Children & Families Manager (England)

Job Title:            Community Engagement Lead for Northern Ireland

Hours:                Full-time (35 hours per week), permanent,  with term-time only and job-share options considered

                           (some elements of this role will likely require out of hours working) 

Remuneration:    £30-35,000 FTE (job-share / term-time only options considered)

Reports to           Dual reporting to 'Director of Policy & Research' and the 'Head of Membership'

Main purpose and scope of Role

As we continue to deliver our growth agenda to support more schools, parents and children, the new role of Community Engagement Lead for Northern Ireland will be a key in our important work to support and grow our community of four hundred Parent Teacher Associations, as well deepening and extending our relationships with policymakers and other organisations and individuals invested in the outcomes of schools, parents and children across Northern Ireland. 

As part of the ambitious team, this role will be responsible for driving forward our newly developed ‘Parent Manifesto’, growing awareness of and relationships with Parentkind current and potential stakeholders, as well as working with our central team to deliver PTA Community growth and support. 

Further to this, The Community Engagement Lead for Northern Ireland will also work with the Director of Policy and Research to understand and develop Parentkind’s position as the voice of parents in Northern Ireland. This will include work to develop specific policy positions for Northern Ireland and supporting an All Party Group that Parentkind has links with. 

Planning and Best Practice:

Schools, Senior School Leaders and Parents

• Develop and implement a strategy to engage NI school leaders.
• Attending appropriate conferences and educational meetings across Northern Ireland. 
• Developing relationships with key local authorities and individuals so they advocate our services and the benefits of PTAs. 
• Identify any opportunities for external funding to support membership sales from local authorities or the Northern Ireland Executive. 
• Proactively drive new business, ensuring quality contact with prospective schools, and other organisations.
• Developing and implementing strategies to increase PTA Community retention.

Member PTAs:

• Building relationships with PTAs, meeting and supporting them with fundraising guidance, succession planning, conflict resolution and similar.  Particular emphasis on PTAs that may be struggling or at risk of closure.
• Maintenance of all data records in Salesforce or similar
• Monitoring member feedback, comments and suggestions to develop Parentkind’s offering 
• Providing support for members by telephone, email, or online

 Non-Member PTAs

• In co-ordination with the Head of Membership, develop and implement new growth initiatives, strategies and programmes 
• Engage schools working with the Senior Leadership Team to engage the PTA and bring them into the Parentkind community.
• Establish a series of “Coffee Mornings” enabling Members and non-members to meet, growing a sense of Parentkind PTA community and togetherness. 
• Preparing growth forecasts and records to determine effectiveness of activity.  

People Management

• This role has no people management at this time although may do so in the future.

Policy influencing 

• Meeting with and positively influencing stakeholders and policy-makers to achieve progress against agreed policy aims 
• Attending relevant conferences and seminars focussing on education in Northern Ireland 
• Working with public affairs professionals to manage and deliver an ambitious stakeholder engagement programme  
• Respond and contribute to relevant consultations which would benefit from Parentkind’s evidence base and research 
• Communicate ongoing policy changes in the Northern Ireland context to Parentkind’s wider policy and research team
• Supporting policy development and policy recommendations specific to Northern Ireland

Organisational Effectiveness: 

• Create and implement operational annual plans and schedules to support our Northern Ireland community growth aspirations, ensuring that time specific milestones for the delivery of are met
• Regularly report on the health of our Northern Ireland campaings, through identified KPIs and organisational targets
• Identify, evaluate and alleviate our Northern Ireland campaign risks and issues arising and mitigations
• Communicate our Northern Ireland campaign regularly to other teams, with the aim of ensuring all colleagues are aware of all areas of work 
• Work with the Head of Membership to prepare and oversee the effective management of budgets
• Ensure all knowledge and information is recorded, processed and maintained according to good administration practice

General

• To keep abreast of relevant educational policy and legislation affecting our key audiences
• To be flexible within the broad remit of the post
• To undertake other duties as reasonably requested by the CEO and the Executive Leadership Team 
• To be self-servicing
• To attend and participate in our performance, development and training programmes
• To abide by organisational policies, codes of conduct and practices
• To be responsible for the health, safety, welfare of self, other members of staff and visitors
• Participating in and, as necessary, assisting with our conferences

About Parentkind

Parentkind is a national federated charity that aims to advance education by encouraging the fullest cooperation between home and school, education authorities, central government and all other interested parties and bodies. We are proud to be the membership organisation for parent teacher associations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  Parentkind seeks to represent all these parent groups as they strive to help every child in their school, and we are proud to have supported our membership of 13,000 PTAs to raise £1 Billion for their schools during the past decade. 

As well as helping parent groups on the ground, we provide resources to support parent participation in education at school and home so that every child can thrive and reach their potential. Ultimately, we want more parents to be empowered to be involved and engaged in their child’s education. The evidence is clear that parental participation in education benefits children in schools and society and increases the opportunities for social mobility for our younger generations. 

We are working towards a future where this is considered an essential ingredient in the success of our children’s education by society, schools, and parents themselves by:

• Engaging and inspiring individual parents
• Supporting our PTA and other member associations and growing the number if PTAs across the UK
• Helping schools be parent-friendly through guidance and training
• Working with partners
• Championing the role of those with parental responsibility in their child’s education through our research and by influencing education sector interests and policymakers.

The charity's impact is significant, and our work ensures that parent and carer voices are heard at a local, regional, and national level.