Community Insight and Partnerships Officer

Connecting evidence, community experience and local action to build a shared understanding of East Surrey

Be part of establishing a new Community Insight Partnership.

Are you a skilled relationship-builder who can bring people together, identify themes across different sources of information and turn community intelligence into clear, useful insight?

The Opportunity

ESCIP is a one-year proof of concept designed to strengthen how community experience and VCSE intelligence inform local decision-making. It connects voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations with health, local authority and wider partners, creating stronger two-way feedback between communities and decision-makers.

This is not primarily an administrative post. You will build trusted relationships, coordinate a new quarterly forum, develop practical ways to gather and synthesise intelligence, and demonstrate how insight has influenced priorities and action. Because the programme is new, you will have genuine scope to shape how it works.

What You Will Achieve

Over the first 12 months, you will:

• Establish a quarterly East Surrey VCSE and Community Forum.
• Build trusted relationships with diverse VCSE organisations, including smaller groups and under-represented communities.
• Develop and test practical two-way feedback mechanisms between communities, VCSE partners and system leaders.
• Map intelligence sources and introduce consistent approaches to gathering and synthesising insight.
• Produce concise briefings highlighting emerging themes and implications for decision-makers.
• Maintain strategic relationships across health, local government, housing and neighbourhood partners.
• Support independent evaluation and contribute to the case for Year 2.

Main Responsibilities

Partnerships and Networks

• Coordinate day-to-day delivery of ESCIP, maintaining workplans, milestones and actions.
• Plan and support the quarterly East Surrey VCSE and Community Forum.
• Develop strong relationships across the VCSE sector and with NHS, local authority, housing, primary care and neighbourhood partners.
• Maintain wider partner engagement through targeted conversations, briefings and limited observer participation.
• Represent ESCIP professionally and act as a key point of contact.

Engagement and Community Insight

• Plan and deliver insight activity, including stakeholder conversations, workshops, surveys, desk research and analysis.
• Enable organisations of different sizes and capacities to contribute, particularly voices less often heard.
• Map existing intelligence sources, identify gaps and common themes, and distinguish between individual feedback, recurring themes and wider evidence.

Communication, Influence and Learning

• Turn qualitative and quantitative information into accessible summaries, briefings and recommendations.
• Create visible feedback loops so contributors understand what was heard and what happened next.
• Prepare stakeholder briefings and contribute to programme and funder reporting.
• Work with the independent evaluator and contribute learning to the future development of ESCIP.

Working Arrangements

This is a part-time role based in Oxted with autonomy and variety. Some meetings and community activity will take place across East Surrey, so the postholder must be able to travel within the area. Reasonable travel expenses will be reimbursed.

Occasional evening activity may be required by prior agreement, with time off in lieu. The postholder will work closely with colleagues from VASE and CSVA and will have access to office space, HR support and appropriate IT equipment.

About You

We welcome transferable experience from community development, participation, research, service improvement, public engagement, local government, health or partnership working.

Experience, Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Experience building productive relationships across organisations, sectors or communities.
• Experience planning and facilitating meetings, workshops or engagement activities.
• Experience gathering information or feedback and identifying meaningful themes and insights.
• Ability to translate complex information into clear reports, briefings and recommendations.
• Ability to organise projects or programmes, manage competing priorities and deliver outcomes with limited supervision.
• Strong written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills, including confidence engaging senior stakeholders.
• Commitment to equitable and inclusive engagement, with an understanding of barriers faced by smaller organisations and under-represented communities.
• Confidence using standard digital tools for collaboration, data analysis, presentations and record-keeping.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the VCSE sector in East Surrey or a comparable area.
• Understanding of health inequalities, neighbourhood working, integrated care or local government.
• Experience of monitoring and evaluation, research methods or funder reporting.

Please see the Application Pack for full details.

How to apply

Please submit:

•    A current CV, including contact details and employment or activity history.

•    A personal statement answering the three questions below. Please use no more than 350 words for each answer.

1. Building relationships

Tell us about a time when you built positive relationships with people from different organisations or backgrounds to achieve a shared goal. What did you do, how did you handle different perspectives, and what was the outcome?

We will assess: relationship-building, collaboration, communication and influencing.

2. Turning information into insight

Tell us about a time when you gathered information, feedback or community views and used them to improve a service, project or decision. How did you identify the important themes and communicate your findings?

We will assess: curiosity, analytical thinking, judgement and clear communication.

3. Organisation and initiative

Tell us about a project or piece of work that you coordinated from start to finish. How did you organise the work, manage stakeholders and keep delivery moving when priorities changed?

We will assess: planning, initiative, prioritisation and delivery.