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Form of work
SalarySenior Programme Manager (School Food Review)
This is a unique opportunity for a person with skills and experience in managing projects, programmes and partnerships to join a coalition of organisations striving to improve child health through improving the school food ecosystem.
Who we are
The School Food Review is a coalition of organisations spanning charities, educational organisations, caterers, unions and academics, committed to working together to improve children’s health by reforming the school food system. The group’s work is coordinated by founder members School Food Matters, Food Foundation, Bite Back 2030 and Chefs in Schools, and is supported by Impact on Urban Health.
The School Food Review has identified three areas of action required to deliver meaningful change – equitable access, fairer funding and quality assurance. Work across these three areas is delivered through focused working groups, drawing on members of the coalition. This includes public campaigning, advocacy and policy development.
The post will be hosted by Chefs in Schools; we are a young, ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids' health, through improving school food & food education. Working in areas of high deprivation, we support and train school kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share our learning and resources freely, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.
We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.
About you and the role
The purpose of this role is to coordinate the work of our coalition, the School Food Review, to ensure that we are maximising the potential of the skills and expertise we can draw on from members, and driving meaningful impact. You will work closely with the School Food Review’s Operational Group, made up of key personnel from the founding organisations, to ensure that the coalition delivers on its mission. Whilst employed by Chefs in Schools, your role will be focused within the coalition.
Day to day, you will project manage operational delivery across the School Food Review coalition, ensuring efficient and effective delivery against the agreed work plan, which you will be monitoring and developing in consultation with your colleagues in the operational group. You will ensure that the governance committee and broader coalition group are kept informed of progress, promptly flagging risks and identifying suitable mitigations.
You will have an understanding of the context that we operate in, education and food sectors, and a high-level understanding of the type of work that is being delivered (eg policy, campaigning and advocacy). You will be a subject matter expert in project management. Your expertise in this area will be combined with strong people skills, and the ability to manage effective partnerships with external organisations. Experience of working with a coalition, or in partnership with multiple organisations, is crucial.
The responsibilities, skills and experience listed below are intended to give you an idea of what we need for this role. If you don’t meet every single requirement, but feel as though you would be able to work with us to deliver the majority of them, we would urge you to apply anyway. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and for us the most important ‘experience’ is passion for our mission. You may be just the right candidate for this, or other roles.
Benefits
You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who work hard, but believe in a healthy work / life balance. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to, and draw on, a variety of projects and strategic insights.
We offer 33 days (pro-rata for part time positions) of holiday per year, including bank holidays, a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues, enhanced parental leave. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.
We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the AIG Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.
Key responsibilities:
Development of project work plans, seeking approval from the Governance Committee and buy-in from the wider coalition
Managing delivery of the project work plan to timeline, working in partnership with the working groups, supporting them to remain effective
Manage the development of new programmes and workstreams, ensuring that these align with the agreed framework from the Governance Committee
Ensure that project planning and delivery is in line with our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion
Ensuring learning and evaluation is embedded from design stage onwards
Contribute to the development of strategy for the coalition
Prepare budget and forecasts, for sign off by the Governance Committee
Ensure our funders are kept up to date with the latest progress
Keeping in touch with external partners and environment, to understand issues affecting the wider sector
Skills & experience:
You have a background or significant experience in working in coalition or partnership with multiple organisations
You have interest and belief in our mission, to improve child health through improving food and food education in schools
You have a background or significant experience in project or programme management at significant scale
You are organised, methodical, strong on detail, and able to map out deadlines and plan ahead
You are an excellent writer and communicator with strong presentation and facilitation skills
You are skilled in building rapport with people and strike a balance between being supportive and challenging
As we work with children & young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and enhanced DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy
Application process
In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we will invite candidates to interview based on their anonymous answers to a series of questions related to their day-to-day job.
Please follow this link to answer the questions and submit your application: https://forms.gle/bwcBgnHiwHUC9oQy5 before 12pm on Wednesday 1st May
We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you’re ready to ensure you don’t lose your work if interrupted.
Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a first 1 hour online interview on Wednesday 15th May. Successful candidates will be asked to attend a 1-hour second interview in on Wednesday 22nd May, in person in our Brixton Office: International House, Canterbury Cres, London SW9 7QE.
We want to get to know you at the interview and understand we can do this best if you’re at ease. We’re an inclusive employer and want to create a welcoming working environment for everyone. Interviews may include a written (on computer) task, and/or a formal presentation. If you need adjustments to the interview process, please let us know.
Expected duration of this application process: 4-6 weeks
Shortlisting questions:
Please note that whilst we are keen to embrace the benefits and potential of AI, these questions are designed so that we gain an understanding your skills, experience and mindset. Therefore, all answers will be screened for AI generated responses and any that are detected will be automatically excluded.
1) This role will involve coordinating the work of our coalition to ensure we are maximising the skills and expertise of our members, whilst driving meaningful impact. How will you apply your experience of working in coalition or partnership with multiple organisations to the challenge of managing members to deliver on unified objectives?
2) In consultation with members of the School Food Review Operations Group, you will be responsible for managing the operational delivery and communication across the coalition. What project management tools and strategies would you implement to ensure effective delivery and communication?
3) The work of the School Food Review aims to deliver on policy, campaigning and advocacy, working together to improve children’s health by reforming the school food system. What is your understanding of the political environment and challenges that may be faced?
4) The coalition is made up of many members with similar goals but some opposing views. How will you win over the hearts and minds of all members to ensure we continue to build the coalition?
