Paid opportunity for Freelance Facilitator 

Deadline for Applications: Monday 20th Jan, 9am

Women & Theatre is seeking to recruit a freelance facilitator to facilitate two meetings per year of our Critical Friends Panel. The facilitator will be an independent freelancer, not associated with the company who has experience facilitating steering groups/feedback panels for arts and/or third sector organisations. 

Women & Theatre

Women & Theatre has for over 40 years been working with diverse groups to create exciting drama projects about things that matter. Working across arts, health & community sectors, in Birmingham and the surrounding areas, W&T create vibrant theatre that explores the human condition and issues affecting people’s wellbeing in society. Its programme encompasses different strands & numerous projects including workshops, participatory projects & performances in wide-ranging settings – theatres, secure sites, social clubs, clinical settings  & outdoor locations. W&T also engages with audiences & participants digitally, through online projects, podcasts & films. 

The Project: Critical Friends Panel 

Women & Theatre are committed to an ongoing quality review process and as a National Portfolio Organisation we are signed up to the Investment Principles of Arts Council England and have adapted these to our own set of commitments.  The creation of a Critical Friends Panel is one of the actions we will take under the theme of Ambition & Quality.  We have said the following:  

Deliver ambitious & collaboratively developed plans in consultation with artists, partners & community groups. We will enhance existing evaluation models that measure performance, with new quality review processes & increase our understanding of people’s perceptions to inform future work.

Success measures will include the introduction of new processes, them being embedded into the planning/delivery/ evaluation cycle of the company’s work, and critically for them to be impactful; demonstrated through monitoring & evaluation of the company’s development, the objective quality of its work and what it is doing differently as a result of improved processes. 

The Critical Friends Panel will help us reflect on our work, improve our standards and understand the needs, wants and views of our audiences, participants and artists. The panel will have a mixture of participants from past and current projects, artists who have worked with us and audience members.  Also potentially peers from other arts organisations or who have a similar creative practice and share our values.  We hope some members will have no previous experience of us.

The members (who will be volunteers) will be invited to attend project activity to review performance across our whole programme. Twice a year we would like the panel to meet to reflect and give feedback on their experiences with us. We want the facilitator to be involved in deciding how this feedback will happen but what is already agreed is that the views gathered will be collated, documented and shared with the Board and Senior Management Team to reflect and act upon. 

Role/ Duties:

  • To run two feedback sessions per year
  • To help the Company decide in more detail how the panel will operate and set its Terms of Reference
  • To manage group dynamics of the panel and ensure everyone’s voices are heard 
  • To ensure information is documented and fed back

Person specification: 

The facilitator must have 

  • Experience of developing a similar project
  • Running a panel or board with similar objectives, in either an arts or third sector setting
  • They must be able to work with a range of participants and support any access needs 
  • They need to be able to collate the information received at the meetings and share with the W&T Board and SMT in a way that is truly reflective of the range of opinions and voices in the group, and in a way that is constructive for the company to take action on. 

Fee: A day rate in the region of £350 and a minimum of 8 days in the first 12 months

How to Apply:

Please contact us with your CV and a covering letter that explains:  

  • Who you are and why you’re interested in the role
  • What relevant experience you would bring and a little about the similar project you have undertaken

You may alternatively submit a short video or voice recording. Please ensure these are under 5 minutes in length.

Email to: Katherine Hewitt, Executive Director katherinehewitt@womenandtheatre.co.uk 

We plan to hold interviews in week beginning 27th Jan

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and communities. We are committed to having a team that is made up of diverse skills, experiences and abilities, reflecting the communities we work with. We actively encourage applications from those underrepresented within the theatre sector including non-white British, LGBTQ+, working class and disabled applicants and value the positive impact that diversity has on our teams.