Insight And Impact Manager

We are seeking to recruit a person with passion for our purpose and a collaborative spirit to be the strategic lead on our football and multisport commitment.

The multi-sport facilities commitment is a key priority within Sport England’s Uniting the Movement Implementation Plan. As part of this commitment, up to £224 million of Government funding is being invested into football facilities for 2022-25 through the Football Foundation, with a minimum of 40% of that investment required to benefit other sports.

We are seeking a strategic lead who will focus on supporting our Active Partnership network to activate football and multi-sport community sites through influencing policy, distributing funds and working closely with key National Governing Bodies, sporting and football stakeholders to develop positive and sustainable relationships.

This role and the work of colleagues, including local Active Partnerships, ensures local communities have more access to places to play football and other sports in their local area and aligns with Sport England’s Uniting the Movement strategy.

The strategic lead will also work closely with the Multi-Sport programme manager and Active Environment lead to oversee the Multi-Sport Activity and Facilities Fund, which was announced last year and which will provide revenue funding to deliver multi-sport activity and some small-scale capital test and learn investment. Close working with the eight regional leads who liaise with local Active Partnerships will also be vital.

The Active Partnerships National Organisation (ANPO) will work on the programme alongside key partners.  These include Active Partnerships from across the network to deliver the fund locally, the Football Foundation, the LTA Parks Tennis, England Hockey, and Sport England. The latter has invested £8 million of National Lottery funding across a four-year period.  

The fund is an opportunity for local communities to fully benefit from facility activation investment in their area, where an opportunity for new multi-sport activity has been identified. The fund will focus on activating PlayZones and other Football Foundation 3G or grass pitches, parks (Lawn Tennis Association Parks Tennis) and artificial grass pitch sites (England Hockey) in targeted areas. Selection is based on criteria such as Active Partnerships priority places and Sport England’s place-based expansion.

Roles and Responsibilities

•Develop and lead relationships with Sport England and strategic partners, specifically with National Governing Bodies (NGBs) leads and the Football Foundation.

•Link to and support wider areas of football work through Sport England, the Football Foundation, the Football Association and other football partners, ensuring strong connectivity with the Active Partnerships network. 

•Be responsible and accountable for developing and delivering against an agreed strategic and operational framework, including risk management, governance, and evaluation.

•Develop and support implementation of strategic frameworks for communication and monitoring, evaluation and learning for the investment, ensuring a joined-up approach to maximise the impact.

•Contribute towards achieving the Active Partnerships National Organisation’s strategy and linking football and multi-sport facilities investment to other pieces of work across the national team.

•Ensure equality equity diversity and inclusion, as well as sustainability, are key considerations for this area of work.  

•Be responsible for ensuring that the local Active Partnerships network has the opportunity to be embedded across all areas of football and multi-sport investment including multi-sport facilities and PlayZones.

•Line manage other staff e.g. Programme Manager, Active Environments officer  and regional multi-sport leads to ensure they are connected into local Active Partnerships and national sector partners, in addition to supporting their training needs.

•Be the budget holder for all the investment and work with Sport England, to ensure any use of central resource is insight led and effective.

•Create and support the delivery of Communities of Practice and the work plan for the programme.

Knowledge

•Undertaking a leadership role with line management experience.

•Building positive and sustainable stakeholder relationships.

•Project management experience of network wide projects involving multiple partners.

Skills

•Demonstrates an ability to work as a trusted partner and build strong, effective, and valued relationships across a wide range of people and organisations. 

•Demonstrates the ability to lead at a strategic level.

•Visibly values and promotes co-design and can bring people together to jointly create innovative ideas and practice. Has strong collaborative leadership skills, with an inclusive and diverse approach to working with people. 

•Is articulate with excellent written and verbal skills, enabling them to effectively communicate at all levels of an organisation. 

•Can project manage, be agile, adaptive and respond quickly, navigating through changing, complex and uncertain environments. 

•Can show strength and expertise in best practice ways to share and connect learning and to support continuous improvement. 

•Has digital skills to help improve connections, sharing of information and development of resources.

Interview dates

Stage 1 - Friday 10th May - online

Stage 2 - Thursday 16th May - Birmingham