Chief Executive Officer

Main purpose of job: To lead and develop CARA, taking overall responsibility for the operational and financial management, generating income, working closely with the board of trustees to achieve CARA’s strategic and budgetary aims, whilst ensuring compliance with statutory, contractual, and regulatory requirements.

Start date: To be agreed with the appointed candidate (subject to Enhanced DBS Check and satisfactory references).

Salary: £55,000 - £60,000

Hours: Your hours of work are as required to perform the duties of your role, for a full-time employee this is normally 35 hours per week. 

Contract: Permanent

Place of work: At least two days a week in the Colchester office, with some home working, regular travel across Essex and occasional travel in the East Region.           

Holiday: 25 days per year pro-rata, plus additional closure days between Christmas and New Year.

To apply: Please complete the application form, which can be downloaded from our website, explaining how your skills and experience relate to the person specification.

Application deadline:  10am, Thursday 16th May 2024.

Interviews:  Tuesday 4th June, in Colchester.

This post is restricted to women applicants under the Equality Act 2010, Schedule 9, Part 1.

Job Description

The post of Chief Executive Officer offers an exciting opportunity to steer CARA through the next stage of its development, providing leadership to the talented and committed CARA team. The role will involve building on the considerable growth and development that CARA has achieved over the last 10 years, securing funding to ensure it can continue to provide excellent specialist services to survivors of sexual violence and take steps towards CARA's vision of a world without sexual violence and child sexual abuse.

CARA’s CEO is responsible for leading and developing CARA, taking overall responsibility for the operational and financial management, generating income, working closely with the board of trustees to achieve CARA’s strategic and budgetary aims, whilst ensuring compliance with statutory, contractual, and regulatory requirements.

The main responsibilities of the CEO are:

Strategic leadership:

• Work with the Board of Trustees and the Head of Operations, and consult with staff, survivors, and others, to develop and define a clear, strong vision and direction for the future of the organisation.
• Lead on and be responsible for the creation, ongoing development and implementation of the organisation’s strategic, business and annual plans.
• Foster, model and promote an inclusive, feminist, anti-racist organisational culture that reflects CARA’s ethos and values.
• Be accountable to the Board of Trustees for the overall financial health of the organisation.

Good governance:

• Report and present to the Board of Trustees on the organisation’s progress against its budgets, plans, any risks, challenges and changes, and all information relevant and necessary to the effective discharge of the Board’s duties, including strategic decision-making.
• Develop and share proposals with the Board for the implementation of its objectives and the ongoing development of the organisation.
• Support the Board of Trustees in its ongoing process of self-assessment, development and improving its diversity and representation.
• Ensure the charity meets its constitutional, regulatory and legal obligations.

Business development:

• Develop and implement an income generation strategy that ensures the organisation’s sustainability and enables its sustainable growth.
• Work in partnership with the Head of Operations to develop and implement the organisational structures needed for effective delivery of CARA’s objectives and sustainable growth.
• Generate new and various funding and income opportunities through networking, developing partnerships.
  • To research and identify new funding and commissioning opportunities and complete bids and applications on an ongoing basis.
• Increase the unrestricted income of the charity, including developing, proposing and implementing new and innovative approaches to its income generation activities, including working closely with the CEO of Icena.
• Be responsible for maintaining and developing strong, long-term relationships with a diverse range funders and donors, both existing and new.

Representation:

• To act as lead representative for CARA in the Synergy Essex Rape Crisis Partnership, developing strong working relationships with the other partners and negotiating CARA’s role, responsibilities and the financial allocations it receives from the partnership. 
• To keep up-to-date with current developments affecting victims and survivors of sexual violence and ensure that CARA responds appropriately to these developments.  
• To be the chief spokeswoman for CARA, responding to media and other enquiries as appropriate and playing a pro-active role in bringing relevant issues to the attention of the public, issuing press releases and initiating debate, as appropriate.
• Build, support and oversee strong relationships with individuals and organisations across the voluntary, public and private sectors, and in local and national government.
• To contribute to Rape Crisis England and Wales campaigns and other campaigns, as appropriate.
• To remain informed of national and regional Rape Crisis perspectives, drawing on Rape Crisis England and Wales expertise and resources as appropriate.

Organisational management:

• Ensure policies and processes that support good communication, staff health and well-being, and safe and effective delivery of work are in place and adhered to throughout the organisation.
• Take overall responsibility for the staff team, its management and performance.
• Capture the organisation’s work through robust monitoring and evaluation, and ensure CARA’s impact and any learning is shared throughout the team and with the Board, survivors, funders and other partners as appropriate.
• Oversee and ensure robust financial management processes for the charity.

Other:

• To oversee safeguarding at CARA, working with the Designated Safeguarding Leads to ensure effective policies and procedures are in place and communicated to staff, trustees, sessional counsellors and volunteers, and that CARA follows best safeguarding practice.
• To adhere to all CARA’s organisational policies and procedures.
• To be administratively self-servicing, and to share responsibility for a range of day-to-day tasks with the Head of Operations and other team members.
• To undertake other related activities as required by Board of Trustees.

This list is indicative only, not exhaustive. It is intended to reflect a range of duties the post-holder will be expected to perform but additional duties commensurate with the role may be required. The job description will be reviewed from time to time and may change in light of experience and changing circumstances, in consultation with the post-holder.

 About CARA

CARA (Centre for Action on Rape and Abuse) works with victims and survivors of sexual violence and child sexual abuse, providing independent, specialist support and promoting and representing their rights and needs. 

CARA's vision is of a world without sexual violence and child sexual abuse.  As a step towards this vision, we do all we can to create a culture where victims and survivors are believed, supported and treated with fairness and respect.

CARA is a registered charity working with adults, young people and children from across mid and north Essex. We have a head office in Colchester and outreach premises in Braintree, Chelmsford, Clacton-on-Sea, Great Dunmow and Harwich. We also provide remote services.

CARA currently employs 39 full and part-time staff and has an annual income of approximately £1.6 million.

CARA's Aims

1. To provide high quality, specialist support to victims and survivors of sexual violence and child sexual abuse.
2. To increase awareness and understanding of sexual violence and child sexual abuse and the impact they have on victims and survivors, challenging myths and misconceptions.
3. To promote and represent the rights and needs of victims and survivors, including advocating for a fairer criminal justice system.

CARA's Values

Feminism.  Respect.  Empowerment.  Equality

CARA is a women-led organisation and we work from an intersectional feminist perspective.  We actively seek to ensure equality of women as a service provider and as an employer.

The core values of respect, empowerment and equality underpin everything we do.

CARA's commitment to diversity and inclusion

CARA seeks to be an inclusive organisation that actively encourages, supports and values diversity amongst both our service-users and our workers.  We wish to create a culture in which discrimination, in all its forms, is recognised and addressed. CARA is committed to anti-racism and are currently developing an Anti-racism Policy. Through this work, we will be aiming to dismantle barriers within CARA to ensure we do not continue to perpetuate institutional racism and can create a truly inclusive environment for our service-users and our workers.

You can read more about CARA’s commitment to diversity and inclusion here.

We encourage and welcome applications from candidates from Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse backgrounds.

About Synergy Essex

CARA is part of Synergy Essex – the Essex Rape and Sexual Abuse Partnership. We work with SERICC Rape and Sexual Abuse Specialist Service and Southend-on-Sea Rape Crisis (SOS Rape Crisis) to deliver the contract for the Office for the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) for Essex for services for victims and survivors of sexual violence and child sexual abuse across Essex, Southend and Thurrock. Synergy Essex also shares a number of other projects, funded by the Ministry of Justice, Essex County Council and the National Lottery Community Fund.

Our current PFCC contract ends in March 2025. Synergy Essex intends to submit a bid for the new contract, which is expected to be put out to tender in the summer of 2024.

About Icena

CARA is a founding stakeholder of Icena - a social enterprise offering training and consultancy to eradicate sexual discrimination and violence. The creation of Icena forms part of CARA’s sustainability strategy:  Once Icena is generating sufficient profit, a share of this profit will be used to support CARA’s work.