Head of Strategic Partnerships (Mental Health Accessible) 

The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute is working for a world in which the vicious cycle of money and mental health problems is broken, so that we all have an equal chance of financial security, regardless of our mental health; and everyone’s mental health can flourish, regardless of their financial circumstances. We aim to be a world-class centre of expertise, but we don’t produce research to just sit on shelves. We develop practical policy and solutions, working in partnership with those providing services, those who shape them, and those using them, to find out what really works. We campaign, build, test and innovate until our research leads to real change. That’s where this role comes in.

About the role

Our Head of Strategic Partnerships leads the charity’s impact-focused consultancy and partnerships programme with companies. Sharing our expert insight and voice of lived experience with firms to improve the experience and outcomes of their customers, including customers with mental health problems who are at an increased risk of financial difficulty. The role is about working strategically with companies to have a positive impact and to generate revenue for the organisation to support our wider work. It’s an exciting time to take on this role, as we’re looking for someone to both deliver our existing consultancy programme, and to help us innovate and take it to the next level.

What is Mental Health Accessible?

Mental Health Accessible is our flagship service for firms. Money and Mental Health research has shown that people with mental health problems often struggle to access and use essential services like banks, telecoms, water and energy. This can leave people without basic services, paying more than they should, or getting into escalating debt. 

Dealing with essential services like banking or energy can be frustrating and difficult for all of us at times. But if you’re struggling with your mental health, making phone calls, opening post or navigating complex online forms can be an almost impossible task. Many companies will be used to thinking about adjustments they could make to support those who are physically disabled. However, when it comes to mental health problems, most companies do not have the same understanding of what help people might need, and what support should be offered.

Through our Mental Health Accessible programme, we work directly with companies to ensure that their customers with mental health problems are able to make full use of essential services, and achieve similarly good outcomes from them. We offer a full Mental Health Accessible accreditation, where we really dig deep to understand a firm’s products and services and offer a roadmap for the future - as well as smaller, bespoke consultancy helping firms with things like improving debt collection letters or user-testing new tools or online content. Through working with our 4,000 person lived experience community, we help firms to better understand the challenges their customers with mental health problems face and to take steps to improve the service they offer, as well as supporting them to comply with relevant regulatory requirements.

The role

This is an exciting time to lead a growing consultancy programme with unexplored sectors offering huge potential for the charity to have both impact for consumers and to generate income to support our wider work. The successful candidate will lead the delivery of Mental Health Accessible, as well as working closely with the Chief Executive to explore innovative new ways that the charity could translate our research into practical services which deliver tangible impact. This role is also an opportunity to join the Senior Leadership Team of a dynamic and growing organisation with a reputation for impact. The successful candidate will be:

• entrepreneurial, ideally with experience establishing or growing a successful initiative or enterprise. We are looking for someone who is ambitious about growing our impact with firms, and full of creative ideas about how to do it.

• driven by impact, with a commitment to tackling the links between money and mental health problems

• An excellent project manager, with experience of managing complex long term projects with cross organisational stakeholders. 

• excellent at building relationships and selling services, ideally with an existing network of contacts in one of the financial services, telecoms, utilities or insurance sectors

• a self-starter, able to build and manage their own plans

• willing to get stuck in - we’re a small team and we need someone who can turn their hand to delivery when we have lots of projects on

• a brilliant line manager - we care a lot about our team, and supporting them would be your number one job.

Job description

• Working with the charity’s CEO and trustees to set and deliver an effective strategy for the Mental Health Accessible programme and the charity’s wider work translating research into impactful services. That includes reviewing the current service offer, advising on pricing, staffing and identifying priority sectors. 

• Building on our existing pipeline to develop a steady stream of new clients, building effective relationships, powerfully pitching our work and negotiating pricing and terms with much larger corporate organisations.

• Leading the Strategic Partnerships team to meet income targets, building a strong and sustainable future for Mental Health Accessible.

• Working closely with subject matter experts, both internally and with external consultants, to ensure our work meets robust standards and delivers tangible change.

• Being willing and eager to develop a working knowledge of regulation and policy which impacts vulnerable customers and understand how firms will be driven by this. 

• Leading the day-to-day delivery of Mental Health Accessible. This includes navigating the complexities of contracting and onboarding with large corporate clients, project managing large scale assessments, managing external contractors, editing client assessment reports and ensuring that clients have a smooth and professional experience of working with us. It also means getting stuck in and hands-on with reviewing evidence from firms and writing evidence reports.

• Ensuring that all contracts are delivered on time and in line with expectations. This will involve managing the workloads of multiple people working across teams.

• Developing the programme for the future, including working with the Senior Leadership Team, CEO and Trustees to identify and pursue new opportunities to develop impactful services from our research. 

• Developing and implementing a new framework to measure the impact of the team’s work.

• Keeping the CEO and Board of Trustees updated and maintaining an effective business plan showing clear financial projections to allow for organisational planning.

• Building and maintaining an effective network of relationships across financial services, utilities, telecoms and insurance and a strong personal profile - including acting as a spokesperson for the charity.

• Working with the Senior Leadership Team to maintain a positive culture which motivates all staff and contractors where their wellbeing is cared for, their voice is valued and they are enabled to deliver work to a high standard.

• Effectively managing a budget, demonstrating sound judgement and risk management.

• Ensuring that people with mental health problems continue to be at the heart of the Mental Health Accessible initiative, developing new ways to both involve people directly in the development and delivery of the scheme, and to learn from their experiences.

Person specification

The candidate should have a strong commitment to tackling the link between mental health and money problems. Below is a list of some of the other things we’re looking for in the successful candidate, but please don’t be put off applying if you don’t have every one. Ultimately, we’re looking for a quick learner who is ambitious, creative and motivated by changing lives.

Experience, qualifications, skills and abilities

• Demonstrable track record of establishing or growing a successful initiative or enterprise that generates income

• An entrepreneurial spirit with the ability to think, plan, act and lead strategically, using limited resources to greatest effect and responding to a changing environment

• Strong new business and relationship management skills

• Polished written and oral communication skills, with the ability to influence others, engage and inspire

• Extremely organised, with a proven ability to successfully plan and manage complex projects within deadlines and meeting agreed targets, including budget management

• Experience recruiting, managing and developing the potential of high performing teams

• (Desirable) Experience making sound financial projections

• (Desirable) Knowledge of mental health problems, empathy and the ability to work effectively with people who may be vulnerable

• (Desirable) An existing network of key relationships relevant to the organisation 

• (Desirable) Experience of pricing and contract negotiations

• (Desirable) Knowledge of the regulatory and policy environment in essential services markets

Details

• Reporting to: CEO

• Staff supervised: Two (and a half) team members, multiple external contractors and potential for the team to grow. 

• Annual Gross Salary: £62,729 (Employees who are not London-based receive the same salary, including London-weighting, but pay for their own travel to the office twice a month on average)

• Location: Either London-based, with two days per week in Money and Mental Health’s central London office OR suitable for a home-worker who is able to travel to London a minimum of twice a month.

• The role will require some travel for client meetings

• Hours: Both full-time and part-time applicants considered, at a minimum of four days per week. Job shares, consolidated hours and other flexible working arrangements considered. Please indicate your preferred working hours on application.

• Contract type: Permanent 

• Holidays: 28 days p.a. (including 3 days of annual leave between Christmas and New Year when the office is closed) plus bank holidays 

• Pension: Opportunity to be enrolled in the work pension scheme (subject to meeting standard auto-enrollment qualifying criteria). After auto-enrollment the charity will make a monthly contribution to the scheme equivalent to 5.5% of the monthly gross salary you receive, subject to you making a minimum contribution of 2.5% of the monthly gross salary you receive.

  Other benefits: 

• Every member of the team has a personal training budget with many internal training opportunities too. 

• We offer cycle to work and season ticket loan schemes. 

• The charity provides enhanced maternity/paternity/parental leave terms at an equal rate. All employees eligible for Statutory Maternity/Paternity/Shared Parental Pay receive 90% of their earnings for up to 12 weeks. 

• We operate a flexible working culture. Our core working hours are 10am-3pm and outside of this, and upon agreement from management, employees are free to distribute their working hours across the week as they see fit.

Recruitment process

Closing date: 9am Monday 18 November

Interviews: week commencing 25 November 

We are committed to reducing unconscious bias in our recruitment process. To help with that, we use a platform called Applied which allows us to review applications without seeing details such as names and education details. You will be asked to answer a few questions specifically designed to test the skills we are looking for in the person specification. Your answers will be anonymised (all identifying information will be removed) and randomised; reviewers will score each answer against the skills specified for each question. Reviewers will only see your CV if your scores are high enough to be shortlisted. You can read more about the principles behind the blind review process here. Please note that we do check applicants’ answers against those suggested by Chat GPT and other AI tools, we do not shortlist applications where answers have been lifted from these tools.

We are an equal opportunities employer and Mindful Employer and welcome applications from all, including those with lived experience of a mental health condition and other under-represented groups. We are also committed to improving employment opportunities in the charity sector for minoritised ethnic groups and are particularly keen to receive applications from members of diverse ethnic communities. We are happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments individuals may require in the recruitment process or once in post. We will cover reasonable interview travel expenses.