Summary

We are the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Historic England have a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Head of Participation Programmes where you will create, develop and lead ambitious, accessible and inclusive programmes that support Historic England’s corporate strategies and increase active participation among existing and new audiences.

Working with Participation Programmes team members, and colleagues across Communications and Public Engagement, you will plan and deliver an engaging series of activities – often working in partnership with creative and arts organisations to do so - that deliver Historic England’s participation ambitions, aligning with our strategic vision, audience priorities and overall purpose.

You will make connections with partners and networks to deliver programmes that get us noticed and resonate with audiences.  You will bring innovation, vision and creativity to shape the participation programmes we deliver and inspire people to understand, enjoy and care for their history and heritage.  Rooted in increasing our social impact, and demonstrating heritage’s positive role in society, you will create programmes that support people’s wellbeing and connection to place.

Your remit will include high impact participative programming at a local and national scale encompassing cultural programming, community and youth-led participation programmes, and you will also co-lead the newly formed National Blue Plaques Scheme.  These strands of activity are delivered and supported through creative commissions, grant-funded programmes, volunteering and digital engagement.

You will work closely with our Archive, Communities, Heritage Schools and Inclusive Heritage teams, ensuring the work across the Participation and Learning department is integrated and supports our corporate aims. You will also contribute to wide reaching behaviour change campaigns and our targeted thought leadership work responding to corporate priorities.

You will report to the Participation and Learning Director, work directly with the Communications and Public Engagement Leadership Team, and with colleagues across the organisation to bring us closer to our audiences, share and celebrate our work, communicate the benefits and value of the historic environment with everyone and connect us to the public, at scale.

The location of this role is National where we offer hybrid working, you will be based in one of our following offices and from home - Newcastle, York, Manchester, Birmingham, Swindon, Bristol, Portsmouth and Cambridge. 

Salary

National: £50,736 - £54,560

Cambridge: £52,298 - £56,239

What you will be doing

Strategy

Lead and develop public facing participation programmes as a core strand of Historic England’s Active Participation approach, helping the public engage with, and participate in, the historic environment.

Be responsible for innovative, proactive and integrated programmes that bring Historic England’s stories to life, connecting people to place so they discover and enjoy their local heritage.

Deliver a coherent, curated and themed set of participative activities that engage people in Historic England’s public-facing work, grow our audiences and shape how we work with people in the future.

Coordinate cross-organisational activity that delivers public facing activity and supports long-term corporate strategies such as our wellbeing and inclusion, diversity and equality strategies, and other corporate priorities outlined in the corporate plan. 

Leadership

Inspire, lead and motivate the Participation Programmes team to develop innovative public engagement activities in line with audience insights and the broader Active Participation and Connected Communities strategic approaches. 

Be an active member of the Communications and Public Engagement Leadership Team, working collaboratively with peers to deliver against corporate priorities. 

Deliver innovative, audience-led public engagement programmes and projects that support broader Government Policy and emphasise our social impact.

Test and pilot new ways of working, that develop Historic England’s approach to Active Participation.

Co-Lead the National Blue Plaques Scheme alongside Regions colleagues, ensuring effective delivery, stakeholder engagement and community value.

Delivery

Effectively manage, monitor and allocate budget for participation programmes projects and programmes, in line with finance policy and procedure. Apply and deliver projects within Historic England’s Public Value Framework.

Develop a rolling three to five-year plan of programmes, including our cultural programme, ensuring they benefit from long lead times and good cross-group planning processes. 

Working with relevant colleagues, co-ordinate cross-group programmes of activity that support the work of the Participation and Learning department (Archive and Library, Inclusive Heritage and Communities, Heritage Schools).

Actively evaluate, track and monitor the impact of our programming activity, including setting KPIs and other measures of success.

Partnerships

Cultivate, broker and manage partnerships to co-deliver specific programmes of activity, promote partnership working and increase awareness of Historic England among priority audiences. 

Create and maintain a good network of contacts from across all relevant sectors.

Learning

Stay up-to-date on sector developments, partnerships and news with a view to placing Historic England at the heart of best practice programming expertise

Cross-Group Working 

Be a public engagement ambassador across the organisation, including joining groups and boards as required and as agreed with the Participation & Learning Director.

Management

Effectively line manage the Participation Programmes team, ensuring all members of the team are supported, empowered and have the skills and experience they need to deliver against their job descriptions.

As a manager, ensure our legal obligations and the expectations set out in our policies are met, including health & safety, equality & diversity, finance, procurement, information security, etc.

Be an exemplar for the Historic England values and behaviours.

Where necessary, work flexibly to cover strategic issues in response to changing national organisational and group priorities.

Who we are looking for

• Ability to deliver work to support strategic frameworks

• Participation programme experience

• Experience of leading change and supporting innovation

• Leadership and people management

• Building and managing effective partnerships and networks

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having just won the Gold Award from MIND, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 28% contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at recruitmentTeam@Historicengland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries. 

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

Interview dates: week commencing 3rd June 2024 - MS Teams

Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description –

https://historicengland.org.uk/media/pcrmyl2f/head-of-participation-programmes.odt