Freelance Grant Assessor - Role Profile

Youth Music is seeking experienced individuals to join our pool of freelance grant assessors.

Assessors play a key role within Youth Music’s funding programme, with responsibility for assessing a wide range of funding applications. This includes analysing information about project activities, budgets, risk assessments and other supporting information to formulate objective evaluations in relation to Youth Music’s set criteria. For each application, assessors are required to compile an objective and concise report.

Freelance assessors are home-based, and must have access to telephone, email and the internet. Each assessment carries a role brief and the remuneration rate varies from £55 to £85according to which application stage is being assessed. There are four assessment periods per year, each lasting for around one month. The level of work available to assessors varies from round to round, depending upon the number of applications received, internal staff capacity, and other factors affecting the grant cycle. As a general rule, we expect assessors to be able to commit to at least 15 hours of work during each assessment period.

We are looking to engage assessors who can demonstrate knowledge of the outcomes approach with specific expertise/interest in one or more of Youth Music’s modularareas of work. Please visit thefunding section of the Youth Music Network site ( for more information.

We asked one of our longstanding assessors about the motivations and rewards associated with the assessor role. This is what she said:

“I have thoroughly enjoyed working as an external assessor for Youth Music for over 10 years. A passionate interest in the crucial role of music in supporting the development of children and young people has been a key driving force for all of my work over the years and I was initially attracted to this role because of Youth Music’s forward thinking and visionary policies and strategic priorities in this respect. Alongside this I was excited by the opportunities to apply and extend my broad ranging skills, knowledge and experience as an music/arts professional and educator. Since working for Youth Music I have assessed many applications from diverse music, education, youth and community groups and settings and this has been an immensely rewarding and developmental process. Not only have I been able to utilise my existing expertise but my knowledge and understanding of young people’s music making and the related issues and context has increased and developed considerably. Working as a Youth Music assessor has also provided a national overview and invaluable professional development, training and networking opportunities. I have enjoyed every moment and would highly recommend it”.

With a funding programme that is heavily over-subscribed, the quality of assessment is crucial in supporting Youth Music to make intelligent funding decisions. As such, we require our assessors to be competent and able to meet the following knowledge, skills and abilities areas:

Essential knowledge

  • Formal and non-formal music education in England
  • Published evidence relating to the outcomes of music-making on children and young people
  • Principles of the outcomes approach in project planning and evaluation
  • Excellent understanding of social issues, particularly in relation to children and young people
  • Voluntary and public sector structures and processes
  • Music education policy

Essential skills and abilities

  • Strong written report and verbal communication skills
  • Able to quickly understand, analyse and summarise large amounts of complex material
  • Exceptional attention to detail
  • Financially literate
  • Able to work independently
  • Able to work efficiently to meet deadlines
  • Ability to make objective and impartial evidence-based decisions
  • Excellent IT (Microsoft Office, databases, web) skills

Essential experience

  • Assessment of grant applications in UK social context or evaluation of music/ arts related projects with children and young people
  • Delivery or management of music or arts projects with children and young people

Other considerations

This role is a freelance position. Grant assessors will need to be able to work independently and must have access to the telephone and internet (such expenses do not form part of this contract). Grant assessors will also need to travel to London occasionally for training (or have access to Skype for remote training), for which travel expenses will be paid.

Freelance grant assessors must be open to receiving feedback on their assessments from a member of the Grants and Learning team, who have responsibility to review all assessments based on their specialist knowledge and regional portfolio responsibilities.Assessors are responsible for their own continuing professional development in relation to these essential knowledge areas.

One final consideration before applying: please note that the confidentiality clause attached to the freelance assessor contract stipulates that assessors are unable to make funding applications to Youth Music and/or support others to submit a funding application. Please therefore consider the impact of this clause on any other commitments you have.

How to apply

Read and complete the attached assessment brief (saving it as ‘your name_ assessment brief’), and send it to: gether with a copy of your latest CV.

What happens next?

A member of the Youth Music Grants and Learning team will review your mock grant assessment to ascertain your written report skills and review your recommendations. We will also review your CV to determine how far you meet the essential knowledge, skills and abilities and experience areas. We will endeavour to contact you within 20 working days to let you know the outcome of this assessment. If you are successful in moving to the next stage of the application process we will invite you to undertake a pre-arranged telephone interview. All successful applicants will undertakespecialist Youth Music training prior to commencement of the contract, with a commitment to on-going training from Youth Music and elsewhere as appropriate.

Previous applicants need not re-apply.

Assessment Brief

Read the mock application on the following page, and complete the table below with your assessment.

Name
In no more than 300 words, write a summary of the key strengths and weaknesses of this project.
How far is the project likely to meet the intended outcomes? Ensure you justify your answer (max200 words).
If the application was approved to proceed to the second stage of the application process, what recommendations would you make to the organisation to improve its proposal(max 5 recommendations)?
If the application was declined, what feedback would you give the applicant (max 150 words)?

Mock Application

Organisation name: Amplify!

Module: Music-based Mentoring(for more information on this module please see the applicant guidance notes:

Question 1.Need: Please provide evidence to demonstrate the need for the proposed work under this module

This project will work with 15 children and young people who are looked-after.

There are 1,345 children in care living in the Local Authority area where Amplify! Is based. 280 are aged between 16-18, and the majority of this group live in foster care. DCSF data (quoted in Youth Music’s Looked after children and music making: an evidence review) shows that education attainment for children in care is far below the national average (with 15% of looked-after children obtaining at least one GCSE grade A*-C, compared with 70% for the national average). The figures for young people who are not in employment, education or training are 50% higher for those in care than those who are not. Once young people reach adult life, the impact of often-chaotic lifestyles makes it harder to find a job – unemployment rates for people who have left care are 50% higher than the national average. This evidence demonstrates that there is a need to deliver activities to provide positive outcomes for the target group.

In addition to the cited evidence published above, we have undertaken direct consultations with the target group. This summer we ran a musical extravaganza day for young people and their foster carers (attended by over 100 people), where one of our questionnaire questions asked what kinds of activities the young people would like to access. Over 60% of respondents stated that they would like to access musical activities, and 70% said that they would like to receive 1:1 support alongside group music-making activities.

Question 2. Outcomes: what outcomes will this programme deliver?

  1. To improve the life chances of children and young people in challenging circumstances through musical, personal, social and emotional development.
  2. To improve the skills, knowledge and ability ofmusic education professionals and non-musicspecificyouth and social support professionals inmusic-based mentoring.

Question 3. Activities: please give details about what you are planning to do to enable you to achieve your intended outcomes.

Recruitment

We will hold taster sessions at our venue and send flyers advertising these sessions to young people through looked-after children’s services. Young people will be invited to attend taster session, where they can chat informally to our youth worker about their musical aspirations, and also attend performances developed by young people who already access our project.

During the recruitment phase, we will establish the evaluation framework for our programme of activity, to ensure that we can track progress towards meeting the intended outcomes. This will involve the use of an external evaluator who is practiced in the use of outcomes-based evaluation.

Regular sessions

Once trust and rapport has been established, young musicians will be able to access 15 x 2-hr weekly sessions in music tuition, and 1:1 music mentoring provision for up to 20 hours. This will be led by musicians (yet to be recruited) who have experience working with young people in challenging circumstances. The first session will involve the development of an individual learning plan for each participant, which looks at the goals they want to achieve.

Young people will work towards the creation of a CD and a public performance. They will also have the opportunity to gain Arts Award accreditation. Each young person will be supported to write and record at least one track (individually or in groups), which they will then perform at the end of the project. They will have ownership as to the genre and musical direction of the performance, which will be recorded. Foster carers and siblings will be invited to the public performance, and we will also invite local press and media.

We will use a high ratio of tutors: young people (at least 3 musicians present at all times in the group sessions), to ensure individual and intensive support is available for the participants.

The musicians will provide training for youth workers in music-based mentoring, so that they can continue this provision upon completion of the project. This will involve two full days of training, covering topics such as ‘what is mentoring’ and ‘appropriate boundaries’.

Progression

Young people will be signposted onto relevant progression opportunities, based on their individual learning plan. This might include music technology qualifications at the local college, or other music provision offered by youth and music organisations in the local area.

Evaluation

We will analyse monitoring information at quarterly intervals to ensure that we are on track to meet our outcomes. Our findings will feed into the programme management, and we will make changes as necessary to improve the programme.

Question 4. Experience:Please tell us about the combined experience of you and your partners in relation to the groups you are targeting and high quality music making

Amplify! is experienced in working with young people in challenging circumstances – last year we completed a Big Lottery Fund project working with young people who were NEET, providing mentoring and work experience opportunities and securing positive outcomes for over 50 young people (this was a 70% success rate).

We will be working with a partner organisation that is based at the same venue as us (Stamford Youth Centre). Stamford will provide Youth Workers as an in-kind donation to the project, and these workers will sit in on the group sessions and will attend the mentoring training.

Musicians will be recruited through a competitive process, working to a specific brief and will be required to be both experienced in their chosen field of music, and have at least 3 years’ experience at delivering music making activities with young people in challenging circumstances.

PROJECT BUDGET
Leadership costs
Mentoring – 3 x musicians = 20 sessions @ £20.00 per hour / £1,200.00
Main programme - 3 x Musicians: 15 sessions @ £20.00 per hour / £900.00
Activity costs
Production of leaflets / £500.00
Arts Award accreditation (15 x £40) / £600.00
Project evaluation / £1,500.00
Performance costs / £2,000.00
Core costs
Project management: 120 hours @ £25.00 per hour / £2,500.00
Total requested from Youth Music / £9,000.00
Match funding
To cover purchase of equipment / £1,500.00
In kind support – Youth Workers / £2,000.00
Total match funding / £3,500.00

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