Executive Director of Voice, Vision and Impact
hft
Job Description and Person Spec
Our vision is to create a future where learning disabled people can live the best life possible. We will do this by coming together to campaign for positive change, provide personalised support and create solutions for living independently.
- Job role: Executive Director of Voice, Vision and Impact
- Reports to: CEO Portfolio: Communications, Marketing, External Affairs & Governance
- Service/Team: Executive Team
- Hours: 37.5
- Location Base: Home Based with travel as per role requirements
- People Manager: Y No
- DR: TBC
- Budgetary Influence: Y
- Budgetary Amount: TBC
- DBS Required: N
- Job Grade: Executive
Job Purpose
The Director of Voice, Vision and Impact will lead our external voice and engagement with all our internal and external stakeholders. You will bring together communications, brand, engagement, reputation, governance and strategy, ensuring we understand our impact, grow our reach, and influence others to improve the lives of learning disabled adults and the services we deliver. You will be a full member of the Executive team and you will work with Executive colleagues to influence and drive the strategic priorities of Hft. Responsible For The post holder will lead our external-facing communications, marketing, policy, public affairs, governance and PR work as well as our internal communications strategy. This is a pivotal senior leadership role, focused on amplifying Hft’s voice and vision, deepening our impact, and building meaningful connections to deliver on our mission as a leading learning disability charity. We need to re-energise our story – engaging and involving the voices of learning disabled adults and colleagues with Hft. You’ll champion a cross-organisational approach to communications, influence, and impact, working collaboratively across the leadership team. You’ll also lead and develop impactful relationships with central and local government, funding agencies and other charity and media partners.
Responsible For
The post holder will be accountable for the strategic leadership of income generation both through business development and fundraising income as well as the continued income generation and ongoing leadership of the Housing function. You will agree and be accountable for targets and KPIs linked to Hft’s business plan - including supported living, residential, day opportunities and supported employment services. You will ensure that that contracts and CQC standards are met and that income is delivered by maintaining existing contracts and seeking opportunities for growth. You will hold your leadership and management teams accountable for delivering consistent and high standards of work. You will build effective partnerships with central support functions to ensure that your teams are set up for success.
Key Accountabilities
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You’ll lead and inspire a compact team responsible for Hft’s overall brand, internal and external communications, PR and media engagement, corporate and public affairs, policy, parliamentary, stakeholder engagement and internal governance
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You’ll lead and establish Hft’s multi-channel corporate communications strategy to develop our profile and ensure Hft is firmly positioned as a leading national charity for learning disabled people, trusted by the people we support, their families and our colleagues.
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You’ll working closely with fellow Directors responsible for fundraising and supporter engagement and commercial sales and marketing to help maximise income generation and impact.
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You’ll develop Hft’s media presence and profile, including leading on modernising Hft’s digital and social media strategy, and you’ll be responsible for managing strategic crisis communications planning and execution, and associated reputation management.
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You’ll lead the development, delivery and communication of priority national level strategic partnerships, alliances and campaigns, helping develop Hft’s national profile and identify opportunities for new markets and funding streams.
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Working closely with the Chief Executive, you’ll develop Hft’s policy, public and corporate affairs strategy in both England and Wales, building contacts with government to support successful influencing and lobbying.
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You’ll have overall responsibility and accountability for Hft’s governance framework and structures, including working closely with CEO, Chair and Board of Trustees to evolve Hft’s governance to meet the needs of the Board and Charity Commission guidelines
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You’ll lead overall on our relationship with our membership, working closely with the Chief Executive to ensure Hft maximises the benefit from its membership base
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Foster a culture of creativity and innovation and set out how the team will use communications, influencing, and fundraising to grow awareness, raise income and influence change.
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Lead and manage your direct reports to role model high performance.
Quality, Compliance and Safety
- Nurture a culture of compliance, commercial performance, high standards and continuous improvement in leading the delivery of a high quality, person-centred, values-based culture that supports operation colleagues and ensures we have effective systems in place that prioritise engagement with the people we support, their families and all other key stakeholders.
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Ensure that safeguarding is at the heart of all that we do and that safeguarding responsibilities are clearly understood
- Ensuring that Health and Safety and other regulations are always understood and adhered to within the team.
- To keep abreast of legislative and regulatory changes and ensure that Hft remains legally compliant.
- Regularly reviewing and managing risks to the delivery of exceptional customer service, compliance and support across all settings and locations.
- Ensure that equity, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of all activity.
Financial Sustainability
- Lead your directorate through the budgeting process.
- Ensure that your portfolio delivers within agreed income targets, budgets and to a high standard.
- To manage working structures and relationships with trustees as required to ensure that good governance is delivered.
- To maximise opportunities for improving quality and reducing cost.
Relationships and Organisational Effectiveness
- Play your part as a full member of the Executive Leadership Team
- Encourage engagement with the people we support, their families, colleagues, Trustees and members and all other key stakeholders to ensure that services improve lives and build independence.
- Build, grow, and maintain positive working relationships with peers, key stakeholders, internal and external stakeholders across the sector based on mutual respect and trust.
- Partner with key stakeholders to ensure there is a culture of working together to achieve shared aims, with regular review of planned activity as it relates to training.
Professional & Technical Expertise
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To be the brand expert and ambassador for Hft, able to report incisively on the impact, quality of all services and strategy, leading on tone of voice. You will ensure that this is reflected in high quality external and internal documents such as the annual report. You will lead communications that bring our mission, values and strategy to life.
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To role model positive and effective leadership and build a leadership team that reflects this.
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To work with cross functional teams to build mutually respectful and productive relationships ensuring that other functional teams receive the support to amplify the voice of Hft
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Ensure that required best practice policies are accessible, compliant and facilitate Hft to deliver high quality support to the people we support and colleagues
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Set and maintain the standard for the design, delivery and evaluation of high quality practice across Hft.
Person specification
What you need to be successful in this role:
- Demonstrated capability to lead strategic communications that safeguard and enhance Hft’s reputation, strengthen its voice, and build trust-based relationships with stakeholders
- Senior level experience in driving and championing successful change delivery, improving operational practices to deliver strategic ambition.
- Proven strategic and resilient leadership, able to develop, coach and manage multidisciplinary and expert professional teams, creating positive and engaged team culture that can contribute and thrive in a transforming culture.
- Demonstrated experience of partnership working and in building and maintaining productive relationships with stakeholders across the sector and external environment.
- Excellent influencing and negotiating skills, both internally and externally developing and enhancing relationships with senior stakeholders across sectors, and working with non-executive Boards and Committees
- Exceptional communication skills, able to simplify complex concepts and convey Hft’s impact effectively.
- Experienced in using data and evidence to inform funding strategies, measure impact, and drive innovation.
- Strong financial and operational acumen, able to manage resources effectively and ensure accountability.
- Is expert at delivering within a governance framework regarding decision-making processes, policies, and procedures.
- Committed to embedding the values of equity, diversity and inclusion in everything that you do.
Our Values and Behaviours
- Diverse: We appreciate that everyone is unique, so we champion equity, diversity and inclusion.
- Kind: Our compassion shines through everything we do.
- Positive: We focus on finding solutions, partnering up for progress and getting others involved.
- Visionary: We are proud to paint a picture of what the best life possible could look like