Job Title: / Learning & Evaluation Officer
Division: / BBC Children in Need
Department: / Grant-making and Policy
Base: / London
Grade: / 6
Contract: / 1 Continuing & 1 Fixed Term (9 months, possibly extending to 12 months)

Context and purpose of the Role

BBC Children in Need’s vision is that every child and young person in the UK is safe, happy and secure and able to reach their potential. We work towards this vision by raising around £50 million each year and distributing it across the UK through mostly responsive grants. At any time we are supporting over 2,400 projects. Last year, we helped change the lives of 480,000 disadvantaged children and young people living in the UK.

We are currently reviewing our strategy for impactwhich will focus onstrengtheningour ability to be a more influential and proactive funder. In particular, BBC Children in Need wants to achieve greaterimpactfor children through its grant-making and other activity, such as using our digital platforms and various partnerships – including that withthe BBC. We will learn from what we fund and do in order to continuously improve outcomes for disadvantaged children and young people. Central to our learningare the online systems for applications and grantee reporting. These have provided significant volumes of quantitative and qualitative data about the projects we support and the scale and types of differences that we are enabling in the lives of children and young people across the UK.

BBC Children in Need is looking for a dedicated social research analyst to focus on these data to help inform a robust assessment of our impact. The role will also help identify learning that informs our grant making, proactive programmes and our wider capacity to be influential. The Learning & Evaluation Officer will be responsible for managing data and producing analysis that will inform messaging about the impact of the grants BBC CiN makes, based on sound evaluation. The role will identify learning from the work supported by BBC CiN about issues facing disadvantaged children and young people in the UK and about best practice in addressing these. They will also support the management and development of specific strategic learning projects that arise from our extensive grant portfolio. This will include coordinating the identification of themes, research design and liaison with colleagues across the UK and will build on past learning projects which we have conducted.

The post will sit within the Learning and Influencing Team, initially reporting to the Head of Learning and Influencing, and contribute to the overall team ethos and approach.

Key responsibilities

Data management and analysis:

  • Management and development of systems for collating and organising quantitative and qualitative data to meet all organisational evaluation and learning needs.
  • Familiarisation with our data collection sources, (particularly grant reports)andadvising on measures to ensure they remain fit-for-purpose and able to meet future need.
  • Identificationand management of solutions to data and analytical issues.
  • Production of regular bespoke and automated analytical outputs relevant to the range of grantmaking, partnerships, marketing and editorial needs across the organisation
  • In-depth qualitative analysis of data describing the nature and effectiveness of our impact.
  • Ad hoc exploratory or investigative analysis, e.g. relevant to selected learning themes.

Research activity:

  • Supporting the design, management and coordination of internal strategic research or learning projects.
  • The undertaking of desk based research to inform internal knowledge sharing and influencing.
  • The monitoring and synthesis of external research and evaluation of practice and issues relating to personal social development and wellbeing of children and young people.
  • The monitoring and updating of disadvantage statistics relating to children and young people.
  • The development of initial messages and lessons from in-house research to inform grant-making and influencing activity.
  • Liaising externally in order to keep abreast of, and contribute to, evolving research and evaluation practice in the field.
  • Researching and coordinating specific learning briefings for internal and external stakeholders.

Organisational coordination & communication:

  • Liaison across CIN teams (national English regional offices, Grants & Policy, Operations, Editorial, Corporate and Marketing & Fundraising) to ascertain data and information needs.
  • Communication of data issues which arise from our internal systems or practices, e.g., staff quality checks, data entry gaps, quality of reporting.
  • Support of grant-making staff engaged in team and individual learning projects.

Skills, Knowledge & Experience

Essential

  • Substantial experience in end-to-end management and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data including data cleaning, manipulating and reporting.
  • Experience in working with large bespoke databases (e.g., GIFTs, the grant-making database used by CiN) with particular emphasis on ensuring a high standard of quality of data which are appropriate for analysis.
  • Substantial skills and experience in using software for undertaking quantitative analysis (e.g., Excel, SPSS) and qualitative analysis (e.g.,NVIVOor equivalent).
  • An excellent communicator with great interpersonal skills and strong experience of writing reports, guidance & briefing and simply presenting complex ideas, for example, in infographics.
  • Experience in the planning, design and implementation of social science research and evaluation methods, preferably including coordinating and supporting others in undertaking research.
  • A strong team player, with the ability to prioritise efficiently and deliver to deadlines.

Desirable

  • Academic rigour in a social science or equivalent to post-graduate level with a strong emphasis on research methods.
  • Experience in research and analysis relevant to meeting the informationneeds of charity or grant-making organisations, preferably with a focuschildren and young people in the UK.
  • Experience in engagement with Open Data agenda.
  • Experience in designing or commissioning data visualisations.

Competencies

  • Managing relationships and team working - able to build and maintain effective working relationships with a range of people. Works co-operatively with others to be part of a team, as opposed to working separately or competitively.
  • Planning and Organising - able to think ahead in order to establish an efficient and appropriate course of action for self and others. Prioritises and plans activities taking into account all the relevant issues and factors such as deadlines, staffing and resources.
  • Influencing and persuading - able to present sound and well-reasoned arguments to convince others. Can draw from a range of strategies to persuade people in a way that results in agreement or behaviour change.
  • Flexibility - adapts and works effectively with a variety of situations, individuals or groups. Able to understand and appreciate different and opposing perspectives on an issue, to adapt an approach as the requirements of a situation change, and to change or easily accept changes in one’s own organisation or job requirements.
  • Communication Skills - able to get one’s message understood clearly by adopting a range of styles, tools and techniques appropriate to the audience and the nature of the information.
  • Analytical thinking - able to simplify complex problems, processes or projects into component parts explore and evaluate them systematically.

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