Head of Child & Youth Participation (CYP) At Lumos Foundation

Do you have a passion for children participation? Do you respect young people and their right to be heard? Are you a skilled collaborator who strives in enhancing the participation of young people?

If you are committed to protecting and empowering the world’s most vulnerable children, join us!

The Head of Child and Youth Participation (CYP) at Lumos is responsible for implementing Lumos’ strategy for safe and meaningful participation of children, young people, families, and caregivers, ensuring it is mainstreamed, demonstrating innovative approaches, and empowering children and young people.

Company Description

Lumos is an international children’s charity founded in 2005 by the author J.K. Rowling to end the harmful practice of institutionalisation of children. Lumos’s mission is to fight for every child’s right to a family by transforming care systems around the world. Our vision is for all children to grow up in safe and loving families.

Despite clear evidence of the harms of institutionalisation, an estimated 5.4 million children worldwide continue to live in institutions. Separated from their families and communities, these children are deprived of the love, attention and opportunities they need to thrive. Our three-pronged approach is to prevent family separation, to protect children and to promote care reform. We’ve made important progress in closing harmful institutions and reuniting children with their families. And where children are unable to live with their birth families, we promote alternative family-based care, such as kinship care and quality foster care. Thanks to our tireless efforts alongside many other champions of care reform, the harms of institutionalisation are now more widely understood. A global movement is underway and the UN, the EU and some large development agencies have joined individual countries in pledging to change how they care for vulnerable children. We are committed to ensuring that global policy commitments are translated into local action, leading to sustainable change for vulnerable children.

Find out more about our work at www.wearelumos.org

Position

Do you have a passion for children participation? Do you respect young people and their right to be heard? Are you a skilled collaborator who strives in enhancing the participation of young people?

If you are committed to protecting and empowering the world’s most vulnerable children, join us!

Meaningful participation of people with lived experience of the care system is central to achieving Lumos’ mission to realise every child’s right to a family by transforming care systems around the world. The Head of Child and Youth Participation (CYP) is a key role responsible for shaping and delivering Lumos’ strategy on safe and meaningful participation of children, young people, families and caregivers. Considering the cross-cutting nature of participation, the post-holder will work across teams to ensure child and youth participation is mainstreamed throughout the organisation, strengthening Lumos’ internal capacity and approaches to meaningful participation. They will ensure that Lumos programmes demonstrate innovative and transferrable approaches to CYP, and that children and young people are empowered to play a meaningful role in decisions affecting themselves and others at national, regional and global levels.

Requirements

Provide strategic leadership on participation

Lead the development and delivery of a new Lumos CYP strategy, working in partnership with self-advocates, CYP colleagues, key staff including in Lumos’s country offices, and external partners including CYP networks and associations
Ensure Lumos’ new CYP strategy is aligned with existing global, regional and national strategies in this area, building upon momentum and the strategic direction of the sector and partner efforts
Develop annual strategic plans for CYP and ensure CYP is included and aligned across the plans, strategies, and projects of Programmes teams
Ensure that participation of children, care leavers, parents and caregivers is imbedded as a cross-cutting priority throughout the organisation’s projects and programmes
Scope the possibility of developing a CYP advisory board to sit alongside Lumos’ Board of Trustees to ensure participation is driving our work at all levels
Represent CYP at a senior level internally and externally, including in meetings, working groups and committees as needed

Build and strengthen CYP in country programming

Lead on the development and oversight of country programme CYP strategies in line with Lumos’ 2024-7 strategy, working closely with the CYP Advisor, including:
- Overseeing the development and strengthening of youth advisory boards in Lumos’ programmatic countries
- Overseeing training and capacity building of professionals and authorities involved in care reform planning and implementation to meaningfully include people with lived experience
- Overseeing training and capacity building of children and young people so they can participate in care reform initiatives and in decisions that affect their lives
- As appropriate, engaging directly with children, young people, families and caregivers in-person or online as part of participation inititatives and activities
Lead on the creation and coordination of a Global Youth Advisory Board in close collaboration with the CYP Advisor and CYP Officers
Align approaches, systems and structures on CYP across Lumos programmes to improve cohesion and lead on CYP documentation and reporting.

Networking and external engagement

Build and nurture relationships with relevant stakeholders in the care reform and connected sectors, to shape CYP initiatives and secure opportunities for the participation and meaningful involvement of children and young people
Cultivate and strengthen partnerships with existing CYP networks and alliances at all levels
Co-ordinate the planning and delivery of external and internal international child participation events and activities for self-advocacy groups, working closely with advocacy colleagues
Work with advocacy colleagues to ensure that children and young people are involved in regional and global campaigns, events and initiatives that inform child rights and care reform policy and programming. Advocate for and facilitate their inclusion in a meaningful, empowering and non-tokenistic manner.

Management of the team

Lead the CYP team, which comprises staff across Lumos’ country offices and central function, including setting and implementing objectives, deliverables and KPIs that will motivate the team and achieve ambitious results, and monitor and track progress
The post-holder will line manage the CYP Adviser and matrix manage the in-country CYP staff.

Internal strengthening and collaboration

Strengthen Lumos’ internal capacity and approaches to meaningful participation of children, youth, parents and caregivers
Co-ordinate and provide guidance and capacity-building to CYP staff in Lumos programme countries (currently Kenya, Colombia, Moldova and Ukraine) as they develop and strengthen their CYP work in line with Lumos’s Strategy 2024-27
Promote opportunities for children, young people, families and caregivers to be more actively involved in all areas of Lumos’ work. For example, introducing young people to interviewing panels, and involving them in monitoring and evaluation and governance processes
Lead the development of training and capacity building to teams across Lumos, including ELT, to promote and enable a mainstreamed approach to CYP.

Project/grant management and fundraising

Develop innovative grant proposals in collaboration with the fundraising team, and work with teams across Programmes to include CYP in their grant proposals
Manage CYP grants and programmes to ensure objectives are met, high quality deliverables are achieved and budgets are utilised effectively
Work with colleagues from the fundraising team to produce high quality reports and manage positive relationships with donors.

Safeguarding

Work closely with safeguarding colleagues to ensure Lumos has, and is implementing, appropriate systems to facilitate safe and ethical CYP that is compliant with Lumos safeguarding policies.WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU:
30 days of paid holidays
Enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption leave
Life Assurance
Pension Scheme
Cycle to Work Scheme, Season ticket loan scheme
Employee Assistance and Resilience Programme (EARP)

Interview dates:

-Round one interview: 16th September

-Round two interview, including a timed assessment/presentation: 19th September

For more information please see the job description on the Lumos Website:https://www.wearelumos.org/careers/

Candidates must have the right to live and work in the UK (or other location).