Do you believe everyone has the right to enough to live on? Do you believe that shifting power to people living in financial hardship will help create the changes needed to tackle the systems that cause financial hardship?

Turn2us is a national charity tackling poverty. We give grants to people living in financial insecurity and provide information to support people to understand their rights to social security, and other available grants they may be able to access. We are working to break down the barriers that cause financial hardship including racism, gender inequality, classism, ableism and homophobia. 

At Local Programmes, we want to work with people where they live, in the communities and organisations they trust. We want to create programmes that support lasting change, both to people’s lives and to the systems that cause financial insecurity.

The Barking & Dagenham Programme Manager will lead this local programme in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. The Programme Manager will work closely with local communities and develop trusted relationships to reach out to excluded residents and co-produce a vision and delivery for achieving financial security in the borough. The postholder will report to the Co-Heads of Local Programmes and manage a Project Support Officer.

We are looking for a passionate and driven individual with experience of working with communities to grow power, co-design projects and programmes, and be skilled at working through conflicting priorities in inclusive and transparent ways.  The individual should feel comfortable managing a range of relationships and be able to balance Turn2us’ organisational values with adapting to community cultures. The individual should also be reflective and accountable for sharing learning within the wider team.

We want to hear from candidates who are comfortable with exploring and learning from others, being accountable to the communities they work with, recognising and shifting power, and who want to make long-lasting change.

Job Description

Job Title: Barking and Dagenham Programme Manager         

Department: Local Programmes, Programmes & Partnerships Directorate  

Reports to: Co-head of Local Programmes  

Direct Reports: Barking and Dagenham Support Officer

Location: Hybrid: Turn2us London Hub (Hammersmith) & Barking and Dagenham & homeworking

Type of role: Permanent, full-time. (Please note this role was previously advertised as part-time and is now a full-time role.) 

Purpose of the Role: The Turn2us Local Programmes Team is developing place-based programmes to address the symptoms of and tackles the causes of financial insecurity. The Barking and Dagenham Local Programme has been running for 18 months. We are currently working across three locations in Barking and Dagenham working to design solutions to financial insecurity with residents. This role will continue to work in partnership with local organisations and residents to develop and oversee an innovative, coproduced, high impact local programme of support that includes grants and information so that people living in financial insecurity have the opportunity to build financial security and thrive in the places where they live. 

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

Programme Development and Delivery 

·       To work with residents and local partner organisations to develop innovative, co-produced, high impact local programmes that seek to end financial insecurity in the borough.  

• To oversee the implementation of the programme ensuring it meets local need, has embedded culture of accountability, transparency, partnership and remains in budget. 

• To ensure there is a rights-based approach with clear Equality Diversity & Inclusion, wellbeing, accessibility and safeguarding lenses in the programme. 

• To support the work of the Support Officer to develop a deep understanding of the nature of financial insecurity in Barking and Dagenham and add value to efforts to end it.  

• To develop and maintain relationships with co-production partners, local organisations, decision-makers and funders.  

• Ensure all programmes embody the values of the organisation.  

• To contribute to the development and implementation of the Turn2us rights-based approach with clear EDI, wellbeing, accessibility and safeguarding lenses integrated into all of our programming.  

• To implement safeguarding approaches in the programme and ensure we are working collaboratively on safeguarding with partners.  

• To work with Turn2us’ fundraising & external affairs colleagues to develop and implement a fundraising and communications strategy for the programme. 

• To contribute to the development of Turn2us’ place-based programming.  

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning  

• With the Impact and Insight Team develop and deliver a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning plan framework for the programme.  

• To share learnings widely in conjunction with Turn2us external affairs team across the organisation and track and share learnings and to understand the impact of the programme. 

• Work with the Co-Heads of Local Programmes and the Turn2us External Affairs team to share this learning locally and nationally as appropriate. 

To work to shift power to those closest to the problem of financial insecurity 

• ·       To work with local partners to develop and share learning about making systemic change to financial insecurity and use this to develop an impactful programme in Barking and Dagenham. 

• To support local partnerships to influence policy and investment decision makers, in partnership with the Turn2us external affairs team.  

• To embed an understanding of social justice issues in the UK in the programme and enable space for community conversations about these and to support lived experts and local partners to challenge the systemic causes of poverty.  

These are the normal duties, which the Charity requires from the position. However, it is necessary for all staff to be flexible and all employees will be required from time to time to perform other duties as may be required by the Charity for the efficient running of the charity. This Job Description is non-contractual. It will be reviewed from time to time and may be subject to change.

At Turn2us, we are committed to protecting personnel, children, adults, and service users from any harm arising from each other, themselves, our activities, or organisational failings whilst in contact with us. The post holder will be required to follow the safeguarding policy and will be responsible for integrating safeguarding into all aspects of their work.

The post holder will be expected to ensure that their work complies with contractual terms and conditions, the Charity’s policies and procedures and key legislation, such as data protection and charity law.

 Person Specification

 Skills:            

• Strong facilitation skills. 

• IT literate, including spreadsheets, email and word documents. 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English. 

• Understanding of co-production including the role of safeguarding and data protection/GDPR.                                                                               

Knowledge:              

• Knowledge of economic inequality and how gender, race, disability, age and other factors intersect to exacerbate it.  

• Knowledge of working to make systemic change.  

Experience:

• Experience of developing programmes through co-production.  

• Experience of working on programmes with multiple stakeholders and across teams. 

• Experience of managing budgets.  

• Experience of working on issues of financial insecurity.  

• Experience of working with a wide range of stakeholders including in partnership with community groups.  

• Experience of Fundraising.  

Personal Attributes:            

• Committed to shifting power to those closest to the problem of financial insecurity. 

• Be a champion for co-production and user-led design to deliver positive change. 

• An understanding of taking a learning approach and how to embed learning in organisations. 

• Ability to travel across the UK. 

Turn2us is fully committed to equity, diversity and inclusion in our sector. We want this to be reflected in the diversity of the people who work for us and we are interested in applications from people from varied backgrounds.