Community peer support manager jobs in elm park, greater london

One of our fantastic clients is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Head of External Affairs to develop and implement a comprehensive external affairs strategy. This pivotal role will be instrumental in strengthening societies and changing lives, working closely with senior leadership to lead government relations across the UK and cultivate relationships with elected representatives, the Civil Service, and key partners within the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sectors.

The successful candidate will lead a team of public affairs, policy, and influencing professionals, contributing to the wider communications strategy. They will leverage an extensive network of stakeholders and a deep understanding of policy and public affairs to stay abreast of significant developments, ensuring the organisation remains proactive in its positioning and sensitive areas.

This role requires a leader who can inspire and develop a team of External Affairs professionals, devising and executing projects in a fast-paced environment while ensuring alignment with strategic goals. The External Affairs mandate is exceptionally diverse, spanning devolved governments across the UK and increasing regional devolution within England. Regular travel to attend meetings and spend time with colleagues across the UK will be required.

The Head of External Affairs will provide a professional, consistent, and expert service, supporting strategic activity across the organisation. They will oversee tailoring outputs to effectively reach key external affairs stakeholders and play a senior role in assessing areas of reputational risk.

Key responsibilities

• As a member of the communications leadership team, take ownership of, create, and implement a comprehensive external affairs strategy to deliver the organisation's missions and strategic objectives, including significant activity in the national portfolios, integrated and aligned to its communications strategy.

• Provide strategic oversight of government relations, public affairs, and strategic engagement across the UK, including relationships with sponsor bodies, working closely with the CEO Office and Portfolio Directors. Offer strategic guidance, sound judgement, and advice to senior leadership and other teams, driving a consistent organisational approach to relationship management.

• Take responsibility for strategic horizon scanning for external affairs activity across the mission areas, ensuring information and advice is shared directly with the CEO and senior colleagues, and opportunities for stakeholder engagement and influencing are maximised.

• Devise and lead a programme of external engagement with key policy, political, and mission-related stakeholders for the Chair, CEO, Board Members, and other senior leaders. This includes owning and coordinating key messages and briefings, attending meetings as appropriate, and ensuring actions are followed up.

• Oversee the design and delivery of engagement programmes that measurably increase engagement with key political and other audiences. Identify and manage risks, trends, or opportunities to protect and enhance the organisation's reputation and ensure successful influencing among key stakeholders.

• Plan and deliver a continuous review and evaluation of activities, including external benchmarking, measurement of engagement levels, and performance standards to ensure effective delivery of the External Affairs strategy across the four nations.

• Lead and develop a high-performing team, delegating work effectively, ensuring appropriate use of resource across the team, and providing and commissioning external suppliers and internal stakeholders to deliver high-quality plans.

Person Specifications

• Substantial experience leading government relations, public affairs, policy, and advocacy in a large, matrix organisation, ideally interacting with devolved administrations (national and mayoral).

• Experience in building and maintaining relationships with senior political and other stakeholders, fostering collaboration across diverse communities and perspectives.

• Experience of planning and executing strategic engagement across a range of high-profile audiences and activities, including responsibility for Chair/CEO/Board-level engagement.

• Experience of strategic planning and decision-making at a local, regional, and national level, including with peer organisations and local governments.

• Excellent interpersonal, networking, and communication skills, with the ability to engage diverse audiences with clarity and inclusivity.

• Experience of briefing and working with senior leaders in support of organisational and engagement objectives, often at short notice, including providing counsel in times of reputational risk and navigating complex organisational dynamics.

• Demonstrable leadership and project-management ability, with experience developing high-performing teams, resource management, and working in a matrix-management and collaborative environment.

• Experience commissioning agencies and third-party suppliers to work with internal stakeholders to deliver high-quality plans.

• Experience of continued professional, managerial, and personal development within the relevant discipline.

• If this role is based in Wales, or supports customers or colleagues in Wales, an understanding of Welsh language legislation and the Welsh Language Standards of the organisation is required.

What’s on Offer:

• Salary of £54,277-£60,000 outside London or £59,000-£66,500 inside London 

• Full time role 

• 12 month contract

• Immediate start 

How to Apply: To apply, please submit your CV demonstrating your suitability for this role by clicking the “apply now” button via our website.

The process: If your experience aligns with what we're looking for, a member of our team will be in contact to discuss the role with you in more detail before presenting your profile to the client. We will also ensure that all applicants receive an email to inform them of the outcome of their application.

To avoid any potential delays or your application being missed, please apply solely via the 'Apply Now' button.

Commitment to Diversity: The Talent Set and our partner organisation are committed to diverse and inclusive recruitment practices, ensuring equal opportunities for all applicants regardless of race, sexual orientation, disability, age, or gender. We actively encourage applications from a wide range of backgrounds and are always happy to make reasonable adjustments to ensure a fair recruitment process.

About Us

We now have over 50 schools educating more than 40,000 young people across London and Essex, and employ over 5,000 staff across our academies and head office. With the majority of our academies located in areas of high socioeconomic disadvantage, a high-quality education is key to the futures of the pupils we serve.

As a provider of employment and education, we value the diversity of our staff and students, and all our staff are equally valued and respected. We are committed to providing a fair, equitable and mutually supportive learning and working environment for our students and staff.

Our work will impact many generations to come, and our staff come from all backgrounds and walks of life, coming together to inspire young minds. We promote an inclusive culture that embraces the valuable and enriching contribution that all of our community make. We continue to be proactive in uplifting and supporting all voices at Harris. Together, we are creating a future where every child has the chance to achieve their ambitions.

To discover more about our culture, ethos and what it is like to work here, visit the page.

Summary

At Harris Federation, our mission is simple: to close the educational gap between young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers. We see Harris Federation as a system disrupter – whose purpose is to make life fairer for children in and around London. Our focus is to take on the most challenging schools and turn them into exceptional places of learning where everyone – staff and students – thrives.

A brand new opportunity has arisen for an experienced recruitment marketer to join our head office People Services function. Working as part of the wider Talent Acquisition Team, you will be the recruitment marketing specialist supporting efforts in employer branding, job marketing and creating content to help attract and recruit the best talent for Harris Federation.

This post offers great growth potential and would suit a creative individual who can work both strategically while also being hands on to create highly engaging, innovative and impactful marketing campaigns.

We are looking for a talented and creative individual who is passionate about marketing, and communications, and who has a genuine interest to work in the Education sector. This is a fantastic opportunity to see the direct impact of how effective marketing and recruitment advertising can play a key role in the continued success of our academies.

Main Areas of Responsibility

As the Recruitment Marketing Coordinator, you will play a key role in attracting top talent to one of the leading education trusts in the UK. Working within our friendly Talent Acquisition Team, you will manage our careers website, creative copy writing for our blog and recruitment marketing campaigns and curate engaging content that showcases our people and culture which helps showcase our employer value proposition across various digital channels. Your responsibilities will include:

• Ensure the best possible employee and candidate experience which aligns to our values, polices and procedures and talent strategy.
• Write and curate engaging and informative content for the careers website (case studies, interviews and insights) to showcase our people, culture and employer value proposition.
• Use exceptional writing and storytelling skills to produce regular short and long form blog posts that reinforces employer messaging, brand voice, and tone
• Build strong and trusted relationships with leadership teams in academies to help develop and deploy more local recruitment marketing within the local community and networks.
• Ensure messaging, brand voice, and tone are maintained and consistent across all channels.
• Manage a cross-platform engagement plan that includes a high-quality content calendar.
• Own and advance internal employee advocacy initiatives and provide relevant posts for our advocates to promote.
• Support academies with social media content production and management to build their brand on LinkedIn.
• Build persuasive, evidence-based cases for marketing activity across new and existing channel.

For a full job description, please download the Job Pack.

Qualifications & Experience

This post offers autonomy, freedom to innovate and the chance to support recruitment from early career talent all the way through to executive leadership and management.

We would like to hear from you if you:

• Have experience working in a similar role demonstrating a very good understanding of marketing and employer brand
• Have exceptional writing and editing skills, with an ability to adapt content to different styles and tones
• Have experience in content marketing, with a strong copywriting portfolio
• Have a proven track record in delivering high-performing high-value campaigns
• Have experience with organic and paid campaigns
• Are proficient in website/SEO tools such as Google Analytics
• Have previous experience using editing software such as, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop and/or similar
• Are up to date with the latest trends and best practices in CRM, digital marketing across paid, earned and owned channels.
• Are a creative thinker with the capacity to create engaging campaigns
• Are open to working in an AI-driven environment and improving processes
• Have an innovative mindset and approach to tackling problems

For a full job person specification, please download the Job Pack.

Rewards & Benefits

At Harris Federation, we’re committed to investing in both your professional success and in you as an individual. Not only will you have the opportunity to shape the growth of thousands of education professionals, but you will also enjoy an exceptional range of benefits designed to support your wellbeing, career development and work-life balance. You will also have access to a variety of benefits, support programmes and initiatives including:

• Annual performance and loyalty bonus
• Local Government Pension Scheme with generous employer contribution
• 26 days' annual leave (inclusive of our Christmas Eve closure day) plus bank holidays, rising to 27 days after 2 years' service, or equivalent for staff on term time contracts
• Harris Wellbeing Cash Plan including cover for routine and specialist healthcare
• Employee Assistance Programme for free and confidential advice
• Cycle to work salary sacrifice scheme
• Wide range of shopping, leisure, and travel discounts
• 20% off at Tapi Carpets, exclusive to Harris employees
• Interest-free ICT and season ticket loans

For most non-teaching staff based at our Head Office in East Croydon, we also offer lifestyle friendly working arrangements including flexible start and end times, and hybrid working with two days from home and three days on site.

Safeguarding Notice

The Harris Federation and all our academies are committed to ensuring the highest levels of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and we expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All offers of employment are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, references, an online search, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check will be completed.

Equal Opportunities

The Harris Federation is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified candidates. We value the diversity of our staff and students, and everyone at the Harris Federation is equally valued and respected. We aim to be an inclusive employer that reflects the communities we serve. We are committed to providing a fair, equitable and mutually supportive learning and working environment.

Next Steps

If you would like to discuss the opportunity further, or if you have any questions, please contact us via email to arrange a conversation.

Before applying please ensure you download the job pack from our careers website, this will help with completing your application. Please note that we only accept applications submitted online before the closing date.

When applying, you will have the option to import your CV or use a LinkedIn profile which will auto populate the online application.

A reminder to check your junk mail for our email communications and add us to your safe senders list to ensure all future email communication is received.

About the Role

This is an exciting opportunity to join IRMO as our Youth Project Coordinator and lead the Latin American Youth Forum (LAYF) – IRMO’s youth-led group for migrant and refugee young people aged 13–19.

LAYF offers a safe, supportive and trilingual space (Spanish, Portuguese and English) where young people can overcome barriers and begin to find their feet in the UK. Activities are designed to build confidence, support integration and foster leadership. Through the programme, participants can learn English through fun and engaging ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes, take part in weekly educational, arts-based and themed workshops, and receive one-to-one support through a targeted coaching programme focused on education, volunteering and employment.

Young people also have the opportunity to join the LAYF Youth Steering Group, where they can develop leadership skills and inspire other Spanish and Portuguese-speaking young people, while exploring London and beyond through cultural trips and residentials.

As Youth Project Coordinator, you will be responsible for registering and onboarding new participants, designing and delivering a creative weekly programme of LAYF Space Workshops, and offering one-to-one mentoring to help young people access opportunities and build confidence. You’ll work closely with IRMO’s ESOL and Advice and Advocacy teams to ensure a joined-up and holistic approach.

This is a varied role that requires empathy, creativity and excellent organisational skills. You will play a key part in ensuring all activities are inclusive, engaging and safe, while monitoring progress and capturing the achievements of the young people involved. You’ll also be a positive role model, helping each participant realise their potential and feel empowered in their journey.

LAYF is delivered as part of Building Young Brixton (BYB), a consortium of ten Lambeth-based organisations working together to inspire and empower young people in the borough. Partnership working is central to the LAYF ethos, and the Youth Project Coordinator will collaborate closely with BYB partners to co-create activities, share skills and strengthen impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Recruit and register LAYF participants by assessing individual needs and matching them with appropriate activities

• Plan, co-produce and deliver a dynamic and engaging programme of LAYF activities – from arts and sport to inspirational talks – designed to build young people’s confidence, life skills and social connection

• Coach and support young people to thrive in their education and personal development through a targeted one-to-one coaching programme

• Plan and deliver quarterly trips and events that promote peer interaction and engagement with the local community

• Signpost and refer young people to relevant services at IRMO, BYB or other external partners

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date records, including registration forms, attendance, surveys, feedback, session plans and coaching logs

• Input and manage baseline and progress data using IRMO’s database and monitoring tools

• Produce compelling case studies and success stories to share with young people, funders and supporters

• Ensure the wellbeing and safety of all participants, following IRMO’s safeguarding policies and National Youth Agency (NYA) guidance

• Communicate with LAYF participants and families in a timely and appropriate way, respecting boundaries and overcoming communication barriers

• Promote LAYF activities through newsletters, social media and IRMO’s communications channels

• Represent LAYF and IRMO in meetings and forums with partners, funders and youth sector networks

• Work closely with IRMO colleagues to ensure the wider needs of young people and families are supported holistically

• Recruit, supervise and support LAYF volunteers

Please note that this job description is not exhaustive and may change depending on the needs and development of the organisation.

Person Specification

The list below outlines the experience, knowledge and skills we’re looking for. It will be used in shortlisting and interviews. If you meet the essential criteria but not the desirable ones, we still encourage you to apply.

Essential

• At least one year’s experience working with young people in the UK

• Experience designing and delivering engaging programmes for young people

• Experience providing one-to-one coaching to young people

• Experience using M&E tools to collect baseline/progress data and contribute to reports

• Able to build trust with young people and maintain clear professional boundaries

• Ability to manage your workload, meet deadlines and respond to changing demands

• Resourceful and creative, with a problem-solving mindset

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English 

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in Spanish

• Competent with Google Workspace, video conferencing tools, Word, Excel and PowerPoint

• Strong understanding of safeguarding

• Strong understanding of the barriers faced by young Latin Americans in the UK

• Clear commitment to IRMO’s vision, mission and values

• Willingness to work some evenings and weekends

Desirable

• Experience supervising or supporting volunteers

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in Portuguese

• Qualification in Youth Work

• Qualification in Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG)

• Understanding of the UK not-for-profit sector, and UK education and employment systems for young people

Pre-employment checks 

Enhanced DBS check, two satisfactory references and evidence of right to work in the UK