Are you a creative thinker with a track record of leading teams to drive change?

The Diocese of Liverpool is looking for a talented individual who will help us to utilise our assets

You will oversee a small, dedicated team looking at a range of development activities including how we :-

• resource local teams to make good decisions on which buildings they need for the future
• dispose of unneeded assets efficiently bringing release of finance and community benefit
• develop partnerships and schemes to generate additional income from churches and halls
• reorder some of our buildings to get the best from them

You will be a great negotiator and skilful listener as you will engage with a whole host of interested stakeholders from the concerned congregant to the community planner and interested developer.

You will need to create and drive process, helping everyone make progress and stay on track. You and your team will oversee site option appraisals, liaise with agents and developers while maintaining good project governance and budget management.

It’s an important role but you will find a supportive, capable senior leadership team surrounding you with their skills and experience. We can guarantee this will be a rewarding and exciting role for the right person.

You can find the full job description below.

Interested? Then complete the application, we would love to hear from you. Alternatively give Richard Gedge, Diocesan Programme Manager a call on 07758 466 743 for an informal chat.

The Diocese of Liverpool has a number of under-used historic assets and some assets that are no longer needed. This role will give oversight to three development aspects relating to those assets, working with and through a small staff team:

1. Asset realisation. We have a small but steady stream of emerging assets for disposal/income-generating alternative use, as parishes rationalise their buildings. We are looking for someone who, working with appropriate development agents, can scope and land the right deal for the Diocese of Liverpool ensuring that the sites continue to support our desire for good community development.

2. Income generation. Identify and nurture potential income generation options to increase the midweek usage of church buildings and church halls so that they become both economically more self-sustaining and community hubs to a greater extent.

3. Asset development. Reordering projects relating to churches and halls that will be retained, or schemes on existing sites to deliver new worship facilities alongside other uses.

The post-holder will manage, and provide additional resource as required to, a small staff team whose roles are as follows:

• Buildings Strategy Manager (full-time): Enabling deanery teams to decide which buildings should be retained and which released. Driving and resourcing the Right Buildings Process.

• Buildings Project Manager (0.8 FTE): Delivering reordering projects in retained buildings. Enabling enterprise projects across a wide number of churches, to bring additional income into parishes.

• Fundraising Officer (0.8 FTE): Fundraising for buildings reordering and mission focussed projects.

• Buildings Release Officer (0.3 FTE): For released buildings/sites, manage the CofE closure process and liaise with preferred agents to market properties to realise social/monetary value.

• Church Buildings Support Officer (full-time): An 18 month post funded by the Church Commissioners specifically to assist parishes with building issues and small works.

The key responsibilities/tasks associated with this role are:

• Team outcomes
• Staff management and development; the team listed above.
• Ensure that robust, clear and approved processes and KPIs are in place for all the elements of work.
• Manage relationships with a small number of preferred agents.
• Manage relationships with key internal stakeholders: -

• Senior clergy

• LDBF and FfM Board
• DAC
• Clergy Housing
• Manage the immediate needs surrounding a building that becomes abandoned.
• Add additional resource to the team by taking on specific pieces of work yourself as needed.

Indirect responsibilities/tasks (mainly delivered by the team members but with oversight by postholder):

• Identifying sites and assessing options appraisal
  • Facilitate the Fit for Mission Right Buildings process to identify potential buildings and land for retention/development
  • Evaluate the different options to find a best value solution (with due regard to the Coming Home Report)
  • Present options to the relevant boards and committees
• Project management
  • Design suitable projects for the development / reordering of buildings with appropriate timescales and milestones
  • Oversee the management of a project to completion
  • Provide appropriate reports and KPIs on project development
  • Liaise with any appropriate statutory bodies with regard to the development of a project
• Liaising with agents/developers
  • Build effective relationships with a suitable set of agents ensuring that we have a mix of skills and options for our development portfolio
  • Periodically review the list and link to new potential agents
  • Ensure sites are appropriately marketed and best opportunities are realised.
• Budget management & fundraising
  • Set appropriate budgets for the development of projects
  • Fundraise for projects as required
  • Manage cost control on the delivery of projects
  • Report on budget performance
• Income generation
  • Enterprise schemes around retained buildings – rental or shared use. Where shared use is proposed broker in-principle agreements with partners (local authorities, businesses, stakeholders).
• Stakeholder engagement
• Manage a range of relationships with key internal stakeholders: -
• PCCs, Church Wardens and local clergy
  • Liaise with key external stakeholders where appropriate including
• Local councils – planning depts and local politicians
• Community groups
• User groups

Governance and legal

• Ensure that all due processes are followed with regard to the development portfolio including:
• The consent process with regard to schemes
• Lease and contract negotiations as appropriate
• Liaise with the Diocese legal advisors over contract and lease negotiations

The Diocese of Liverpool is looking to make the most of the under used and assets no longer required in a strategic manner. We need:

• A creative thinker
• An able leader
• A great negotiator
• A skilful listener
• An ability to create and drive process

About the Diocese of Liverpool

The Diocese of Liverpool is the Church of England in a corner of the north west with churches from Southport to Widnes; Wigan to Warrington and throughout the city of Liverpool all working their hardest to fulfil our vision of asking God for a bigger church making a bigger difference with more people knowing Jesus and more justice in the world.

As we work towards that vision we have four priorities

1. Introducing people to Jesus
2. Deepening discipleship
3. Developing Christian leaders
4. Working for justice

The diocesan offices provide essential support services to our parishes with many specialist staff offering expert support to our frontline parishes. We have a reputation for being a creative organisation securing national church backing for a range of innovative projects.

We are a small, supportive team offering a flexible approach. We have adopted a hybrid model balancing office based with home-based working. We are serious about the work life balance with generous holiday allowances and access to an Employee Assistance Programme. Diocesan staff have a strong working relationship with Liverpool Cathedral and our offices sit in the shadow of this magnificent iconic building.

Liverpool Diocese is committed to treating our whole community with dignity and respect. We desire to represent diverse identities within our community whether this be by race, culture, religion, sexual orientation, gender, disability or social background of each person to ensure they fulfil their potential within a proactive, loving and caring environment.

For more information visit our website www.liverpool.anglican.org

About Fit for Mission

As a diocese we are on a trajectory, first defined in Bishop Paul’s paper ‘Fit for Mission’ (endorsed by Diocesan Synod and Bishop’s Council 2014) to have accountable, dynamic and missional leadership teams in every deanery. Bishops and Archdeacons are leading us forward to work more collaboratively across deanery-scale geography.

The Fit for Mission programme will provide focus and support to work together to face the significant issues that hold back mission and growth.

Fit for Mission will support each deanery in the Diocese of Liverpool to create their own future. There are five elements to this, and for each of them the programme will make available help and specialist resource:

1. A focus on developing our discipleship culture through training and support, including delivering ‘Cultivate’, a successful lay development programme which results in new worshipping communities and justice initiatives planted and existing ones revitalised.
2. Creating missional leadership teams of lay and ordained people over larger areas with responsibility for specific mission and worship communities.
3. Developing high quality support and accountability structures for all leaders.
4. Making sure buildings are fit for purpose, with buildings expertise available to assist in making good decisions on use, investment, or closure.
5. Work towards each deanery having one or two larger Parishes. Each larger Parish to have high quality support services, resulting in simpler administration, less bureaucracy and more mission.

For more information on Fit for Mission go to www.liverpool.anglican.org/fitformission