Operations Consultant- Commissioning and Procurement

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF)

Operations Consultant – Commissioning and Procurement

Reports to: COO/Head of Grant Operations

Open to: Individual consultants or consulting firms with significant experience supporting organisations receiving and distributing public funding to strengthen processes and use of best practice.

Period: Start immediately, with aim to complete audit work by no later than August 2024.

Budget: YEF anticipates a budget of approximately £10,000 and typical day rates for consultants working for the charity range between £500-£650, depending on experience.

About the Youth Endowment Fund

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is a charity with a £200m endowment and a mission that matters. We exist to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in violence. We do this by funding great initiatives, finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.

To make this possible, YEF funds a wide range of organisations aiming to prevent young people from becoming involved in violence. This ranges from delivery organisations providing front line services to young people who need it most, evaluators working with those organisations to understand what’s working, research organisations focused on helping us deeply understand the context and problem, organisations supporting us to put this knowledge into practice, and a variety of organisations supporting our team to execute in the most effective way possible. We have several departments commissioning this work to external organisations and a variety of different processes and mechanisms to do so.

As the volume of work we commission increases across our various departments, we’re looking for an experienced individual or team to support ensuring consistency, compliance with our policies and procedures, and training across a number of different teams on best practice.

 Key activities  

• Conduct a thorough desk review on YEF policies and guidance, regarding our Commissioning and grant management practices across our programmes, evaluation, research and change departments. Interview a subset of individuals to get a sense of their understanding and comfort with the policies. Produce a written report on how this is going, highlighting any areas where we could improve in consistency or best practice.
• Advise the delivery operations team on how they can best support teams to commission effectively, including helping to clarify roles and responsibilities and ongoing training or support needs for teams.
• If needed, suggest revisions to YEF policies, guidance or agreement templates to support greater efficiency, compliance or best practice.
• Conduct a series of trainings across our different departments to ensure staff responsible for commissioning understand YEF’s policies and best practices for distributing and managing the use of public funding.
• Create a set of public facing materials to help external organisations understand YEF policies and processes for applying for funding, as needed. 

Deliverables

• Provide a written report on how YEF is doing adhering to its own policies, ensuring consistency in practice across different teams and adhering to best practice.
• Conduct 3-4 training workshops to different YEF teams, taking into account their own Commissioning and grant management requirements.
• Conduct regular, informal advising sessions for a subset of individuals responsible for overseeing commissioning across the organisation.
• Produce a set of public facing guidance on YEF commissioning practice relevant for organisations navigating applications for funding.
• As needed, produce revisions to policy, internal guidance, or agreement templates.

Key requirements

• Must have significant experience of Commissioning and Procurement within an organisation of comparable size, preferably with organisations receiving and distributing public funding.  
• Experience and proven track record working to improve policies, processes and practices within an organisation.
• Experience of charitable grant-making or research work in the UK, either as a grantee, a grant-maker, or a grant evaluator or researcher.
• A strong understanding of UK government guidelines and legal terms and conditions related to grants and contracts for services. This does not mean you need a law degree, but you must be very comfortable understanding and working with a variety of different agreement mechanisms.
• The ability to understand, collate and synthesise complex sets of information and use them to make informed recommendations.
• Ability to work independently, seeking input from relevant team stakeholders throughout.

Desired experience

• Prior experience working with a What Works Centre or other evidence-focused organisation.

To apply

Final applications will be due by Friday, June 7th 2024.

Your proposal should contain:

• CV and day rate of consultant(s) for the work
• A maximum 3-page cover letter containing:
  • A description of how you would approach and deliver the work, including time scales
  • Relevant experience of similar work
  • Day rate(s) and total anticipated cost for the work
  • Two references

Referees will only be approached with your express permission.

First round interviews will take place in the week commencing 17th of June with an appointment anticipated that same week.

It is important to us that the people we hire do not discriminate. We believe in being inclusive and giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race, sexual orientation, transgender status, or social economic background.

Your personal data will be shared for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes our HR team, interviewers (who may include other partners in the project and independent advisors), relevant team managers and our IT service provider if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles. We do not share your data with other third parties unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you. We do not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.