The What Works Centre for Children Social Care is seeking talented workshop facilitators with a strong knowledge of social research and experience in the children’s social care sector to support us in the development and delivery of a new learning offer.

Our aim is to develop a strong evidence base around effective interventions and practice systems in children’s social care, and to support their implementation by practitioners and decision makers. The goal is to improve outcomes for children and their families by supporting translation of evidence into better practice on the ground. In support of this, we are developing a learning offer to support local authorities to develop the skills to use better evidence in their work more frequently.

The approach

We have been working with the Alliance for Useful Evidence, who since 2015, has been supporting individuals to develop their skills and confidence in the use of evidence through it’s Evidence Masterclass, an interactive learning experience delivered through a pool of social policy experts. We are looking to build on this experience to develop and deliver a skills-building offer for local authorities. The content is being designed collaboratively with selected local authorities through a combination of interviews, co-creation sessions and prototypes between September – November 2018 with the ambition to have a scalable offer ready to deliver nationally in the new year.

The role:

We are seeking three to five talented workshop facilitators who have a strong track record in the use of evidence in the social care sector to join us on this journey from development to scale. They will:

• contribute to the development of the learning offer content and format, taking into account feedback from participants, and the learning to date
• facilitate workshops of varying lengths with groups within the social care sector including commissioning managers and social workers
• through the workshops, support the learning journey of individual participants
• capture learning insights and report back to the Alliance and the What Works Centre staff and share with the border network of associates
• collaborate with the Alliance and What Works Centre teams to ensure quality and consistency of delivery in accordance with operational guidelines
• be an advocate for evidence in Children’s Social Care and the What Works network
• where required and agreed, support with further development of participants through coaching and mentoring.

The person

To deliver the masterclasses we need to combine knowledge of England’s children social care sector with a sound knowledge of research evidence in practice. This will suit people who can work flexibly according to when training is needed, sometimes with limited notice periods (e.g. from between a month to three months between the external request for training to the time it will be delivered).

The ideal candidate will:
• be confident facilitating multi-day workshops, have an engaging and adaptable facilitation style and be able to deliver to variety of audiences to a high standard as part of an iterative design process
• be a practice leader or have breadth of first-hand experience in the children’s social care sector and be in a good position to share experience of the challenges faced by applying evidence in practice
• have robust understanding of the range of qualitative and quantitative research methods and be confident evaluating the quality and relevance of evidence for real world application
• be able to communicate complex concepts in a succinct and meaningful way
• be able to build rapport and trust with participants
• possess good time management skills, and be organised and solutions-focused
• have a willingness to travel, where necessary
• be a champion for the generation and use of research evidence to improve outcomes for children.

How to apply:

To apply for this role, please send the following to The Alliance for Useful Evidence Learning Services Manager, Elena Oyon – elena.oyon@nesta.org.uk by 11.45pm 7th October 2018
• Your CV
• A short cover letter addressing your suitability for the role

If you are shortlisted as a potential Workshop Associate, you will need to be available for the following dates:

• Face-to-face interview: 12th October
• Co-creation session with the Alliance team: Week of 22nd or 29th October

Contract:

Self-employed professionals to be contracted on a day rate by Nesta

Daily rate:
£550 per day
The fees paid by the Alliance for Useful Evidence are predetermined by its sponsor, Nesta, a charity. We endeavour to cover preparation and development time, as well as expenses for engagements.