CIPD Trust Programme Manager – Beyond The Gates

Advert CIPD Trust Programme Manager – Beyond the Gates Location: London (with on-site visits to the HMP) Contract: 16-month fixed term contract Hours: full-time (35 hours per week) and part-time options available Salary: circa £45,000 The role This is an exciting opportunity to lead a ground-breaking new project supporting young men leaving HMP Isis. As Programme Manager for Beyond the Gates, you'll oversee the operational delivery of a through-the-gates mentoring programme, pairing volunteer mentors with mentees at HMP Isis and supporting each pair as the mentee leaves custody and rebuilds their life in the community. We are currently working with Youth Futures Foundation, the national What Works Centre for youth employment to pilot if a randomised controlled trial of the programme is possible. This role will be pivotal in supporting this pilot. making this a genuinely pioneering role at the intersection of mentoring, rehabilitation and social impact. What you'll be doing Taking day-to-day ownership of the mentoring programme, coordinating activity both in custody and following release to ensure continuity of support Acting as a key holder at HMP Isis where agreed Recruiting young men at HMP Isis to become mentees, engaging with the prisoners and onboarding them successfully on to the programme Working with the Prison Employment Lead (and with support from) the evaluation team to collect the necessary information and data prior to the randomisation of young men at Isis in the programme Building strong working relationships with prison staff, including the Prison Employment Lead Working with the CIPD Trust team to recruit, select and onboard volunteer mentors from the CIPD community of HR professionals Supporting mentoring pairs, carrying out regular check-ins with mentors and mentees Conducting risk assessments to support safe mentoring meetings in the community Coordinating with probation services and other stakeholders to maintain contact with participants after release Responding to safeguarding queries, ensuring appropriate actions and accurate recording Keeping all mentoring activity accurately recorded on CIPD Trust systems Supporting the evaluation of the programme by delivering questionnaires to mentees and mentors participating in the programme What you’ll need to be successful Experience working with individuals in the prison system Experience coordinating programmes or projects involving mentoring, volunteering, or social impact Previous experience in prison or exposure to a similar environment Experience working with partners and stakeholders to deliver services Experience of, or willingness to engage with research and evaluation Excellent communication skills, with the ability to build trust across diverse backgrounds Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple activities while keeping accurate records A sound understanding of safeguarding, boundaries and confidentiality Confidence working in a custodial or similarly complex environment Willingness to undergo security vetting and comply with prison requirements Empathetic, calm, resilient and solutions-focused Proactive, and equally comfortable working independently or as part of a team We welcome job applications from people with lived experience of the criminal justice system which we believe could be an asset in this role. This role does require prison security clearance and an enhanced DBS check, so we will need to ask for details of any relevant criminal convictions before an offer of employment is finalised. If this opportunity sounds interesting, please feel free to reach out to us to learn more about it and submit your application as soon as possible. The deadline for applications is on Monday 26 October. About Youth Futures Foundation Youth Futures Foundation is the national What Works Centre for Youth Employment, with a specific focus on marginalised young people. Our vision is a society where every young person can achieve good work. We do that by finding out what works and driving change in policy and practice. A Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) is a robust way of testing whether a programme has a causal, measurable impact on outcomes. RCTs work by randomly assigning participants to either receive the programme (the treatment group), or to be part of a control group that does not. By comparing outcomes between the two groups, the RCTs shows whether any differences in outcomes are due to the programme itself, rather than other factors. As a result, RCTs are widely considered the “gold standard” for generating evidence on what works in policy and practice.