Director of Research, Evaluation and Impact

Do you have a passion to help Children and Young People and want to make a difference?

Are you a senior leader with excellent insight, research, evaluation and impact knowledge, skills and experience?

Are you a driven, collaborative leader who wants to work to shape and significantly grow The Children’s Society’s impact and reach?

If so, we have an exciting opportunity for a Director of Research, Evaluation and Impact to join our dynamic and ambitious team.  

The role can be situated in our The Children’s Society’s national office at Whitecross Studios, Old Street, London, or one of our regional offices (currently in Birmingham and Greater Manchester), with hybrid working options available.  Alternatively, home-based by arrangement with the ability to frequently travel to the national office and other venues as required.

Permanent contract (following 6-month probation period), working full time (35 hours a week).

Salary: £61,125.54 per annum (National), £63,990.72 per annum (London based)

The Children’s Society is clear on the impact it wants to create for young people – directly through our services for young people and through our systems change and influencing work at all levels in society. The Director of Research, Evaluation and Impact is part of the Leadership Team at The Children’s Society, a Senior Leader within the Youth Impact domain. The Youth Impact domain is where all of our service delivery for young people and a lot of systems change activity takes place.  

The Director will lead the Research, Evidence and Impact Team who have a vital role in ensuring that The Children’s Society retains a clear and authentic understanding of young people’s lives, with a focus on what is most important to building or preserving wellbeing.  Our charity has been at the forefront of research on children’s wellbeing for 20 years, alongside conducting child-centred studies on adolescence, risk and vulnerability (e.g. on Child Exploitation), and child poverty, exploring the issues that jeopardise young people’s safety, health and opportunities. We have a track record for innovation (e.g. developing a validated and widely used ’Good Childhood Index’) and work with academic partners and other organisations who share our vision of a society built for all children. 

The Team are also responsible for overseeing and supporting the range of external evaluations that The Children’s Society commissions to evidence the effectiveness of our direct services. Collating and sharing learning so we deepen our understanding of what interventions and support is effective for young people, or contributes to creating wider systems change for young people in our society.

Our collaborative culture at The Children’s Society means that we closely work with colleagues who lead lobbying and political campaigning activities, as well as external communications and messaging, bringing together compelling evidence to drive change – in public awareness and attitudes, and in policies and systems – that can improve young people’s lives. We also work closely with colleagues in our services across the country – sometimes to study the issues they see in their direct work with young people and families, and sometimes to support them when they commission independent evaluations or learning exercises. 

The Research, Evidence and Impact Team’s work is also pivotal to two flagship reports that The Children’s Society publishes every year – The Good Childhood Report and our Annual Impact report. The role holder will be responsible for leading both these pieces of work, as well as the continued development of The Children’s Society’s Impact Measurement Framework.

This is a newly formed Director role that will become an active member of our Senior Leadership Team, reporting to the Executive Director of Youth Impact. It is a strategic, national role. With your enthusiasm and passion to make a difference in young people’s lives, you will be responsible for developing and implementing a strategic research, evaluation and impact programme to drive forward the achievement of our goal - leading a team of experienced researchers to help you achieve this.

Key responsibilities will be to:

• Deliver the organisations Impact Measurement Framework, and drive forward the measurement of impact across the charity – reporting to a range of audiences
• Lead colleagues to produce robust, ethical, anti-discriminatory research and evaluation focused on children’s wellbeing, in accordance with our safeguarding approach – disseminating findings in accessible ways to a range of internal and external audiences
• Develop and lead a strategic research, evaluation and impact programme that support The Children’s Society’s ambitions for growth of the reach of our charity – prioritising young people’s voice and experience.
• Leading external research and impact partnerships, working collaboratively across the sector – growing opportunities for research and impact.
• Lead the annual production of the Good Childhood Report and Annual Impact Report.

You will be expected to represent the organisational externally, at the highest levels, with a wide variety of people and organisations. These could be researchers, supporters, politicians, civil servants, funders, media, partners – the list is endless. The effective verbal, written and visual communication skills you have will be important here.  You are likely to be required to undertake media and public speaking – a good track record here will be encouraged. You will play a crucial role in developing and managing strategic relationships.

The Children’s Society ensures that youth voice is central to its work and drives its strategic objectives. The post holder will be expected to develop youth voice activity throughout our work, upholding the highest standards of promoting safe and ethical practice.    

The Director of Research, Evaluation and Impact is a senior leadership position in the charity. This means you will get involved in cross-organisational development activities and will have an important role in championing our strategic objectives.  

Here are just some of our benefits:

• Flexible working hours: 8 to 4, 9 to 5, 10 to 6, or in between (to be agreed with your manager).
• Family-friendly policies: Including enhanced maternity, paternity, and adoption leave.
• Pension: Stakeholder pension scheme: with company-matched employee contributions of up to 8%.
• ‘Xtras‘: Employee discount scheme offering a range of  savings across groceries, fuel, clothing, and holidays.
• Free confidential counselling service: Available to all staff and volunteers.
• 28 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays.

Recruitment process

The closing date for applications is 23:59 on Sunday 19^th January 2025. If after 14 days, we have received enough applications we can close this vacancy from the 3rd January 2025 onwards.

First interviews will be held on the week commencing 27^th January 2025, followed by further shortlisting.

Second interviews will be held on the week commencing 3^rd February 2025.

We are currently working on agreeing a date for a young people’s panel. We will advise shortlisted candidates of this date as soon as possible. 

About us

The Children’s Society has been helping children and young people in this country for over 140 years. We run more than 70 local services that help thousands of young people who desperately need our support, and we lobby and campaign to get laws and policies changed to make children’s lives happier and safer. Every day we’re changing the lives of children in this country for the better – you can find out more by reading our 'Impact Report' https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-we-do/our-impact

The Children’s Society is committed to safeguarding and protecting the children and young people that we work with.  As such, all posts are subject to a safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks.  We ensure that we have a range of policies and procedures in place which promote safeguarding and safer working practices across our services.

Therefore, candidates will be required to complete an “Employment history template” document prior to interview. The fully completed document should be loaded by the candidate at the point of uploading your CV.

• Director of Research Evaluation and Impact_Recruitment Pack - Dec 24.pdf (7.33 MB)
• Director of Research Evaluation and Impact_Final.pdf (182.28 KB)