Context

The British Red Cross helps millions of people in the UK and around the world to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies, disasters and conflicts.  The changing nature of risks across the world and within the UK require us to respond to the changing environment and ensure that we are positioned to adapt and innovate in response to these evolving challenges.

Our volunteers and staff help people in crisis to live independently by providing support at home, mobility aids and transport.  We are the largest provider of refugee support services within the UK delivering case work and destitution assistance to people who arrive in the UK.   We support communities to be more resilient through our community education programme that delivers first aid training, teaches empathy in migration and the fundamental humanitarian principles.

We are part of the global Red Cross and Red Crescent humanitarian network and respond to people in crisis.

Our principles and values

Our values (compassionate, courageous, inclusive and dynamic) underpin everything we do. As a member of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the British Red Cross is committed to, and bound by, its fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

Directorate overview  

In the UK, our volunteers and staff support people in crisis through three pillars of work, Health Inequality, Disasters and Emergencies and Displacement and Migration. These three pillars are aligned to the three causes within our 2030 strategy outlining the impact that we make across services within the UK.   Our services are involved in more than 100 contracts with health and social care, the largest refugee support service in the community and what we are most well-known for – our Crisis and Emergency response services.

In addition, our Insight and Improvement (I&I) team supports the work of the UK Operations directorate, using a range of data to drive insight and improvement. 

Crisis Response and Community Resilience (CRCR) team

The UK Crisis Response and Community Resilience team provides the strategic capability to develop and implement an integrated response, recovery and wider resilience offer within the BRC.  The role will oversee the UK response to crises and emergencies as well as leading the preparedness and response across departments within the BRC.  As crises have moved to longer more concurrent emergencies, our response, capability and capacity needs to grow and adapt to the changing external environment.

This role will represent the British Red Cross on a number of UK wide meetings and networks, overseeing the communication and delivery of our external work in Crisis and Emergency response in collaboration with the UK Executive Director for Operations.   This is a pivotal role for the British Red Cross, working in partnership with a wide range of external emergency organisations.  The postholder will ensure that the contribution of the BRC offer for communities is understood and BRC works collectively to ensure that people within the UK have the greatest benefit from our skills and expertise.

The postholder will also work in partnership with the Voluntary Sector Crisis and Emergency Response Partnership, supporting its aims in creating a voluntary sector that can respond to crises, sharing expertise and capabilities to the benefit of people within our four nations.

Our crisis and emergency response services are charged with driving up improvements across existing delivery activity via the development of a framework for preparedness, recovery and response, as well as the development of new technology enabled services and products to support our work.  

CRCR oversees three core areas of delivery:

• Crisis and Emergency Response services

• National Support Line

• Community Education Team

The crisis and emergency response team acts as the interface between the BRC’s strategic approach to day-to-day crisis and emergency response delivery with that of partner agencies, government and local communities - supporting the CEO to build strong sector-wide co-ordination in response and recovery both nationally and locally.

The team provides professional direction and development for the BRC’s emergency response practitioner community and oversees the BRC’s framework for responding to national emergencies, working within a matrix management structure to coordinate action.

In addition, the role leads both the National Support Line and Community Education team to ensure they are aligned to strategy, deliver on budget and against agreed outcomes. Furthermore, the role oversees programme management of overarching work to support an aligned way of working across the three services to deliver additional value.

Our community education programme and community engagement initiatives are critical to securing success in building sustainable community preparedness and humanitarian resilience, as is the National Support Line, helping people with trusted information at times of crisis and as they recover.

Purpose of the role

This is a key strategic leadership role for British Red Cross - delivering against one of our three strategic causes –brokering development of our overall capability in community preparedness and delivering real improvements in preparedness, response and recovery, at scale.

Operating within a matrix management arrangement, the role integrates a range of complementary activities to Crisis & Emergency Response, the National Support Line and Community Education including: embedding our emergent approach to community engagement and exploiting the opportunities to develop our community education portfolio, as part of a human centred approach to community resilience.

The Director for Crisis Response and Community Resilience is also a member of the Strategic Leadership Team - a cross-directorate collective of directors - with corporate responsibility for delivering and developing our vision and mission.

Main responsibilities

Leadership impact

· Act as the strategic lead to ensure BRC responds to crises in an effective way and is the subject matter expert for the organisation on crisis response and preparedness

· Lead the surge response for crises within the UK and be the co-ordination point for our surge response linking with colleagues across the organisation

· Undertake a partnership role with external stakeholders and with the Voluntary and Community Sector National Emergencies Partnership (VCSNEP)

British Red Cross as a partner

· Maintain partnerships with UK wide government, statutory sector organisations and private companies that are civil contingency responders

· Explore new partnerships that enable British Red Cross to provide a comprehensive emergency response in collaboration with government and category one responders

Shaping strategy 

· Deliver the crisis and emergency response strategy and contributing to the implementation of the 2030 strategy, in particular our disasters and emergencies cause

· Develop a coherent strategy and approach to community resilience

· Lead the development of new, technology enabled, services and products within crisis response and community resilience

Effective delivery of national crisis response and community resilience   

· Deliver a consistent and coherent crisis response, recovery and resilience programmes across our four nations

· Deliver a community education portfolio that informs people of our humanitarian principles and supports humanitarian action across the UK

· Develop and sustain a network of effective relationships with operational leaders and ER managers

· Develop and support the National Support Line as a mechanism for supporting emergency response

Continuous Improvement

· Be accountable for ensuring alignment of our work with national crisis response standards and evidence-based practice

· Use of performance data and insight to shape strategic direction and demonstrate positive outcomes for people in crisis  

· Develop the opportunities and ideas to utilise the BRC workforce (staff and volunteers) to best effect in surge response to national emergencies

Professional Development

· To be the professional lead for crisis and emergency response expertise for BRC, overseeing the education programme across the UK

· Ensuring practitioners and managers promote inclusion and diversity in seeking opportunities at all times to deliver services that represent the needs of our communities we serve

· Developing an understanding of human centred crisis response and recovery frameworks - and the adoption of national quality standards – among practitioners and managers

Direct support to Executive Director of UK Operations

· The role also involves providing strategic advice to the Executive Director on a range of topics and acting as a sounding board for new concepts

· To deputise for the Executive Director as required

Effective working as a member of the UK Operations Management Team

. To actively contribute to the wider work of the UKMT as part of a high-performing team.