Sam Higgins Email & Phone Number

Rochester, England, United Kingdom

Kent, Medway And London

Absolutely Community delivers training programmes and courses for teenage parents, women surviving domestic abuse, NEETs, youth services, young people living in or leaving care, people experiencing mental health issues and provides training courses for the staff and volunteers who support them.Our work focusses on raising self esteem, expectations and aspirations, enabling the individual to recognise the qualities and skills they already have and where to go next. Our focus is "making little lives bigger" making opportunities real and achievable - and supporting those to identify their own routes into formal education and training.

Swale, Kent

I managed 9 children's centres in Swale District. My main duties included: line management of 30 members of staff; service planning on a quarterly basis for services across the centres and evaluation of the same; preparation and presentation of quarterly reports to a management board; management of a budget of £270,000; liaison with and commissioning services from a number of small local charities; preparation of statutory required documents evidencing impact of the centres on local population as required by the Council; preparation for and successful execution of Ofsted inspection of the Centres. I also undertook the development of a number of new programmes including the development of a volunteer strategy. This included recruitment from our service users and other local members of the community. I devised and delivered a range of training programmes including self esteem and safeguarding training for the volunteers, as well as ensuring their engagement on a range of training offered to staff of KCC. I supported the lead volunteers in presenting their work within the Centres to a number of potential funding bodies including local rotary clubs. Many of the volunteers progressed into work.

Herne Bay, Kent

I was fortunate to be in post before the Centres opened and so was able to fully participate in the recruitment of the team, devising and developing the services offered by the Centres and to build partnerships within the locality with public and third sector agencies. I worked alongside local charities and was able to commission members of their teams into my own to use existing expertise and knowledge of the local area and capitalise on existing relationships. We worked in tandem with the co-located youth club in one of our buildings, the day nursery, and through partnerships work with an older person’s support group to develop some inter-generational work and challenge stereotyping and locally held misconceptions. My main duties were the same as above. My budget for the two Centres was originally £285,000 and I was able to secure other funding through Public Health for additional members of staff and new projects. I was asked to use my experience in training and public speaking to support other managers

Kent

Designed, developed and delivered range of services for young parents (under 20) across Kent. These services were delivered in partnership with Health and social care professionals and the voluntary sector. Developed YAPS (Young Active Parents) Groups to deliver said services to young parents in the same place. These included midwifery, health visiting, one to one support, housing, domestic abuse support, re-engagement with education and training, use of appropriate childcare and supporting parents back into education and training and work. Preparation and presentation of quarterly reports to the young parents’ multi agency steering group and to County Teenage Pregnancy Partnership Board. I developed a “Young Parents’ Guide” which was distributed to over 2,500 young mums and dads across Kent. I also prepared press releases and participated in radio and TV interviews about the work. I represented the Partnership at national level at conferences and presentation of the work. When I left the post, I had developed over 40 groups across Kent. I continued the further development of the Young Parents’ work in my roles in children’s centres across Kent. I was invited to speak at a number of national conferences about the young parent work and my work in engaging with hard to reach communities.

Research and Development and delivery of range of programmes aimed at professionals working with young people, people with disabilities and people with learning disabilities. Also developed courses for professionals and volunteers working with drug and alcohol misusers.

Npqicl (National Professional Qualification In Integrated Centre Leadership), Management, Pass

The National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) closed in August 2014. NPQICL was aimed at leaders.

Certificate In Education (Post 16), Teaching Adult Learners With A Focus On Those Who Struggled To Engage With Formal Education, Pass

Two year part time programme to enable FE Tutors and equivalent trainers in public, private and voluntary sector roles to gain formal.

Ba Hons Education & English, Primary Education