Service Development Manager, Family Support Service

RUTH STRAUSS FOUNDATION

In early 2018, Ruth Strauss, wife of Sir Andrew Strauss the former England cricket captain, was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer that affects non-smokers. Ruth died on 29th December 2018; she was 46 years old and a mother to two children, then aged 10 and 13.

Our Mission:

In her memory, Sir Andrew has launched The Ruth Strauss Foundation to:

• To ensure that every family with a child facing the death of a parent is offered the professional emotional support they need to prepare the family for the future.
• To facilitate collaboration and influence research in the fight against non-smoking related lung cancers, so that together we find the causes sooner and improve outcomes.

ROLE OVERVIEW

This role will lead the delivery of a high-quality service which offers emotional support, guidance, and counselling to parents and those with significant caring responsibilities to prepare their child(ren) when a parent has an incurable cancer diagnosis.

We have an exciting opportunity for a dynamic service manager to join our small Family Support Team. You will lead and grow a service that has been running for almost two years. You will develop a strategic direction for pre-bereavement support across the charity and provide operational management of the service. We are looking for someone with demonstrable experience in service development and management who is up for a new challenge. 

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Provide clinical oversight and leadership across the service

2. Provide the day-to-day operational management of the service

3. Provide line management to the Pre-bereavement Practitioners delivering support to parents 

4. Support existing service innovations such as the Youth Group for teenagers who have parents with incurable cancer and adult peer groups for the surviving parent

5. Drive forward the Family Support Service with new ideas and areas for growth and development 

6. Monitoring the referrals to the team and providing clinical oversight and support for enquiries

7. Working with the Safeguarding Lead, support compliance to safeguarding across Family Support Service

8. Lead on the development of service outcomes and impact measures

9. Identify future capacity needs for the continued safe and quality delivery of the Family Support Service

10. Lead on recruitment across the service as and when required 

11. Ensure that all members of the Family Support Service adhere to RSF’s policies and procedures when delivering the service and support the implementation of any new processes/policies within the team

12. Support the wellbeing of all staff across the Family Support Service, ensuring all staff across the team use the provided Clinical Supervision

13. Drive forward the Family Support Service with new ideas and areas for growth and development 

14. Identify opportunities for collaboration and partnership to extend the pre-bereavement family support offer, going on to manage any partnerships 

15. Build referral pathways into the service and for onward referral for when further support which is beyond the remit of RSF’s services is required

16. Identify the need for pre-bereavement resources and commission and manage the development of these 

17. Provide regular written reports on service outputs, outcomes, and impact for the RSF Board of Trustees and RSF Family Support Advisory Group

18. Manage the Family Support Service budget

19. Contribute to grant or funding applications being developed by RSF Fundraising Team

20. Build and maintain relationships with organisations and agencies providing pre-bereavement and bereavement family support

21. Represent the Ruth Strauss Foundation at conferences, workshops, and meetings as requested by the Head of Mission Services

22. Lead on building relationships with fundraising and ensuring in-depth understanding of Family Support Service to support RSF’s fundraising ambitions

23. Participate in and support media work as required by RSF Executive Team

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential

• Recognised professional qualification in Healthcare, Counselling, Psychotherapy, Social Work or Psychology

• Experience in leading and managing a service that supports people in pre-bereavement or bereavement or with a life-limiting illness like cancer

• Knowledge of current pre-bereavement and bereavement thinking and research

• Demonstrable experience in developing and growing a service using data and evidence to support decision making

• Demonstrable experience in operational service delivery 

• Strong experience in line managing

• Excellent communications skills

• Ability to self-motivate and use initiative to work independently

• Experience in stakeholder management both internally and externally, including at Board level

• Experience in developing procedures, and processes for service delivery

• Experience in monitoring, budgeting, planning, and reporting within a service

• Experience in developing and reporting against service impact measures 

• Excellent organisational, prioritisation and time management skills 

• Good IT skills, including Office 365, Zoom and the ability to get to grips with new IT systems such as Salesforce (CRM system)

• Willing to undertake DBS check

Advantageous

• Training or qualification in working with pre-bereavement or bereavement for children or adults 

• Experience in using CRM systems such as Salesforce

• Experience working in a small or new organisation

• Experience in the charity or healthcare sector 

RECRUITMENT AND INTERVIEWS

We are committed to being an inclusive workforce that fully represents many different cultures, backgrounds, and viewpoints. We welcome applications that help us in our mission to be a place where you can be yourself and thrive.

Please send your CV and cover letter to Deepa Doshi, Head of Mission Services at deepa.doshi@ruthstraussfoundation.com by 1pm on Monday 17th April 2023. 

Interviews will be on Tuesday 25th April 2023 in London, location TBC. Please contact Deepa if you would like to discuss the role further 07930340774.

Job Title: Service Development Manager, Family Support Service 

Salary: Comparative to NHS band 7

Responsible to: Head of Mission Services, Ruth Strauss Foundation

Accountable to: Chief Executive Officer and Board of the Ruth Strauss Foundation 

Hours per week: Full time

Location: Hybrid (various London locations, including NW8 and WC2B). Office location 1 day a week