Consultancy jobs

Winning Leishman is one of Scotland’s leading fundraising consultancies. We have successfully raised millions of pounds for charities over 25 years in business. We offer a full range of services and we tailor the services we offer for each of our clients.

Winning Leishman are seeking an experienced Fundraiser to join our team. This post will involve research into grant makers, developing funding proposals and following up with reports and communications to maximise long-term income generation on behalf of Winning Leishman’s clients.

Position in Organisation

Report to the Winning Leishman Directors.

Responsibilities
• Support the identification of trust and foundation funding opportunities through research
• Create tailored applications to a wide range of funders
• Create reports and other communications to funders
• Maintain a schedule of applications and reports

Person Specification
Skills & Experience
• Minimum 2 years’ experience in preparing funding applications to trusts and foundations (essential)
• Experience of working in the charity sector (essential)
• Reliable and well organised with good time management skills and ability to meet deadlines
• Excellent IT skills, Excel and MS Office, with a working knowledge of database systems
• Strong written skills
• A creative and lateral thinker
• Professional, courteous, respectful and confident
• Proactive and self -motivated with a positive and enthusiastic approach to teamwork
Qualifications
• Degree (in any subject), studying towards a degree or equivalent (desirable)

Key Dates
Closing date: Monday 16th February at 12 noon
Interviews (by Teams): Wednesday 25th & Thursday 26th February
Start date: By arrangement

Allsorts is seeking two enthusiastic, dedicated and dynamic Youth Coaches to help us deliver our vision of a world where LGBTQ+ children and young people are free to be themselves. As a Youth Coach, you will be part of a skilled and collaborative team that is excited about the transformative power of youth work in the lives of LGBTQ+ children and young people in Sussex.

Through tailored coaching and support plans, this role empowers young people to explore their identity, relationships, resilience and wellbeing, while ensuring their voices are heard and valued.

Key Responsibilities:

• Individual youth coaching and support

• Youth participation and youth voice

• Partnership and multi-agency working

• Monitor, record and evaluate impact

About You:

You have experience working with children and young people in a youth or similar setting. You bring strong energy, enthusiasm and creativity to frontline youth provision. While you don’t need to identify as LGBTQ+, you must have a deep understanding of the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ communities and a commitment to equity and inclusion.

 

Why Join Us?

This is an exciting opportunity to help develop the Youth & Education Service at a well-respected Sussex-based organisation. You’ll be part of a team that’s passionate about making a real difference in the lives of LGBTQ+ children, young people, and their families.

About Allsorts:

Allsorts' mission is to listen to, connect, and support children and young people under the age of 26 who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer (LGBTQ+), or exploring their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. 

By placing children and young people’s voices at the centre of our work, we ensure that our understanding of their ongoing and evolving needs continues to inform our service provision.

There are three main strands to our service provision, all of which aim to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ children and young people.

Youth and Education Service

We offer youth groups, programmes, one-to-one support, activities, residential trips, in-school support, and much more for children and young people across Sussex.

Parents & Carers Service.

We offer groups, one-to-one support, activities, information sessions, and much more for parents & carers of LGBTQ+ children and young people across Sussex.

Training and Consultancy Service

We provide LGBTQ+ Inclusion Training for a wide range of organisations, with a focus on organisations working with children and young people.  Our goal is to help build people’s knowledge of LGBTQ+ issues and their confidence in being effective allies to LGBTQ+ children, young people and adults.
 

Annual Leave: 27 days, plus bank holidays, pro rata.

Pension:  Allsorts Youth Project is part of Royal London’s pension scheme and contributes 8% towards your pension.

DBS &  References: All staff are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service  (DBS) check & references.

Pembroke College Oxford is seeking a highly organised and analytical Development Operations Manager to play a central role in supporting the College’s Development and fundraising activities.

Founded in 1624, Pembroke is an inclusive and dynamic College based on a central site in Oxford that combines historic quadrangles with award-winning new developments. The College has ambitious plans for the future and an active programme of alumni engagement, stewardship and fundraising to support its academic mission and long-term sustainability.

The Development Operations Manager is a pivotal role within the Development team. Working closely with the Development Director, the post-holder will be responsible for the operational foundations that underpin the College’s fundraising activity, including alumni database management, gift processing, prospect research, reporting, and insight generation. The role is essential to ensuring that the Development team works efficiently, accurately, and strategically, supported by high-quality data and robust processes.

The post-holder will manage the College’s alumni database (DARS), acting as a knowledgeable and trusted first point of contact for database queries, and will lead projects to improve data quality and compliance. They will also play a key role in analysing giving patterns and engagement trends, preparing reports for colleagues and committees, and supporting the identification and tracking of potential donors. In addition, the role includes dotted-line management responsibility for the Development Coordinator, with a particular focus on overseeing operational activity.

This post would suit someone who is confident working with complex data, highly numerate, and able to spot patterns and trends. The successful candidate will be an excellent communicator, able to work collaboratively within a small, interdependent team, while also exercising discretion and sound judgement when handling confidential information.

Benefits include membership of the University staff pension scheme, free lunches during working hours when the College kitchens are open, and a generous annual leave entitlement of 30 days, in addition to public holidays. Opportunities for training and professional development are also available.

Key responsibilities

The main duties to be carried out by the post-holder include:

Data and Database Management

• Manage the alumni database (‘DARS’) and ensure that data held on alumni is GDPR compliant, comprehensive, and up to date.
•  Oversee projects to maintain and improve the quality of the College’s alumni data and ensure engagement activities are accurately and effectively recorded.
•  Produce data exports for third-parties such as consultancies and mailing houses and ensure any data received is processed and imported accurately.
• Produce accurate data content for publications such as lists of stewardship group members and deceased alumni.
• Become a competent ‘super-user’ of the DARS database and act as first point of contact for the Pembroke Development team for any queries about the database, ensuring that the team is both confident in using it and consistently recording data in line with GDPR.
•  Actively engage with the central University team delivering the successor to DARS, ‘Halo’, to ensure it meets the College’s requirements, and lead on the migration to Halo at the appropriate time.

Prospect Research and Tracking

• Undertake prospect research to identify potential major donors among the College’s alumni and supporter base.
• Oversee research into alumni in particular regions in advance of College trips.  
• Manage Pembroke’s prospect management processes, working with fundraisers and others to identify and assign new prospects within the team.
• Work with the Development Coordinator to prepare donor and prospect profiles ahead of events, trips, and meetings.

Insights, Trends and Segmentation

• Working closely with the Development Officer (Regular Giving and Legacies), proactively and creatively analyse patterns of giving to enable the team to target and segment Regular Giving appeals more effectively.
• Conduct research into wider sector giving trends, and provide recommendations for better engagement.
• Prepare regular reports on donor and engagement activities for the team and wider College, including the Development Committee and Campaign Board.

Gift Processing

• Ensure all changes to Direct Debits including cancellations and amendments are actioned in the agreed timescales. Communicate with donors in respect to these changes.
•  Liaise regularly with the PCFNA (Pembroke’s 501(c)(3)) to ensure donations made through it are accurate.
• Record all donations including cheques/PCFNA/one-off bank payments as pledges on DARS.
• Identify missed pledge payments or recurring gifts.  
• Support the Finance Business Partner in all Gift Aid administration including Gift Aid compliance, securing outstanding Gift Aid declarations and updating old Gift Aid declarations and review of non-eligible declarations.
•  Liaise closely with the finance team to ensure donations are accurately classified and reported
•  Ensure that gift agreements and associated commitments (e.g. Gift Aid, pledges, payment schedules) are recorded accurately and actioned.
•  Research into historic donor funds, where necessary.

Gift Acceptance

•  Manage the gift acceptance process, ensuring that the College accepts gifts appropriately and in line with its Gift Acceptance Policy and Fundraising Policy.
•  Undertake all necessary research and due diligence on prospective donors, and liaise with the central University and third-party providers of due diligence services where required.
•  Oversee the gift acknowledgement process.

Management

•  Supervise (with a dotted line reporting relationship) the Development Coordinator, with particular responsibility for overseeing their work in the Operations functional area.
• Be available for regular 1:1 meetings and as a point of contact for any queries, and support their line manager in making sure they receive all necessary training, induction and information to succeed in their role.

Other

• In common with all posts, ensure compliance with the College’s policies and procedures, statutory obligations, and best practice. 
• Be the principal liaison with the Gift Registry and DARS teams, and keep upto-date with changes/improvements to the system and how to utilise them.
• To undertake such other duties as may be reasonably required by the Development Director, which may include travel and occasional event attendance outside standard working hours.

For person specification, please see the Job Description attached.

To apply, please submit an up-to-date CV and a covering letter, together with details of two referees.

Hours: Zero-hours, ad-hoc engagement. Work is entirely demand-led and may range from periods of no activity to short-term or intermittent assignments, depending on operational needs

Remuneration: Up to £195 GBP gross per day (dependent on experience, qualifications, and registrations)

Duration: Open – ended

Location: Hybrid working with potential travel to Manchester UK-Med Office and deployment to any of the UK-Med response including Ukraine and or to various field offices

Can you use your health expertise to shape our humanitarian health response?

UK-Med is a frontline medical aid charity. Born of the NHS, we’ve been working for over 30 years towards a world where everyone has the healthcare they need when crises or disasters hit.

We are seeking a small number of health professionals to join us as part-time Health Referents to build on the health expertise in our core team. Our core Health Team has significant expertise in humanitarian healthcare and has always brought in additional expert support through consultancies when required. Following a period of significant growth, we are looking to bring specific expertise into the core team on an ongoing basis through a group of part-time Health Referents.

Our Health Referents will bring specific technical expertise in a variety to health fields to ensure that UK-Med’s programme design and implementation remain in line with current best practice.

As a Health Referent, you will provide clinical / technical health expertise and advice, contributing to our work through:

• Advising and guiding our health teams in humanitarian contexts in their planning and work
• Helping design SOPs, policies, and guidance documents for your field of expertise
• Developing capacity building interventions (e.g. training sessions, online learning packages, coaching) to develop skills of UK-Med personnel and our partners (e.g. Ministry of Health staff, other NGOs)
• Helping to ensure we have the right people working in humanitarian responses by shaping role descriptions, person specifications, selection interview questions and model answers
• Working on programme design and proposal preparation for work linked to your expertise
• Contribution to quality assurance and after-action reviews of health activities

Our ideal candidates will be a highly skilled health professionals with significant experience of humanitarian health responses. You will be flexible enough to respond to urgent requests, and able to deliver against longer-term objectives working independently with minimal guidance.

We offer competitive remuneration and benefits along with a friendly working environment and the opportunity to make a real difference through your work.

How to apply

We strongly recommend that you read the Candidate Information Pack - Health Referent - GP - Feb 2026 before applying for this role.

To apply, please submit a current CV and a supporting letter (no more than 2 pages) that includes a detailed explanation of your suitability for this post with specific reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

Applications must be submitted through our online jobs portal no later than Monday 23rd of February 2026

Applications for work in the UK can only be accepted from people with an existing right to work in the UK.

UK-Med is committed to safeguarding of our personnel and beneficiaries and has a zero-tolerance approach to sexual exploitation and abuse. We conduct thorough vetting before any appointment is confirmed.

UK-Med is committed to the principles of diversity, equality, and inclusion. We strive to provide an inclusive and supportive environment where employees feel respected and supported to be able to fulfil their potential.

Young Citizens is seeking a Business Development and Special Projects Lead to support a critical year of fundraising, income generation and partnership development. This role supports the special projects work with the CEO and will work with the senior team to lead on the income and visibility opportunities that unlock our delivery for our three-year strategy.

Your Role’s Purpose

Year 1 of this role will be focused on business model development, income generation and strategic partnerships. Working closely with the CEO and senior management team, you will help shape, test and secure new funding and commercial opportunities that position Young Citizens for long-term sustainability and impact. The special projects element includes supporting the developmental design of our future business model, charity strategy and public affairs work.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys building, creating and working at pace to achieve great results within a small team. You will be rapidly developing propositions, forging partnerships and converting ideas into credible, funded initiatives. You will play a central role in strengthening our relationships with funders, institutions, corporates and sector partners, while supporting wider organisational development projects.

Young Citizens works at the intersection of education, democracy and civic life, and this role offers a unique opportunity to influence how active citizenship is funded, delivered and embedded across the UK.

In Year 1, your primary focus will be to:

• Develop and drive income/fundraising with existing channels, including grant funding, partnerships and commercial activity.
• Build a strong pipeline of income opportunities, working closely with the CEO to convert prospects into funding
• Produce high-quality business cases, funding bids, proposals and presentations of our work
• Design and execute new funding models and partnership opportunities alongside the CEO’s updated strategic plan
• Lead staff member for strategic engagement with funders, corporates, policymakers and sector stakeholders.

Alongside this, you will contribute to priority special projects that support Young Citizens’ organisational growth and external positioning.

Who We’re Looking For

This role is not just open to traditional fundraisers or partnership managers. As long as you have the seniority and expertise leading results, you might come from a charity, social enterprise, consultancy, policy or start-up background. What matters most is your ability to confidently progress a pipeline of opportunities, build partnerships, generate income and deliver results.

We are interested in a wider pool of candidates with 5+ years in the working world, possibly from other start-ups or programme design focus instead of 'trad' fundraising roles'. If you are a high-performer who wants to focus on corporate partnerships, external relations and business success, this role may be right for you—talk to us.

We’re looking for someone who is:

• Entrepreneurial and proactive, with a strong interest in business development and income generation
• Confidently able to design and deliver on their ideas, instilling confidence and get results with high-level stakeholders
• Highly professional writer and communicator, able to produce strong proposals and pitch deck materials
• Commercially aware, with an ability to spot and shape fundable opportunities
• Excels at working closely with senior stakeholders including the CEO, able to predict needs and are responsive to what gets the best results
• Organised and adaptable, able to own multiple priorities in a small, fast-moving organisation
• Technically capable, making data systems like Salesforce easily integrated into their workflow
• Distinctly motivated and/or experienced in social impact, education, democracy or civic participation

Please note the pay scale of this role is determined by the demonststrable strategic seniority the person brings in managing others and organisational outcomes alongside technical role skills above.

Success in the first six months of this role will look like:

• Immediate management and confidence securing existing income contracts with corporate and funding partners of £200,000+
• Tactical, high-volume stakeholder engagement campaigns to increase sponsorship and new income opportunities
• Leading the development of improved business modelling, pricing structures and income streams that create a more sustainable base
• Operating with professionalism, improving processes and keeping organisational priorities at the forefront

Why join us?

• Make a real difference by helping deliver inspiring citizenship experiences to young people nationwide.
• Shape and strengthen the delivery of our flagship national programmes.
• Join a supportive, purpose‑driven team that values collaboration, flexibility, and doing great work together.
• Grow with us as we deliver our new three‑year strategy and embed smarter, stronger delivery processes.

If you're excited about making a tangible impact through high‑quality programme delivery, and want to contribute to a mission‑driven organisation, we’d love to hear from you.

A few useful notes to apply:

This is a 12 month fixed contract starting as soon as possible. 

• The closing date for applications is 11pm on Sunday 22 February 2026. We encourage you to apply ahead of the deadline, as shortlisting will begin on Thursday 12 February. However, as long as this advert remains live, first‑round interviews have not yet been finalised.
• Please submit a covering letter of no more than two pages outlining your interest in this role. Applications without a covering letter cannot be reviewed. We are unable to progress applications that do not demonstrate direct or clearly transferable experience.
• If you have any questions before applying, please contact our HR team.

For a full overview of the role and responsibilities, please see the job pack for more details.

The Chief Executive provides strategic leadership and operational oversight for the Sheila McKechnie Foundation, ensuring the organisation delivers meaningful impact, remains financially sustainable, and continues to be a respected voice in social change and activism.

Leading a small, committed team, the Chief Executive will set the strategic direction, secure and steward funding, and ensure effective delivery of programmes and services. They will work closely with the Board of Trustees, act as an ambassador for the Foundation, and foster strong relationships with partners, funders, and stakeholders.

This is a hands-on role suited to a versatile leader with a passion for social change and building communities, who thrives in a small charity environment.

Please note this is a UK-based role and applicants must have the right to work in the UK.

Job Title - Head of Legal Aid and Billing

Contract - Permanent

Hours - Part Time, 21 hours per week (0.6 FTE) with some flexibility around working hours

Salary Range - £28,800 to £34,800 per annum (£48,000 to £58,000 FTE)

Location - London office - Coram Campus, 41 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AZ

About Coram

Coram is the UK’s oldest children’s charity founded by Thomas Coram in London helping vulnerable children and young people since 1739. Today, the Coram group helps more than one million children, young people, families and professionals every year by providing access to the skills and opportunities they need to thrive.

One of the nine members of the Coram group, Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC) is the UK’s specialist centre for children’s rights in education, immigration, community care and family law, and provides significant international legal systems consultancy. The centre is located on the Coram Campus in central London with a base in Colchester. We champion access to justice through information and advice, legal practice and representation, policy and strategic litigation. Our Legal Practice Unit provides advice and representation primarily under legal aid contract. Our Policy and Practice Change team promotes practice change through training and capacity building to professionals and secures systems change through research, policy and advocacy.

 

About the role

This role will provide leadership and management for CCLC particularly focused on the Legal Practice Unit’s legal aid billing operations. Through systematic and efficient management, the post-holder will play a pivotal role in CCLC’s financial and operational sustainability. The role will be accountable for maximising the unit’s legal aid billing in controlled work, certificated work and inter partes costs and will hold responsibility for the unit’s billing systems. It will also be responsible for private fees billing. The post-holder will oversee the smooth running of legal aid billing including through line management of the billing team. The post-holder will work very closely with legal, operations and administrative staff. The role will act as a key point of contact for a range of internal and external stakeholders including Coram’s central finance team who will support the role with grant fund management and overall accounting functions for CCLC. The post-holder will support the Managing Director of Legal Practice and Children’s Rights and department heads in the successful maintenance of our relationship with the Legal Aid Agency. Where appropriate they will be deputising for the Managing Director on legal aid and financial matters.

The role would suit a highly organised and efficient legal aid lawyer, or a finance or billing professional with solid experience of legal practice and a deep understanding of the challenges of legal aid. Whilst candidates with direct experience of legal billing (and more specifically civil legal aid billing) are welcomed, we recognise that this is a highly specialised and niche field. As such, this role could suit a highly experienced solicitor who appreciates the important role developing sustainable businesses plays in ensuring access to justice and who therefore wishes to move into practice and financial management. They will need an aptitude for processing large amounts of data, developing and managing spreadsheets and improving organisational systems. However, they will be well supported through training, an enthusiastic and competent junior billing team, the central finance team and an outsourced legal cashiering company, as well as a friendly and collaborative management team including the Managing Director and the Heads of Education Law, Community Care Law and Immigration and Asylum Law.

This is a largely office-based role in order to fully provide support to the billing team. However, some remote / hybrid working may be possible depending the experience of the candidate after the initial settling in period and there will be flexibility over how the three days will be spread across the week (within working hours). The team are mostly based in the London office and with one billing team member in Colchester so the post holder may require some occasional travel. 

For further information on CCLC please visit our website.

 

To apply for this role, please click on the 'apply now' button below to complete the application.

Closing date: Sunday 1st March 2026 at 23:55

Test and Interview date: Please note this is a rolling recruitment, so please complete your application now and we will arrange interviews with prospective candidates as soon as possible.

 

Coram (entity) is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. We actively encourage applicants from Asian, African, Caribbean and other minority ethnic backgrounds to join our teams. Whilst we have a diverse team we recognise we are a predominantly white workforce and are genuinely committed to encouraging candidates from diverse communities in order to improve the services to the children and families we help.

We are committed to the safeguarding of children and where appropriate will require the successful applicant to undertake a check from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Registered Charity No. 312278.

Finance Assistant

Gendered Intelligence (GI), established in 2008, is a registered charity that works to expand understandings of gender and improve the lives of trans  people. 
We are a trans-led and trans-involving organisation with a wealth of lived experience, community connections of many kinds, and a depth and breadth of trans community knowledge that is second to none.
We imagine a world where many different gender identities and expressions are visible and valued and where trans, non binary and gender exploring people live healthy, safe and fulfilled lives.

Job Overview

• Hours: 0.4FTE (14 hours per week)
• Contract type: Fixed Term, 12 months
• Salary: £13,479.57 (£33,698.93 FTE), plus London Weighting of £1,300 (£3,250 FTE) where applicable.
• Location: Remote, with the option of hybrid working from our London office 

Recruitment Process & Timeline 

• Deadline for submission of applications:  Noon on Friday 27th February 2026
• Shortlisted applicants will be informed by:Wednesday 4th March
• Interviews are provisionally organised for: Tuesday 10th March

Main Duties and Responsibilities

You will be working closely and collaboratively with the Finance Officer, who will have oversight of the following areas and will induct you into the financial systems and procedures:

• Manage the finance email inboxes (payables and receivables).
• Maintain accurate and detailed Purchase Ledger records: liaising with budget holders for authorisation, posting supplier invoices to Xero and making payments.
• Raise Sales Ledger invoices to customers in a timely fashion and other receipts such as Donations and grants and monitoring credit control.
• Manage the administration of several Petty Cash floats, Cards and Staff Expenses including liaising with staff members for receipts and returns.
• Process Bank Reconciliations.
• Support with month-end, quarter-end, year-end and ad hoc finance tasks and reporting requirements

Full job description, with person specification, in the attached recruitment pack. Please read the full job description before beginning your application. 

Diversity Information

We are actively seeking to bring people with different lived experiences, diverse backgrounds, abilities and gender identities into the organisation, to create a workplace that is welcoming for all. 

Please be aware that we are currently unable to sponsor visas and ask that candidates ensure they have the legal right to work in the UK for the duration of their employment with us.

Additional Support

Want to learn more before applying?  We’re aware that people may have different needs or additional queries, and we want to support all potential applicants.

Please see the attached recruitment pack for details of the support we offer at GI.

The Organisation

ImpactEd Group supports education and purpose-driven organisations to maximise and realise their potential.

We do this by helping our partners to be consistently impactful and operationally sustainable. Drawing on our domain expertise and technical skills in these areas, ImpactEd Group aims to be the first port of call for leaders across the education ecosystem.

This role exists as a senior leader in our Group, and leads the commercial growth of our Evaluation Practice. ImpactEd Evaluation (IEE) works with schools and organisations, analysing the impact of programmes and interventions to help them do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. The practice works with over 1,400 schools and 80 education and youth organisations, serving more than a quarter of million pupils. This includes helping our partners to design high-quality research projects, delivering them, and providing systems and tools for data collection, reporting and impact benchmarking.

The Opportunity

We are excited to be recruiting for a Principal Director to lead commercial growth within our Evaluation practice. This is a new role within the practice.  Reporting to our Group Directors and / or a Managing Director of IEE (subject to future appointment), the Director will work as part of a practice leadership team that will oversee all aspects of the evaluation team’s work, with a focus on leading business development. Our partnerships encompass education organisations such as charities, edtech organisations and government, and schools and multi-academy Trusts. Across all our partnerships, we aim to design and deliver high-quality research and evaluation projects that help our partners make better decisions for children using good evidence.

You will provide strategic leadership, represent the organisation both internally and externally, and be responsible for driving the commercial performance of the practice. This role will sit alongside a Principal Director focused on the delivery of our partnerships, and our Director of Research.

The role will focus on partnerships and business development, ensuring that ImpactEd Evaluation is positioned well as first port of call for schools and social purpose organisations. You will lead a number of sales and marketing campaigns, develop key propositions for our partners, scan and respond to relevant tenders and work closely with a team of evaluation experts to ensure we are able to continue to bring accessible expertise to our work and partners.

The role would be ideal for a candidate with deep understanding of the education sector, a track record in business development, and the ambition to shape the direction of a growing social enterprise.

About you

As a team focused on research and evaluation, we would also expect roles at this level to demonstrate:

• Values and people: Alignment with our values and ability to demonstrate them in your work. You will facilitate conversations about professional development for your direct reports and act as a coach and role model for other members of the team. 

• Partnership management: Modelling of excellence in partnership management, particularly on proactive driving of partnerships forward, scope management and stakeholder engagement.

• Scoping, sales and evaluation design: Leadership of business development for consultancy engagements and facilitation of evaluation design processes, including designing Theories of Change and evaluation plans, particularly for high-value and high-complexity partnerships, in collaboration with our in-house evaluation experts.

• Proposition development: Understanding of our sector and ability to combine that with our offers as a practice to create propositions that can drive partnership and business development opportunities.

• Reporting and improvement: Ability to listen to and synthesise partner needs to tailor evaluation reporting, quality assure others’ outputs, and help partners take action from research findings.

Why Us?

As well as a commitment to the organisations we work with, we have a commitment to our people and developing the next generation of leaders within the social enterprise, education and evaluation sectors.

Our employee experience is organised around four themes:

• Trust: we support hybrid working, provide flexible hours, and provide responsive management.

• Shared ownership: we are an employee owned organisation and look to increasingly share ownership with our employees, including in terms of governance and culture, and realise this in a number of ways such as ownership awards, and transparent governance including an Employee Voice board.

• Connection: we pay for your travel, provide termly company offsites, support informal clubs and societies, and provide opportunities for in-person and digital connection between colleagues.  

• Health and fulfilment: we have an extensive professional development programme, provide an annual books and development budget allowance and offer 3 days of CPD leave per year in addition to annual leave. We offer all employees access to a MediCash plan and wellbeing advice, including free therapist support.

The Difference is an education charity, founded to change the story on lost learning. Our vision is to see lost learning falling nationally by 2030 and for schools to be better equipped to support all children, particularly those most vulnerable.

Leading national policy strategy

As Head of Policy and Public Affairs, you will work closely with the CEO to develop and execute a four-year influencing plan.  Together we’ll aim to shift local and national incentives on inclusion by 2030, which see the national trend of rising suspension and absence begin to fall. 

You will hold relationships with the Department for Education and Ofsted and advise on policy priorities ahead, such as:

• Widening the definition of inclusion beyond special needs, recognising the needs of those young people historically or currently interacting with social services

• Reducing perverse incentives for schools to alter their school roll through admissions and pupil exits

• Expectations for multi-academy trusts in capturing and analysing data on lost learning, including how it disproportionately affects different groups

• Improving local alternative provision eco-systems, to improve outcomes for young people

• National standards for inclusive school practice, at a universal and targeted level

• Professional development standards for school inclusion

Developing implementation expertise in the middle tier

In your first six months, you will advise on the internal development of a new programme for middle tier policy actors: multi-academy trust and local authority leaders.  You will support the Programme team in its design, to plan strategically for the recruitment of trusts and local authorities, and you will plan the research and influencing work which will seek to share their success nationally.

Building the evidence base

In your second six months, you will work with the CEO to build out our research function. Your influencing plan will include how The Difference can learn from the work across our multi-academy trust, local authority and internal AP pioneer partners over the next four years, to develop influential publications. Research work ahead will include publishing sector-facing publications of The Difference’s own research, carried out by our research lead and associates; alongside managing external contractors and internal colleagues to bid for and deliver aligned research disseminating our ideas.

Raising your voice

This is an exciting opportunity for someone committed to inclusive policy change. The Difference has always punched above our weight in national and sector press reach. In post,  you will publish blogs and comment pieces, disseminating our shared ideas.  You will be a prominent voice on inclusion.

The Difference is still a small and growing charity. This means that our work is fast-paced, our roles are broad, and there is a culture of being highly autonomous, reactive and flexible, as the needs of the organisation evolve. If this sounds exciting rather than daunting, then this could be the role and team for you!

The Role
This is an exciting time to join The Difference as we increase our impact, reach more schools, and develop our influencing strategy. As Head of Policy and Public Affairs you will: 

Design and execute an impactful influencing plan 

• Design an influencing plan - Identify via horizon scanning opportunities to influence national policy using open policy windows, or by nudging/creating new ones. 

• Execute an influencing plan - Utilise own assets and assets across the organisation, including the Director team, to deliver against the influencing plan.

• Relationship building - Build highly credible and impactful relationships with a variety of stakeholders who hold power. This will include policy makers in national governments, local government officials, politicians, other third sector organisations and think tanks. 

• Leadership - Play a significant role internally and externally in communicating the organisation’s policy position, raising organisational and own brand.

Build policy capacity and credibility across the organisation

• Policy positions and solutions- Use the concepts, work and experience of The Difference’s programmes to develop new, and refine existing, national policy positions to shift incentives. 

• Thought leadership - Be the organisation’s education policy and political expert. 

• Generating income - Use own and team’s expertise and credibility to generate income via speaking engagements and consultancy to support the organisation’s financial sustainability. 

Person Specification

Essential – We are looking for someone with the following knowledge, experience and skills, though you may be stronger in some areas than others:

• Deep expertise in education policy, particularly on the topic of lost learning and the various policy and political debates, including areas of controversy, surrounding this policy topic. 

• Strategic thinker with a proven track record in identifying policy windows and designing activities that lead to meaningful national policy change. 

• Excellent relationship builder, who brings with them their own network of influential stakeholders and has a plan for building new relationships. Adept at navigating tricky situations and explaining complex, sometimes difficult, messages.

• Expert convener with a strong knowledge of the education sector, including which schools, trusts and local authorities are influential and experience in bringing a variety of perspectives together to generate consensus. 

• Persuasive and clear writing style for publication, including reports, press, blogs and ghost writing for members of the senior leadership team, often based on consensus positions, and designed to communicate key messages for impact. 

• Confidence and credibility in communicating nuanced messages in a contentious landscape, in writing, verbally and in public (e.g. on panels), to raise the profile of The Difference. 

• Strong project manager who can design systems and processes to keep self, team and other stakeholders on task and on time. Experience of designing programmes of work and monitoring their effectiveness. Flexible project management style that can adapt to a changing environment. Confidence in managing a variety of stakeholders and supporting them to deliver on time. 

Desired – You are more likely to be successful in your application if you have one or more of the following: 

• Familiarity with The Difference’s programmatic work, theory and practice. 

• Lived experience or insight into the school experiences of marginalised young people (e.g. those with experience of the care system, mental ill health, special educational needs, exclusion, and racism).

We know that some people, especially those from marginalised backgrounds, may hesitate to apply unless they meet every listed requirement. If this role excites you and you believe you could make a strong contribution, we warmly encourage you to apply. 
We actively welcome applications from people whose backgrounds are under-represented in the charity sector, including but not limited to: people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, people with experience in the case system, non-graduates and first-in-family graduates.

Exciting Job opportunity: we are looking for a Participation Worker

Are you looking for a role where you can work directly with young people, make a real difference in their lives, and support them to have their voices heard at local, regional, and national levels? If so, this could be the job for you.

The National House Project (NHP) works with care-experienced young people, encouraging them to take ownership of their futures and supporting them to live connected, fulfilling lives. The approach was co-designed with young people from the outset and is centred around a group work approach. It supports young people to move into properties that become their homes, while also building strong and supportive friendship networks.

NHP supports Local Authorities to establish Local House Projects (LHPs) and to place young people at the centre of decision-making. Once an LHP is established, NHP supports staff to work with young people in inclusive ways, encouraging them to develop solutions to the challenges they face. LHPs enable young people to leave care in a planned and supported way, improve outcomes, and help staff develop relationship-based and psychologically informed ways of working.

To ensure young people are involved at every level of the organisation, each LHP elects two young people to represent them in the Care Leavers National Movement (CLNM). This forum provides a platform to hear, amplify, and act on young people’s voices. Members contribute not only to the development of their own LHP, but also to practice and policy at a national level. CLNM meets regularly, undertakes peer evaluations, hosts and delivers an annual national conference, and provides “expert user” consultancy. Members of this group also sit on the Board of Trustees as expert advisors.

We are looking for someone who is motivated, experienced in working with young people, and excited about supporting them to have their voices heard and acted upon.

Many people enter youth work or social work wanting to make a difference, but find that large organisational systems can limit their impact. At NHP, you will be able to use your energy and enthusiasm creatively, enabling young people to use their care experience to positively influence the systems that support them. You will work with CLNM and the core NHP team to ensure young people continue to drive our work at both local and national levels.

You will need a professional or academic qualification in a related field (e.g. Youth Work, Social Work, Education, or Health). Current registration with a professional body is desirable. We actively encourage applications from care-experienced individuals and will guarantee an interview where the essential criteria are met.

The NHP office is based in Crewe. We support hybrid working and currently spend a minimum of two days per week in the office. This Participation Worker role will support LHPs in the West Midlands. You will be expected to travel regularly to LHPs and attend meetings across the country. Some planned weekend work will be required throughout the year.

Benefits: 31 Days Annual Leave plus bank holidays, 10% Contribution to Pension, Salary Sacrifice Option, Hybrid working, Professional Development

Find out more

If you’re excited by the opportunity to be a part of something transformative, we’d love to hear from you.

ℹ️ You are invited to join the Participation Worker online briefing.

When: Thursday 12th February 1:00 – 2:00pm

Please register in advance for this meeting: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/YBymZxICRxq5QM9QqzLQcA#/registration

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

How to Apply

• Submit your CV and Cover letter via Charity Job detailing what skills, knowledge and experiences make you the best candidate for the role by Sunday 22nd February 2026. Apply now.
• We welcome applications from all backgrounds. If you require adjustments during the process, let us know.
• Interviews are due to take place in person on 2nd and 3rd March 2026 at the NHP Office in Crewe.

Safeguarding Statement
NHP is committed to protecting the well-being of young people. All staff must adhere to our safeguarding policies.

Recruitment Agencies: We do not accept unsolicited CVs from agencies.

General Requirements: Right to work in the UK, two professional references, and a DBS check.

Role Overview:
The Talent Set are delighted to partner with Lesley Hynes Fundraising (LHF), a highly regarded fundraising consultancy specialising in charitable trusts and foundations. Led by founder and Managing Director Lesley Hynes, who brings over 30 years’ specialist experience, LHF works in close partnership with inspiring charities across the UK, delivering expert strategy and hands-on fundraising that creates real impact across causes including social justice, health inequalities, environmental protection and community support.

This Trusts Fundraiser role offers an exciting opportunity to join a collaborative, fully remote team with a long-standing track record of delivering exceptional service to charity clients. The postholder will deliver vital trusts and foundations fundraising across a diverse range of causes, contributing to the highest standards of fundraising practice within a supportive, ambitious and growth-oriented environment that values creativity, expertise and professional development.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement strategies to maximise trust and foundation income for client charities.
• Conduct detailed prospect research and maintain accurate records of funding opportunities.
• Prepare compelling grant applications and assist with funder reports and monitoring requirements.
• Support the organisation of events and attend external meetings with trust and foundation representatives as needed.
• Contribute to team capacity by providing expertise and additional support to colleagues.
• Maintain accurate client and fundraising data in line with GDPR and data protection legislation.
• Assist the MD in ensuring compliance with all relevant fundraising regulations.
• Keep up to date with trust landscape developments and fundraising best practices.
• Support business development activities, including website and social media updates.

Person Specification:

• Proven experience (minimum three years) in trust and foundation fundraising, ideally within small/medium charities.
• Track record of securing grants of £300,000+ annually.
• Ability to build and manage relationships with key funders and stakeholders.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with strong attention to detail.
• Skilled in research, data management, and analytical tasks.
• Capacity to interpret complex financial and grant information.
• Organised with good time management and the ability to work independently under deadlines.
• Strong interpersonal skills to collaborate effectively with diverse teams and clients.

What’s on Offer:

• Salary: £34,000-£44,000
• Location: Remote
• Contract: Permanent
• Fantastic Benefits Include: 5% employer pension, Healthcare Cash Plan, annual wellbeing budget and regular investment into training & personal development

How to Apply:
To apply, please submit your CV demonstrating your suitability for this role by clicking the 'apply now' button (please do not apply via email). We aim to get back to all successful candidates within 48 working hours.

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

Location: Hybrid/Remote
Department: Training & Development
Salary: £32,580
Hours: 35
Contract Type: Permanent
 
About the Role
 
TRAINING OFFICER
 
We provide training and consultancy to organisations that work directly with care-experienced young people, in order to upskill and develop professionals who are committed to improving outcomes for children in care and care leavers.
 
We are looking for an enthusiastic and experienced Training Officer to plan, design and deliver training content that makes a real impact. We are seeking an excellent facilitator to deliver this important provision, who is creative, professionally curious and has strong organisational and self-administration skills.
 
The Training Officer will be involved in delivering our standard courses, alongside developing new and innovative pieces of work, including digital, online and in-person training packages. They will also support the delivery, assessment and ongoing development of an accredited learning programme for Personal Advisers in Leaving Care Service Teams.
 
Location
 
Our team currently work remotely from home, with the required attendance of in-person meetings (generally expected once or twice per month). In-person meetings usually take place in our office space in Old Street, London and Become covers the cost of travel within Great Britain for essential in-person meetings.
 
The role of Training Officer also requires regular delivery of training sessions at client venues across England (travel expenses covered).
 
The Old Street office space is available for team members to work from if preferred. For non-London based team members hot-desking options near you can be requested if required.
 
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
 
As an organisation serving children in care and young care leavers, we are keen to receive applications from people with lived experience of care. We are actively seeking to bring diversity of perspectives and experience, and especially welcome applications from those from racially-minoritised communities. We ask all applicants to fill in an Equity and Diversity Monitoring from to better understand the diversity of applicants. This is anonymous and will not be connected with your application.
 
How to apply
 
To apply please complete our application form on our recruitment platform by the application close date and time.
 
In the application stage of our recruitment, we ask candidates to upload an up-to-date CV and complete the application form on our recruitment platform. The application form asks for candidates to answer competency-based questions.
 
Your application and answers will be reviewed anonymously to ensure fairness and help remove bias from the application process.
 
To apply for this role, you will need to:

• Provide us with a copy of your CV
• Answer the competency questions in no more than 400 words per question,providing relevant examples to demonstrate how you meet the skills and experience required
• Complete the Equity and Diversity Monitoring Form (this is not compulsory,but the information is very useful to us)

 
If you have any reasonable adjustments to request for this recruitment process (at any stage) please advise us on your application form.
 
Interview Details
 
Interviews will have two parts:

• A session with young people;
• A panel interview with Become staff.
• Interviews may be held virtually using a video calling app (Microsoft Teams or Zoom) or in person in London. If access to technology/internet is difficult for you, please contact us so we can assist in making suitable arrangements.  

 
Interviews will take place:
 
Young people’s panel: 3rd March 2026
Staff panel: 5th March 2026
Become embodies and promotes fairness in our recruitment process. As part of this short-listed candidates invited to interview will be sent the interview questions in advance.
 
Please Note
 
All applicants must have a Right to Work in the UK. Although the role is hybrid, we are unable to offer work visas or sponsorship for any candidates.
 
We’re proud to be a Living Wage Employer. We are committed to #ShowingTheSalary. Our roles are #OpenToAll 
 
Benefits: Real London Living Wage Employer; Generous Annual Leave Scheme; Flexible working; Pension Scheme; Life Insurance Scheme; Health Cash Plan; Access to a Rewards and Benefit Platform; Signatory of Halo Code; Disability Confident Employer; Employee Assistance Programme available 24/7; Fostering Friendly Employer; Support for Team Members with lived experience; Access to Virtual GP
 
REF-226 360

L&W is growing our research team and looking for a Head of Research to lead innovative, impactful research and evaluation projects across our focus areas of employment and skills.

This role will expand our capacity to win and deliver evaluation and qualitative research, while strengthening our methodological capability. We’re open-minded about what that means—but we want people who can go beyond standard process evaluations and basic qualitative approaches. You might have experience mapping and evaluating complex system-level change, applying realist evaluation methods, or developing co-design and participatory research projects. You will have have applied these while working alongside the practitioners and policymakers who need these insights to make decisions.

You will join a team that is enthusiastic about learning and improving, and a peer group of experienced qualitative and quantitative research leaders who you will work alongside.

If you have research consultancy experience and want to join a purpose-driven organisation that delivers real impact locally and nationally, we’d love to hear from you. But you might come from a different professional background and still meet our criteria. 

Location: Hybrid working: 40-60% in an L&W office. Our offices for this role are currently in Leicester and London, but if you are based elsewhere, please contact us to talk about how the role could work for you.

Team:Research and Development

Salary:£45,650-£59,080 per annum (pro rata), dependent on experience and location

Duration:Permanent

Working hours:0.6 to 1 FTE, with flexible working supported (eg, condensed hours, flexible start and finish times

Main Purpose

The Head of Research: Evaluation and Qualitative Methods is a new post for L&W – as we seek to deepen our capability and expand our capacity.

The post-holder will direct research projects across all of our areas of work, providing specific leadership and expertise in programme and system-level evaluations, and projects mobilising innovative or advanced qualitative methods (such as system mapping, co-design methods, ethnographic methods, creative methods and/or theory-based/realist evaluation).

They will work with the Head of Research: Employment and Better Work to develop the wider qualitative and evaluative skills of the wider research team.

They will also play a key role in leading and writing responding to tenders and working with colleagues to develop pro-active research proposals that fill key evidence gaps and respond to the interests of our funders. They will be a good relationship manager – who can understand what commissioners are interested in, and shape projects to deliver meaningful insights that solve the problems practitioners and policymakers face across employment and skills.

Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership and management

• Line manage members of the R&D team
• Co-lead the qualitative methods group at L&W: supporting the wider research team to develop their skills. 

Income

• Write and contribute to reactive and proactive funding proposals across L&W’s areas of work, with a specific focus on process and theory-based evaluations, and proposals using advanced/innovative qualitative methods
• Build relationships with current and potential funders
• Identify and build relationships with research partners

Impact

• Ensure that all projects under their direction generate meaningful insights and recommendations that respond to the real-world concerns and challenges faced by practitioners and policymakers
• Communicate insights clearly and effectively to funders and other stakeholders

Delivery

• Act as Project Director for research and evaluation projects: liaising with funders; shaping research proposals and plans; supporting project managers; leading project meetings; ensuring project margins are delivered effectively; carrying out research directly where appropriate
• Work with External Affairs team to develop appropriate comms and influencing plans for projects under your direction
• Use your research skills and experience to support the wider development of the Learning and Work team

Person Specification 

Expericence 

Experience of delivering and directing high-quality programmes evaluation and policy-relevant research: shaping research plans, working with funders and delivering meaningful insights -Essential 

Experience of responding to research and evaluation tenders and writing proposals. -Essential 

Experience of managing, supporting and developing researchers and research managers -Essential 

Experience of carrying out research and evaluation in the areas of employment and skills -Desirable

Skills

Advanced qualitative evaluation and research skills, eg. One or more of theory-based evaluation, ethnographic methods, creative/art-based methods, co-design methods, system-level evaluation -Essential 

Effective and efficient relationship management -Essential 

Clear and direct written communication style -Essential 

Knowledge

Knowledge of, and commitment to, L&W’s charitable aims and purpose -Essential 

Demonstrable knowledge in the areas of employment and skills policy and practice -Desirable

Learning and Work Institute works across the UK. Our work in Wales is led by a Cardiff based team, but all staff are required to follow the guidance set out in our Welsh language scheme when working in Wales.