Chief Executive Officer

This is a great senior management role for someone eager to make a significant difference to an amazing arts and mental health charity. 

We are looking for someone with a flexible and creative approach who is open and proactive in working with external partners to deliver high-quality work for the community.

Using the resources we have and the new ones we'll be creating, you will bring your own skills, creativity and passion, to make your own mark. 

If you are that person, then we can offer you an outstanding opportunity to develop your career whilst making the Ark-T Centre a beacon of excellence, ensuring a better, brighter and more prosoerous future for all those in Oxford and the wider community.

Specific Duties:
Strategic Planning and Development
Alongside the Board of Trustees and the Senior Management Team:

• Monitoring and updating the Business Plan
• Developing and implementing a financial strategy for the Business Plan
• Oversight and updating of organisational Theory of Change, ensuring KPIs for all programmes are in line with our vision and mission, and are achievable as well as ambitious
• Continued development and monitoring of the new Community Hub Programme in partnership with other local strategic partnerships
• Prioritising the articulation and communication of the Ark-T methodology and approaches to using the arts for improved wellbeing and mental health across our programmes and sharing best practice across the team
• Prioritising the reach and engagement of Ark-T programmes to a larger and more diverse audience representative of our surrounding communities
• Recruiting an increasingly diverse team of Trustees with the skills, contacts and time to contribute effectively to the running of the charity
Management of Staff, Freelancers and Volunteers

• Recruiting key staff and others.
• Leading, managing and developing direct reports and supporting them in managing their key workers – staff, freelancers and volunteers.
• Ensuring that processes for the recruitment and management of volunteers are developed and maintained
• Liaising with external HR consultants to update procedure and processes appropriately and managing staffing matters arising
• Enabling a safe, stimulating and supportive workplace where teams and activities can flourish and work standards and practices are maintained.
• Taking steps to ensure that staff and freelancers attain high standards of work.
• Ensuring that staff have, or can develop, the skills and abilities they need to carry out their jobs competently, safely and effectively.
• Maintaining and updating safeguarding standards and procedures and working with staff to ensure that staff and users are, and feel, safe.
• Acting as one of the two Safeguarding Leads for the charity and managing concerns from staff, users and visitors to the centres.
Finance & Fundraising
• Researching and writing funding bids to secure both restricted and unrestricted funds
• Exploring other possible sources of funding for programmes and core costs, including individual donors, corporate sponsorship and commercial opportunities.
• Working with the  Finance Manager, Treasurer, and external
Bookkeeper, including using Xero software, to monitor the finances of the charity to ensure that sufficient funds are attracted to run planned programmes, meet the commitments of the charity within agreed budgets, and produce regular reports.
• Maintaining adequate reserves for the charity in line with policy.
• Preparing the annual report and accounts for submission to the Charity Commission to be independently examined alongside the Chair and the Bookkeeper.
Management of the Buildings
• Overseeing relationship with Landlords and tenancy agreements
• Managing Centre Manager to ensure efficient and cost-effective operations.
Partnerships & Representing the organisation
• Represent Ark-T as a leader in arts for improved mental health and wellbeing, driving change, particularly diversity and inclusion through influencing and contributing to the key meetings.
• Maintaining relationships and strategic partnership agreements with OX4 Food Crew Alliance, Oxford Community Action, Donnington Doorstep, Safe! and Waste2Taste.
Communications
• Overseeing the marketing and communications for Ark-T.
• Ensuring that key stakeholders are kept informed of the progress of the charity,
including the publication of an organisational wide impact report in 2024.