Head of Policy, Programs and Business Development

**Job no**: 500244

**Employment type**: Full Time

**Location**: Newcastle, Maitland & Hunter, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne

**Categories**: Child, Youth & Family

**About the Organisation**

Life Without Barriers is a leading social purpose, not for profit organisation of 8,000 employees working in more than 500 communities across Australia. We support children, young people and families, people with disability, older people and people with mental illness. We work with people who are homeless and refugees and asylum seekers.

Make a real difference in the lives of vulnerable Australians with this unique opportunity to provide both corporate expertise and community support. With a focus on people, not profit, Life Without Barriers’ corporate services team partners with our direct support staff, clients, and their families to ensure we continue our mission to change lives for the better. If a truly inclusive, collaborative, and fast-paced work environment sounds like your next career move, this is an opening not to be missed.

**About the Role**

Reporting to the Executive Lead - Child, Youth and Family within Strategy & Engagement, you be instrumental in improving outcomes for children, young people, and their families by driving the design and delivery of:

- evidence-informed practice models and outcome measures,
- contemporary approaches to policy and program development
- innovative robust implementation strategies,
- system-wide growth strategies and business development initiatives
- internal improvements and reform strategies.

You will lead a dedicated team focusing on the alignment of CYF evidenced-informed practice, policy and programs, and systems-wide business development initiatives to achieve uplift in the use of evidence-informed models and LWB’s strategic and growth objectives.

Leaders who thrive at Life Without Barriers are centred by our Purpose, actively build an inclusive culture and bring out the best in the people they work with.

**Key Responsibilities**
- Provide expert leadership to the Policy, Programs, and Business Development (CYF) team to:

- develop evidence-informed practice models and outcome measures
- achieve system-wide improvements and reforms that positively impact the provision of effective CYF services and support the achievement of strategic and growth objectives
- identify and endorse practice models and approaches that meet current and emerging needs
- monitor implementation, fidelity and achievement of outcomes
- actively contribute to thought leadership and social policy
- Partner with CYF staff and stakeholders to progress, develop, implement and continuously improve the LWB Evidence-Informed Strategy
- Facilitate integration and cooperation across internal stakeholders to implement strategies that sustain improvements across CYF services
- Support Managers in the design, development, and implementation of LWBs business and growth plans to achieve strategic and growth priorities
- Develop and manage a CYF research program aligned to the LWB Strategy and social policy positions that draws on LWB partnerships
- Strengthen the mechanisms to participate in, share research findings and elicit practice wisdom across the full suite of CYF services
- Contribute to the LWB Strategic intent through the development of new models of service delivery, collaboration with other providers, and contribution to sector reforms
- Oversee development of child-safe activities as part of the LWB commitment to putting children first including developing client safety and wellbeing approaches (design and policy) including probity, and strategic CYF incident analysis

**Knowledge, Skills & Experience**
- Tertiary level qualifications in social work, psychology or related clinical field or equivalent business management field
- Proven experience as a leader in the CYF or community services sectors in direct service delivery and in the development and implementation of policy, programs, and business planning
- Ability to drive organisation-wide improvements and initiatives and plan and prioritise at the strategic level
- Demonstrated knowledge of the CYF research landscape and experience in policy and program development and implementation in a complex geographically dispersed organisation
- Proven experience in building and strengthening relationships with key internal and external stakeholders including government agencies, non-government organisations, for-profit organisations, and children, young people, and families
- Demonstrated project management leadership and management experience, with a track record of delivery of complex projects, managing competing priorities, and delivering high-quality outcomes within agreed timeframes in a large geographically dispersed organisation
- Demonstrated knowledge of the relevant legislation, regulatory environment and funding arrangements that impact on CYF and the services delivered nationally by LWB
- Strong leadership skills in developing