Senior Evaluation and Research Manager (Scotland)

Thrive at Five’s mission is to bring together local communities, families and partners, and to join up and strengthen early years systems to support children to thrive from pregnancy to five.

We bring additional capacity, coordination and expertise into local early years systems, helping to build trust, strengthen community connections and ensure families have the knowledge, confidence and support they need so that children can thrive.

The organisation has grown considerably in recent years, with programmes running in Stoke-on-Trent, Redcar & Cleveland, Middlesbrough and West Dunbartonshire. We now employ over 40 people across the UK. We are at an exciting moment as we expand our brilliant team, helping to deliver sustained improvements in children’s developmental outcomes in each of the communities we work with and for.

Job purpose

Thrive at Five’s Senior Evaluation and Research Manager will be responsible for supporting the incoming backbone team in West Dunbartonshire and local stakeholders to reflect on and apply the insights from our recent discovery phase. 

Reporting to the Scotland Director, the aim will be to ensure that both colleagues and our partners across the local early years system have a clear, shared understanding of local opportunities and challenges based on robust quantitative and qualitative analysis.

As our new local programme in West Dunbartonshire gets underway, the Senior Evaluation and Research Manager will also play a key role in the development of new workstreams and embedding a test, learn, and refine cycle throughout the work. The post-holder will help us ensure our external evaluation has the access to data and local contacts needed to produce regular, high-quality outputs.

Role description

• Support the incoming backbone team and wider local stakeholders to reflect on and apply the findings from our discovery process in West Dunbartonshire.
• As programme development in West Dunbartonshire gets underway, design and deliver a schedule of workstream formative evaluations so that the various strands of local delivery have a clearly articulated purpose, a plausible theory of action, and a strong focus on learning and improving.
• Work alongside the Thrive at Five Central and local backbone team, and local stakeholders, to help develop and define shared workstreams.
• Carry out a cycle of formative evaluations on local shared workstreams and ensure key learnings are disseminated to those involved in the work and incorporated into future delivery.
• Ensure the independent Thrive at Five evaluation is delivering timely and high-quality outputs in Scotland and that the learnings are strengthening our work.
• Feed into discussions about the Scottish Thrive at Five impact indicators and the associated impact evaluation.
• Work with the independent evaluation team to ensure they have the required on-the-ground delivery capability and access to data to effectively conduct the evaluation.
• Quality assure evaluation products.
• Provide general evaluation, data, and research support to the Scotland Director.
• Support research and analysis around the selection of new Thrive at Five sites and/or local communities within local authority areas.

Application process

To apply, please submit a CV and a 1-2 side covering statement via the ‘Apply’ button above.

Further information.

Full-time post, with an expectation of up to two days per week in a West Dunbartonshire office base. Some travel to the northeast of England expected, plus occasional travel to London and other parts of the UK. 

For more information, please contact Eleanor Passmore (Thrive at Five Scotland Director) eleanor.passmore@thriveatfive.org.uk

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