The Development Leads in Iriss design and deliver high quality and effective projects that have relevance to the social work and social care sector. Directed either by sector or policy priorities, and working with a range of partners, our work aims to make support work better for both workers and people.

Our Development Leads come from a wide range of backgrounds including research, systems thinking, social work/care practice, community development, and design. What they have in common is a drive to support positive change and an ability to take a project through from initial idea to completion and product development.

Who we are looking for

We are looking for someone who really wants to change the social work and social care system for the better. This role would suit someone with the following qualities:

• Innovation and change: You are confident in supporting people, teams or groups to make change happen. You are confident using a range of methods and approaches to doing this, bespoke to the situation.
• Curiosity and listening: You are curious about social work and social care and how it could be made better. You listen and attend to what workers and people tell you about their experience and use your expertise to help them solve the problems they face.
• Analysis and synthesis: You enjoy using evidence, knowledge, data, and information and ideas to create practical resources and programmes that will make a difference.
• Working in a team: We are a small, busy team that works hard to make best use of everyone’s skills.
• Learning and development: You should be a confident problem solver and able to learn new skills, methods and approaches.
• Diplomacy and customer focus: We want everyone who comes into contact with Iriss to have a good experience. You are the kind of person who takes pride in doing excellent work and supporting others.

You will have skills and experience in:

• Working confidently with a range of types of knowledge including academic research; practice wisdom; lived experience; and policy literature.
• Facilitating groups and designing workshops, including confident facilitation in online environments.
• Writing clearly and persuasively.
• Synthesising project activities and identifying learning into readable, usable resources for people working in social work and social care.
• Project development in areas where ‘the right answer’ is unclear, contested or unknown.
• Using the standard MS Office suite (or equivalent) in a work or study environment.

You will have knowledge of:

• Research and evidence use.
• Facilitation techniques and approaches.
• The social work and social care sector.