Land & Nature Skills Service Manager

This is a great opportunity to play a key role in developing a new service within Cumbria and
making a real, positive impact on skills and careers across the land- and nature-based sectors.

The LANSS is a new service connecting people with learning and training opportunities relevant
to land- and nature-based work, in and near Cumbria.

The Role

You will lead a team, including an Outreach Lead and an Adviser, which will run a hub website,
provide outreach and advisory services in-person and online, and inclusively engage potential
learners, employers and training providers with the Service. As a team you will launch and
deliver this new service for Cumbria across 2024-2026, further develop it and plan for the
long-term sustainability of the Service. In delivering the LANSS the team will work closely
with the Chamber’s Local Skills Improvement Plan team. Supporting this, the LANSS Governing
Board will provide strategic leadership and the Steering Group will help shape the Service to
meet the needs of its user groups.

The Service

The LANSS will improve access to work-related skills, delivering co-ordinated, accessible
information and advice to adults and young people already working in the sector or looking to
join the sector, alongside training brokerage services for employers and businesses and
analytical and promotional opportunities for learning and training providers.

Principal Accountabilities

• Project handover. Take responsibility for Service documentation and relationships from the
  temporary Project Facilitator, helping to manage a smooth handover process from the previous phase of work.
• Service delivery. Manage the phased launch and delivery of the Land and Nature Skills
  Service with strategic leadership from the Service Supervisor and guided by the LANSS Blueprint.
• People management. Provide line management to two LANSS staff (up to 1.4FTE): the LANSS
  Outreach Lead and LANSS Adviser and lead this new operational team. This will also involve coordinating the work
  of others contribution to the work of LANSS.
• Support to governance groups. Co-ordinate the effective governance of the Service by:
  • Expanding the Steering Group to achieve broad representation of Service user groups.
  • Arranging regular meetings for the Governing Board and Steering Group and supplying
    operational documents for their review.
• Service website. Lead the development of the Service website by:
  • Commissioning and managing the external contract for web development to build the full
    website
  • Supervising LANSS Adviser to coordinate listings from providers
• Operational policies. Commission specialist input and develop and implement the Service’s
  Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy, Safeguarding policy, and other key policies as required.
• Communication and relationships. Take a strategic lead on Service communications and
  relationship management. Maintain and develop links with related initiatives, services and strategic groups to amplify
  and connect the work, embedding the Service in Cumbria. Manage relationships across the sector, building on the prior
  scoping and development work.
• Budget management. Track the budget for the LANSS, identify ongoing requirements and
  further resources/funding as needed, prepare reports to funders. Liaise with Cumbria Chamber
  colleagues who will provide regular budget reports, administer the LANSS budget transactions
  and ensure compliance with financial regulations.
• Monitoring and evaluation. Maintain the
  Service risk and opportunities register. Review the effectiveness of the Service against its
  purpose and functions. Ensure timely feedback is sought from the Service user groups: learners
  and their advisors; providers of learning; employers in the sector. Monitor sector
  developments. Commission independent evaluation as appropriate.
• Development. Manage the
  further development of the Service planning for long term sustainability. Take development
  proposals to the LANSS Governing Board. Respond to sector developments with the LANSS team and
  in liaison with the Local Skills Improvement Plan team.
• Other. Other reasonable
  responsibilities for the effective operational management of the Service as may be co-developed
  with the Governing Board.