Interim Head of Engagement

We are looking for a maternity cover to drive forward Contacts focus on young people and participatory and community focussed work

MAIN LOCATION: Based at Contact and some homeworking

RESPONSIBLE TO: Creative Director (until Creative Director is recruited this role will report to the CEO)

RESPONSIBLE FOR: The Agency Project Manager, Engagement and Agency Alumni Coordinator

WORKS WITH: All departments

HOURS: Full Time. As we work to 100:80:100 full time equates to 28 hours per week Tuesday - Friday. Some evening, weekend and Monday work may be required as part of this role.

STATUS: Fixed Term contract to cover maternity leave. 6 month contract initially with potential to extend

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: Sunday 18th January 2026

Interviews will be held at the end of January 2026, dates TBC

 

OVERVIEW OF THE ROLE

 As a member of a wider management team within Contact, work with the CEO and the Creative Director to develop and deliver Contact’s engagement strategy and activity.  This role will drive forward Contact’s focus on young people and participatory and community focussed work as well as being an active member of the wider senior management team.

  

MAIN TASKS

Participation

• Act as main point of contact for all relationships, including high level relationships, with participatory partners

• Ensure that Contact’s creative activity operates within and leads best practice in access, diversity and safeguarding of YP and vulnerable adults, and that Contact is seen as a model nationally for its work with Young People, advising staff and board where appropriate.

• Identify funding initiatives appropriate to the work of the company, its projects and productions, working with the Creative Director, CEO, Development Manager and other relevant staff members.

• Advocate for Contact, and take a leadership role in a wide range of networks for young people and the arts, and keep up to date with creative developments in a range of arts organisations. Attending industry and community events to increase and maintain awareness of Contact’s work.

• Work closely with the senior management team to facilitate and oversee the involvement of young people in all areas of Contact’s work, through programmes such as Re:Con, Future Fires, Technique and The Agency, refreshing and reviewing projects annually to ensure viability and ongoing relevance to Contact’s core mission.

• Work closely with the Creative Director to maintain an overview of participatory programmes that ensures young people can find progression routes from early outreach projects to advanced activity for young artists.

• Develop and oversee an alumni tracking strategy to ensure Contact is connected the young people as they progress onward from our programmes.

• Maintain an overview of the reach of Contact’s participatory work, and develop the programme in response to goals for reach and engagement set by the organisation including a clearly defined schools engagement strategy.

• Work closely with the Creative Director, Director of Finance and CEO to establish and manage all department budgets, ensuring that the Engagement department operates effectively and to agreed budgets across projects and activities. Ensuring reporting is accurate and within agreed timescales.

• Ensure effective monitoring and evaluation of participatory projects, including evaluation by participants and cross organisational staff members, feeding knowledge gained from evaluation into work of the department and of Contact as a whole.

• Deliver effective liaison with funders and project partners, ensuring that shared aims are established and outputs are met and reported on.

• Work closely with the Creative Director, CEO and relevant managers to ensure that the activities of the Creative Team are planned in line with the resources of other departments, and that other departments effectively deliver resources to projects.

• Ensure that all creative outputs are documented for reporting, and participant data is collected and fed into appropriate systems, databases and reports.

• Be aware of GDPR and intellectual property guidelines and ensure this understanding is passed on your line managers and their teams.

• Actively devise and support marketing activity to reach participants for all engagement activity, with a focus specifically on community engagement.

• Develop and oversee the successful delivery of in-house projects focussed on youth leadership, music, poetry, dance, writing, producing, production, drama and any other areas within the organisational business plan or targets.

• Lead on the promotion of Contact’s engagement activity, working closely with the Marketing and Comms department, ensuring targets are met, including demographic.

• Create and deliver a strong culture of evaluation among our young person projects and activities, using our model of youth consultation to continually drive improvement and innovation of our work.

• Ensure projects are adequately budgeted, planned and evaluated, with appropriate safeguarding and risk management in place.

Schools & Communities

• Maintain and develop strong relationships with communities, schools and colleges, looking for and implementing successful partnerships and new projects

• Develop and oversee the successful delivery of projects and events that form part of a high-quality Community and Education offer.

Safeguarding and Young People’s Issues

• Keep abreast of the issues and challenges of young people from diverse backgrounds.

• Take a lead organisationally on child protection issues, acting as Contact’s Designated Safeguarding Lead and key person in child protection issues, working closely with the HR & Wellbeing Manager to ensure that all staff are trained and kept up to date on relevant child protection issues.

• Ensure that appropriate resources relevant to Safeguarding and to the support of young people are available and circulated at Contact.

• Develop relationships with agencies that can help deliver support services to young people.

• Provide training to all of Contact’s staff members in areas of Safeguarding & Child Protection.

Staff Management

• Ensure effective recruitment and induction of all new staff in the department in line with Contact’s policies and procedures.

• Manage or oversee the management of all staff hired in the department, ensuring that they are supervised effectively in line with Contact’s policies on employment, appraisal and employee support.

• Line management of our Engagement & Agency Alumni Coordinator, freelance facilitators and artists

• Line manage or oversee the management of The Agency Project team, Core and freelancers ensuring clear targets, high standards of work and efficient use of time. Carry out regular 1:1s and annual appraisals with all direct reports.

• · Ensure that all department staff engage effectively with Contact’s procedures for communication and collaboration organisation-wide.

• · In the case of staff employed on a project basis, ensure that they are inducted into the Company – the staff, building, systems and procedures that apply, and that their general welfare needs are attended to in order that their time with Contact is made as pleasurable as possible.

Organisational Development

• · Participate actively in all forums designed to ensure effective internal co-ordination and development at Contact, including, but not limited to, Senior Management Meetings, Departmental Manager Meetings, Staff Trainings and Away Days, and to ensure the full participation of all department staff through effective supervision and scheduling.

• · Work with the Senior Management and Senior Leadership teams contributing to the planning process and general management of the company as required.

• · Ensure effective communication with other departments.

• · Attend board meetings as and when required.

• · Be familiar with the company’s work; attending read-throughs, workshops, rehearsals, projects and performances as appropriate.

• · Maintain and disseminate within Contact thorough knowledge in relation to community development, youth involvement, social inclusion and related fields.

Other

· Interact directly with young people through participatory projects, apprenticeships and work placements as a way of contributing to the development of young people and as a key source of information and inspiration for Contact.

· To provide inspirational and supportive leadership for your direct reports & team, ensuring that they remain highly motivated and empowered to develop within their roles.

· Manage, control and report on all budgets relating to your team/area, delegating budgetary authority where appropriate.

GENERAL

• Undertake any other duties that may reasonably be required in connection with the position.

• Keep up to date with developments within the arts and youth culture.

• Represent Contact at external events as required.

• Establish and maintain good working relationships with all Contact’s partner organisations.

• Get involved with creative work being presented by Contact by attending workshops, read-throughs, rehearsals and performances on a regular basis.

• Adhere to Contact’s Health & Safety policy, undertaking duties as required and ensure reasonable care is taken to ensure a healthy and safe working and public environment.

• Actively commit to Contact’s Equal Opportunities policy and Contact’s Safeguarding of Young People policy.

• Actively commit to Contact’s anti- racism working practices.

• Advise and report regularly on activity as required by the wider Senior Management Team, Board and sub-boards, supplying any data required to meet funder reporting requirements.

• Provide mentoring and support to young people and on occasions deliver training/workshops in areas relevant to your job role.

• In line with Contact’s governance model, pro-actively engage young people in decision-making through consultations, young people’s panels and other mechanisms relevant to your job role.

• Manage all personal data in line with the General Data Protection Regulations, using the Spektrix database as directed.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

ESSENTIAL

· Ability to lead, manage and inspire staff to achieve participatory and organisational goals

· Knowledge and experience of best practice and new possibilities in community and youth arts work

· A vision of how to encourage and develop young peoples’ involvement and creativity through arts practice

· Ability to set clear priorities, goals and targets and to monitor their progress

· Ability to motivate individuals and teams

· A commitment to dynamic understanding and implementation of Cultural Diversity and Equal Opportunities

· Understanding of methods to engage young people from diverse backgrounds in a variety of contexts: arts, youth services, education etc.

Experience

· Experience as Safeguarding Lead or Deputy Safeguarding Lead, with excellent working knowledge of safeguarding standards, policies and procedures.

· Experience of working with a wide range of communities

· Experience of managing and controlling budgets

· Current knowledge of formal education sector, and of creative and cultural learning.

· Experience of developing and maintaining effective relationships with partner organisations

· Experience of working flexibly and effectively with a range of artists

· Enthusiasm for working in a creative organisation.

· Enthusiasm for and commitment to Equal Opportunities practice.

· Enthusiasm and commitment for working in an environment focussed on young people (aged 13-30)

• Department
• Creative Engagement
• Role
• Head of Engagement
• Locations
• Contact Theatre
• Remote status
• Hybrid
• Yearly salary
• £38,000
• Employment type
• Contract

Contact Theatre

About Contact Theatre

Contact is where young people change their lives through the arts, and audiences of all ages experience exciting new shows.

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