Senior Health Inequalities and Involvement Manager

Job Description

We're the UK's specialist blood cancer charity and our vision is clear: we’re here to beat blood cancer. We fund world-class research; provide information and support to patients and their loved ones; and raise awareness of blood cancer. Since 1960 we have invested more than £500 million in blood cancer research in the UK. Where we’ve invested, survival rates and quality of life have improved. We’ve been working to beat blood cancer for over 50 years, and we won’t stop until we do. Be a part of our story and help us change the world. The Senior Health Inequalities and Involvement Manager role is central to us achieving this aim through leading the way we approach and deliver involvement across the organisation, with people affected by blood cancer driving forward our focus on reducing health inequalities. You will be leading our involvement programme, developing our strategy and processes to ensure we can work as effectively as possible, while diversifying our networks by building and strengthening relationships with community leaders and community-based organisations. You’ll be confident supporting the delivery of a range of different projects across the organisation, continuously advocating for an approach where voices of people affected are truly valued and can authentically shape the impact we make together. You’ll be a critical member of our EDI steering group, driving forward our strategy and approach. This is the role for you if you are an ambitious and motivating leader, a strategic thinker who can help deepen our knowledge on health inequalities existing across our community and deliver an ambitious yet practical approach to reducing these alongside the community we are here to serve. The majority of our roles can be performed hybrid which means you will be required to attend the office 2-4 days per month, there may also be additional need to attend in-person events i.e. project kick-off meetings or focus groups. Travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense. Our culture and benefits package are award winning, and our staff survey tells us that we’re a great place to work. We are committed to actively promoting equality, diversity, and inclusivity. In line with our strategy we welcome approaches from individuals from underrepresented groups, including minority communities, and applicants with a disability, to better reflect the community we serve and help broaden our perspectives.

Key Responsibilities

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES
1)Lead the development of our cross-organisational involvement programme to ensure it is an effective mechanism to engage with and involve a diverse range of people affected by blood cancer ensuring their voice can directly shape everything Blood Cancer UK does:.

• Review and develop our involvement strategy to ensure we are able to deliver a programme of work that aligns with our organisational mission.
• Drive forward the development of our Involvement Network:
• Review and develop policies and processes that allow you and your team to effectively recruit, onboard and steward a diverse group of people to involve in our work across the organisation.
• Increase the diversity and size of our involvement network, and the range of opportunities available for them to use their voice to shape.
• Work with communication and marketing teams to maximise recruitment opportunities
• Support the organisation to recognise where there are opportunities to involve people affected in their work
• Develop impact measures for our involvement work and work with our Health Data and Insights Team to demonstrate how effectively we are driving real-world change
• Provide supportive line management of your direct reports to ensure they are effectively delivering all relevant activity.

2) Support the organisation to deliver current projects aiming to reduce health inequalities which actively involve people from underserved communities with a higher incidence, lower survival and/or poorer experience of blood cancer.

• Work with project leads to understand and deliver on requirements for current activities, particularly around designing our services to improve access to services.
• Hold a strategic overview of all mission team projects to ensure involvement opportunities are aligned where needed and people can be stewarded effectively through these activities.
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with community leaders and grassroots or community-based organisations where our aims could align and our messages can be amplified.
• Support your team and the wider project teams to coordination of all involvement opportunities effectively.

3) Support Mission Team Leads and broader Leadership and Executive Teams to develop our EDI and Involvement Strategy to develop a pipeline of activities working towards reducing health inequalities

• Be a strong subject matter expert on health inequalities and involvement for the charity
• Be a committed member of the EDI steering group, work alongside our Exec EDI Lead and strategy group to develop our EDI strategy.
• Align our EDI strategy with our broader involvement proposition that streamlines our focus to reducing health inequalities within all activities across our mission teams and wider organisation.
• Keeping constantly up to date with best practice and landscape review across the sector and beyond to ensure our work in this space is as ambitious as we are as an organisation.

THINGS WE ALL DO

• Promote Blood Cancer UK’s vision, mission and core values
• Support Blood Cancer UK’s commitment to actively promoting equality, diversity and inclusivity
• We’re all fundraisers. This is slightly different for all roles, and your team will have fundraising KPIs and objectives we all work to
• Attend and assist at Blood Cancer UK events and activities as required (NB this involves evening and weekend work)
• Be an effective ambassador for Blood Cancer UK at any activity you attend
• All staff are expected to adhere to Blood Cancer UK’s policies and procedures
• Do any other reasonable things your manager needs you to do
• We work in partnership with our community by actively involving people affected by blood cancer in the decisions we make about our work – what we do and how we do it

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Skills knowledge and experience

• Expert knowledge of health inequalities and ED&I principles
• Significant experience of managing and involvement networks and an understanding of best practice in policies and procedures.
• Significant experience in working in patient and public involvement, and expertise around the impact it can have on delivering the organisation’s strategic objectives.
• Experience in building relationships with community-based networks and organisations
• Demonstrable experience in collaborating with internal teams to design effective involvement opportunities
• Understanding of the importance of regular impact analysis and evaluation.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrable ability to communicate succinctly face to face, over the phone, and online with a wide range of stakeholders internally and externally.
• Ability to work independently and within a team to plan and prioritise activities across multiple projects.
• Experience of report writing, incorporating quantitative and qualitative feedback in analysis and using this to drive strategic change where necessary.