Programme Director

---

Job description

About the opportunity:
We are looking for a motivational and inspiring Programme Director to lead a team of 45 staff across nine regions, with direct line management of seven Programme Managers and one School Onboarding Manager. The role has responsibility for oversight of the delivery of our tutoring programmes in schools, currently working towards a target of reaching nearly 8,500 disadvantaged pupils in 2021-22. The Programme Director will ensure programmes are delivered to a consistently high standard, drawing on evidence of best practice, willing to regularly reflect and learn to drive improvements. This team manages and oversees all delivery metrics, as well as school relationships (including renewals) and school recruitment. The Programme Director also sets functional KPIs and milestones, ensuring progress towards these.
The Programme Team works closely with the Impact and Quality Team, who hold responsibility for design, monitoring and evaluation of the programme, and with the Marketing and Communications Team, who lead on nationwide tutor recruitment. Given this, it is essential that the Programme Director can work collaboratively and is skilled in cross-team working, with outstanding communication skills.
As a member of the Senior Management Team (comprising CEO and Directors), the Programme Director helps to set organisational strategy, define growth targets, and contributes to cross-functional problem solving to ensure progress towards organisational goals. The role interacts with the Board at quarterly meetings and has regular contact with external stakeholders including headteachers, sector partners and funders.
This year Action Tutoring has continued to grow its reach, particularly given the opportunity that the National Tutoring Programme has provided to access additional funding to reach new schools and scale, enabled by the development of our online programme model. We are seeking new skills within our leadership team to spearhead the next phase of the organisation's growth. The role would suit a dynamic, skilled people leader, who is goal orientated and delivery focused, thrives in a fast paced environment and has proven problem solving skills.
Reports to: CEO
Place of work: London office: The Dock, Tobacco Quay, Wapping Lane, E1W 2SF.
The role will require regular presence in London (approximately 4-6 days a month); however we are open to appointing candidates based outside of London and ideally in one of our regions.
Salary: £47,000 - £54,000 depending on experience
Contract and working hours: permanent, full time (37.5 hours per week). For the right candidate, we are open to flexible working requests.
Start date: January 2022
Closing date and interviews: Sunday, 5th December 2021. Stage 1 interviews will be held from 13th December and stage 2 interviews will be held 20th and 21st December 2021.
All Action Tutoring staff must have a DBS check. Should you be aware of any incidents, cautions or convictions that would appear on your DBS check, you should notify us with your application.
Duties and responsibilities
Programme delivery

• Ensure programmes are delivered to a consistently high standard, including strong satisfaction and rates of renewal from partner schools.
• Oversee management of programme delivery in schools to meet KPIs across all eight regions that Action Tutoring operates in.
• Oversee effective management and renewal of existing partner schools (with associated income generation of c.£0.9m).
• Oversee recruitment and onboarding of new schools in line with annual growth targets together with the Programme Managers and the School Onboarding Manager, including the potential of launching Action Tutoring in a new geographical area in accordance with future strategy plans.
• Work with others in the organisation to ensure that the operations of programmes run as effectively as possible.
• Be accountable to the Board for the performance of the Programme Team, including providing effective reporting to the Board.
• Ensure the Programme Team adhere to Action Tutoring's safeguarding, health and safety and GDPR policies and procedures.

Organisational strategic direction:

• Work with the CEO, Board and Senior Management Team to define strategic priorities and targets.
• Define functional strategic priorities and areas for development for the Programme Team.
• Align the Programme Team around strategy, ensuring buy-in.
• Develop plans with the wider team for how to extend Action Tutoring's reach (including through expansion into new geographies) and ensure sustainability.

Annual planning:

• Develop annual objectives for the Programme Team, aligned with organisational strategy with input from team members.
• Define structure and capacity/resource requirements for programme functions, looking ahead to how this changes over time to ensure future-proofing.

People management and development:

• Direct line management of seven Programme Managers and one School Onboarding Manager, supporting their development and delivery of KPIs and ensuring that the Programme Coordinators they manage are delivering effectively and flourishing in their roles.
• Maintain team morale, including ensuring adequate support is provided where needed.
• Work closely in collaboration with the Programme Team Administrator to ensure programmes all have the required administrative support to run effectively.
• Identify skills gaps/development needs for the Programme Team and work with the HR Manager to put in place training solutions and development opportunities.
• Oversee recruitment of Programme Team roles (internal and external), updating or adapting processes when necessary.

Other:

• Seek to use and build networks for the betterment of the charity.
• Any other ad hoc responsibilities as deemed relevant by the CEO.

Person specification
We are seeking applications from individuals who have:

• At least four years experience in line management and developing others.
• Experience in people leadership, with high levels of emotional intelligence and resilience.
• Experience of theoretical and practical approaches to designing effective programmes, ideally within the education sector.
• Outstanding communication and people skills; strong written and numerical skills.
• Excellent stakeholder management; ability to build effective relationships swiftly.
• Ability to think creatively, strategically and analytically to find effective solutions and with a proven track record of achieving results.
• Highly organised, able to multi-task and prioritise and complete all activities to a high standard and high attention to detail.
• Ability to inspire and motivate others.
• Goal orientated, able to work collaboratively to achieve results.
• Confident public speaker; experience presenting to a variety of audiences.
• Committed to equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Committed to the mission and values of Action Tutoring.
• Committed to promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children.

Qualifications criteria:

• Undergraduate degree (or equivalent experience).
• A*-C in maths and English at GCSE (or equivalent experience).
• Right to work in the UK.

Required experience:

• At least four years' experience of line managing a team and developing others.
• Experience of cross-team working.
• Ability to deliver to challenging KPIs.
• Evidence of pitching and managing sales of programmes.
• Understanding of complex programme delivery.
• Experience of working with schools or in education.
• Experience in leading a geographically dispersed team (desirable).

Benefits:

• Hybrid working
• We offer a flexible combination of office and home based working.
• Holiday
• 25 days holiday a year (plus UK public holidays), increasing by a day for each complete year of service (up to three extra days).
• Flexitime and TOIL

We have a flexible policy for working hours, and offer TOIL where staff have to work particularly early in the day or late in the evening, so that they can reclaim those hours at another time.
Team away days

• The whole team across the UK gets together three times a year.

Pensions

• We have a workplace pension scheme with a 3% employer contribution.

Culture of celebrating

• Regular thanks and praise and monthly recognition of 'heroes' to celebrate employees going above and beyond.

Knowledge-sharing

• Lots of opportunities to learn from others in the organisation, including policy briefings, shadowing colleagues and peer-to-peer development.

Socials

• Team socials around team days, regular bring-and-share team lunches and other activities.

Proofreading Team

• As well as checking the accuracy of all content Action Tutoring shares with external audiences, our proofreading team supports individuals who would value an extra pair of eyes on their writing.

Ad hoc projects

• Interested in other exciting topics relevant to our charity? Then join one of our working groups (including policy, diversity and inclusion, curriculum and training, socials, data and insights) and support with ongoing projects.

Application process:..... click apply for full job details