Senior Evaluation and Research Manager

Location and working pattern

Thrive at Five are open to considering flexible working patterns or candidates who wish to apply for the role on a part-time basis (the business requirements of the role involve a minimum commitment of 28 hours per week). If candidates wish to explore these options they can be discussed at the interview stage. This role is based in Edinburgh two days per week with occasional travel to London and other parts of the UK.

Organisational statement

Thrive at Five’s mission is to bring together local communities, families and partners, and to join-up and strengthen early years systems to support children to thrive from pregnancy to five.

In 2018, the co-founders of Thrive at Five started to convene philanthropists, grant makers and others with expertise in the early years to discuss how collaborative approaches might contribute to delivering better outcomes for babies and young children. Since then, the organisation has grown considerably with programmes now running in Stoke-on-Trent, Redcar & Cleveland, and in development in Middlesbrough and Scotland as of this year. The organisation now employs around 35 people across the UK. We work in close partnership with councils, community organisations, schools, health practitioners, research partners, funders, government representatives, and loyal connectors who all play a critical role in supporting and advocating for the organisation\’s vision and success.

We are at an exciting moment as we look to expand our brilliant team and bring in the additional skills needed to ensure we can support all our staff to thrive and deliver our critical work across the UK. This post will form a critical part of a growing team in Scotland as we scale our work over the next year and double our reach, impact and staff team across the wider organisation.

The post-holder will be a core part of the Scotland programme and will benefit from working closely with experienced colleagues in the central Learning and Impact team who are based in the south of England and can offer peer support and professional development opportunities.

Job purpose

Thrive at Five’s Senior Evaluation and Research Manager will be responsible for leading the discovery exercise in our first Scottish site.

The aim will be to ensure both the incoming Thrive at Five backbone team and our partners across the local early childhood system have a clear, shared understanding of local opportunities and challenges.

As our new local programme gets underway, the Senior Evaluation and Research Manager will play a key role in the development of new workstreams and embedding a test, learn, and refine cycle throughout the work. The post-holder will also help us ensure our external evaluation has the access to data and local contacts needed to produce regular, high-quality outputs. This is a key role for Thrive at Five that will help us grow the charity in Scotland and ensure our work is strongly informed by evidence, data and context.

Role description

• Lead the discovery exercise in Thrive at Five’s first Scottish site so that the new backbone team has a strong understanding of the local context relating to early childhood development and a set of warm early relationships with key stakeholders.
• Apply and, where necessary, adapt the broad approach to discovery documented in our organisational playbook, including ensuring we listen to and capture children’s voices effectively in line with UNCRC best practice.
• Review, analyse and present the existing quantitative data around the early years population, priority child and parent outcomes, local services, engagement with these services, and experiences of parenting in early childhood.
• Collate focused qualitative insights from a wide range of local stakeholders including parents, grandparents, system leaders, school staff, service managers, childcare providers, practitioners, charity workers, representatives from faith organisations, community volunteers etc.
• Develop a comprehensive discovery slide-deck that synthesises what we have found and draws initial conclusions around local opportunities and challenges for families and the early years system.
• Cultivate warm relationships with a wide range of local stakeholders and seamlessly handover these relationships to the new backbone team as they come into post.
• Design and deliver a schedule of workstream formative evaluations so that the various strands of local delivery have a clearly articulated purpose, a plausible theory of action, and a strong focus on learning and improving.
• Work alongside the Thrive at Five Central and local backbone team, and local stakeholders, to help develop and define shared workstreams.
• Carry out a cycle of formative evaluations on local shared workstreams and ensure key learnings are disseminated to those involved in the work and incorporated into future delivery.
• Ensure the independent Thrive at Five evaluation is delivering timely and high-quality outputs and that the learnings are strengthening our work.
• Feed into discussions about the Scottish Thrive at Five impact indicators and the associated impact evaluation.
• Work with the independent evaluation team to ensure they have the required on-the ground delivery capability and access to data to effectively conduct the evaluation.
• Quality assure evaluation products.
• Provide general evaluation, data, and research support to the Scotland Director.
• Support with research and analysis around the selection of new Thrive at Five sites and/or local communities within local authority areas.
• Support with the preparation of Thrive at Five briefing materials, reports, PowerPoint presentations, literature reviews.

Person Specification

Essential

• Relevant experience in learning, evaluation, and impact roles.
• Proven track record of carrying out high-quality evaluation and learning work that supports the implementation of local services and/or projects.
• Skills in quantitative data collection and analysis for the purposes of both assessing local need and strengthening delivery.
• Skills in qualitative data analysis for the purposes of both assessing local need and strengthening delivery.
• A track record of producing reports that are accessible to local practitioners and that help to drive practice improvement.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Strong organisational and project management skills with an eye for detail.
• Track record of innovation and creative solutions.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to develop relationships with staff at all levels.
• Experience of managing contractors and consultants.
• High levels of empathy, passion, and care for those in our delivery areas.
• Alignment with our organisation’s values

Desirable

• A strong understanding of early childhood development and early developmental inequalities.
• A strong understanding of local early childhood systems and the evidence around what shapes children’s outcomes and what works to improve children’s outcomes.
• A strong understanding of collective impact and place-based working, particularly in communities affected by poverty.
• Familiarity with the range of local and quantitative datasets that relate to early child development.

To apply, please submit a CV and a 1-2 side covering statement to Anna Barker (People Advisor).