Head of Data, Evidence and Evaluation National Deaf Children’s Society

Welcome

Dear applicant,

Thank you for your interest in the position of Head of Data, Evidence and Evaluation with the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS).

We’ve come a long way in our journey to be more digitally focussed with regards to how we work with deaf children, young people, and their families. The onset of the pandemic showed how we could pivot to “do” digital to deliver services to more people than ever online. We’ve never reached so many people as we do now. Around four times more people are accessing our online services than before the pandemic, all thanks to the effort and drive of everyone working together to create new, innovative ways to deliver our services.

If we’re going to achieve our vision of no deaf child left behind by 2030, we need to be doing even more. We can’t just ‘do’ digital we need to ‘be’ digital. We are also creating a new customer impact and transformation hub which aims to put customer experience at the heart of all our delivery.

Reporting to me, the newly created Head of Data, Evidence and Evaluation will lead the development of the Observatory function, from initial concept to an established way of working – making sure our strategy and all our work is based on high-quality insights drawn from robust data. You will also be responsible for implementing and further developing our evaluation framework to track progress against our strategy across the UK and internationally, and for compiling and presenting strategic evaluation and impact reporting which is required for strategic decision-making, prioritisation, and accountability.

You will provide a central resource and coordination for the collation, interrogation and sharing of data and insight across the charity, to inform our strategy and operations across the organisation, and to improve the organisations’ data, evaluation, and insight capabilities.

We seek someone with strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to interact effectively with colleagues of all levels across the organisation, Executive Directors and Trustees.  Knowledge, understanding and experience of the importance of organisational performance management and impact measurement and of the frameworks and tools that can be used will be key. You will come with strong analytical and research skills with demonstrable experience in designing research projects and implementation of evaluation and data collection methodologies for a range of complex data, and a good understanding of statistics.

You will have experience in the design and development of data structures that deliver strategic analysis, insight, and reporting, and of knowledge of tools and technologies which make it easier for the organisation to digest and understand insights and the effectiveness of their activities. A good understanding of digital tracking and analysis tools is important, as is being confident in using digital tools to communicate with stakeholders and being willing to learn new digital skills relevant to the role.

This role would suit someone at manager/senior manager/head of levels from a background in either impact, evaluation, evidence, knowledge and/or insight.

We encourage applications from all backgrounds and are committed to creating an organisation that is made up of staff with diverse skills, experiences, and abilities.

I wish you well with your application.

Michelle Gardner

Deputy Director Governance and Planning

National Deaf Children’s Society

About the Organisation

We are the National Deaf Children’s Society, the leading charity for deaf children. We’re here for every deaf child who needs us – no matter what their level or type of deafness or how they communicate.

Strategy

Our vision and ambition

Our vision is a world without barriers for every deaf child.

Since we were founded more than 70 years ago, society has come a long way. But deaf children are still falling behind at school and being let down by vital services. And they still don’t have the same opportunities as hearing children.

It’s not just deaf children in the UK who face barriers. Through our international arm, Deaf Child Worldwide, we support deaf children in developing countries who are missing out on education and family life.

Our ambition is that, by 2030, no deaf child will be left behind – at school, in their community or at home.

Our strategy

To determine our strategy we asked deaf young people, their families and professionals about the barriers they face, and how we can help to change things. Their experiences are central to everything we do.

Between 2017 and 2022 we are focusing on three fundamental areas where we can make the biggest difference.

• We’ll continue fighting to improve the services received by deaf children and young people.
• We’ll champion the development of good language and communication skills.
• We’ll shine a spotlight on the importance of becoming independent and the transition into adulthood.

Our strategy includes the promise that we will:

• continue to give life-changing support to deaf children of all ages
• never stop improving our services
• work closely with deaf children and their families, and work collaboratively with partner organisations
• reach out to families who may otherwise miss out on support
• build our reputation as a recognised global expert on childhood deafness
• continue to value our amazing members and supporters by fundraising in line with our ethical policy and making sure that every penny we raise is spent wisely

In 2019, we reviewed the strategy to make sure it is still the right one. We are confident that it is and have taken the opportunity to clarify and update some parts of the strategy in an update note.

What does success look like?

Over the five years of the strategy, we’ll monitor progress towards our ambition by tracking key measures of deaf children’s educational attainment and life satisfaction.

We’ll also track specific indicators of:

• the availability, accessibility, and quality of national and local services
• deaf children’s language and communication skills
• deaf young people’s life skills, continuing education and employment

Deaf children have a bright future – but only if we continue to break down the barriers they face. Your help will be vital in reaching our goal. Together we can overcome the barriers that hold deaf children back.

We, at the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS,  understand that different members of the community have different access needs, and have made some modifications to the way we do business in order to accommodate people from diverse communities and abilities.

We offer the following amenities:

• Our buildings and facilities have step free access – the London office is step free (lift from pavement to front entrance and lift to 2nd floor work area), large open office and kitchen areas as well as accessible disabled toilets
• Interviews are being held remotely
• Accessibility dogs are always welcome on our premises
• Papers and materials can be presented in different formats if needed
• We would be happy to source a sign language interpreter if required
• We provide a flexible working environment, including locations – depending on request and service needs

We are a flexible organisation with a good proportion of the workforce either working part time, being permanent home workers (nearly 50% of our workforce) or having adjustments to working hours in place to address childcare or caring responsibilities or for wellbeing reasons.

20% of the workforce have reported having a disability or long term medical condition – More than 10% of our workforce have reported being deaf or have a hearing impairment.

We also have an internal ED&I working group initiative who meet monthly, to ensure we are aware of the needs of all and everyone that works with us.

If you have any further needs around accessibility, please get in touch with the advising consultants for a confidential chat on how we can best fulfil your needs.