Programme & Evaluation Manager

The role

The Programme and Evaluation Manager organises our music programmes: ongoing workshop series in detention centres and other settings, performances, special projects.  So the role sits at the very centre of our work.  Working closely with the Artistic Director, you will make Hear Me Out’s artistic programme a reality. 

The main part of the job is to co-ordinate programme activities.  This means you would need to:

• Liaise with settings, partners, artists and colleagues
• Match, book and support our artists
• Organise a mass of artistic and practical detail
• Work directly with people with lived experience of detention and asylum
• Understand the context and purpose of the work and what’s needed to make it succeed

We’re committed to evaluating our work.  We want to know what difference it makes and what we can do better, so we ask participants to tell us what they think, and collect this data as we go along, to build up a picture of our impact.  Organising this is an important part of the job.  You’ll also lead some evaluation activities, such as focus groups with participants.

You’ll be the main point of contact for Hear Me Out’s freelance Associate Artists, supporting and supervising them as they lead music projects with adults and children, organising artist care and development activities, and helping bring people with lived experience into our artistic team.

Our programme is bigger than it has ever been, it has changed dramatically in the last few years in response to new challenges thrown up by the immigration system and we expect it will keep changing.  So there will be lots of scope for you to make changes and develop new work. 

This is a special opportunity to work join a supportive, dynamic team delivering extraordinary work.

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for someone with strong people skills and equally strong organisational skills.  For the music-making to have its intended impact, you will need to have a real eye for fine detail, and lots of sensitivity and awareness of people and their needs, whether they are people going through the immigration system, or managers in detention centres and asylum hotels. 

You’ll know something of our context, or be able to learn that quickly.  You’ll be skilled at communicating with artists, colleagues and partners to ensure we have a shared, realistic plan.  You’ll understand how the detail of artistic planning feeds through into outcomes.  And you’ll be able to evaluate those outcomes in a systematic way.

We are a small team, and most of us work part-time.  You’ll need to work independently, co-operate and communicate consistently, and adapt readily when things change.  You’ll need to be available on Wednesdays (our ‘team day’), and sometimes to work evenings and weekends.

Hear Me Out is committed to diversity, and is working to bring more people with relevant lived experience into our team.  We very much encourage applications from people from culturally diverse backgrounds, applicants with disabilities or neuro-diverse conditions, and people of different ages, gender, sexual orientations and socio-economic backgrounds. We very much encourage applications from people with personal experience of immigration detention, or the asylum process, or immigration enforcement.  If you have programme experience and also this kind of lived experience, we would especially love to hear from you. 

Terms & conditions

The following terms and conditions will apply:

• Contract:  Permanent contract, subject to a 6-month probationary period
• Location: The team meets at its office in central London on Wednesdays and works in a hybrid way the rest of the week.
• Hours:  Part-time position, 3 days (22.5 hours) per week (0.6 FTE)
• Salary:  £35,130 per year pro rata (ie £21,078), gross
• Annual leave:  36 days paid holiday leave per year pro rata (ie 22 days), including statutory bank holidays
• Sick pay:  25 days per year pro rata (ie 15 days) on full pay, followed by 25 days pro rata (ie 15 days) on half pay, followed by Statutory Sick Pay only
• Pension: 6% employer contribution to HMO’s selected Stakeholder pension scheme or to another scheme of the employee’s choice