Monitoring and Evaluation Senior Manager

Help The Politics Project build young people’s knowledge and confidence to participate in democracy, applying your monitoring and evaluation skills to improve programmes engaging young people in politics.

We are looking for an experienced Monitoring and Evaluation Manager to lead our approach to understanding, measuring and communicating our impact, as well as tracking democratic education more widely across the UK.

The Politics Project supports young people to use their voice by giving them access to brilliant democratic education. A non-partisan organisation, we work with young people, teachers, youth practitioners and politicians to help them learn about, teach and actively participate in democracy.

The Politics Project also leads the Democracy Classroom Network, a network of over 100 organisations across the democracy, education and youth sectors which support over 3,500 teachers and youth practitioners to engage young people in democracy. The network website is a one-stop shop bank of educational resources and materials on politics and democracy.

This is an exciting time for The Politics Project as we prepare to support the introduction of Votes at 16 and help shape the expansion of democratic and citizenship education. We are building on a successful two years where we have impacted decision making and policy through A Roadmap to Votes at 16 and the Curriculum and Assessment Review. We have also written and launched the national Democratic Education Framework in collaboration with the Electoral Commission, a new initiative designed to underpin democratic education in the UK.

We continue to develop and expand our educational programmes across England and Wales, working with teachers, practitioners, schools, colleges and politicians to provide high quality democratic education for young people. Across the UK we have engaged with over 3,000 schools and youth groups and 400 politicians reaching 95% of UK parliamentary constituencies.

We are looking for an experienced Monitoring and Evaluation Manager to lead our approach to understanding, measuring and communicating our impact. They will ensure that our evaluation activity is rigorous, proportionate and useful, helping colleagues, partners and funders understand what difference our work makes and how it can be improved.

They will also manage an important national project: tracking the state of democratic education in schools and colleges across England. The post holder will bring together quantitative and qualitative evidence to identify trends, gaps, opportunities and areas for further action, playing a leading role in developing the evidence base for democratic education in England.

The job is based on a permanent contract, full-time, with likely extension (including a 4-month probation period). The hours of work are 37.5 hrs per week.

The Politics Project is based in London. If the post holder is based in London, they will be expected to work in the office two days a week. If they are based outside of London, they will be expected to work in the office one day a month. Travel elsewhere in the UK, extra days based in the office and working unsocial hours in evenings and at weekends may be occasionally required.

Benefits include:

• 33 days’ annual leave including three days off between Christmas and New Year, in addition to Bank Holidays.

• 4% employer pension contribution.

• 2 working days / 15 hours of volunteer leave a year.

• Cycle to Work scheme.

• Professional development and training opportunities.

• A warm, inclusive and values-led working environment.

At The Politics Project you will have the opportunity to make a real difference to young people’s lives, support projects and programmes that help them to develop the skills and knowledge they need to give them a voice in their society and shape their communities.

You will have a passion for democratic education and have significant experience of designing and delivering monitoring, evaluation or research programmes, ideally within the education, charity or social impact sectors.

You will also enjoy working at the intersection of research, evaluation, education and social change, and who can combine methodological expertise with strong project management and relationship-building skills.

You are experienced in developing theories of change, outcome frameworks or similar approaches and managing substantial research, evaluation or data projects from design through to…