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 Vision and Strategy team has been established to support the whole Church in its embrace of, and engagement with the national Vision and Strategy for the Church for the 2020s which has three strategic priorities: missionary disciples, younger and more diverse, and mixed ecology.

The team is also the lead owner of the strategy within the NCIs, and therefore responsible for ensuring that the work of other teams within the NCIs is aligned to the strategy and helps ensure its delivery across the Church. The Vision and Strategy team consults on, and manages the distribution of around £60 million per annum of national funding and helps the delivery of projects funded by previous grants.

This is a key role to support the bold outcomes across the Vision and Strategy. It will involve working with colleagues in supporting churches and networks and using the breadth of digital possibilities and creating a select number of excellent resources particularly in aiming to reach young and more diverse groups.

We are taking a flexible approach to work, with many colleagues opting for a hybrid approach to their working week, with a mixture of home and office-based working. Further details will be discussed at interview.

The Church of England is for everyone, and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we would particularly welcome applicants from UK Minority Ethnic Backgrounds.

To arrange an informal discussion about the role, please contact stephen.hance@churchofengland.org

Interviews will be held on the12^th July 2022.

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 Role

Own the development of specific strategic actions within the Vision and Strategy as agreed with your supervisor, working with networks and connecting with churches and individuals in support. This will include the strategic support and development of key actions around doubling the numbers of children and young people.

Lead specific projects within the Vision and Strategy which could include:

• Developing & supporting plans, strategies and resources for the development of 3,000 young people-focused churches and 30,000 leaders of mission amongst children and young people in partnership with Ministry & Development.
• Developing a strategy to connect with large parts of the community who presently the Church finds hard to reach as we seek to become younger and more diverse. Do this through innovative approaches including a prioritised approach to encouraging prayer, a small range of excellent resources and use of digital and print evangelism and discipleship campaigns.
• Work and develop relationships with a prioritised group of networks with whom we partner or assist in developing to further the Vision and Strategy. This includes but is not restricted to the Estates network, discipleship enablers, Missioners Network, Diocesan Youth & Children’s Advisors Network and the Vanguard network.
• Developing a prioritised plan for future engagement with individuals with a particular focus on becoming younger and more diverse. This will include a deep understanding of how our different offerings engage different groups, how they support local churches and give attention to who we might be missing and whose voice is not heard or supported.
• Draw on and share insights from the Funding and Learning, Diocesan Support, and Digital/Data Services teams including as appropriate proposing and specifiying research on our engagement with individuals to build understanding.
• Help to develop the Christmas, Lent and Easter campaigns in partnership with the Communications team to support the Vision and Strategy particularly around the Younger and More Diverse priority. This may include commissioning, developingor partnering with others and playing a lead role in the Campaigns group working with the Digital team.
• Ensure we maximise opportunities to engage young people on an ongoing basis in the development of the Vision and Strategy working closely with the Education and Growing Faith teams.

This role will have approximately 40% time involved in supporting the bold outcomes and leading on strategic actions relating to children and young people, and 40% time on wider areas within the Vision and Strategy to include developing relationships with key networks to support the goal of 10,000 new worshipping communities.

It will be expected that about 20% of working time would be used on cross-team projects, most of which would involve offering for particular limited term groups. These groups would be decided together by the whole team and it would be expected that the line manager would sign off such requests.

The Requirements

Essential

Skills/Aptitudes:

• Proven track record in developing and implementing effective strategies.
• Passion for an experience of church work with children and young people.
• Influencing and negotiating skills.
• High standards of project management and proven experience in delivering projects and campaigns to time and quality.
• Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Enthusiastic, organised, flexible and able to prioritise.
• High resilience with the ability to work under pressure, often to changing and competing demands.
• Ability to work autonomously, use own initiative and make decisions.

Knowledge/Experience:

• Proven track record in working with wide range of stakeholders from senior leaders to engaging the voice of members of the public.
• A good understanding of the variety of tradition within the church and the importance of engaging across the breath of this.

Personal Attributes:

• Self-motivated, proactive and committed to achieving results.
• Leadership qualities and the ability to command the respect of others.
• Collaborative and collegiate in approach.
• Flexible in order to meet the demands of the post.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including the ability to establish positive working relationships with senior stakeholders and to represent the Directors to external partners.
• Operates with discretion and integrity.
• An understanding and empathy with the structure and culture of the Church of England.
• Enthusiasm for taking forward the strategic priorities of the Vision and Strategy.

Education:

• Professional qualification/experience relevant to the role or education to degree level or equivalent.

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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