Senior Research and Evaluation Officer

Senior Research and Evaluation Officer

Fixed Term, Full Time

£43,431 to £51,095 per annum

Location:

Chelmsford

Working Style:
Anywhere worker

Please note this vacancy is available as a fixed term contract or secondment opportunity for up to 12 months.

Essex County Council has embarked upon a programme of change for provision and services with the ambition to profoundly improve the outcomes and life experience of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Our vision is for a system which identifies and assesses need at an earlier stage, and which provides appropriate and impactful support without such high dependence on Essex County Council's statutory services.

We have a responsibility to deliver effective services and support in the most cost effective and impactful way.

In 2025 ECC established a programme of work with the aim of improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND in Essex, whilst ensuring our ways of working and financial position are sustainable for the future.

To support this, we need to ensure our focus and decisions are based on high-quality insights. Join us as a Senior Research and Evaluation Officer and you'll take on a visible role helping to inform decisions, assess the effectiveness of, and learn vital lessons from this programme. We expect the impacts to be both immediate and longer‑term. We need expert support to help us identify the short‑term signals that tell us the direction of travel.

To read more about our business area, please visit:
Policy, Economy, Investment and Public Health

You'll work to support senior leaders within Essex County Council's Education, Transformation and Policy functions, leading the evaluation and supporting managers and to make improvements. Your findings will inform political and executive decisions by providing evidence on the effectiveness of the programme and key lessons to drive improvement. You'll also support broader work, hand‑in‑glove with analysts, researchers and policy advisors across ECC, to ensure the organisation makes evidence‑based changes and invests in projects that improve lives across local communities.

You'll need a track record of delivering high‑quality research and recommendations that informs strategic decision‑making. If that was in a local government or public sector environment, so much the better. On a personal level, we're also looking for the ability to work with a wide variety of stakeholders, influence thinking and secure collaboration. You'll need a commitment to your own professional development and the drive to play a full part in the development of a new and highly influential programme.

The role will give you the opportunity to:

• Work with a variety of programme users. Along with colleagues within the Council, this will also include partners, schools, parents and children. You might be involved in using evidence and research to help co‑produce interventions or make improvements to programme activities.
• Work collaboratively with other researchers, analysts, evaluators and project staff on other programmes where there are shared visions and similar user groups.
• Be part of a large local authority research and evaluation department with plenty of opportunities for you to learn and develop. We have a growing community of evaluators and practitioner‑evaluation champions, with an interest in developing practice around evaluating systems change and programmes.
• Training and supporting the development of colleagues.

• Educated to RQF level 6 (Bachelors) or equivalent by experience with evidence of continuing professional development and expert knowledge in relevant professional area.
• Proficient experience in successfully delivering high quality, complex research and recommendations that impact on strategic decision making - within local government or a public sector setting is desirable.
• Proficient experience of carrying out research that has made tangible improvements, as well as identifying opportunities for research to help solve business problems and inform future strategic direction.
• Knowledge of governance requirements around…