Job File: Programme Manager

Job title: Programme manager.

Who’s doing it? Jane Humphries.

Where? Cumbria Children’s Fund.

Job description: To ensure the Children’s Fund
in Cumbria is a catalyst for change, contributing ideas and
developing partnerships with others working towards a model of
integrated children’s services.

Skills/qualifications needed: Planning,
problem-solving, negotiating, an aptitude for working in
partnerships and experience of working with children.

What’s good about the job? Contact with people
working to improve the lot of children. Visiting our funded
projects and seeing the difference we’re making is the icing on the
cake.

What’s bad about the job? Bureaucracy is
inevitable when we’re distributing taxpayers’ money but we try to
keep it to a minimum for project staff. Constant change is a
challenge, but we are used to that.

Pay: National Joint Council scale point 46:
£30-£35,000.

What’s the job like? The Children’s Fund
focuses on preventive projects. We work with statutory, voluntary
and community organisations to generate practical support for five
to 13 year olds and their families. In Cumbria we have seven staff
working with and supporting 40 projects. I am involved in planning
and reviewing progress; commissioning the right services; checking
projects are delivering improvements for children; consulting other
bodies; and making sure money comes in and is well spent. A key
area is our work on common assessment, developing ways to gather
information on children in a standard way. Some families may have
to give the same information to half a dozen agencies before they
receive any help. We want to simplify this so agencies can provide
better help, more quickly. We hope the results of this work will be
fed into national developments.