency in our approaches.  

The creation of this role and the wider team, some of whom are already in post, will enable Turn2us to make faster and deeper progress in becoming an anti-racist and anti-oppressive organisation, more able to provide support where it is most needed, co-designed by people with lived experience. This role, based within our Programmes & Partnerships Directorate, will lead on and influence practice across the organisation, within our programmes directly and through affecting our work on policy, communications and fundraising.   

We are looking for someone who has experience of challenging power structures in previous roles and championing accountability and inclusion. You will be willing to have tough conversations and hold people to account. You will have deep knowledge and experience of anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices as well as an understanding of co-production and safeguarding and be committed to making the changes needed to shift culture and practice.  

Job Description

Job Title: Head of Accountability and Inclusion                               

Directorate: Programmes and Partnerships

Reports to: Director of Programmes and Partnerships         

Direct Reports: Equity Diversity Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) Officer, Safeguarding Manager, Senior Coproduction Officer, Accountability Officer, Partnerships Development Co-Ordinator

Location: Hybrid: Head Office, Hammersmith, London, W6 & Home Working

Salary: £47,060 to £53,477 dependent on experience

Purpose of the Role:

To support collective leadership on equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB), accountability, safeguarding, partnerships and co-production work. To deliver a clear framework of challenging unequal power and social injustice within the organisation, in the work that we do, and in our partnerships and communications

Key Responsibilities:

1. To support emerging practice in all areas of accountability and inclusivity work, facilitating capacity building across the organisation, and providing clear frameworks for embedding these organisationally

2. To develop and maintain an organisation-wide accountability and partnerships framework that holds the organisation to account to the people it seeks to support

3. To ensure a positive culture of safeguarding is embedded across the organisation

4. To contribute to the leadership of the programmes directorate, and the organisational management team (OMT)

5. To work with external stakeholders to share our inclusion and accountability work and learn openly and transparently with others

6. To support the people of colour in the organisation by empowering them in their development 

Duties:

1. To support emerging practice in all areas of accountability and inclusion work, facilitating capacity building across the organisation, and providing clear frameworks for embedding these organisationally

• To manage the Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Belonging Officer, Safeguarding Manager, Senior Co-production Officer, Accountability Officer and Partnerships Development Co-ordinator to drive forward these key areas of work across the organisation

• To work with the HR team to develop staff training relating to accountability and inclusion work so that teams and our partners feel ownership over them

• To keep up-to-date with work across the social justice sector and bring emerging practice into the team and the organisation

• To chair the EDIB committee (internal) and drive forward the development of a cross-organisational EDIB strategy

2. To develop and maintain an organisation-wide accountability framework that holds the organisation to account to the people it seeks to support

• To develop in co-production with the people that Turn2us exists for, an accountability framework, including (but not limited to)

o   Co-production

o   Transparency, information, and two-way communication

o   Participation and inclusion

o   Complaints, feedback and response

o   Partnerships

o   Aligned safeguarding approaches, policies, and processes

• To report against this framework and keeping it live for all staff teams

3. To ensure a positive culture of safeguarding is embedded across the organisation

• To manage the Safeguarding Manager and ensure that a positive culture of Safeguarding is promoted across the organisation

• To chair the Safeguarding Committee (internal) to ensure Committee members are championing and being consulted with on safeguarding, and that shared reflection and learning take place

• To align safeguarding approaches, policies and processes with all other work on accountability and inclusivity

• To act as the default secondary safeguarding responder in support of the Safeguarding Manager for all incoming safeguarding concerns and complaints

4. To contribute to the leadership of the programmes directorate and the organisational management team (OMT)

• To contribute to the development of the organisation’s knowledge and use of inclusive, accountable and anti-oppressive leadership practice and cascade this through the organisation

5. To work with external stakeholders to share our inclusion and accountability work and learn openly and transparently with others

• To work with others across the social justice sector to keep abreast of new developments in accountability, anti-oppressive and inclusivity work

• To share our learning across the social justice sector

• To share our learning and receive feedback from the people we exist for to ensure we continually improve our work on accountability and inclusivity

6. To support the people of colour in the organisation by empowering them in their development 

• To develop a framework that ensures people of colour are given the appropriate support to develop their professional careers 

• To support hiring managers in adopting frameworks that support their direct reports who are people of colour 

• To regularly check in with people of colour and relevant safe spaces to ensure that those people in the organisation are having their experiences championed in leadership meetings

These are the normal duties, which the charity requires from the position.  This job description is non-contractual. It will be reviewed from time to time and may be subject to change in full collaboration with employees.

At Turn2us, we are committed to protecting personnel, children, adults, and service users from any harm arising from each other, themselves, our activities, or organisational failings whilst in contact with us. The post holder will be required to follow the safeguarding policy and will be responsible for integrating safeguarding into all aspects of their work.

The post holder will be expected to ensure that their work complies with contractual terms and conditions, the charity’s policies and procedures and key legislation, such as data protection and charity law.

Person Specification

Skills:             

• Excellent interpersonal skills

• Proven project management skills across complex operations

• Ability to spark collaboration across multi-disciplinary teams

• Ability to support the design of inclusive and accountable programmes both including in our digital delivery

• Data literacy   

Knowledge:            

• Knowledge of effective strategies for holding charitable organisations accountable to the people for whom they work

• A deep understanding of structural oppression and its impact on the people we support, particularly those more likely to be subject to this

• A clear understanding of, and commitment to, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, and the commitment to promote EDIB through your work

Experience:            

• Experience in managing and delivering cross organisation work on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Accountability

• Experience of poverty or of tackling poverty      

• Experience of charitable safeguarding policies

Personal Attributes:         

• Demonstrable track record of personal integrity, honesty and humility

• Ability to build strategic relationships and to negotiate and influence a wide range of stakeholders, establishing positive relationships that generate confidence and trust

• Ability to lead, motivate and manage teams in achieving clear and challenging objectives

• Personal values reflect those of Turn2us:

o   Financial Security for All

o   Together We Succeed

o   Listen, Learn and Improve

o   Impatient

Turn2us is fully committed to equity, diversity and inclusion in our sector. We want this to be reflected in the diversity of the people who work for us and we are particularly interested in applications from people from all backgrounds.