Director of Young People, Volunteer & Business Support

Marine Society and Sea Cadets

About the Organisation

Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) is the leading maritime charity for youth development and lifelong learning. We are a vibrant and growing charity inspiring young people to achieve their potential through challenge and nautical adventure, and enabling seafarers and maritime professionals to realise their potential through learning and career development.

Working with our employees, cadets, and volunteers, we have built a strong vision and five-year Future Ready strategy to meet the growing demand for what we provide, both for young people, seafarers, and maritime professionals, and the thousands who aspire to be the sea cadets and marine professionals of the future. It is also about equipping them to achieve their potential and thrive in a rapidly changing world, while growing our charity to benefit even more people, including those from underrepresented or marginalised groups.

About the role

The Director of Young People, Volunteer & Business Support is an employee of Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) and reports to the Chief Executive Officer. The post holder is a member of the MSSC Senior Management Team.

Responsibilities

Growth, Development & Outreach:

• Responsible, together with the Captain Sea Cadets, for the strategic and sustainable growth of the Sea Cadets nationally.
• Responsible for the support of growth and development initiatives across the Sea Cadets, including through the Growth, Development & Outreach team.
• Responsible for outreach and growth projects, including the opening of new Junior Sections.
• Responsible for the effective coordination and delivery of externally funded outreach and growth and development programmes.

Staying Safe:

• Drive the continual development of our staying safe agenda, leading the Safeguarding and Safety teams.
• Through the Head of Safety, Health & Environment, ensure that the MSSC is operating in a safe & healthy environment; developing, implementing and continuously improving relevant policy and procedures.
• Set the strategic direction for Safeguarding across the charity, working with the Head of Safeguarding & Young People Support to develop policy, streamline processes and achieve continuous improvements and introduce appropriate safeguarding innovation.
• Through the Head of Safeguarding & Young People Support, lead all aspects of safeguarding within MSSC. Have oversight of all the important cases and offer technical support and decision-making where required.
• Support the Head of Safeguarding & Young People Support and the Head of Safety, Health and
• Environment to establish and maintain systems and processes to provide assurance that safeguarding and safety risks are being managed and appropriate good practices are being operated across the charity.
• Oversight and coordination of the 24-hour emergency line and procedure.

Volunteer Support:

• Responsible for the strategic direction of volunteering and the support for volunteers across the charity.
• Responsible, through the Head of Volunteering, for the implementation of the volunteering strategy, including improvements to the onboarding, support and administration processes.
• Responsible for the “Safer Recruitment” of volunteers, including the disclosure and vetting processes across the MSSC.
• Responsible for all aspects of the management of volunteer conflict and complaints.
• Indirect functional accountability for volunteer communication.
• Member of the MSSC Honours and Awards Committee for the recommendations for the awards of national honours and Sea Cadet Medals.

Young People:

• Responsible for the identification of policy and other developments affecting young people.
• Responsible for the provision of advice and recommendations regarding future areas of focus to ensure Sea Cadets remains relevant to young people.
• Leadership of the development of youth policies for Sea Cadets, in consultation with internal and external stakeholders.
• Responsible for approaches and initiatives that support cadet wellbeing.
• Leadership of approaches that enable cadets to influence the decisions that will affect their experience.

Business, Policy & Impact:

• Responsible for the MSSC’s strategic planning process, ensuring that all relevant stakeholders are appropriately engaged and that effective strategic plans are developed.
• Responsible for the annual business planning process and for the reporting of performance against the plan.
• Responsible for the identification, engagement with and influence of (where appropriate) wider external policy relevant to the work of the charity.
• Responsible for ensuring that appropriate data collation and analysis are in place.
• Ensure that the impact the MSSC has on beneficiaries is collected and analysed, including, where appropriate, through the commissioning of external research.
• Act as Data Controller for MSSC, and with the support of the Legal Adviser / Data Protection Officer, ensure compliance with the GDPR.
• Responsible, through the Legal Adviser, for the provision of selected legal advice across the charity.
• Responsible for the risk management arrangements for the charity, including the maintenance of the risk registers and reporting to Trustees.
• Ensure the provision of appropriate MSCC, Unit, Marine and Property insurance, including the management of claims through the insurance intermediary.
• Ensure effective governance arrangements are in place for Sea Cadet Units, including through the
• Sea Cadet Regulations, associated guidance and support for Unit Management Teams.

Property:

• Responsible for MSSC property and facilities matters and for the provision of property advice to Sea Cadet Units.
• Responsible for the management, allocation and approval of grants and loans to Sea Cadet Units for property and similar matters.

General:

• Lead the directorate effectively, managing directorate resources and budgets to meet objectives and optimise use of funds for the benefit of MSSC and its stakeholders, applying appropriate control and supervision.
• Provide direction, communication and development opportunities for staff within the directorate.
• Lead and deliver projects in line with the vision, strategy and annual plan.
• Drive continuous development, ensuring, where appropriate, a consistent and joined-up approach that leverages opportunities.
• Liaise closely with SMT colleagues on all matters of mutual interest.
• As a member of the Senior Management Team, contribute towards the overall strategic direction and the planning and effective running of the charity.
• Prepare and present reports to the CEO, Management Team and the Trustees as required.
• Membership, together with other management team members and senior colleagues, of the
• MSSC’s emergency out-of-hours telephone rota
• Carry out banking tasks as required with other management colleagues.

Skills, Competencies, Experience & Attributes

Experience, Knowledge & Qualifications:

• Knowledge and understanding of health and safety
• Knowledge and experience of managing youth safeguarding issues
• Experience in leading management processes, compliance, assurance and driving change
• Experience in leading a large team with strong people management capability and driving high performance, including remote management
• Experience of conflict resolution
• Experience in streamlining processes, simplifying systems, and documenting
• Experience in managing budgets
• Computer literacy, good knowledge of Microsoft Word,
• Excel, email, and the internet

Core Competencies:

• Ability and willingness to operate at both strategic and operational levels
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail
• Excellent interpersonal, management and leadership skills
• Proactive and results-oriented
• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal)
• High integrity, credibility and commitment to good governance
• Excellent IT, digital and systems skills

Personal Characteristics:

• Passionate about youth development and making a difference
• Inspiring, dynamic, enthusiastic, approachable, reliable, discreet and diplomatic

Desirable:

• Understanding of the ‘not for profit/charity’ sector
• Experience leading a volunteer function
• Experience of leading in a complex environment

Required Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent

Compensation & Benefits

• 25 days annual leave per annum, increasing with length of service
• Volunteering Leave
• Life assurance (4x salary)
• Private medical insurance
• Generous pension (employer contribution up to 10%)
• Cycle to work scheme
• Access to the Marine Society Digital Library
• Wellbeing portal and EAP with one-to-one counselling
• Employee development

Working locations

• Hybrid model, working in the London office and remotely.
• Occasional evening and weekend work requires some travel, mostly within the UK.

How to apply

• Apply online

Policies

MSSC positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates from all backgrounds. Equity, diversity, and inclusion really matter to us, so we can best serve our beneficiaries from every community. We work to ensure a fair and consistent recruitment process and aim to be a charity where diversity of experience, identity and skills are valued and welcomed. MSSC is an equal opportunity employer.

We recognise our responsibilities to safeguard and protect the young people and vulnerable adults with whom we work. We do all we can to promote their health, safety and wellbeing, and we expect our staff to share this commitment and work in line with safeguarding policy, the MSSC’s values and ethos of inclusivity.

We adhere to safer recruitment practices and therefore employment is subject to detailed pre-employment checks for successful candidates, including references, criminal disclosure checks and the completion of a disclosure questionnaire. All successful applicants are required to attend safeguarding training and undergo pre-employment checks, including a criminal record check.

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