Introduction to TDS
TDS is a not-for-profit organisation with a clear social purpose: to raise standards in the private rented sector. Established to create a fairer and more professional rental market by protecting deposits and resolving deposit disputes, TDS has since expanded its mission. Today, we invest in a range of additional services and initiatives that further our commitment to improving the sector.
Key initiatives relevant to this role include:
- Developing an influential research programme to ensure that laws and regulations are informed by robust evidence.
- Funding a range of projects and organisations through our two independent charities.
- Leveraging our direct communication channels with millions of tenants, landlords, and letting agents to educate and inform all parties.
JOB DESCRIPTION
Key initiatives relevant to this role include:
- Developing an influential research programme to ensure that laws and regulations are informed by robust evidence.
- Funding a range of projects and organisations through our two independent charities.
- Leveraging our direct communication channels with millions of tenants, landlords, and letting agents to educate and inform all parties.
Introduction to the Role
We are looking for a Research and Policy Officer (Maternity Cover) to join our expanding Policy and Research department, which also oversees the TDS Charitable Foundation. This is a pivotal role supporting our mission to improve standards in the private rented sector through impactful research, thought leadership, and policy engagement.
The successful candidate will play a key part in delivering our research programme, including overseeing flagship projects like the Voice of the Tenant and Voice of the Landlord surveys, and producing high-quality qualitative and quantitative research.
You will also support the smooth running of the Charitable Foundation’s grant-making and governance activities and contribute to our work influencing policy and practice across the UK’s private rented sector.
This is a great opportunity for someone passionate about housing, with a solid grounding in research and an interest in policy, to join a values-driven organisation delivering real-world impact.
PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Research
1. Collaborate with external research contractors to deliver the regular ‘Voice of the Tenant’ and ‘Voice of the Landlord’ Survey.
2. Ensure the research findings are widely disseminated through different channels, including events, publications, briefings and digital content.
3. Help identify research gaps and contribute to the development execution of new research projects or commissioning of external research.
4. Conduct proactive desk-based research to identify emerging trends, new policy developments, and partnership opportunities relevant to the Foundation and the sector.
5. Undertake in-house research activities, such as literature reviews, focus groups, stakeholder interviews, where required.
6. Contribute to the drafting and production of high-quality research reports and briefings, ensuring clarity, accessibility, and relevance for policy and practice audiences.
Policy
7. Monitor and analyse relevant legislative and regulatory developments, consultations, and debates, identifying implications for the sector and TDS’s work.
8. Support the development of TDS’s policy positions by preparing briefings, drafting responses to consultations, and summarising evidence from research.
9. Help communicate TDS’s policy insights and positions clearly and effectively to internal stakeholders, partners, and decision-makers.
Charity co-ordination
10. Act as a key point of contact for grant-funded projects, supporting projects to share progress and impact, and identify any support needs.
11. Help to Coordinate the TDS Charitable Foundation’s quarterly Board of Trustee meetings, including preparing board papers, taking minutes, and following up on actions.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Essential characteristics
1. Qualifications and experience
Essential:
- Educated to degree level in a relevant subject.
- At least 3 years’ experience in research, social policy or similar role (or equivalent post-graduate study).
- Knowledge of research design
- Proven track record of producing content to communicate to different audiences.
- Experience of building relationships with external stakeholders.
Desirable:
- Knowledge of the housing sector or charitable work.
2. Job Knowledge
Must be able to:
- Demonstrate excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Show an ability to build relationships with stakeholders.
- Demonstrate organisational skills to help coordinate multiple projects.
- Utilise strong IT skills including sound knowledge of MS Office.
- Prove ability to write content for different audiences.
3. Communication
Must be able to:
- Work as part of a team;
- Have good interpersonal skills, communicating effectively with colleagues, funded projects and other stakeholders.
4. Equal Opportunities
- Must be able to demonstrate a commitment to equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion.
5. Required behaviour and attitude
- Applicants must be able to:
- demonstrate an affinity for customer excellence
- recognise the importance of fairness in all of our work
- demonstrate how they are making a difference in the work that they do
- is able to articulate the importance of teamwork
- are committed to excellence in all that we do;
- help create a great place to work.
TDS offers a plethora of benefits inclusive of:
- 33 days holiday inc bank holidays
- BUPA Private healthcare
- BUPA Wellbeing cash plan
- Pension Scheme
- Additional day off for your birthday
- Plus many more!
Hours of the role
35 hours per week. Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
To apply, please submit your CV and a covering letting outlining how your skills and experience match the person specification.
TDS is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion in our workforce and to be truly representative of all sections of society and our customers.
Help tenants, landlords, and agents deal with deposit protection and dispute resolution as quickly and easily as possible.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Team: Engagement
Place of work: Home-based (within specified geographical area)
Benefits:
- Salary – £27,000 per annum
- 35 hours per week, Monday to Friday
- Home-based (with occasional UK travel)
- 26 days annual leave plus all Bank Holidays
- bhsf cash plan, 3% pension contribution, death in service insurance
- Learning and development opportunities, Employee Assistance Programme
Job summary
Reporting to the head of growth and sitting within the engagement team you will:
- recruit volunteers by promoting Re-engage’s services,
- develop effective relationships with new and existing referrers such as social prescribers and community link workers
- identify and cultivate new, innovative referral pathways to connect with a broader demographic of seniors experiencing social isolation and loneliness
- support the wider Re-engage team in the delivery of our grant funded projects
Engagement officer tasks and requirements
- Growing and developing our network of referral partners, including social prescribers and link workers, ensuring that Re-engage's work is promoted to people aged 75 who are experiencing social isolation and loneliness.
- Partnering with communities to create regular, volunteer led, social gatherings for people aged 75
- Utilise Re-engage's CRM (OPUS) to inform evidence-based, data-driven decision-making to develop effective engagement plans.
- Working closely with the service delivery team ensuring that the right people are recruited and engaged into the right roles, in the right place, and at the right times.
- Collaborating with the communications team ensuring the widest possible publicity for the region’s needs through media and social media opportunities, local press, radio, TV, and online forums.
- Liaising closely with the fundraising team delivering against recruitment targets linked to grants.
- Working with the fundraising team on proposals and grant applications using regional knowledge, identifying local need, and collecting case studies.
- Identifying speaking and presenting opportunities ensuring that Re-engage's work is promoted to referrers.
- Working effectively as part of a regional team, maintaining, and growing all Re-engage services.
- Joint accountability, with colleagues in the region, for the engagement of older people and recruitment of volunteers into Re-engage's portfolio of services
- Carrying out any other reasonable tasks assigned to you by your line manager.
- You’ll be a proactive, solution-focused person with passion and skill for networking and building relationships. You’ll be experienced at building and maintaining effective relationships with referrers and social prescribers and will be a flexible, hands-on team player, who will deliver Re-engage's strategic objectives, values, behaviours, and working practices.
Knowledge, skills, and attributes
Essential
- Excellent people skills with a proven ability to network and collaborate with professionals, partners, older people, volunteers, and colleagues.
- Digital first approach with strong ability in all areas of working digitally.
- Experience of working across different sectors and developing links with other organisations.
- Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills
- Organised and methodical approach to work with strong administrative skills
- Enthusiastic about using technology to its full advantage to engage and recruit older people and volunteers and make data informed decisions.
- Self-motivated, able to work remotely with minimal supervision.
- Experience of working to deadlines and meeting KPIs and targets
- A positive ambassador for Re-engage - committed to an organisation that challenges ageism, empowers volunteers and recognises and values diversity.
- Able to work your own initiative as well as collaboratively as part of a team
- A clear understanding of safeguarding systems and processes and of confidentiality and the implications of GDPR when working with volunteers and older people.
Desirable
- Experience of community engagement or sales, including online engagement.
- Experience working in a target-driven work environment
- Skilled at building and maintaining effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders from the statutory, commercial, and voluntary sectors to deliver results.
- Interested in learning about loneliness, social isolation, and factors that impact the ageing population.
- Understanding of volunteer journey, including recruitment and engagement.
- Full driving license and own car preferred as this post will require regional travel as and when required and the occasional overnight stay.
- Understanding of, and empathy with, the issues affecting older people who are isolated, and lonely.
About Re-engage
Re-engage is a charity that is positive about older age and committed to reducing loneliness so that people can have social lives and friendship groups however old they are. We inspire and enable meaningful connections and shared experiences within communities across the UK for people over 75 facing loneliness and social isolation.
Our volunteers work together to create better communities and help to enrich the lives of our members. Older people who may have felt very alone now feel valued as individuals, continue to form friendships, and have groups that give support. We make sure that people know they are important well into their old age.
We are proud of our values - positive, innovative, transparent, evidence-based, and accountable - and of our ethos of bringing generations together.
Our vision is a world where no one is ever too old to make friends and enjoy social interaction.
Our mission is to work within communities to end social isolation and loneliness in older people.
Re-engage is committed to growing a staff team that enjoys coming to work every day and gets satisfaction out of being part of delivering significant impact to the lives of older people. We all work remotely, and we don’t let that stop us from getting to know each other and enjoying down time together. Our wellbeing programme includes multiple interest groups: music, books, hobbies etc as well as coffee and catch ups, quizzes, mindfulness, and other group activities. Everyone is encouraged to get involved in working groups and staff networks, all of which contribute to us getting to know each other. We have strong values and promote behaviours that underpin all we do.
How we recruit
Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Re-engage we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we’d encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Re-engage uses the Hireful platform which helps remove unconscious bias for a forward-thinking, fair, and objective alternative to traditional hiring. Instead of using your CV alone, we'll be asking you to answer questions to test essential skills needed for the role. The responses are then anonymised and reviewed in a random order by members of our team. This enables us to make data-driven assessments focused on someone's ability, rather than their background.
The Hireful platform also asks some demographic questions before you start your application. We never see these responses with your application. We only see summary statistics to help us check if our candidate pool is balanced and if everyone has an equal chance to get hired irrespective of their background. If you prefer, you can easily opt out of answering these questions.
We would rather AI wasn't used for your answers as we want the real you, however we do reserve the right to reject applications if we feel the use of AI has been excessive.
The closing date is midnight on 18 May 2025 and interviews will be held week commencing 26 May 2025 and week commencing 2 June 2025
REF-221405
Team: Engagement
Place of work: Home-based (within specified geographical area)
Benefits:
- Salary – £27,000 per annum
- 35 hours per week, Monday to Friday
- Home-based (with occasional UK travel)
- 26 days annual leave plus all Bank Holidays
- bhsf cash plan, 3% pension contribution, death in service insurance
- Learning and development opportunities, Employee Assistance Programme
Job summary
Reporting to the head of growth and sitting within the engagement team you will:
- recruit volunteers by promoting Re-engage’s services,
- develop effective relationships with new and existing referrers such as social prescribers and community link workers
- identify and cultivate new, innovative referral pathways to connect with a broader demographic of seniors experiencing social isolation and loneliness
- support the wider Re-engage team in the delivery of our grant funded projects
Engagement officer tasks and requirements
- Growing and developing our network of referral partners, including social prescribers and link workers, ensuring that Re-engage's work is promoted to people aged 75 who are experiencing social isolation and loneliness.
- Partnering with communities to create regular, volunteer led, social gatherings for people aged 75
- Utilise Re-engage's CRM (OPUS) to inform evidence-based, data-driven decision-making to develop effective engagement plans.
- Working closely with the service delivery team ensuring that the right people are recruited and engaged into the right roles, in the right place, and at the right times.
- Collaborating with the communications team ensuring the widest possible publicity for the region’s needs through media and social media opportunities, local press, radio, TV, and online forums.
- Liaising closely with the fundraising team delivering against recruitment targets linked to grants.
- Working with the fundraising team on proposals and grant applications using regional knowledge, identifying local need, and collecting case studies.
- Identifying speaking and presenting opportunities ensuring that Re-engage's work is promoted to referrers.
- Working effectively as part of a regional team, maintaining, and growing all Re-engage services.
- Joint accountability, with colleagues in the region, for the engagement of older people and recruitment of volunteers into Re-engage's portfolio of services
- Carrying out any other reasonable tasks assigned to you by your line manager.
- You’ll be a proactive, solution-focused person with passion and skill for networking and building relationships. You’ll be experienced at building and maintaining effective relationships with referrers and social prescribers and will be a flexible, hands-on team player, who will deliver Re-engage's strategic objectives, values, behaviours, and working practices.
Knowledge, skills, and attributes
Essential
- Excellent people skills with a proven ability to network and collaborate with professionals, partners, older people, volunteers, and colleagues.
- Digital first approach with strong ability in all areas of working digitally.
- Experience of working across different sectors and developing links with other organisations.
- Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills
- Organised and methodical approach to work with strong administrative skills
- Enthusiastic about using technology to its full advantage to engage and recruit older people and volunteers and make data informed decisions.
- Self-motivated, able to work remotely with minimal supervision.
- Experience of working to deadlines and meeting KPIs and targets
- A positive ambassador for Re-engage - committed to an organisation that challenges ageism, empowers volunteers and recognises and values diversity.
- Able to work your own initiative as well as collaboratively as part of a team
- A clear understanding of safeguarding systems and processes and of confidentiality and the implications of GDPR when working with volunteers and older people.
Desirable
- Experience of community engagement or sales, including online engagement.
- Experience working in a target-driven work environment
- Skilled at building and maintaining effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders from the statutory, commercial, and voluntary sectors to deliver results.
- Interested in learning about loneliness, social isolation, and factors that impact the ageing population.
- Understanding of volunteer journey, including recruitment and engagement.
- Full driving license and own car preferred as this post will require regional travel as and when required and the occasional overnight stay.
- Understanding of, and empathy with, the issues affecting older people who are isolated, and lonely.
About Re-engage
Re-engage is a charity that is positive about older age and committed to reducing loneliness so that people can have social lives and friendship groups however old they are. We inspire and enable meaningful connections and shared experiences within communities across the UK for people over 75 facing loneliness and social isolation.
Our volunteers work together to create better communities and help to enrich the lives of our members. Older people who may have felt very alone now feel valued as individuals, continue to form friendships, and have groups that give support. We make sure that people know they are important well into their old age.
We are proud of our values - positive, innovative, transparent, evidence-based, and accountable - and of our ethos of bringing generations together.
Our vision is a world where no one is ever too old to make friends and enjoy social interaction.
Our mission is to work within communities to end social isolation and loneliness in older people.
Re-engage is committed to growing a staff team that enjoys coming to work every day and gets satisfaction out of being part of delivering significant impact to the lives of older people. We all work remotely, and we don’t let that stop us from getting to know each other and enjoying down time together. Our wellbeing programme includes multiple interest groups: music, books, hobbies etc as well as coffee and catch ups, quizzes, mindfulness, and other group activities. Everyone is encouraged to get involved in working groups and staff networks, all of which contribute to us getting to know each other. We have strong values and promote behaviours that underpin all we do.
How we recruit
Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Re-engage we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we’d encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Re-engage uses the Hireful platform which helps remove unconscious bias for a forward-thinking, fair, and objective alternative to traditional hiring. Instead of using your CV alone, we'll be asking you to answer questions to test essential skills needed for the role. The responses are then anonymised and reviewed in a random order by members of our team. This enables us to make data-driven assessments focused on someone's ability, rather than their background.
The Hireful platform also asks some demographic questions before you start your application. We never see these responses with your application. We only see summary statistics to help us check if our candidate pool is balanced and if everyone has an equal chance to get hired irrespective of their background. If you prefer, you can easily opt out of answering these questions.
We would rather AI wasn't used for your answers as we want the real you, however we do reserve the right to reject applications if we feel the use of AI has been excessive.
The closing date is midnight on 18 May 2025 and interviews will be held week commencing 26 May 2025 and week commencing 2 June 2025
REF-221404
Team: Engagement
Place of work: Home-based (within specified geographical area)
Benefits
- Salary – £13,500 per annum PTE
- 17.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday
- Home-based (with occasional UK travel)
- 26 days annual leave plus all Bank Holidays
- bhsf cash plan, 3% pension contribution, death in service insurance
- Learning and development opportunities, Employee Assistance Programme
Job summary
Reporting to the head of growth and sitting within the engagement team you will:
- recruit volunteers by promoting Re-engage’s services,
- develop effective relationships with new and existing referrers such as social prescribers and community link workers
- identify and cultivate new, innovative referral pathways to connect with a broader demographic of seniors experiencing social isolation and loneliness
- support the wider Re-engage team in the delivery of our grant funded projects
Engagement officer tasks and requirements
- Growing and developing our network of referral partners, including social prescribers and link workers, ensuring that Re-engage's work is promoted to people aged 75 who are experiencing social isolation and loneliness.
- Partnering with communities to create regular, volunteer led, social gatherings for people aged 75
- Utilise Re-engage's CRM (OPUS) to inform evidence-based, data-driven decision-making to develop effective engagement plans.
- Working closely with the service delivery team ensuring that the right people are recruited and engaged into the right roles, in the right place, and at the right times.
- Collaborating with the communications team ensuring the widest possible publicity for the region’s needs through media and social media opportunities, local press, radio, TV, and online forums.
- Liaising closely with the fundraising team delivering against recruitment targets linked to grants.
- Working with the fundraising team on proposals and grant applications using regional knowledge, identifying local need, and collecting case studies.
- Identifying speaking and presenting opportunities ensuring that Re-engage's work is promoted to referrers.
- Working effectively as part of a regional team, maintaining, and growing all Re-engage services.
- Joint accountability, with colleagues in the region, for the engagement of older people and recruitment of volunteers into Re-engage's portfolio of services
- Carrying out any other reasonable tasks assigned to you by your line manager.
- You’ll be a proactive, solution-focused person with passion and skill for networking and building relationships. You’ll be experienced at building and maintaining effective relationships with referrers and social prescribers and will be a flexible, hands-on team player, who will deliver Re-engage's strategic objectives, values, behaviours, and working practices.
Knowledge, skills, and attributes
Essential
- Excellent people skills with a proven ability to network and collaborate with professionals, partners, older people, volunteers, and colleagues.
- Digital first approach with strong ability in all areas of working digitally.
- Experience of working across different sectors and developing links with other organisations.
- Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills
- Organised and methodical approach to work with strong administrative skills
- Enthusiastic about using technology to its full advantage to engage and recruit older people and volunteers and make data informed decisions.
- Self-motivated, able to work remotely with minimal supervision.
- Experience of working to deadlines and meeting KPIs and targets
- A positive ambassador for Re-engage - committed to an organisation that challenges ageism, empowers volunteers and recognises and values diversity.
- Able to work your own initiative as well as collaboratively as part of a team
- A clear understanding of safeguarding systems and processes and of confidentiality and the implications of GDPR when working with volunteers and older people.
Desirable
- Experience of community engagement or sales, including online engagement.
- Experience working in a target-driven work environment
- Skilled at building and maintaining effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders from the statutory, commercial, and voluntary sectors to deliver results.
- Interested in learning about loneliness, social isolation, and factors that impact the ageing population.
- Understanding of volunteer journey, including recruitment and engagement.
- Full driving license and own car preferred as this post will require regional travel as and when required and the occasional overnight stay.
- Understanding of, and empathy with, the issues affecting older people who are isolated, and lonely.
About Re-engage
Re-engage is a charity that is positive about older age and committed to reducing loneliness so that people can have social lives and friendship groups however old they are. We inspire and enable meaningful connections and shared experiences within communities across the UK for people over 75 facing loneliness and social isolation.
Our volunteers work together to create better communities and help to enrich the lives of our members. Older people who may have felt very alone now feel valued as individuals, continue to form friendships, and have groups that give support. We make sure that people know they are important well into their old age.
We are proud of our values - positive, innovative, transparent, evidence-based, and accountable - and of our ethos of bringing generations together.
Our vision is a world where no one is ever too old to make friends and enjoy social interaction.
Our mission is to work within communities to end social isolation and loneliness in older people.
Re-engage is committed to growing a staff team that enjoys coming to work every day and gets satisfaction out of being part of delivering significant impact to the lives of older people. We all work remotely, and we don’t let that stop us from getting to know each other and enjoying down time together. Our wellbeing programme includes multiple interest groups: music, books, hobbies etc as well as coffee and catch ups, quizzes, mindfulness, and other group activities. Everyone is encouraged to get involved in working groups and staff networks, all of which contribute to us getting to know each other. We have strong values and promote behaviours that underpin all we do.
How we recruit
Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Re-engage we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we’d encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Re-engage uses the Hireful platform which helps remove unconscious bias for a forward-thinking, fair, and objective alternative to traditional hiring. Instead of using your CV alone, we'll be asking you to answer questions to test essential skills needed for the role. The responses are then anonymised and reviewed in a random order by members of our team. This enables us to make data-driven assessments focused on someone's ability, rather than their background.
The Hireful platform also asks some demographic questions before you start your application. We never see these responses with your application. We only see summary statistics to help us check if our candidate pool is balanced and if everyone has an equal chance to get hired irrespective of their background. If you prefer, you can easily opt out of answering these questions.
We would rather AI wasn't used for your answers as we want the real you, however we do reserve the right to reject applications if we feel the use of AI has been excessive.
The closing date is midnight on 18 May 2025 and interviews will be held week commencing 26 May 2025 and week commencing 2 June 2025
REF-221403