Our aim is for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

The Archbishops Advisers for Appointments and Development (AAAD) supports the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in their responsibilities for appointments to senior roles, and for ensuring that senior clergy are equipped for the Church of England’s significant missional challenges and for the vital role it plays in the life of the nation.

As Interim Diversity & Inclusion Specialist, you will help us to launch a number of new initiatives that will achieve greater diversity in our Senior Clergy, Trustee and Leader appointments.

You will contribute to, and be part of the work to increase diversity of senior clergy appointments, and the cross National Church Institutions (NCIs) team focussing on increasing the diversity of our trustees and senior leaders.

Strong project management skills and the ability to prioritise, monitor progress and escalate work when necessary will be essential, together with the ability to prepare and deliver training to equip candidates from under-represented groups to serve on appointment panels.

Together with your track record of successfully delivering initiatives to increase diversity in the workplace you will bring insights, expertise and resources that will contribute to the wider diversity agenda.

This is a project-based role for a period of 6 months, working part time (21 hours per week) with flexibility available on your exact working pattern.

This role will give the opportunity to be home based. Occasional attendance in person at Church House, Westminster, London or at other locations may be required for meetings and training although currently, employees are working remotely due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Interviews will be held w/c 11th January 2021 remotely, using Zoom.

In return we offer a unique environment with opportunities for continuous learning, generous annual leave for work life balance, season ticket loans and a range of benefits including discounted entry to attractions and what we feel is a market leading package when it comes to our pension scheme.

The key areas of work are to:

• Prepare a project plan to scope out the key milestones and deliverables for the work;
• Progress and evaluate a pilot diversity data gathering exercise across the National Church Institutions’ (NCIs) trustee bodies, and make recommendations for next steps;
• Prepare and deliver a pilot training package to equip candidates from under-represented groups to serve on senior appointment panels for both clerical and lay appointments;
• Develop a bespoke bias training module for senior appointment panels;
• Review the process of designing role specifications for a range of senior roles from a diversity and inclusion perspective;
• Support our work to ensure under-represented candidates for senior appointments have access to mentoring;
• Bring insights, expertise and resources that will contribute to the wider diversity agenda.

The Requirements :

Essential

Skills/Aptitudes:

• Strong project management skills with the ability to prioritise work appropriately, monitor progress and escalate where necessary;
• A self-starter, confident and comfortable working remotely and using technology to facilitate remote working;
• Confident in communicating with a range of stakeholders at all levels of the organisation;

Knowledge/Experience:

• Strong subject matter knowledge of diversity and inclusion issues, trends and good practice;
• A track record of successfully delivering initiatives to increase diversity in the workplace;
• Experience of designing and delivering training programmes to help equip people to address bias and inclusion;
• Experience of working in a recruitment, HR or learning & development function;

Personal Attributes:

• Committed to continuous learning;
• Comfortable in dealing with ambiguity;

Education:

• Educated to degree-level or equivalent;

Desirable

• An understanding of the structures and governance of the Church of England.

We in the National Church Institutions support the mission and ministries of the Church all over England. We work with parishes, dioceses (regional offices), schools, other ministries and our partners at a national and international level.

Excellence, Respect, Integrity

We follow these three values in everything we do, whether we are of Christian faith, another faith or no faith. To learn more about working for National Church Institutions and our benefits, please click here

As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively look to attract, recruit and retain those of you who are disabled.

As a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, we welcome applications from those of you who have served in our Armed Forces and their families.

We are committed to being an equal opportunities employer and to ensuring that everyone, job applicants, customers and other people with whom we deal, are treated fairly and not subject to discrimination. We will do whatever is necessary to provide genuine equality of opportunity. We continuously review our policies and processes to support our aim to create a workforce as diverse as the nation the Church of England serves..

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