Lead for Evaluation

Organisation
- Dorset Council
- Location
- Dorchester, United Kingdom
- Reference
- 61057360
- Occupational group
- Health and Social Care - Children's
- Salary details
- £54,124 - £60,237
- Job term
- Full Time
- Appointment type
- Fixed Term
- Contact
- Claire Shiels
- Contact telephone
- 01305 224682
- Closing Date
- 07 September 2023 11:00 PM

**Lead for Evaluation**:
**37 hours (flexible working considered)**:
**Fixed Term until 30th November 2025**:
**Salary £54,124 - £60,237**:
**County Hall, Dorchester, combined with home-working**:
**What’s in it for you**:
There has never been a more exciting time to join Children’s Services in Dorset.

We are building on our current successful model of delivery and changing the way we do things, to focus more and more on ensuring that children and families are at the heart of everything that we do. We are proud to be a pathfinder for a new model that will change not only how we deliver our services in Dorset, but to influence the national implementation of services for children and families for the next generation and beyond.

I am Claire Shiels, Corporate Director - Commissioning & Partnerships and I am excited to offer the opportunity to become our new Lead for Evaluation, a pivotal role within Childrens Services to support with the delivery of a national Pathfinder programme and to influence the shape of how we will deliver services to children, young people and families in Dorset based on evidence of what works. The role will report directly to me and I will commit my time and energy to work with you, support you and learn from you.

This Pathfinder programme is testing out the implementation of the Families First element of the national ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ strategy - the government’s response and detailed plan to reform how children’s social care is delivered. Your role as lead for evaluation will be of critical importance to ensure that we understand the impact of our changes and make recommendations that will influence future national policy development.

**What you can expect to be doing**:
You will develop, design and deliver our Evaluation Strategy, collaborating with local and national partners to ensure the appropriate data and insight is collected, measured, analysed and used to shape our work. You will be confident in a range of research and evaluation methods and will be confident in working with partners and children and families to make things happen.

Working across organisational boundaries and multiple programmes and projects you will be an enabler to ensuring all of our deliverables impact on improving the experiences of our diverse families, thus improving the outcomes for the communities we serve. You will have the professional maturity to provide challenge to ensure the voices of children and families are represented in our decision making.

This role will evidence progress across the following key areas:

- Design and deliver the research and evaluation strategy for the Families First for Children pathfinder
- Be responsible for directing the work of others
- Ensure stakeholders and service users are effectively engaged and involved in co-production of the Evaluation Strategy
- Ensure effective evaluation arrangements are in place and acted upon
- Evidence of an improved experience for children and young people and their families.
- Management of national evaluation partners

**About you**:
You will take an ethical approach to evaluation and research design and will ensure that your work complies with all relevant legislation and financial regulations e.g. GDPR, Equality and Diversity policies, etc. You will have access to large amounts of data and sensitive information including data from all areas of the council and relevant external partner data and will be confident in making analysis of both quantitative and qualitative evaluation research design.

**Additional Information**:
You will have a degree in a research related field.

This post is funded for a 2-year fixed period through our Pathfinder programme.

This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

See our policy on safeguarding children and young people.

**Dorset Council: A great place to work**:
We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

- provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
- have ambitious aspirations
- are excited about our future
- care about Dorset and all the people who live here
- know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success

You will:

- have access to a range of employee benefits
- be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
- have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression

We are proud to be a Disability Confiden