SOCIAL FINANCE – DIRECTOR

About Social Finance

We are an ambitious not for profit group organisation aiming to achieve lasting social change that enables people to lead fulfilling lives. We collaborate with governments, funders, community organisations and the wider social sector to create breakthrough solutions to challenging social problems in the UK and internationally.

Founded in 2007, our team shares a passion for social impact and includes over 100 employees with a blend of experiences from the public, commercial and voluntary sectors. Our people bring a unique set of skills in digital, data, research, operations, policy, facilitation and financial analysis that is highly valued by our partners in social change. We are based in Vauxhall, London with sister organisations in the US, Israel, India and the Netherlands, as part of the Social Finance Global Network. We are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

What we do

We develop models, products and services that are pragmatic and have the scope to drive systemic change to improve people’s lives. In the UK, we focus on issues such as homelessness, domestic abuse, mental health, learning difficulties, loneliness and vulnerable children on the edge of the care system. We also look to improve equity for marginalised communities in social services. Internationally, we design outcomes-based models for issues such as maternal and neonatal health, education and employment.

Diversity and Inclusion

We need a diverse organisation to be effective. Our work requires us to bring together people with a broad range of skills and life experiences to ensure our impact across a range of social issues and systems. We are committed to having an inclusive culture and working environment in which everyone feels at home and is supported to achieve their potential. We know there is further to go and are implementing a Diversity and Inclusion strategy with a group of external experts to hold us to account.

We actively encourage applications from under-represented and minoritised groups, including those with lived experience of the social issues we are working to address. We are an equal opportunities employer.

We support a range of flexible working options and welcome applications from outside of London/the South East. We can also accommodate secondments and part-time working.

The Opportunity

Social Finance are looking for a Director to help connect present Social Finance programmes into different areas of government and lead the development and management of a portfolio of social change projects, providing the strategic direction as well as supporting implementation.

Example projects might be:

• Working with our data/digital team, a local authority and community partners to analyse ethnicity data of a service and improve equity of access and outcomes for marginalised groups;

• Developing an outcomes fund with a central government department to support local authorities in efforts to transform services and increase their focus on outcomes;

• Working with a local authority to reshape their early help offer for children, improving targeting and support to reduce the number of children entering the care system.

About You

We welcome a diverse range of lived experience. If you are passionate about partnering with and challenging government to improve the lives of people in marginalised or excluded communities, we’d love to hear from you. We appreciate that there are many ways to gain relevant experience, through both lived and professional experience, through traditional and non-traditional routes. We welcome applicants who can bring a fresh perspective to our work and have some of the following skills and experiences:

• A background in or working with local or central government to transform services is desirable;

• Demonstrable entrepreneurial approach to creating change and the ability to develop a franchise;

• Comfortable to challenge government to think differently and to work with changemakers within government to effect change;

• Ability to develop networks at varying levels of seniority and work across different levels of government;

• Understanding of significant underlying challenges/failures (e.g. long-term inequalities) in how government operates in the UK and ability to build a strategy to try to reverse them;

• Experience of bringing lived experience and community voice into shaping and redesigning services;

• Understanding of the strategic use of data to deliver improvements in government;

• Comfortable working adaptably in a relatively small team;

• Collaborative and able to help colleagues across Social Finance shape their offer to different levels of government: locally, regionally and nationally.

Key Responsibilities

• Identify opportunities to work with local or national government around specific social issues with the ambition of demonstrable impact and lasting change.

• Lead various teams delivering projects into government, often involving partners such as Voluntary and Community Sector organisations, foundations or external suppliers.

• Build on an already established pipeline of activity around specific issues (complex needs, homelessness, housing, SEND) and approaches (service transformation, outcome-based commissioning).

• Develop networks and stay abreast of emerging policy and funding so that Social Finance can react to opportunities.

• Provide strategic understanding of issues faced by government to help Social Finance shape its offer and narrative around its work areas and its response to the challenges highlighted by Covid.

• Position Social Finance’s broader work, and its role in developing social change programmes, within government and enhance the profile of our work.

• Play a part in sustaining Social Finance’s thought leadership within government around a focus on outcomes.

• Provide wider support and development to Social Finance and its people.

Our Commitment to You

Social Finance offers a range of training and development support, using both in-house expertise and external partners to develop and deliver our training programmes. All new staff have a buddy in place to help them learn about life at Social Finance.

The fixed salary for this position is £90,000 per annum. We offer a generous holiday allowance plus bank holidays and corporate leave between Christmas and New Year when the office is closed. We also offer a contributory stakeholder pension scheme, plus an uplift in salary allowance to spend on other benefits, season ticket loans, bike to work schemes and Give as you Earn via salary sacrifice.

Encouraging community and wellbeing is important to us. We have a health and wellbeing plan to encourage better working practices for individuals. Social Finance is a disability confident committed employer as well as a founding signature of the UK social investment sector’s Diversity Forum manifesto.

Our Values

Everyone at Social Finance believes that change is possible. Our unique blend of skills and backgrounds enables us to create breakthrough solutions to society’s toughest problems. To help us do it, we have three core values that guide everything we do:

Pioneering Spirits

Be ambitious for lasting change and don’t stop until social systems truly meet people’s needs.

Change is hard but by juggling social insight, business flair and practical savvy we make it happen.

Curious Minds

Unearth the evidence, ask awkward questions and don’t give up until we get the right answer.

Through rigorous thinking and learning from others we generate ideas that make a big social impact.

Respectful Hearts

Be all ears, see all angles – we seek to understand, not to blame.

We embrace diverse backgrounds to build strong teams and create lasting partnerships for change.

If this sounds like you, then we’d love to hear more.

More information about us can be found on our website: www.socialfinance.org.uk