About the team

Kinship is in the third year of delivering the first national peer support service for kinship carers in England. We have created 145 peer support groups and supported and trained kinship carers to create and lead their groups in a way which meets their needs.

With a new contract from the Department for Education, we’re now entering a new phase of our service with a focus on:

• creating 90 new sustainable peer support groups in areas of most need over 21 months;

• sustaining and developing the current 145 existing groups; and

• providing support and help to build a sustainable and welcoming community for all peer support groups across England. 

This role will mobilise, develop and innovate our existing offer into a new Peer Support Hub with the focus on supporting sustainability and building resilience of peer support groups and their leaders. You will support and build our Kinship peer support community.

You’ll work with group leaders to develop a central hub of accessible and useful resources to help them to sustain their groups, working with colleagues right across Kinship to promote consistent access to services and activities (training, programmes, information, advice and campaigns), building a joined-up user experience. 

You’ll ensure we use data and insight to innovate the Hub.

About the role

The role of the Peer Support Hub Lead is to oversee and take accountability for sustaining kinship peer support groups across England in priority areas as part of a new hub and spoke delivery model.

In this context, your team is the centralised ‘hub’ of the service, delivering an exciting programme of training, speakers, toolkits and resources to help peer support group leaders develop, build and sustain their group well.

Your team will make sure groups feel connected and supported, learn from each other and build a powerful and resilient peer community. 

Managing a national team of three, you will develop a strategy and operational plan to build on and mobilise a new peer support community.

The type of person we’re looking for:

Dynamic and people-centred, this role is about developing a supportive community of peer support groups nationally. You’ll understand the power of relationships and be an excellent communicator. You’ll understand how communities hold their own power and your team will help unlock that. Innovation is key to the success of the Hub and you’ll ensure you’re using best practice and learning to develop it.

An excellent communicator, you’ll develop external partnerships to support group sustainability. You’ll ensure through the National Peer Support Connector role that peer communities are connected and engaging with the new National Kinship Care Ambassador.

You’ll be comfortable with using digital technology and tools to build communities and develop resources.

Key responsibilities include:

• Ongoing innovation of the Hub service, embedding best practice, digital innovation and learning to develop a thriving peer community.

• Develop, deliver and take accountability including strategic oversight for an annual operational plan for the peer support hub.

• Work with Head of Marketing to develop an integrated promotional plan.

• Work with Head of Network Development to coordinate national partnerships.

Essential requirements include:

• Experience in delivering a high-profile national service or programme. This includes overseeing delivery, operational planning, monitoring, budgeting, managing delivery, meeting KPIs, stakeholder engagement and reporting to funders.

• Experience of effective budget management.

• Experience working in a role focused on one or more of the following areas; communications (including digital communications) or marketing.

• Significant experience of developing and delivering successful community engagement strategies.

Download the full job pack here

Key dates:

Deadline: 12pm on Friday 7 June 2024

Interviews: Thursday 13 June 2024 (online)

How to apply:

We will ask you for your CV and to respond to five questions via the Applied platform. Please note that all answers will be viewed anonymously by reviewers and CVs will not be viewed until after this sift has happened. This is the first opportunity to demonstrate your experience and to stand out in the recruitment process. Reviewers will not see all your answers together until all the questions have been reviewed and the CV has been reviewed separately. They will be marking on the strength of the response to each question. Once this is complete, both will be reviewed together. You will have 250 words per answer.

Questions for application (along with CV):

1.      Why you want to work at Kinship in this role, and how do your values align to the Kinship ones? Please include a bit about your experience in this section.

2.     Please give one example of when you have had to develop from scratch OR innovate a national service. Please include what the service budget was, what you did and what the outcome was. Please relate to this job role where possible.

3.     You’ll be leading the new ‘hub’ team within the Peer Support Service, developing and innovating our model for support group leaders (who are also kinship carers). You will need to work at pace, while providing strong leadership and clarity to the team. How would you approach the first three months, what will you prioritise and what will you need?

4.     Please give one example of where you have previously built or innovated a powerful and resilient peer community including in person and digital delivery. What was key to your success?

5.     We’re building a thriving community of kinship carers across our peer support service. Looking at the job description and job pack, what would be your ambition for our national peer support hub?