Barbara Herring Email & Phone Number

Snettisham, England, Gb

Norwich, England, United Kingdom

DSHSC offers qualifications and mentoring to those working in Adult Health and Social Care across Norfolk and Suffolk. It's an ESF-funded project which is making a real difference to the workforce involving Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils and several great delivery partners.

I led the RO Partnership involving 17 leading universities in England. RO delivers a national widening access programme for sixth form students from groups under-represented in higher education. Key responsibilities include managing the RO project team who deliver the programme to over 1000 students per year; lead on project governance; oversight of strategic and operational project plans and monitoring risk; manage budget of £500k per year; reporting to key stakeholders and making recommendations for decision-making; liaison with sector bodies such as the Office for Students (OfS), the Department for Education (DfE) and UCAS; undertaking appropriate procurement and contracted services exercises; ensuring GDPR and other legal compliance; implementation of an evaluation framework to provide a robust evidence base for the effectiveness of the programme. Successes include:- Growing capacity to significantly increase the number of students able to take part annually from 300 to 1200- Increasing the number of leading universities in England involved in the RO Partnership- Established a robust evidence base for the effectiveness of the programme, gaining attention from government, key groups such as OfS and DfE and the wider sector. Being asked by Action and Access and Public Policy Exchange to speak on the programme’s success and effectiveness- Leading programme to address implications of Covid-19 to ensure a continued high-quality student experience. I thoroughly enjoy my job and the contact it gives me with such a wide range of committed professionals at our Partner universities. I am also very proud that Realising Opportunities delivers such a quality, supportive programme to students in years 12 and 13 across the country. For more information about Realising Opportunities please see www.realisingopportunities.ac.uk.

This was a fantastic development opportunity while the substantive post holder was on secondment. I led the development of recruitment and widening participation (WP) strategy while managing the 30-strong Student Recruitment Team to deliver high quality recruitment and access events for potential students. Key responsibilities included working with heads of department across the University to align recruitment and WP activity to strategic targets and provide a one-University, consistent approach; lead and support the Managers who oversee sub-teams covering university enquiries, recruitment activity, school/college targeting and liaison, widening participation and access activity; oversee an activity budget of £1.2m; regular reporting to senior managers. Successes include:- Continuing to delivery on the recruitment strategic plan and Access and Participation Plan targets during the Covid-19 pandemic- Overseeing the team’s development and delivery of high quality, online recruitment and access activity during the Covid-19 pandemic, including two intensive summer schools- Developing a strategic approach to stakeholder communications during the pandemic working closely with international, marketing and faculty recruitment colleagues- Effective transitioning of the large student recruitment team from office based to home working during the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuring good support was in place.

As Assistant Project Manager, I took responsibility for developing and managing all operational aspects of RO including the branding exercise for RO, including the production of high quality marketing materials for students, Partners, stakeholders and teachers; the development of a secure online database to support the day-to-day administration of the programme across the universities and the evaluation of the programme; d evelopment and delivery of the National RO ementoring programme including liaison with the Brightside Trust (who provide the ementoring portal) and training and management of the team of 80-plus undergraduate ementors; development and management of the annual National Student Conferences in liaison with host Partners, designing and delivering a programme tailored to suit the student needs and interests and ensuring that all logistical arrangements were in place for 1000 students and ementors nationally per year; line management of Central Team members.

In this role I had overall responsibility for a range of aspiration raising and recruitment related activities and events including PARTNERS (the University’s flagship widening participation scheme); residential Summer Schools; Aimhigher Associates; one day campus-based events and Masterclasses. I successfully led a nine-member team managing all human resource issues including recruitment and PDR processes and an activity budget of over £320k per annum. I developed, delivered and evaluated the annual operational plan to ensure activities and events met the aims of the WP Strategy and that outcomes contributed to the WP Strategic Assessment; reporting to external funders including Aimhigher and HEFCE. I was a responsible for the annual update of the Child Protection Policy and associated documents, including training all relevant staff. I contributed to the Senior Managers group within MCD, ensuring that all policies and procedures adhered to were consistent across the Directorate.

My role covered a wide range of marketing, recruitment and development initiatives, and I had responsibility for the organisation and delivery of a range of events designed to encourage able students from under-represented groups to consider HE, including the development and delivery of week long residential Summer Schools for approx 300 students, including the recruitment and management of a team of 60 Student Reps and the recruitment, selection, training and ongoing line management of a team of 130 Student Ambassadors to work at a range of recruitment related activities. I was also responsible for the Aimhigher Associates programme.

Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

My role was to encourage and support students into HE working collaboratively with universities to organise HE events, on and off campus, for students. I worked on behalf of the Head of Sixth Form to advertise to pupils within the lower school and external schools, organising local advertising, direct mailings, meetings with prospective students and their families, progression interviews for Year 11 students and Open Evenings.

Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Based in a Sixth Form and Adult Education Centre, I was responsible for dealing with enquiries regarding courses, enrolling students, maintaining records and databases, and providing support for UCAS applications.

Apm Project Management Qualification

Professional Postgraduate Diploma In Marketing, Part Time

Global Governance Ma, Part-Time

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), Politics