Events and Learning Programmes Delivery Lead

Rewiring the state and delivering the Governments missions needs high-quality, well-connected leaders. The role of public sector leaders is more important than ever in the context of the government's ambitions for an activist but not expansionist state and because of their place-based leadership role in the delivery of missions.

Within the Cabinet Office, the Public Sector Leadership team runs programmes and events for the most senior officials across the UK public sector, aimed at increasing their capability and networks for systems leadership. The team brings the community of public service leaders together through formal and informal learning, community and network building and large-scale events. As part of a new skills model, this work is growing over the next two years to increase impact and quality of what is delivered.

We deliver a range of events and programmes designed to enhance the skills, knowledge and networks of public sector leaders. This includes the National Leadership Forum UK, the place-based National Leadership Forums up and down the UK, and two programmes for public sector CEOs and aspiring CEOs.

Our largest scale intervention, the National Leadership Forum is an annual event which brings together CEO-leaders en-masse to improve networks, provide inspiration, and spark collaboration across the public sector. The Public Leaders Programme is a 12-month programme for CEO-level leaders, while the Leading Collaborative Organisations course will be 3-4 months long for aspirant CEO leaders.

This advert is for four delivery roles, two working on the National Leadership Forum portfolio and two on the residential leadership programmes.

These roles will each be working with a team lead for one of these projects, collaboratively developing the programmes and events, with a strong focus on the audience experience. An appreciation of the needs of public sector leaders at the most senior levels will be advantageous. Youll have areas of personal responsibility as well as collectively driving excellence in your projects. And as a whole team we set an intentional culture of mutual support and collaboration, which is very important to us and how we work together.

These roles involve a clear expectation of travel to attend event delivery, conduct site visits, build relationships with the leaders we support and maintain face-to-face connections with our geographically dispersed team.

We deliberately cultivate a flexible working and inclusive environment; we are keen to have a team that represents the breadth of citizens and varied perspectives.

In advertising quite broad roles, we are asking that applicants are comfortable with a level of ambiguity and applying to work across the portfolio of our work. We will be able to specify the role and provide a job description at the point of offer, but it's not unusual for people in the team to move between products/ work areas as the need arises

We will hold an open meeting/ presentation to explain the roles further and answer any questions; please contact Jenny Vass for details [email protected]

Key responsibilities:

We are looking for people who are experts in event and programme delivery with a proven track record of operational excellence and a customer focussed mindset.

We embrace flexibility and adaptability in our roles, responding to Government priorities, the needs of our leaders, and the programmes that we deliver. We also want to create opportunities for you to engage in work that interests you and that supports your development.

Within this context you can expect a mix of the following responsibilities:

• Responsible for the in-house delivery of high-impact, high-quality programmes and/or events tailored for CEO leaders and/ or aspirant CEOs, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives. With strategic oversight from the programme leads you will own the end-to-end process of event delivery; including communications, operations, contract management and evaluation
• Understanding what delegates need and using knowledge to inform our events.
• Draw on insights, relationships and research to incorporate best practices and insights into our work.
• Prepare event or programme materials, including evaluation processes to measure impact.
• Be part of a high-performance culture, supporting others to collectively achieve great work.
• Help build a community of leaders from the NHS, police, fire service, military, education sectors, civil service, and local government through a broad range of projects across the team.
• Identify strategic opportunities to link programmes with policy development, public service reform, and leadership development initiatives.
• Owning individual areas such as modules or sessions, relationships, project finance management.
• Negotiating and managing contracts with venues and suppliers, in line with internal policies and procedures.
• Drafting written communications and developing communications plans, in collaboration with colleagues across the team, to promote events and drive engagement.
• Managing the project and work streams, fostering a high-performance culture within the team you task-manage, recognising success, and supporting professional development.
• Promote and model best practice behaviours, including audience insight utilisation, inclusive design, evaluation, and diversity.

Experience & Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Experience of planning and delivering events or learning and development programmes.
• Attention to detail and passion for delivering high quality event experiences.
• Experience managing external contracts to deliver agreed outcomes.
• Expertise in inclusive practices.
• Understanding of - or expertise in - the public sector audience and organisations.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, particularly writing for different audiences including executive level leaders.
• Ability to synthesise, analyse, and clearly present complex data/information accurately to senior leaders, ministers, and other partners.
• Comfortable working in fast-paced environments, with excellent organisational, prioritisation, and delegation skills.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of CEO level programme delivery and customer management.
• The desire to learn, the evidence of investing in your own professional development, and willingness to work towards a formal qualification - such as one awarded by CIPD.

Additional information:

Cabinet Office policy is that a minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. For some roles, due to their nature and the business need, this may be up to 100%. Requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.