Involvement Manager Vacancy – August 2022

Job Description

To strengthen and support NIHR SSCR’s and the Group’s activities, we would like to appoint an Involvement Manager at 0.40 FTE (two days a week) until 30 April 2024. The successful applicant would start as soon as possible.

The Involvement Manager must have lived experience of adult social care or be a family/unpaid carer or a social care professional, and should also have appropriate connections with networks or organisations to enable them to bring others’ perspectives to the role.

The Involvement Manager will

• take day-to-day responsibility for managing the School’s involvement initiatives and supporting the UCPRG and its members;
• support our Executive Group in their role of overseeing our various strategic priorities on involvement;
• work alongside members of the School to ensure appropriate involvement in the delivery of our research programmes, workshops and conferences; and
• contribute to developing and sharing ‘best practice’ on involvement and engagement in adult social care research, including exploring how to sustain and develop ‘good practice’.

We are able to offer flexible working arrangements (such as working from home) and flexible working hours. The postholder will need to be willing to travel when needed for meetings (which are usually held on weekdays and organised to consider everyone’s availability).

We are happy to consider a job share arrangement for this position (for example two individuals working one day a week each and carrying out the role together).

We will provide an induction to NIHR SSCR and our activities at the start of the role, and ongoing support to the postholder. We will support the postholder with training and opportunities to develop in their role.

Duties and Responsibilities

In carrying out their responsibilities, the NIHR SSCR Involvement Manager will be part of a supportive team within the School and work alongside others who also have responsibility for involvement (such as members of the UCPRG).

NIHR SSCR’s Involvement Manager will:

• Lead the review of our Involvement Strategy and manage a co-developed workplan with the UCPRG
• Chair UCPRG meetings, with support from the School to organise meetings
• Support the School to develop involvement capacity by, for example: liaising between the UCPRG and Executive Group about the development needs of members of UCPRG for their activities; identifying and supporting training needs for researchers on involvement
• Support the School to identify, share and promote good examples of involvement within our commissioned research
• Support the School’s review of involvement across our activities and research, including to develop and implement meaningful methods for impact evaluation
• Provide advice to the School and UCPRG on issues of involvement as well as equality, diversity and inclusion
• Support activities to embed and sustain ‘best practice’ in involvement for social care research and future activities
• Lead and contribute to School reports and papers on involvement as appropriate
• Liaise with the School on involvement work across the three NIHR Research Schools (Primary Care, Public Health and Social Care) and NIHR generally.

In all activities the Involvement Manager will work with the UCPRG.

The Involvement Manager will be expected to join some NIHR SSCR Executive Group meetings to advise on involvement and engagement matters.

The Involvement Manager will be supported by the School’s Associate Director Lead for Involvement and the Research Programme Manager. Administrative and practical support will be provided by the School.

Person Specification

Please see further details here (PDF).

• Understanding and lived experience of using, or supporting individuals using, adult social care services
• Experience of being involved in a co-production process or working collaboratively with people with lived experience
• Experience of public involvement in a research or policy advisory group(s), ideally in a leadership, management or oversight role
• Ability to share diverse experiences from people with lived experience through their interactions and networks in addition to their own personal experiences
• Experience of supporting researchers and/or public advisors with involvement in research activities and problem solving
• Experience of developing connections with health/social care community networks, associations or societies
• Experience of leading a team, meetings or being on a committee
• Good understanding of the role, methodologies and impacts of involvement in research
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to write clearly for a wide audience.