The London Recovery Board is looking for two co-leads to lead the London Recovery Programme’s priority strand of work to build strong communities.
Background
The London Recovery Programme work to ensure London’s recovery from Covid-19 is being overseen by the London Recovery Board. Chaired jointly by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the Chair of London Councils, Georgia Gould.
The London Recovery Board brings together leaders from across London’s government, business and civil society, as well as the health and education sectors, trade unions and the police, to oversee the long-term recovery effort.
We have one grand challenge – to restore confidence in the city, minimise the impact on London’s communities and build back better the city’s economy and society.
In response to this grand challenge, the Board has committed to taking a missions- based approach and has agreed nine recovery missions across economic and social policy:
The Recovery Missions
Five of these Missions comprise the Social Recovery Work Strand, chaired by Dr Debbie Weekes-Bernard and co-Chaired by Cllr Ruth Dombey and Martin Brookes of London Plus:
- Building Strong Communities – By 2025, all Londoners will have access to a community hub ensuring they can volunteer, get support and build strong community networks.
- A Robust Safety Net– By 2025, every Londoner is able to access the support they need to prevent financial hardship.
- A New Deal for Young People – By 2024 all young people in need are entitled to a personal mentor and all young Londoners have access to quality local youth activities.
- Mental Health and Wellbeing – By 2025 London will have a quarter of a million wellbeing ambassadors, supporting Londoners where they live, work and play.
- Healthy Food, Healthy Weight – By 2025 every Londoner lives in a healthy food neighbourhood.
The recovery missions are shaped by 3 key dimensions:
- Key Outcomes
- Crosscutting Principles
- Engagement
The Co-Leadership Role: Building Strong Communities
Covid-19 has fragmented communities and left some Londoners – particularly those already facing barriers – isolated and feeling even more powerless. It has also shown Londoners’ commitment to community, their willingness to support one another and help.
Voluntary, community and grassroots organisations have played a crucial role in their communities, connecting Londoners with each other, reaching those most in need of support and developing community-led solutions to the crisis.
We want to work with communities and those organisations and groups to ensure that Londoners can continue to play a leading role in the recovery.
The ‘Building Strong Communities’ mission, aims to ensure that:
By 2025 all Londoners will have access to a community hub ensuring they can volunteer, get support and build strong networks.
It’s essential that this mission is about London’s communities and the organisations working with them. We’re looking for two ‘co-leads’ to work with colleagues at the Greater London Authority, London Councils, partners in the voluntary and community sector and elsewhere, as well as the Chair and co-chairs of the Social Recovery Strand of work, to ensure this mission delivers for Londoners.
We are looking for two co-leads – ideally someone who can bring a local government perspective and someone from the voluntary and community sector. This is to ensure we have a breadth of experience and understanding driving the mission. This is the format adopted across the missions of the Social Work Strand.
The Role
The role of the Mission Co- lead is to: lead the direction and delivery of the mission, working within existing structures/groups or establishing new ones to achieve goals, including but not limited to the following:
- Provide strategic leadership of the mission; drive and steer its work programme; be accountable for its direction and outcomes.
- Work closely with partners and existing structures and decision-making fora to ensure the mission achieves its aims.
- Ensure the mission makes full use of available levers and mobilises resources to deliver its aims.
- Ensure the work of the mission maintains focus on the cross-cutting principles (mentioned above) and focusses on the needs of those Londoners most impacted by the crisis.
- Champion the mission, and mobilise key partners to support it.
- Build strong connections across missions and the Recovery Programme, including with relevant members of London Recovery Board.
- Attend Social Recovery Strand Working Group meetings and engage with the Chairs and Social Work Strand team as needed.
This work will be supported by a team of officers at the GLA and London Councils i.e. a ‘mission team’ who will provide day-to-day project management, as well as policy and programme expertise.
The people we are looking for will be able to work with partners at a senior level across London’s key sectors. They should also have direct experience working within a voluntary, community or grassroots organisation, and be London-based.
This is a voluntary role. However, we acknowledge that taking time away from your day job can be difficult for smaller organisations to accommodate. Therefore we are happy to consider payment of a reasonable day-rate and/or expenses. This would be discussed during the selection process.
There are no formal time requirements beyond a monthly meeting with the Social Recovery Chair and Co-chairs, and other mission leads. However, you will also be asked to work with your mission team on an ongoing basis to steer the work and meet the outcomes detailed above.
Please send a brief statement (no more than one side of A4) expressing your interest and explaining what you would bring to the role to: strongcommunities@londonplus.org by 11 January 2021. Please don’t send your full CV.
See the London Recovery Overview Paper [PDF] for more information.
