Director of Programmes
Mentor UK
London Based
Salary: £43,000 - £48,000 + 28 days leave + 3% pension
Background Candidate Information
Introduction
Mentor was established in 1998 and is the UK charity that works to bring evidenced based
alcohol and drug prevention programmes to scale amongst young people. It’s an issue that
successive governments have struggled to grasp and so Mentor sees its role as an NGO that
can lead the way in helping shape policy and strategy in this area by showing what does and
does not work and by lobbying for change.
With my arrival in 2009, Mentor drew up a plan to become the authoritative voice in evidence
based prevention for young people. We undertook our own programmes in kinship care and
peer education in Scotland and youth based programmes in London such as ‘Street Talk’ and
the London Youth Involvement Project.
Our supporters and partners
We made key contacts with government departments, notably the Home Office, Scottish
Government, Department for Education and Department for Health and we won competitive
bids to government, Comic Relief, the Big Lottery and the EU to support our mission. In
recent years Mentor has increased its profile to key target audiences and has a growing
reputation as the go to charity for information and advice on prevention methodology to
protect young people from substance misuse.
As part of our work in policy and partnership bids, we have forged working relationships with
numerous NGOs working in our field such as Addaction, Alcohol Research UK, Alcohol
Concern, DrugScope, Adfam, PSHE Association and others. We also work with many
children’s charities and community groups.
Our excellence in programme delivery has brought with it a growing reputation in our field and
our bids to funders such as the Big Lottery and the EU always score highly, so there are
standards to maintain and build on.
The opportunity
Much of the credit for our success is down to our Director of Programmes, Andrew Brown,
who after 10 years with Mentor, leaves in April 2014 to become Director of Policy, Influence
and Engagement with DrugScope, one of our partner charities. We need a talented and
experienced individual who can pick up the baton and deliver the opportunities we have
worked so hard to secure.
Mentor is on the verge of a major breakthrough in achieving one of its ultimate ambitions – to
bring an evidence based programme that protects children from substance misuse and other
harms in youth to scale nationally in our schools.
A highly respected grant giver is currently working up a specification for funding and
evaluation with our Director of Programmes to manage the Good Behaviour Game (a
classroom strategy for teachers of 5-7 years olds). The Big Lottery and are keen to scale the
programme up with a potential £5-8m injection of funding in 2016 onwards, if this initial trial is
successful which in turn could transform the level of impact Mentor has in prevention
programmes as other would follow.
Aside from this new major project, the Director of Programmes will manage a small team in
London looking after existing programmes.
These are:
ADEPIS – funded by the Department for Education for two years, the Alcohol Drugs
Education Prevention Information Service provides information and advice to over a thousand
schools and practitioners.
Boys and Girls Plus – an EU funded project to raise awareness in the field of drug
prevention and its related risks among European teenagers.
Evaluation of the MPACT-Plus: providing support to a team of evaluation experts who are
evaluating the delivery of a family intervention across 4 sites in England.
The new Director of Programmes will also have a dotted line management responsibility for
our work in Scotland with Director Heather McVeigh and to share expertise and advice to
support our work in kinship care and peer education at Polmont Prison.
We currently have a team of 7 in Edinburgh and 6 in London.
So as you can see, the scope of the role is large but it doesn’t stop there. We need someone
who can not only manage projects but can bring the learning and evidence of the post
together to support the CEO and SMT in driving our agenda for change. The DP will also be
expected to develop our programmes strategically in order to attract funding, to identify new
partnerships to strengthen and expand our work, and to build sustainability as current projects
complete. The DP will re-enforce our standing in the sector and continue the work in advising
and influencing civil servants, MPs and Ministers on matters that impact on our strategy and
development.
Mentor is part of the Mentor International federation so we share good practice, learning and
information with a network of charities with our name and vision. This brings an added
dimension and scope to our work in the UK.
What next
If all of the above has stimulated and excited you as your next challenge then I would very
much like to hear from you and hope you will apply for the position. Our strategic vision for
the next three years includes growing the charity substantially, and if you are able to help us
achieve that goal the additional responsibilities would be reflected in the remuneration of the
post.
Mentor is located with the charity Addaction right next to Farringdon station and in our own
comfortable offices near the popular Smithfield Market area.
Paul Tuohy
CEO Feb 2014