Outreach & Engagement Manager: Music Service

This special place in South West London between the capital and the country has been a Royal borough longer than anywhere else - it is where the first kings of England were crowned.

Today it is a vibrant and diverse borough, with a long history and strong cultural and community heritage. Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of our district town centres (Surbiton, New Malden, Tolworth and Chessington) have something unique to offer.

Situated in Zone 6, Kingston is among the best-connected town centres in London – with direct train links from Kingston and Surbiton stations to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and Tramlink.

Kingston’s people are innovative and entrepreneurial, and have a strong sense of community pride. The borough has been home to great industry and creativity for many years, reflected in assets such as the Rose Theatre, the International Youth Arts Festival and Kingston University, which boasts more new graduate business start-ups than any other.

We have seen tremendous generosity and compassion within our communities, particularly in response to COVID-19, which is a demonstration of Kingston’s key strength. The council offers a strong level of support to vulnerable groups and those who need additional support, which has also increased significantly as a result of the pandemic. Like most places, the average age of our population is rising as more people are living longer, so we are working closely with residents to help them maintain their independence and further improve the cost effectiveness of our service to meet the ongoing rise in demand.

Kingston is home to people from diverse and interesting cultures and backgrounds, which helps to create the rich sense of community shared across the borough. In particular, Kingston has a large Sri Lankan Tamil community and is home to more people from Korea than any other part of the UK.

Purpose of the role

The Outreach and Engagement Manager: Music Service reports directly to the Community Culture Lead, and is responsible for leading targeted outreach and engagement across the borough focusing on Kingston Music Service in addition to overseeing the operational running of Kingston Music Service. The role sits within the Community Culture Hub which is part of Culture and Heritage Services. The Outreach and Engagement Manager: Music Service is responsible for the line
management of the Kingston Music Service team including tutors, stewards and technicians.
This role is part of a team of Outreach and Engagement Managers who work collaboratively to ensure that all Culture and Heritage Service areas are fully supported in relation to outreach and engagement.

What the job actually requires - 

• Lead targeted outreach and engagement across the borough focusing on the Music Service
• Lead on evaluation of delivery, using evidence, data, and strategic information to
  drive performance, ensuring all of the Culture and Heritage Service operates at a
  high level, and reflects the needs of communities.
• Develop and ensure delivery and promotion of the physical and digital strategy,
  programming, and operational planning for the range of Culture and Heritage
  services, in liaison with others, empowering the community to engage with culture
  and heritage. Provide support to frontline staff to ensure a range of digital and
  physical services are delivered.
• Lead delivery against the National Plan for Music Education including the core and
  extension responsibilities through a physical and digital offer.
• Lead and manage the ensembles or instrumental or singing teaching programmes,
  monitoring, and assessing the quality of delivery.
• Support the delivery of the extension elements of the National Plan for Music Education, including access to high quality music experiences and the delivery of CPD for school staff and instrument loan service, as appropriate.
•  Increase access and awareness of Kingston Music Service through marketing,
  promotion, and development of the service.
• Work collaboratively with the other members of the Culture and Heritage Leadership
  Team and stakeholders to identify funding opportunities and physical and digital
  projects to support learners and music making in the wider community
• Work with the Events and Promotions Officer to co-ordinate activities to raise the
  profile of Kingston Music Service
• Support the Community Culture Lead in the management of key sector specific and
  strategic relationships, for example, Arts Council England and the Kingston Music
  Service Strategy Group.
• Responsible for working with colleagues in the management of music centres
  including line management.
• Responsible for line management of the Kingston Music Service team and ensures the quality of teaching, learning, and programming is high quality and in line with funder expectations and requirements.
• Contribute and support the Music Hub business plan in consultation with partners and stakeholders as appropriate.

The Council is focused on becoming a borough which celebrates culture, heritage and diversity with vibrant community events for local people, businesses and visitors to enjoy. 

It has been acknowledged that culture is critical to health and wellbeing, the local economy and regeneration projects.

Kingston Music Service (KMS) offers a range of music activities for young people and adult learners at home, in school and at four music centres across the borough. The core base is at the Hook Centre. KMS is a Local Authority service which receives core funding from Arts Council England. It is the lead organisation that oversees the delivery of music education in the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames. More can be seen on the website here 

You will be part of the Culture & Heritage service which brings together libraries, heritage, arts, music and adult education with a shared vision to place the vibrant and rich culture and heritage of the Borough at the centre of its life. 

We believe that everybody deserves to have access to a rich cultural life and that this will empower communities to collaborate together and be happier, healthier and more skilled.

Our transformation programme, Future Culture & Heritage, will bring together the specialist skills from across the team areas to develop an exciting programme which focuses on outreach into the communities to make the borough a destination place for culture and heritage. Working collaboratively with partners we wish to help engage, enable and empower our communities. 

To be successful in the role of Outreach & Engagement Manager: Music Service you will be able to demonstrate the following:

• Experience of assessing and monitoring music teaching standards, ensuring high-quality provision and delivery in line with the National Plan for Music Education.
• Your experience as a musician with a relevant qualification in music.
• Your ability to question and challenge ways of working, with an understanding of the bigger picture in terms of the corporate context and external environment.
• Your agility and adaptability in mindset and ways of working with a proactive approach to problem solving.
• Evidence of a background working across the cultural sector at management level and a good understanding of the cultural sector
• An understanding of setting up income generation working models and experience of increasing income generation
• Innovation and creativity - the ability to take a holistic view of activity across the service and understand where there may be opportunities for development
• A collaborative attitude to developing the Culture and Heritage Service, and to being a supportive team player committed to your own personal and professional development to meet the changing demands of the role.
• Ability to communicate clearly, confidently, and appropriately with colleagues using the best
  methods of communication for the task.
• Ability to work successfully with key stakeholders within and outside of the Council.
  
  

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• Three volunteering days per year
• Flexible and agile working arrangements
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, tolerant and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.

We are proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident employer, and are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.   

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.