Head of Training and Impact

Our Head of Training and Impact is a vital and high-profile role within the organisation. 

We are responsible for overseeing the implementation of all training projects at The Clink Charity across our portfolio, both in prisons and out in the community, evaluating the outcomes and impact of our work for our beneficiaries.

This is a broad and varied role allowing the incumbent to work across catering, hospitality and horticulture training projects, delivering nationally accredited and high calibre City & Guilds qualifications to vulnerable learners.

Having oversight of the projects, and working closely with our team of expert project leads in our restaurant, bakery, gardens and in our youth café of South London, this role offers the opportunity to develop exceptional training programs, rigorous quality assurance processes, and reflective practice in evaluation work.

As we scale our youth projects to a second site in Guildford, this role also comes with the wonderful opportunity of mobilising a brand new project to meet the needs of a NEET community of 16–25 year olds in a café based at Guildford County Court.

The Head of Training and Skills will onboard referral partners, design the delivery program and impact framework, and work alongside a skilled support team to ensure the success of the site, with a view to opening more of these projects in 2027.

If you are committed to the mission of The Clink Charity to reduce reoffending by changing attitudes, transforming lives and creating second chances, and you have great experience and passion for using education, skills and training to be the tool to generate this rehabilitation, we want to hear from you.

About Us

The Clink Charity, founded in 2009, aims to prevent and reduce reoffending through training, rehabilitation, and support. 

We deliver hospitality and horticulture training behind the prison walls and in the community by creating an environment where our students are supported to gain the skills, confidence and qualifications they need to rebuild their lives.

Since that time, we have trained approximately 5,000 people in prison and delivered 2,600 City & Guilds qualifications in a variety of hospitality and food courses.

What makes The Clink unique is our post-release support and mentoring programmes that rehabilitates an offender back into society through assistance with health mental health issues, housing, employment, family connections and friendships.

The charity operates an award-winning fine-dining restaurant open to the public inside HMP Brixton, training kitchens in the prison estate, horticulture projects at HMP Send and HMP Erlestoke, a commercial bakery in Brixton, and a bespoke delivery service, Catered by Clink.

Additionally, Clink Events is our social enterprise catering business with food produced by the women at HMP Downview and also in additional kitchen at Herne Hill and then served by alumni in front of house at some of the best venues in London including: the Guildhall, the Science Museum, Cutty Sark, Kew Gardens and the Camden Roundhouse. In 2024, across 218 events, The Clink fed 36,000 people.

More information can be found on our website and social media channels

About You

You could be a great fit for our Head of Training and Impact role if you bring a strong background in hospitality and a passion for developing others. Perhaps you’ve led hospitality training in a college or cookery school, delivered City & Guilds qualifications within an FE setting, or built your career as a Chef or hospitality professional in a busy restaurant, hotel or catering environment.

You may have combined industry experience with teaching, or progressed from the kitchen into education and leadership. 

We welcome applications from a wide range of professionals across the hospitality and training spectrum who are ready to use their expertise to drive quality training, inspire our learners and shape meaningful outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership and line management

• Work with the CEO, ELT and Board to achieve The Clink’s mission, vision and strategic objectives.
• Lead the design and implementation of a skills and training strategy which delivers the agreed vision and goals, and to communicate its effectiveness to project leads via KPIs, targets, and regular briefings.
• Lead the design and implementation of effective and robust systems and processes for the operational delivery of training programmes in achieving required delivery outputs.
• Lead on the embedding and implementation of an effective Quality Assurance programme for all project delivery across the Charity.
• Provide line management support for the programme leads in the Restaurant, Bakery, Gardens and Café, providing wider leadership to the staff team on all matters connected to delivering training and measuring the outcomes and impact of our work.
• Line manage the Data and Compliance Manager and support him with preparation of data driven insights informing strategic decisions.
• Conduct 1:1s with your direct reports, manage appraisals and oversee performance management processes.
• Ensure the learning and development needs of all delivery staff are met.

Project delivery

• Oversee all project delivery work at The Clink Charity, ensuring consistent, quality delivery and effective monitoring, evaluation and reporting of all projects.
• Manage the recruitment, training and development of our training staff continuously reflecting on improvements to the roles that can more effectively achieve project outcomes.
• Own the design and implementation of our work based on insight and learnings, lead on reviewing existing services and assessing new services or approaches.
• Make operational delivery decisions to ensure quality projects and provision – oversight of logistics, staffing, and resource management.
• Provide cover and support for staff delivering projects across our portfolio as/when needed.
• Ensure the CPD needs of staff delivering projects are met – including tracking completion of IHASCO courses for mandatory training.

Qualifications, assessing and verification

• Act as the lead link to City & Guilds for the delivery of the charity’s training courses across all projects ensuring that the content of the training programmes enables learners to achieve their qualifications and meet the high standards of City & Guilds NVQs.
• Work with the project leads on preparing portfolios for hospitality, catering and horticulture projects ready for assessment and verification.
• Oversee all verification of these courses. Act as one of a team of IQA’s for The Clink Charity and facilitate the EQA (External Qualification Assessor) visits, and HMPPS/HMI inspections across all sites.
• Host standardisation meetings with colleagues to build a collaborative training culture.
• Regularly monitor qualification outcomes against targets.

Monitoring, evaluation and insight

• Work with the project team in prisons and in the community to develop measurement and evaluation processes to assess the impact and outcomes of The Clink’s training programme, inform future decisions about programme development, and enable robust reporting to stakeholders.
• Attend quarterly reporting meetings with the MoJ to share the outcomes of our projects, preparing reports for those meetings and working with colleagues at New Futures Network who monitor our work for the MoJ.
• Regularly review impact methodology and implementation to ensure The Clink’s impact is measured and demonstrated in the most effective way, showing the full impact of our programmes.
• Develop efficiencies in collecting and analysing data.
• Be impact-driven and use data and results to ensure the planning and delivery of high-quality programme to drive continuous improvement.

Safeguarding

• Champion safeguarding in all the work that you deliver in and out of prisons, ensuring processes are adhered to and a culture of safeguarding is sustained throughout the organisation.
• Act as a DDSL – Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead.
• Approve updates to related policies and procedures annually.
• Ensure all staff working in our projects are appropriately trained in safeguarding practice at The Clink Charity.

New business, income generation and programme development

• Lead on strategic planning for delivery and programme development across all sites, seeking opportunities to grow/scale our impact by exploring new opportunities with our partners.
• Build and develop relationships with all relevant stakeholders, including MoJ and HMPPS colleagues, referral agencies for our community work, and strategic funding partners to increase our reach and deepen our impact on beneficiaries.
• Build and develop The Clink’s network of potential delivery partners including HMPPS, DWP, DfE, local authority, social care, schools, and other third sector organisations who work with us in supporting our beneficiaries.
• Provide expert content surrounding programme delivery and development for funding bids and proposals.
• Support the work of the CEO and Grants Manager in raising funds for the charity, including through attending pitches and meetings with current and prospective funders.

Finance

• With the support of the Director of Finance and Resources, prepare and oversee budgets for project delivery and track spending against forecasts ensuring good fiscal management of projects.

General Duties

• Report on delivery to the Board of Trustees, prepare papers for and attend subcommittee and full board meetings every quarter as requested.
• Carry out other duties as required by The Clink Charity.
• Act in a manner that is in keeping with The Clink’s values and promote inclusive practices.

Person Specification - Desirable Experience

• Experience of leading projects and training and developing a team made up of staff members of differing levels of seniority.
• Experience of working in: social justice, education, youth work, or criminal justice projects, or having worked in hospitality or horticulture before, or having lived experience that reflects the lives of the beneficiaries that we serve.
• Have an IQA qualification or be willing to complete the course to become accredited.
• A track record of excellent project management skills (accuracy, attention to detail, scheduling, problem solving and monitoring) at a national level and have a strong working knowledge of GDPR.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and experience of building relationships with various stakeholders at a senior level.
• Experience of contributing to the development of overall strategy as part of a senior management team, and ability to translate this into operational strategy and plans that help deliver the organisation’s vision and mission.
• Knowledge of implementing quality assurance systems and the ability to objectively assess the performance of partners and colleagues against an agreed competency matrix.
• Knowledge of report writing and extrapolating data to inform decisions.
• An understanding of the catering, hospitality or horticulture courses (NVQs) provided by City & Guilds.
• Proven experience and working knowledge of safeguarding principles and practices and investigation / reporting protocols.
• Proficient IT skills, including use of Microsoft Office programmes.
• Can work flexible hours when necessary and is willing to travel between our South East projects.

Personal Attributes

• Demonstrable belief in The Clink’s mission and passion for our work.
• High levels of self-awareness, humility and flexibility, as well as an open and collaborative leadership style.
• Personal integrity, kindness, warmth and sound judgement.
• Good communicator: orally and in writing.
• Proactive, adaptable and can use initiative and find solutions to problems.
• Positive, entrepreneurial, energising and adopts a “can do” mentality.
• Values driven and promotes inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA).

Reporting Lines and Management Expectations

You will report to our CEO and to the MD of Clink Events. You will line manage and support members of the delivery team across projects.