Development officer jobs in East of england

Regional Development Officer (RDO) - Midlands 

Location: Midlands (home-based with travel and use of hot desk office in Midlands) 
Salary: £35,100 FTE (£18/hour £21,060) 
Contract: 2-year fixed term (22.5 hours/week) 
Reports to: National Fundraising & Development Manager 

This is not an administrative role. It is comparable to: 

• Regional Development Officer (charity sector)

• Community Development Officer

• Partnerships / Outreach Officer

• Network Growth or Membership Development roles

The role combines business development, community engagement, and programme delivery, with clear responsibility for growing Phab’s national footprint and reputation. 

Why this role matters  

This is a rare opportunity to build something meaningful from the ground up. 

You’ll be the person who brings Phab to new communities—connecting disabled and non-disabled people, creating life-changing social opportunities, and building a network of clubs that transform lives. 

We’re looking for someone who thrives on meeting people, spotting opportunities, and making things happen—someone who can walk into a room, inspire others, and leave with new partners, volunteers, and future club leaders excited to get involved. 

If you’re energised by purpose and disability-inclusion, love being out in the community, and want to play a key role in growing a national charity’s reach—this role is for you. 

Role Purpose  

To grow and strengthen the Phab network by: 

• Launching new Phab Clubs in underserved areas in the Midlands 

• Supporting and energising existing clubs

• Building strong regional relationships that drive participation, partnerships, and sustainability

A critical part of this role is identifying and supporting outstanding Club Leaders—the individuals who make clubs thrive. 

What success looks like (2-year targets) 

Year 1: Establish & Build Momentum 

• Launch 3–5 new Phab Clubs in priority areas

• Identify and develop a pipeline of future club leaders and volunteers

• Build relationships with local authorities, schools, disability organisations, and community groups

• Visit and engage with existing clubs in the region to strengthen relationships and identify growth opportunities

• Generate local funding or in-kind support for new and existing clubs

• Represent Phab at key regional events and networks

Year 2: Grow & Sustain 

• Support Year 1 clubs to become fully sustainable and independently run

• Launch an additional 3–5 new clubs or affiliate groups

• Increase membership and engagement across existing clubs

• Develop regional partnerships that provide ongoing referral pathways (e.g. professionals, services, schools)

• Contribute to income generation (grants, partnerships, training opportunities)

• Establish a strong regional identity and presence for Phab

Key Responsibilities  

1. Network Growth & Club Development 

• Identify areas of need and actively develop new Phab Clubs

• Recruit, mentor, and support Club Leaders and volunteer teams

• Set up clubs alongside the club leaders (venue, structure, governance, initial membership)

• Build relationships with professionals (e.g. SEND services, social workers, educators) who can refer members

• Reconnect with former Phab participants and supporters to re-engage them

2. Supporting Existing Clubs  

• Regularly visit and engage with existing clubs

• Identify challenges and opportunities, offering practical support

• Encourage growth in membership, activity quality, and sustainability

• Share best practice and connect clubs to wider opportunities (training, funding, events)

3. Community Engagement & Partnerships 

• Act as a visible, energetic ambassador for Phab

• Attend networking events and build strong regional relationships

• Develop partnerships with community organisations, corporates, and funders

• Promote Phab’s wider offer (Phab ACTS training, Phab Adventures, events)

4. Income & Sustainability 

• Identify and secure local funding opportunities

• Support clubs to access grants and sponsorship

• Contribute to Phab’s broader income generation strategy

5. Internal Collaboration & Delivery 

• Work closely with Marketing, Fundraising & Development, and Charity Support teams

• Use CRM (Beacon) to track engagement, contacts, and progress

• Contribute to planning and delivery of regional and national initiatives

Experience & Background  

We are looking for someone who has done this kind of work before, not just worked “in charity or business”. 

Essential experience: 

• Experience in community development, outreach, or network growth

• Proven track record of starting or growing initiatives, projects, or groups

• Experience building partnerships and engaging external stakeholders

• Experience recruiting, supporting, or managing volunteers or community leaders

• Experience working in or alongside disability, inclusion, or community services

• Knowledge of UK charity landscape and safeguarding/good practice

Desirable: 

• Experience setting up or running community groups, clubs, or programmes

Experience securing local funding or sponsorship

Equal Opportunities, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Phab is committed to creating an inclusive organisation where disabled and non-disabled people can thrive together as equals. We actively welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, lived experiences and identities, particularly disabled people and those who are underrepresented within the charity sector.

We believe diversity strengthens our organisation and helps us better support the communities we work alongside. Recruitment decisions are made based on skills, experience, values and potential, and we are committed to ensuring a fair and accessible recruitment process for all applicants. 

Reasonable adjustments will be offered throughout the recruitment process and during employment. If you require any adjustments to support your application or interview, please let us know. 

As a Regional Development Officer, you will play an important role in promoting inclusion, accessibility and equality across our network of clubs, projects and partnerships. 

Safeguarding Statement 

Phab is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk. We expect all staff, volunteers and partners to share this commitment and to uphold a culture of safety, dignity and respect. 

The successful candidate will be required to work in line with Phab’s safeguarding policies and procedures and may be subject to an enhanced DBS check, depending on the nature of the role and responsibilities. 

We are looking for someone who shares our values of inclusion, respect, integrity and participation, and who is committed to helping create safe and welcoming environments for everyone involved in Phab activities.

Job Title: Development Project Officer
Hours: Full-Time, 37.5 hours per week
Contract: Permanent
Salary: £35,329 to 45,090 (depending on experience)
Area of operation: Development
Responsible to: Development Director
Benefits: Bupa Health & welfare package, including salary sacrifice, electric car scheme and generous contributory pension scheme
Annual leave entitlement: 30 days per annum, exclusive of bank holidays
Place of work: Home based, but with regional development area across Kent, Sussex and Surrey. There will be a requirement to attend our London Office (Soho) one day per month (Hybrid Contract)

About English Rural:

English Rural Housing Association is a leading national rural specialist working to provide affordable homes in small villages for local people. We own and manage around 1,600 affordable properties, spread amongst ~200 villages, and have a development programme of between 150 to 200 more homes over the next five years. We are passionate about rural communities and play a leading advocacy role in promoting the importance and urgent need for affordable rural housing.

About the role:

This is an exciting opportunity to join our small but professional and friendly development team to continue the delivery of our high quality new build homes programme.

We design our homes to high-standards, incorporating local architectural features. Our ‘fabric first’ approach to design and construction, coupled with and our commitment to renewable energy technologies, aims to reduce environmental impact and running costs for our residents. We build small scale schemes of quality homes that are in keeping with the village. Our approach involves forming a community-led local partnership to research, enable and deliver affordable rural homes.

Working under the leadership of the Development Director and collaboratively with internal colleagues and external consultants and contractors. The role will be to fully coordinate from inception working with Rural Housing Enablers, site acquisition and planning through to completion with the day-to-day project management of rural exception site housing delivery (noting, we do deliver some through selective Section 106 planning schemes with housing developers). Our typical land lead sites are around eight to twelve affordable homes, and may incorporate some open market housing to provide some necessary cross subsidy funding.

About you:

To succeed in this role, you will have a proven track record in working and successfully delivering affordable housing development and preferably rural housing. You will need excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with an ability to work both collaboratively but also be an independent self-starter. It takes a special person with professionalism, enthusiasm, initiative, tenacity and a great deal of pride in the end product to stay the course and deliver these small, often challenging yet ultimately rewarding community lead housing schemes. The right candidate will also ideally have some technical construction experience, either from formal qualification of direct housing delivery. English Rural is looking to invest in and develop the right candidate to grow with our business.

If you feel excited by the challenges posed by this role, we would love to hear from you!

Closing date for applications: 12pm on Monday 8th June 2026
Interviews: Tuesday 23rd June 2026 (to be held in our London office)

Interested?

If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.

Please advise if there are any restrictions to your residency in the UK that might affect your right to take up employment in the UK.

English Rural Housing Association is committed to equal opportunities and values diversity in its workforce.

No agencies please.

Role Purpose

This new role within the Advice & Training team will support the development, coordination, and growth of the organisation’s training provision. We are proud to be a respected and trusted source of information for our members and international students, and the work undertaken by this role will seek to strengthen these relationships.

You will be responsible for the recruitment and administration of freelance trainers to work alongside the Advice & Training team in developing and delivering world-class training. You will play a key role in identifying trends in the needs of our membership and international students, contributing to the direction and growth of our training output. You should be able to convey UKCISA’s values and methods to potential freelance trainers and embed processes to ensure quality assurance of any training output.

Engaging with diverse stakeholders, negotiation, and being able to represent UKCISA with integrity and passion should be in your repertoire of excellent communication skills. You are confident in your administrative skills and will lead on writing and standardising contracts for and establishing workflows for new freelance trainers. The role will involve different strands of work, and so you will be required to balance concurrent tasks confidently, seeking advice and guidance where needed. You will work towards and seek to surpass targets and be willing to proactively assess and review those targets as you progress in the role. You will have an initiative-taking approach and make recommendations for the direction of targets and key performance indicators to the Advice Officer and Training Lead as you progress in the role.

In your first few months, you will have:

• Developed good working relationships with UKCISA’s wider team.
• Analysed our current training offer and begun to identify opportunities for growth.
• Begun to identify and recruit freelance trainers.
• Scoped out how quality assurance processes between freelance trainers and the Advice & Training team can be implemented.

Core responsibilities

Training recruitment and administration

• Recruitment of freelance trainers to broaden the capacity of UKCISA’s training provision.
• Writing, standardising, and administering, standardising contracts for freelance training staff in conjunction with Finance and HR.
• Liaison with the Finance team to standardise invoicing procedures for freelance training staff.
• Key liaison point between existing and new freelance trainers and UKCISA staff.

Analysis and trend mapping

• Seek to identify gaps in UKCISA’s training offer and the delivery of new services to meet those unmet needs.
• Expanding UKCISA’s offer of new training opportunities, including relating to Student Sponsor compliance, to ensure members have the technical knowledge and support needed to carry out their roles and responsibilities towards international students.
• Collaborate with freelancers and in-house staff to develop training content, in line with UKCISA quality and expectations as the UK’s main provider of training relating to supporting international students.
• Gain a deep understanding of current core training to ensure seamless integration of new courses to support learning journey of members.
• Support the Advice Officer and Training Lead in responding to trends, identifying potential improvements to the training workflow, and supporting UKCISA trainers.

Quality assurance

• Working with UKCISA’s in-house trainers to establish and embed processes to ensure quality assurance of freelance delivery and the delivery of course aims and objectives.
• Collaborate with current freelance trainers and newly recruited trainers to establish robust quality assurance processes with the Advice & Training team.
• Facilitate and monitor quality assurance of UKCISA training output.
• Coordinate the production of resources to inform and support UKCISA trainers to ensure consistent delivery in line with UKCISA values and expectations.
• Monitor the effectiveness of new training and adapt as appropriate.

Key criteria

Essential

• Excellent communication skills with a focus on negotiation, interpersonal skills, and clarity.
• Ability to form excellent relationships with diverse groups.
• Ability to plan, strategise, and deliver against key performance indicators.
• A proactive approach to seeking improvements in workflows and identifying opportunities to broaden our training output.
• Highly organised and able to work independently, while knowing when to seek guidance and support
• Confidence to lead on contract administration for freelance trainers.
• Ability to collate, analyse, and present data clearly and confidently.
• Proficient in SharePoint and other cloud-based Microsoft apps
• Experience supporting the delivery or coordination of training and/or events.
• A commitment to UKCISA’s vision and mission; representing and communicating these to external stakeholders.

Desirable

• Project management experience or qualifications.
• Student route/Tier 4 compliance experience.
• Previous experience working in a charity or membership organisation
• Previous experience working with international students in the UK.
• Experience working with CRM systems (ideally MS Dynamics).

Working for UKCISA

UKCISA offers a supportive, reflective work culture where all the staff team are active participants in the shaping of the organisation. Our values are quality, innovation, collaboration and trust. We’re a charity in an exciting period of transition, offering a unique opportunity to be part of meaningful change for us and the sector. We are currently working on a hybrid basis. Our staff mainly work from home, but we have an office in London for collaborative work and for staff who want access to an office space. We also meet in person for regular all staff days in London. We welcome applications from throughout the UK, as long as you are able to join us in London for one day every month. Travel to member and student events across the UK, including overnight travel, is occasionally required and can be expensed. Ongoing training and development opportunities will be provided, and attendance may be required to contribute towards an ever-changing comms skillset needed for this role. We are unable to sponsor visas for this role, so you must have the right to work in the UK. We encourage and welcome candidates on the Graduate route visa.

Staff benefits include:

• Pension - UKCISA participates in a defined benefit pension scheme (USS)
• Training & development - In addition to maintaining a budget for relevant professional development, UKCISA also offers 3 days of personal development leave
• Additional leave - UKCISA employees are entitled to 25 days annual leave + bank holidays. In addition to this, there are concessionary days between Christman and New Years. Staff also receive an extra day of leave for every year of service, up to a maximum of 5 days. 
• Flexible working - we operate as a remote office and there is currently no mandate on minimum number of days in the officer. We do maintain a small office in Woburn House, allowing for vital collaborative working. 
• Health & wellbeing - UKCISA offer an Employee Assistance Programme to support health and wellbeing as well as a My Healthy Advantage app to access a wide range of tools to support wellbeing.