Newman Students Union. Recruitment Pack. Development Manager. October 2015

If you are excited about working in a democratic, volunteer-led, organisation, and can help us meet the challenges of the future, we would love to hear from you. Your application for the Development Manager role should consist of: A covering letter explaining your interest and a reflection on your contribution to our success A document detailing how you meet the Person Specification.

1 Newman Students Union Recruitment Pack Development Manager October 2015

2 Welcome to Newman SU! Newman SU is a very special students union. We ve the very best attributes of a small and specialist students union here; we have a close relationship with our students, a strong community on a compact campus, a positive relationship with an excellent University, a thriving and dynamic city - and we ve got big ambitions for the future. Our long-serving Development Manager has left us for a new role and his departure has helped us to reflect on the sort of leadership we need in the future from our senior staff post. We ve decided that we want to be innovative on our development journey, so that we re strong and successful in a time of new opportunities and challenges. We re recruiting for a post that will help us demonstrate excellence in our usual day-to-day work of engaging with our members, supporting our elected officers and working with our University to achieve student ambitions, but we re also after a proven leader who can help us develop as an organisation, so that we re as strong and successful as our members need us to be. We ve recently volunteered for an NUS Strategic Support Unit diagnostic report, as an intensive organisational effectiveness review. We wanted to better understand ourselves so that we can seriously think about what it will take to meet our members high expectations. For you, as an applicant for our Development Manager post, this is exciting; we re looking for you to take us through the development of a new strategy and new organisational objectives. We want to know what you think it will take to achieve these new ambitions, and we want you to secure the resources and partnerships to make it happen. This role is offered on a fixed term basis to December 2017, in the first instance, because we re interested in seeing what your work will lead us to. Your relationship to the future of Newman SU could continue in the future and we want you to show us how. We want to be innovative, and collaborative, and dynamic and we want you to help us decide what that means. If you are excited about working in a democratic, volunteer-led, organisation, and can help us meet the challenges of the future, we would love to hear from you; please do take the opportunity to talk to us about any questions you might have. You can find out more about us at Yours James Westwood Newman SU President, and Chair of the Board Gareth Hughes Newman SU Vice-Chair of the Board

3 Job title: Development Manager (fixed term to 22 December 2017) Reference No. Location: Working hours: Newman SU DM Newman SU Offices, Bartley Green, BIRMINGHAM 37 hours per week Salary: Department/Team: Reporting to: Other key staff links: Staff reporting to this role: Our purpose, our values and our vision: Our strategic objectives: Newman SU Board of Trustees, through the President Vice President Vice-Chair of the Board (an external Trustee) Finance Assistant Our Purpose: We exist to advance students education and have a positive impact on their lives. Our Values: Accessible, Supportive, Student led, Friendly Our Vision: By being the voice for every student, we will support and help you to reach your highest potential, keeping student opinions at the heart of everything we do. Our Strategic Objectives: Education and Development: To support all students to reach their full potential and that they can contribute to their employability whilst at Newman. Student Voice: To ensure that all students have a voice that is clear, easily recognised, heard and valued by the members, University and other organisations. Communication and Awareness: To create a community where students are proud to be a member of Newman Students Union, and understand who we are and what we do, through clear two way communication. Accessibility: To make Union services accessible, and promote this inclusion across campus. Advice and Welfare: For Newman Students Union to be a core support service, where students feel confident that they will always receive a clear and relevant answer.

4 JOB DESCRIPTION Job purpose The Development Manager is the senior staff member at Newman SU. They account to the Board for the effective use of Newman SU s people, financial and physical resources against our strategy, and report to our regulators on our good governance. Newman SU is on an accelerated period of strategic refocus. The Development Manager will help the Board to respond to a recent, thorough, external review of our effectiveness, and create a new strategy for Newman SU. The Development Manager will work collaboratively to seek opportunities for our future success, and create productive relationships with our internal and external partners The Development Manager will support volunteers to contribute to their union, University, and community in order to make positive changes in the lives. The Development Manager will, in particular, support the elected Sabbatical Officers to be student leaders, achieve their mandates, and demonstrate to the University that they are legitimate and authentic student representatives. The Development Manager will create annual plans and objectives for Newman SU, and will support the Finance Assistant to succeed in role through clear guidance and supervision. Main duties Lead our development Champion our values, our mission, and the contribution that Newman students make to their union, University and community; lead by example to ensure that all of our people are ambassadors for Newman SU. Develop annual plans and objectives for Newman SU; create objectives for, and supervise, the Finance Assistant, and support the development of the elected Officers objectives. Lead Newman SU through our organisational review; support students and Trustees to create and approve a new strategy for Newman SU. Anticipate challenges to Newman SU s success, and create solutions for discussion and approval by the elected Officers and the Board of Trustees. Assure our good governance Help the Trustees to make good decisions through providing excellent information and insight to well supported meetings. Develop strong relationships with our regulators, including Newman University and the Charity Commission. Assure our legal compliance with, for example, education, charity, employment, health and safety, and equality law. Ensure our financial sustainability Develop a strategy that gives Newman SU long-term financial security. Submit a budget to the Trustees, and account for expenditure against it. Support Newman SU s commercial offer, and ensure that sales and income targets are met. Develop productive partnerships Develop excellent working relationships with Newman University, ensuring that senior stakeholders understand and support Newman SU s work, and the elected Officers have the information, opportunity and access to achieve success through our partners Seek opportunities to succeed in partnership with others, with particular attention to partner students unions in the region and the National Union of Students.

5 Other associated duties Help our elected Officers achieve their manifesto commitments. Enthusiastically advocate for student leadership and the organisation s values Actively engage in student-facing projects and activities of all kinds as required. Support the administrative needs of the post. Undertake any other duties and responsibilities commensurate with the post. Have a flexible attitude to working hours. PERSON SPECIFICATION Qualifications Experience Skills, Knowledge and Expertise Essential Educated to undergraduate degree level, or equivalent. Strong experience in management of people and resources. Experience of robust project planning. Experience of budget control and reporting. Experience of developing strategy and action. Experience of self-directed working. A sophisticated understanding of, and a strong commitment to supporting leadership in others. Ability to interpret and suggest action in response to opportunities and challenges. Excellent written and oral communications skills Excellent personal time management skills. Highly skilled in managing complex and conflicting information. Desirable A management qualification or appropriate experience Experience of managing in a small charity, preferably of a strategic nature Experience of working in a democratic environment. Experience of working in an educational environment. Experience of developing positive relationships at a senior level. Experience of reporting within a legal or regulatory framework. Experience in explaining complex cases or policies to a mixed audience Knowledge of the regulatory framework within higher education institutions. Knowledge of the student engagement framework within higher education institutions. Working in a democratic environment.

6 Excellent team-working skills. The ability to motivate others and deliver through team members. Values and Behaviours A demonstrable commitment to our organisation s values Date Completed: October 2015 In the first year this role will deliver... A response to our recent consultancy report on our organisational development from NUS, with appropriate plans and targets arising from it. A budget plan, ensuring that the Trustees and University understand and support the resourcing needs of Newman SU. An impact assessment of Newman SU s work with students and the University. Continued excellent support for the elected Officers in the development and delivery of their objectives. HOW TO APPLY Important advice on completing your application The decision to invite you to interview is based entirely on the information you give in your application. You should read the job description and person specification carefully as they will help you to decide whether you wish to apply for the job. The Job Description lists the duties of the post. The Person Specification lists the attributes you will need to succeed in the role. Required documents Your application for the Development Manager role should consist of: A covering letter explaining your interest and a reflection on your contribution to our success A document detailing how you meet the Person Specification. Two references, one of whom should be your current or most recent employer. Your covering letter should help us to understand what has motivated you to apply for the role, and why you think that Newman SU would benefit from appointing you to the role. In this letter, please try to reflect on the sort of organisation we are, our purpose, values, vision and strategic objectives. We will be interested in any broader evidence of how you would fit into, and lead, our union s development. You should aim to use no more than two pages in your covering letter. Your response to the Person Specification should consider your own experience and suitability for the role. We suggest that you take each item on the Person Specification individually and then provide your evidence point by point. For each item, you should outline the role in which you have shown the necessary evidence, and provide one good example of how you have succeeded to meet a challenge or opportunity, taking care to tell us the outcome achieved. Outcomes should be concrete, clearly quantified or qualified, and evidenced. You should aim to use no more than three pages in your response to the Person Specification.

7 Please don t worry too much about the length of your application, but do try to be concise. The details of your referees should include a name, position, contact details and the nature of your relationship. We will only approach referees if you are invited to interview. If you do not wish for us to contact a referee prior to interview, please make this clear in your application. Please include in your covering letter your full postal address, address and telephone number. The application process Completed applications should be sent to recruitment@newman.ac.uk by 09:00 on Wednesday 11th November Paper applications can be sent to: Development Manager Applications Human Resources Department Newman University Genners Lane Bartley Green BIRMINGHAM B32 3NT The timetable for the application process is: Applications open: 26 October 2015 Applications close: 09:00 11 November 2015 Shortlisting: 11 to 12 November 2015 Interviews: 20 November 2015 Queries and help Please take the time to review this pack before sending your applications to us. The information provided will help you maximise the impact of your application, and the likelihood of being invited to interview. If you have any questions about your application, or would like an informal and confidential discussion, you can contact: James Westwood, Newman SU President and Chair of the Board su-president@newman.ac.uk or on Gareth Hughes, Vice-Chair of the Board and external Trustee, on gareth.hughes@sunderland.ac.uk or on James and Gareth will be pleased to talk to you. We are being supported in this recruitment process by the Newman University Human Resources team, who can help you if any adjustments need to be made to this process to support your access needs. Please contact them directly with any points of this nature.