Director of services and influencing jobs

The Policy and Public Affairs team focuses on political engagement to help deliver against the Our Voice strategic priorities. With the Government having recently published a new Animal Welfare Strategy, we have a strong platform from which to try and influence change, especially in light of changing trends when it comes to attitudes towards pet ownership.

The Policy and Public Affairs team has a strong track record of delivering legislative change in recent years, and the Public Affairs Officer role has a key part to play in our day-to-day work of engaging and persuading political stakeholders.

The main responsibilities of the role are:

• Help deliver policy and legislative change for Battersea through effective engagement with relevant political stakeholders.
• Build and grow a network of parliamentary advocates for Battersea across the political parties.
• Help assess and demonstrate the impact of the team’s work, overseeing the team’s impact mapping project, and updating and maintaining reporting records.
• Improve co-ordination with other teams across Battersea to make advocacy work more efficient and effective

What we can offer you:

In return for your commitment to our cause and to recognise the value of our employees, Battersea offers a range of benefits to support the wellbeing of our employees. These include:

• 28 days of annual leave (plus 8 days paid public holidays) per year.
• Discounted gym memberships and cycle to work schemes.
• Employee Assistance Programme and access to Wellbeing Resources.
• Generous pension contributions - up to 10% employer contribution.
• Free healthcare cash plan, where you can claim for a range of treatment including dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropody and acupuncture every year.
• Annual interest-free season ticket loans.

We are also committed to providing learning and development to our employees. During your time with us, we provide support for your professional and career development, including access to digital and in-person training programmes, leadership and management training, mentoring and much more.

Our hybrid working model:

We operate a 50% onsite hybrid working model, with our office-based staff splitting their time between site based and home working. This enables our office-based staff to balance the benefits of home working with onsite collaboration and maintaining a connection to our cause.

Diversity and inclusion:

We are committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive experience for all staff, volunteers and trustees and those hoping to join us. We operate an anonymised shortlisting process and actively seek to ensure our process is fair and equitable for all.

We understand the value of diverse voices, perspectives, and experiences to help us deliver even more for our dogs and cats, and we welcome applicants from all sections of the community.

As a Disability Confident Committed Employer we will ask about any adjustments you may need at application and/or interview stage, and if you are offered a role with us, we’ll talk to you about any workplace adjustments you may need to help you perform at your best. Greyscale copies of the recruitment pack are also available on request.

More about us:

At Battersea, we aim to never turn away a dog or cat in need of help. We give each one lots of love, expert care and get to know their characters and quirks so we can find them a new home that’s just right for them. Join us and help us be here for every dog and cat, wherever they are, for as long as they need us.

Acceptable use of AI:

At Battersea, we value expertise. We recognise each candidate that applies to us will have a range of expertise they can offer us, so we want to hear about this in your own words. We understand the support that generative artificial intelligence (AI) software can offer but it can also lead to numerous applications presenting as generic and impersonal. This makes it difficult to gain understanding of your unique experience.

To best showcase yourself, we encourage you to write your responses without the assistance of AI. If you require the use of AI software to aid in completing your application, we ask you use the generative responses as a prompt for writing your answers and avoid copying and pasting. You must also ensure the information presented in your application accurately reflects your experience.

Closing date: 17th August 2026
All applications must be submitted before the closing date advertised. We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications is received.

Interview date(s): Week Commencing 31st August 2026 (Online) - To Be Confirmed

For more information about the role, please download our Recruitment pack.

We can’t fix issues like poverty, inequality, health and climate change alone. We are fully conscious of the scale of the challenge that faces the country and the urgent need to respond. That’s why the School for Social Entrepreneurs exists, to empower and equip people with entrepreneurial ideas and solutions to grow the social economy. The social economy is a movement of organisations and enterprises that prioritise people and planet. Together, we are committed to tackling the greatest social and environmental challenges of our time.This is a new and exciting role at a significant time of growth for the School for Social Entrepreneurs. In the coming year. we are developing new programmes, working with leaders who are developing small community led social and environmental projects as well as leading larger charities and social businesses developing social investment and housing solutions.

We’re not a traditional funder. Our grants tend to be small, but they punch above their weight, helping social and environmental entrepreneurs take the next step to grow their organisations. Our grants run alongside learning programmes, challenging and supporting leaders. We’re innovative in how we do this, through both traditional and enterprise grants. We lead on Match Trading™, a grant that challenges leaders to grow their trading income, and we are working on further grants innovations.

You will work with our Grants Team, Project Co-ordinators and Assessment Lead to develop and support grant management across a range of programmes. Your role will be to lead on specific programmes, including supporting assessment, onboarding and grant management. You will ensure that grantees are fully supported to manage their grants and ensure that grant management is compliant, auditable, efficient, and timely. You will support the development of grant policies and processes, writing grant paperwork and documentation, overseeing payments, and reporting to the wider Programmes Team and others about our work.

You don’t need to have managed grants before, but you do need to have a good understanding of a wide range enterprises and charities, gained through experience of training, business consultancy or development support. You will have a good understanding of business models, legal structures and financial systems that social and environmental organisations and community run and owned businesses may use. You will need to understand social enterprise finances, be able to read accounts, budgets, cashflows and have a good knowledge of social enterprise income streams.

We need someone who understands how hard it is to start up and grow social and environmental enterprises and can support people from diverse backgrounds in managing their grant, finances and growing their business.

Are you up for the challenge?

Interviews: Friday 18th and Friday 25th September (online)

We are looking for a communications officer on a 12 month fixed term contract to cover an internal secondment within our team. You will be an enthusiastic, creative individual who wants to pursue a career in communications. You will be excited by the prospect of improving and maximising our communications impact. 

You may be in the earlier stages of developing your career in communications and will be keen to learn, develop and hone a wide range of skills in digital communications, media, events management and publication production. Interest in and understanding of environmental policy and politics would be an asset. 

You will need excellent interpersonal skills as you will regularly liaise with our staff and support them in communicating their work. 

As an unflappable multi-tasker, you will be someone who enjoys managing varied work and who takes great pride in producing content to the highest standard and takes pleasure in achieving success as part of a team.  Attention to detail and sound judgement are vital in this role to maintain Green Alliance’s brand integrity. 

We’re seeking a self-motivated, creative, practical person to join our garden makeover team. Working on one of our flagship charitable programmes known as ‘Helping Hands’ this is an immensely rewarding role which has a direct impact on families we support.

This is a unique and diverse role which involves liaising with our families and then designing and delivering personalised garden makeovers for them with teams of corporate volunteers supporting. The end outcome of these projects enables children and young people with complex health needs to access their outside spaces safely which makes a huge difference to their quality of life. Many of these children struggle to leave the home environment, so a safe and accessible garden space is essential to get them outside.

For some examples of the incredible work and positive impact our Helping Hands Team have had on our families through these projects see our website: Transforming home & garden spaces | WellChild
We are also fully committed to upskilling and training the right person to enable them to do this role.

A bit about us:

WellChild, based in Cheltenham, is the national charity for seriously ill children and their families. Through a range of practical and emotional support, training and information programmes, WellChild gives children and young people with complex medical needs the best chance to thrive at home.

Purpose of the Role:

The garden makeover (Helping Hands) team provides practical support to families by enlisting the help of corporate volunteer teams from companies across the UK to undertake one-off improvement projects to create safe, accessible sensory gardens for children and young people with complex health needs.

There are six key parts to this role:

1) Meeting with our beneficiary families to identify the needs for their outside space. Using empathy and active listening to ensure you can gather all the relevant information for a successful transformation.

2) Project design and procurement of materials to deliver a suitable space, that not only meets the beneficiaries needs, but is also delivered within our time and budget specifications.

3) Compile all relevant project documentation and engage with the allocated team of corporate volunteers.

4) Deliver your design over two days (which may include overnight stays depending on project location) with an enthusiastic but often unskilled group of corporate volunteers. You will need to inspire and empower these teams in all elements of the delivery of your project and be the subject matter expert as the sole representative on site from WellChild.

5) Complete post makeover administration on our equipment and communication with the corporate volunteers.

6) Management of each makeover’s financial budgets, for equipment, materials, travel, accommodation as well as a joint monthly tool and equipment budget.

Fairly regularly to complete these garden makeovers, there is a degree of working away from home. For example, you might work on a five-week rotation consisting of two weeks conducting one makeover, over two days, each week. This is predominantly over the Spring and Summer seasons. The remaining time is utilised to undertake site visits and plan for upcoming projects with a hybrid home/office balance. Garden makeovers are completed nationwide so long and frequent travel can be required, and to compensate for this we offer a flexible TOIL policy. Over the Winter months, the role is more office based, with review of risk assessments, and planning of Spring projects. Some project preparation may be required at our store in Innsworth.

You will be able to:

• Demonstrate professional/practical DIY skills including hard landscaping to very tight deadlines
• Provide Inspiration, tutoring and leadership to the groups of volunteers to empower them in using new skills.
• Confidently build relationships quickly in order to communicate effectively, appropriately and clearly with a wide range of people.
• Prioritise own workload and meet tight deadlines, often having to be adaptable and think on your feet in order to make makeovers a success and completed on time.
• Be empathetic and sensitive to a wide range of needs and experiences.
• Develop and implement new, creative, ideas in order to deliver the best outcomes for the makeovers and our families.
• Demonstrate resilience, adaptability and the ability to balance a fast-paced workload with clear forward planning and an eye for detail.

You will have:

• A passion for helping others.
• A desire and commitment to build and deliver the very best results for our beneficiaries.
• Strong communication and organisational skills
• Effectively prioritise and work calmly under pressure
• A good understanding of budgets and competent Microsoft Office user
• A full UK driving license, able to drive a van.

For the full role details please see enclosed advert and Job description documents and contact details for an infomal chat about the role - We will be reviewing applications as they come in for this role and may close it early should we receive sufficient applications.