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.

In April 2021, the Archbishops' Anti-Racism Task Force reported on their findings and paved the way for a new Racial Justice Commission which launched in October 2021. This Commission, chaired by Lord Boateng, has been asked by both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York to spend three years scrutinising the activities of the Church of England and to make recommendations for its future ministry.

This new post is part of the small team serving he Racial Justice Commission, currently under the leadership of the Archbishops’ Adviser on Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns. During 2022, the Church of England will establish a new Racial Justice Unit and the post will then fall within the Unit’s staff team, led by a newly-appointed Director of Racial Justice. The Racial Justice Unit will operate in the context of Archbishop Justin’s and Archbishop Stephen’s ministries, the three Quinquennium goals of the Church of England, and the five marks of mission of the Anglican Communion.

The Project and Secretariat Manager, Racial Justice Commission offers a significant opportunity for personal development. You will give support to the Chair of the Racial Justice Commission and the Archbishops’ Adviser on Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns and gain an understanding of the broad landscape of the Church ecosystem as it tackles a key strategic issue.

You will oversee administrative operations and provide secretariat support, with close liaison with communications colleagues and others supporting the Racial Justice Commission, and the opportunity to be involved in the development and outworking of the Commission.

We would like to hear from you if you have the essential requirements outlined below to excel in this role which is suitable as a developmental secondment for an individual with a policy or delivery background and the appropriate project skills.

The post is offered on a fixed term contract expected to last for 2 years, or as a secondment.

To arrange an informal conversation please contact Sanjee Perera sanjee.perera@churchofengland.org

Interviews are expected to be held w/c 8 August 2022.

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

A comprehensive and supportive induction programme will be put in place to ensure that you have all the information, access and contacts that you need to learn quickly and excel in this role.

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

The main purpose of this role is to provide secretariat and project management support for the work of the Racial Justice Commission, including producing biannual reports on behalf of the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice. You will be working alongside other Racial Justice Unit (RJU) team members.

Key duties and responsibilities include:

• Providing secretariat support, i.e. preparing agendas and papers, and taking minutes, of the Commission’s monthly meetings.
• As project manager, tracking and gathering data on how the recommendations of Lament into Action are being delivered, to inform the Commission’s oversight of progress towards these recommendations. Use software such as Microsoft Office to create shared plans.
• Supporting the seven workstreams of the Commission by agreeing workplans with each working group and convening meetings and discussions with colleagues across the Church of England to support their work.
• Producing drafts of the Commission’s six-monthly reports – ie developing a coherent narrative of their work and a meaningful discourse based on meetings’ minutes, the seven working group discussions, meetings with key stakeholders and other grassroot engagement activities.
• Engaging with stakeholders to oversee collection of research data and procedural information as the Commission might require to enhance their discussions and the report narrative.
• Collaborating with the Communications officer in developing a lucid, easy to access high calibre report in both digital and print form.
• Produce presentations as required by the Commission Secretary (currently the Archbishops’ Advisor to Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns), and to develop quality documents, briefings and slides to support the Commission’s work.
• To assist in monitoring and updating the budget and tracking of costs.
• To keep people-related data and all Commission information up-to-date and compliant with GDPR.
• Develop and manage relationships with stakeholder groups, including dioceses and parishes, as required, and to map the Commissions’ engagement with organisations in their sectors.
• To support the project coordinator in diary management for the Chair, the Secretary and members of the Commission.
• To be an active team member, role modelling the NCI values and contributing to the achievement of any collective RJU team objectives.
• Liaise with communications colleagues to publicise and disseminate appropriately the activities and findings of the Commission.
• Proactively reviewing the administration of the Commission portfolio and bring forward systems and processes to enable increased efficiency and effectiveness.

The Requirements

Essential

Skills/Aptitudes:

• Proficient at planning and organising with a strong attention to detail.
• Works well to deadlines, with the ability to work comfortably with competing priorities - to reprioritise work when required, and use problem solving skills to deal with issues.
• A positive, proactive attitude.
• Excellent communicator in writing and verbally, with confidence in communicating with a diverse range of senior colleagues and stakeholders.
• Strong IT skills – in particular Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel and Word.
• A team player, able to work well both within a team and individually, and to role model the NCIs’ Values and Belonging and Inclusion statements.
• Flexibility to work across various department activities.
• Comfortable handling and analysing confidential and often complex data.
• Committed to a learning environment, with curiosity and learning from mistakes.

Experience Required:

This role is pivotal in the smooth running of the new RJU and the Commission and requires experience in:

• A role of this level requiring good communication skills.
• Producing high calibre reports based on focus groups, meeting minutes, and other forms of primary & secondary research.
• Planning and organising activities and/or events which support project work using suitable software – plus administrative duties as well as a track record of contributing ideas to improve efficiency of processes.
• Presentation creation and budget handling.
• Experience of dealing with a diverse range of customers and stakeholders
• Working with highly confidential documents (using and storing).

Desirable

• Interest in the subject of racial justice.
• Empathy with the mission of the Church of England and Christian values.
• Use of various standard software eg Zoom, MS Project, SurveyMonkey or equivalents.

Circumstances:

• The NCIs are committed to wellbeing and work/life balance. The RJU team has designed this role so that it can accommodate occasional work outside normal office hours, including working some weekends, as well as travel within England and overseas, with compensating time off.

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.