Role description
Executive Director of Evidence
Salary:
Location: London
Hours: 35 hours per week
Responsible to: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Direct reports: Evidence Team
Purpose
To provide executive leadership for the delivery and strategic direction of our research and evaluation function, ensuring that Foundations is recognised as a leading authority on what works in children's social care and early intervention. To oversee the generation and synthesis of evidence, ensuring maximum impact on policy, practice, organisational sustainability and long-term mission delivery.
Key responsibilities
Executive leadership
Contribute to the development and delivery of the organisation's overall strategic plan.
Share collective accountability as a member of the Executive Leadership Team for organisational strategy, culture, performance, sustainability and risk management.
Lead on evidence-informed strategic decision-making across the organisation.
Support the Chief Executive in engagement with Trustees, funders, government and strategic partners.
Identify and pursue opportunities for organisational growth, influence and income generation.
Act as executive lead for the Board’s oversight of evidence and research activities.
Present strategic reports, risk assessments and performance updates to Trustees.
Support Trustees in understanding emerging developments in evidence, evaluation and research policy.
Provide the secretariat for the Grants Committee and Ethics and Evidence Panel.
Champion Foundations' equity, diversity, inclusion and equity (EDIE) and anti-racism commitments, embedding them in strategy, leadership and decision-making.
Provide strategic oversight of research and data ethics and research governance across the organisation.
Lead thinking on how artificial intelligence can strengthen evidence generation and synthesis and research productivity, ensuring its use is methodologically robust, transparent and ethically sound.
Sector Leadership
Position Foundations as a leading voice on evidence, evaluation and innovation in children's social care and early intervention, growing the reach and reputation of Foundations.
Build high-level strategic partnerships across government, academia, funders and the wider sector.
Work closely with officials at the Department for Education and other government departments to shape their research agendas, own evidence credibility and advise on evaluation and evidence gaps that need filling and to build evidence and evaluation capacity in government.
Influencing other funders outside government to focus on the most crucial evidence gaps in early intervention and children’s social care.
Influence national policy and methodological debates, providing thought leadership on what works and methods innovation by representing Foundations at events, publications, speaking engagements and stakeholder relationships.
Identify opportunities to secure strategic funding and investment in the organisation's evidence agenda.
Represent Foundations externally in evidence, methodology and with academia and research funders and maintain a strong and current understanding of wider sector developments.
Evidence and Team Leadership
Lead the development, and oversee delivery of, all evidence aspects of an ambitious organisation-wide work programme.
Provide inspiring executive leadership to the Evidence team, creating the conditions for high performance, innovation, collaboration, learning and development, risk management, and continuous improvement.
Maintain the highest research standards across the team and the organisation ensuring our work is at the cutting edge of research and evaluation in children’s services.
Work closely with the Deputy Chief Executive to ensure that the evidence we generate and synthesise is actionable and relevant to current policy and practice priorities and can be mobilised to have maximum positive impact.
Work closely with the Chief Operating Officer to ensure that funds are well spent, maximising value for money.
Accountable for project budgets led by the evidence team.
Oversee commissioning and delivery of systematic reviews, evaluations and wider research, and the strategy for and delivery of Foundations’ Toolkit.
Oversee the design and effective delivery of impactful funding rounds and the effective governance, relationships and management of grants to local authorities, delivery partners and evaluators.
Develop future leaders, manage talent and build organisational capability.
Person specification
Experience
An excellent research background in a relevant field such as children’s social care or family policy.
Demonstrable experience contributing to organisational strategy and leadership.
Experience of working directly with Boards, Trustees or equivalent governance bodies/senior stakeholders.
Strong track record of influencing national policy, academia, systems change or sector-wide practice.
Proven experience of securing significant funding, partnerships or income streams.
Experience of mobilising knowledge to ensure research and evidence has impact through changing policy and practice.
Knowledge, skills, and abilities
Strong knowledge of range of ‘what works’ epistemology and methodology, evaluation approaches (including RCTs and QEDs), and synthesis approaches (including meta-analysis).
Ability to operate strategically and politically in complex stakeholder environments.
Strong understanding of organisational governance, risk management and financial stewardship.
Ability to represent the organisation at the highest levels of government, academia and the social sector.
Excellent judgement and decision-making skills in complex and ambiguous situations.
Demonstrable commitment to diversity and inclusion.
In-depth understanding of national policy and current local practice in children’s services.
Qualifications and training
Post-graduate degree-level education in a relevant subject, such as developmental psychology, neuroscience, social policy or public health or equivalent experience (5 years)
