Grants Officer (Essex) 4.5 Day Week Flexible Four Day Week Half Day Six Hour Day Three Day Week NEW

About the Role

The primary focus of the Grants Officer is to support schools and youth organisations to operate the Jack Petchey Achievement Award scheme effectively and to promote, grow and deliver this and other Jack Petchey Foundation (JPF) grant programmes across London and Essex. This role will be responsible for Districts across Essex and act as the lead for specific uniform groups who deliver their activities in Essex.

This is a new role created following a recent restructure of the Grants team. It is offered initially as a 12- month contract (0.6 FTE / 22.5 hours per week) to support the growth of our Achievement Award scheme across Essex, with the potential of an extension, following review and subject to available funding. The working days and working pattern will be discussed with the successful candidate, however, it is worth noting the role will require evening and weekend work, so we are seeking someone who can be work flexibly.

The Achievement Award Scheme is the Jack Petchey Foundation’s flagship programme, with more than 2,000 schemes being operated in more than 1,400 schools, colleges and youth organisations across London and Essex. Through the programme, we invest millions of pounds each year to support young people and youth work. This is an amazing chance for you to have a big impact across a large number of organisations.

The Achievement Award Scheme enables schools, colleges and youth organisations to recognise, reward and celebrate young people’s achievements. At the Jack Petchey Foundation, we are passionate about encouraging young people to raise their aspirations, believe in themselves and make a positive contribution to society. Our Achievement Awards are designed to recognise a wide range of achievement, not just those achieving academically but are also aimed at young people who are ‘doing their best’ or demonstrating leadership skills, resilience and determination.

The post holder will manage delivery of the scheme and associated small grants in an assigned area of Essex. They will be responsible for maintaining and developing positive relationships with schools and youth organisations. The role will involve regular travel to visit schools and youth organisations, as well as outreach and community engagement work to identify and support new groups to apply to join our scheme. This work will also require evenings and occasional weekend work, especially to carry out assessment and review visits with youth organisations and to participate in our Achievement Award celebration events.

The successful candidate would therefore be someone who has flexibility to travel, work out-of-office hours, enjoys building relationships and public speaking, as well as navigating a busy grants and assessment caseload (desk-based processing, telephone calls/emails, and daily use of a database). You will need to be happy to travel regularly around Essex and one day per week to our office in Canary Wharf.

The Jack Petchey Foundation is an Equal Opportunities Employer, and we seek to build a team that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We particularly welcome applications from black and minority ethnic candidates as they are currently under-represented in our team.

Key Priorities of the Role:

• To promote and strengthen the Jack Petchey Achievement Award scheme and associated programmes (Leader Award Grants, Educational Visits and Learning Experiences, Environmental Awards and Partnership Programmes) in schools and youth organisations.

• To support schools and youth organisations to administer the Jack Petchey Achievement Award scheme to a high standard and maximise the positive impact it has on young people.

• To ensure that schools and youth organisations make maximum use of the small programmes and partnership programmes associated with the Jack Petchey Achievement Award scheme.

• To ensure that accurate data is recorded on all Jack Petchey Foundation systems. • To support programme growth, impact and reach by building stakeholder relationships in your assigned local area.

• To assess new applications and monitor the impact of the Achievement Award scheme and small grants awarded.

• To work with your colleagues in the Grants Team to deliver excellent grant making, review and improve processes, and strengthen relationships with all Jack Petchey Foundation stakeholders.

About You

This is an exciting time to join us as we grow our work as a charitable Foundation. You will have an opportunity to use and develop a wide range of skills in a friendly, dynamic and supportive team that is committed to growing our positive impact on young people.

The Grants Officer role demands a wide range of skills and a high degree of autonomy, reliability and flexibility. You will need to be an efficient, highly organised team member with excellent communication skills and a passion for our work. You will need to be able to manage your own workload within agreed targets and maintain a programme of planned visits, while creating new development opportunities.

You will possess an eye for detail, good administration skills and the ability to communicate confidently and present a positive external profile for the charity. Evening and weekend work is a requirement to meet the demands of this role. This is a busy and satisfying role, with each Grants Officer leading relationships with between 350-400 organisations. You will have strong planning skills and the ability to deal efficiently with regular grant applications, and with busy grant reporting periods twice a year.

Evening and weekend work is a requirement of this role, which on occasion can require up to two to three out-of-hours events in one week, depending on the event schedule. These are seasonal events, primarily during term-time and time off in lieu will be granted for additional hours worked. This role could offer flexibility around school holidays.

This is a perfect time to join the Foundation to support us to deliver our strategic plan – while we also streamline our processes, improve our support to our grantees, and review our grant-making criteria and guidance. This is your chance to make your mark within a motivated and ambitious team and help us to reach even more young people with our funding.

Main Areas of Responsibility

1 Develop, manage and promote the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme and other JPF opportunities

1.1. Identify schools and youth organisations not currently running the scheme and proactively promote the Achievement Award (AA) scheme to them, following up as required

1.2 Receive, assess and process all grant applications to join the AA scheme, in accordance with Jack Petchey Foundation policies and procedures

1.3 Attend, participate and assist with delivery of Achievement Award celebration events (usually evenings with some weekend events), including making a speech to congratulate the young people

2 Quality Assurance for the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme

2.1 Develop relationships with and support schools, alternative provision, and youth organisations on the Jack Petchey Achievement Award (AA) scheme to operate the scheme to the highest possible standard

2.2 Provide timely support to such organisations to enable them to run the AA scheme effectively

2.3 Implement a strategic approach to conducting face-to-face and digital assessment and monitoring visits to schools and youth organisations in your area on the Jack Petchey Achievement Award scheme, to ensure our funding is well spent and to identify opportunities to improve delivery

3 Administer the Jack Petchey Foundation grant making process

3.1 Ensure accurate records are kept on the Foundation’s database (Salesforce), including up-to-date contact details and records of communication with groups in receipt of or applying for grants

3.2 Approve/authorise payment of AA grants and related programmes in accordance with our policies

3.3 Ensure appropriate grant reporting by schools and youth organisations and negotiate return of funds where a grant has not been used in accordance with conditions

3.4 Proactively manage risk, being alert to potential fraud 3.5 Ensure that clubs and groups receive all necessary materials to operate the Achievement Award scheme effectively

3.6 Assess and approve Leader Awards and Environmental Awards in accordance with our policy

3.7 Assess applications for Leader Award Grants, Educational Visits and Learning Experiences Grants and Environmental Award Grants in accordance with our policy, with recommendations put forward to senior staff

3.8 Provide regular updates on your work and Grants Officer patch during monthly one-to-ones

4 Promote the wider work of the Jack Petchey Foundation to schools and youth groups

4.1 Identify case studies and other stories and material that can be used for our communications, supporting communications team colleagues to raise awareness of our opportunities and impact

4.2 Represent the Foundation at digital and physical events, local networks, funders’ fairs, and community or young people’s forums to help promote our Grant Programmes and other opportunities

4.3 Assist with digital and face-to-face monitoring and reporting in relation to groups that have received a Jack Petchey Foundation Project Grant or other funding Promote the wider work of the Jack Petchey Foundation to schools and youth groups

Other Responsibilities

5.1 Actively contribute to Grants team and Jack Petchey Foundation team meetings

5.2 Take a lead on specific projects and undertake other tasks as agreed with Grants Manager

5.3 Provide telephone/email support and advice about our funding streams to existing grantees or potential applicants

Please note these are the normal duties which the charity requires from the position. However, it is necessary for all staff to be flexible, and all employees will be required from time to time to perform other duties as may be required by JPF.

The postholder will be required to work at all times within the policies, procedures and values of the Jack Petchey Foundation, in particular safeguarding, health and safety, and data protection and consent policies.

For more information about the Foundation, visit our website: www.jackpetcheyfoundation.org.uk