Governance manager jobs in central bedfordshire, hampshire

Location: Hybrid (can be based from either our Head office, The Grange, Saunderton, Buckinghamshire or from our Northern Centre in Bielby, York)

About us

National charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, trains dogs to transform the lives of deaf people and provides hearing loss services – because nobody with hearing loss should feel alone.

About the role

Are you a visionary leader with a passion for using insight to create meaningful impact? Are you ready to shape the future of services for people with hearing loss?

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People is seeking a dynamic and strategic Head of Impact to lead on insight, evaluation, and innovation within our Service Design and Development team. You will play a vital role in ensuring that the voices of deaf people and those with hearing loss are heard, embedded, and acted upon throughout our services – helping us to deliver on our mission of connection, confidence, and companionship.

What you’ll be doing:

• Develop and lead our Insight, Impact and Evaluation strategy, showcasing the difference our services make
• Drive innovation and service improvement by identifying trends, conducting research, and proposing evidence-based change
• Lead user research initiatives, gathering and translating insights into action in collaboration with people with hearing loss, volunteers, and partners
• Create powerful data stories through visualisations, narratives, and case studies for a range of audiences
• Work closely with Service Design colleagues to shape business cases and proposals that align with strategic goals
• Partner with Fundraising to build evidence-based cases for support, demonstrating real-world impact
• Build and maintain robust data systems with IT, enabling effective insight capture and reporting
• Equip service delivery leaders with tools to continuously gather, evaluate, and embed insight into practice

About you

You are a curious, collaborative, and impact-driven individual with a track record of leading insight and innovation work in a similar setting. You bring a balance of strategic thinking and hands-on delivery, and you’re excited by the opportunity to make a difference.

Skills and experience:

• Proven expertise in impact measurement, user research, and data storytelling – translating insight into meaningful change
• Experienced in leading and embedding impact evaluation frameworks across organisations, transforming how success is defined, measured, and acted upon
• Strong leadership and stakeholder engagement skills – able to influence, collaborate, and drive cross-functional improvement
• Confident in managing innovation and change – identifying trends, embedding evidence-led decision-making, and coaching others to do the same

 Why join us?

At Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, your work has direct impact on the lives of those we support. You’ll join a warm, mission-led organisation where innovation is encouraged, and your voice matters. In this role, you’ll shape how we listen, learn, and grow.

How to apply

As part of the recruitment process, we are requesting:

• A comprehensive CV
• A supporting statement that addresses Knowledge, Skills, Strengths and Behaviours and tells us why you are particularly interested in the role. (Maximum of 2 sides of A4)

Closing date: 27 June 2025

For full information on this role, including the key responsibilities and person specification, please view the job pack.

Applications close at 23:59 on Sunday 6th July 2025.

The Organisation

ImpactEd Group supports education and purpose-driven organisations to maximise their potential. We do this by helping our partners to be consistently impactful and operationally sustainable. ImpactEd Group is made up of ImpactEd Consulting and its specialist practices, ImpactEd Evaluation, ImpactEd Philanthropy and our most recent practice ImpactEd Data and Artificial Intelligence. 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. Since being founded in 2017, ImpactEd Group has worked with thousands of schools and hundreds of organisations, serving more than a quarter of a million pupils annually. Our strategy commits to systemic impact by helping our partners to make better decisions. We also empower our team to make decisions on behalf of the organisation as part of our aspirations for employee ownership.

The Opportunity

The Director role is a new opportunity working across ImpactEd Evaluation. 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.

As a Director, you will be a senior leader of the evaluation practice and a statutory director on our Practice Board. Reflecting this, you will have a key role in the success of the practice, both commercially and in terms of social impact, and help to shape and deliver the strategy for ImpactEd Evaluation as a practice within ImpactEd Group, reporting to the Practice Lead.

The role will be a combination of business development, oversight and support of evaluation delivery, and strategic responsibilities. You will lead a number of sales and marketing campaigns, and support the design and delivery of our product offerings within those areas, as well as other priority strategic projects. You will also lead on a small number of high-priority partner engagements directly, and play a significant role in overseeing and quality assuring partnerships led by others.

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

Why Us?

As an organisation we care about creating a meaningful place to work and supporting people to grow personally and professionally. These are reflected in our organisational values and our commitments to:

• Agile and flexible working: responsive management, flexible hours, hybrid or fully remote working

• Personal excellence: we invest significantly in professional development, including an external mentor, an individual CPD budget, and formal and informal training and support

• Mental health and wellbeing: access to health and wellbeing advice and free therapist support.

As a growing organisation we are committed to diversity and inclusion and providing a positive experience of work and maintain an annual EDI action plan, supported by a Board sponsor.

This is an exciting opportunity to steer Asylum Aid at an important time in its 30-year existence. As Executive Director you will be responsible for delivering on our strategy for impact. You will oversee our work to increase access to expert, trauma-informed legal representation to those in the asylum, trafficking and statelessness systems and lead our policy and strategic legal work to achieve systemic change that contributes towards our vision.

You will line manage the Director of Legal Casework to oversee the provision of supportive and enabling leadership to Asylum Aid caseworkers so that they can continue to deliver high quality expert advice in complex cases, while being supported in their professional development and wellbeing. You will also manage and develop the work of our welfare advice team within the Westminster Advice Services Partnership and beyond, and work collaboratively with colleagues in the sector to build capacity and increase our impact. 

The ideal candidate, who may be legally qualified, will have experience of leadership in the charity/NGO sector and a sound understanding of the asylum, human rights and trafficking processes in the UK and the legal frameworks which govern the protection of refugees, survivors of trafficking and stateless people, and of the role of law in achieving system change.

We are looking for someone who is strategically minded and passionate about providing supportive and inclusive leadership to our expert team. You will be committed to our objectives and to the role which expert legal representation plays in enabling people in need of protection in the UK to obtain it.

As is the nature of this sector, the role may be exposed to a high volume of traumatic and distressing material and, whilst they will be supported by the Helen Bamber Foundation Group CEO and surrounding team, the candidate should also be able to demonstrate knowledge of good self-care principles in an intense work environment and dissemination of those principles to junior members of the team.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership and strategy

·Be responsible, with the support of the Helen Bamber Foundation Group CEO, for the development, implementation and monitoring of Asylum Aid’s organisational strategy

·Provide leadership and strategic direction at Asylum Aid in accordance with its aims and objectives, with the support of the Director of Legal Casework

·Act as external spokesperson for Asylum Aid, maintaining and strengthening Asylum Aid’s position as a leader in the refugee rights, statelessness and legal aid sectors;

·Work collaboratively with others in the sector to promote and strengthen Asylum Aid’s work, identify and establish potential partnerships, with the support of the Director of Legal Casework;

·Work collaboratively with the Helen Bamber Foundation Group CEO and Executive Leadership team to drive the implementation of the Group strategic framework;

·Ensure that all reporting and monitoring requirements are met to support fundraising, contract compliance and monitoring strategic impact;

·Support the cross collaboration of the Asylum Aid team with the Helen Bamber Foundation team and play an active part in the management of the Helen Bamber Foundation Group.

Governance  

·Act as the Data Protection Supervisor with responsibility for data protection and cyber security within Asylum Aid

·Together with the Helen Bamber Foundation Group CEO and designated safeguarding leads, be responsible for child and adult safeguarding within Asylum Aid

·In collaboration with the Director of Legal Casework, ensure compliance by Asylum Aid with all legal and regulatory obligations, including the Legal Aid Agency contract, the Immigration Advice Authority and Solicitors Regulation Authority;

·Lead on the preparation and presentation of quarterly reports on Asylum Aid’s activities, strategy and risks to the Asylum Aid Board, the Finance and Fundraising Committee and the People and Governance Committee;

·Lead on the preparation of the Trustees’ annual report and ensure that monitoring and evaluation systems are adequate to enable reporting on Asylum Aid’s activities and impact.

Management and Supervision 

·Responsible for line management of the Director of Legal Casework and Welfare Advice service coordinator, and other team supervisors as required;

·Together with the Group Director of People, responsible for Human Resources and implementation of the People Strategy within Asylum Aid, including development and implementation of HR policies and procedures;

·Together with the Director of Legal Casework and team supervisors, drive the effective management and supervision of the Asylum Aid team and ensure that they comply with relevant professional standards and accreditation;

·Foster a supportive and inclusive team culture at Asylum Aid in which each member feels valued and supported to develop professionally and to perform to the best of their ability;

·Ensure the team’s well-being and that self-care practices are established and work in tandem with the Director of Legal Casework and supervisors to ensure trauma-informed ways of working.

Policy & Strategic Legal Work

·Together with the Group Director of Policy, identify policy priorities and coordinate the preparation of evidence and briefings drawing on Asylum Aid’s experience and expertise to influence system change;

·Build and maintain relationships and partnerships with sector colleagues to support joint strategic engagement including policy advocacy and strategic legal work;

·Work closely with the Director of Legal Casework and team supervisors to drive changes in the UK asylum, trafficking and statelessness systems through strategic legal work.

Finance & Fundraising

·Work closely with the CEO and the Helen Bamber Foundation Group Finance Team to set and manage budget(s) and general financial matters for Asylum Aid

·Together with the Director of Legal Casework and the Group Finance Team, establish systems for monitoring legal aid Work In Progress and billing, and securing casework income including legal aid, and inter partes income from judicial review cases;

·Work closely with the Helen Bamber Foundation Group Fundraising and Communications Team to secure funding for Asylum Aid from a range of sources including trusts and foundations, corporate philanthropy and major donors;

·Ensure that Legal Aid and other income is maximised, and targets are achieved.

Other duties

·Manage the recruitment and supervision of volunteers where necessary in collaboration with the Helen Bamber Foundation Group Volunteers Coordinator;

·Support the Helen Bamber Foundation Group Facilities team to ensure the smooth running of the office and that the facilities meet the needs of Asylum Aid;

·Work outside normal office hours as required and travel in order to carry out the responsibilities of the post.

·To undertake any task that may be requested from time to time that may be consistent with the nature and scope of this post.

Essential Experience, Skills and Knowledge

•Experience of running a small to medium sized charity/legal NGO and/or legal department within the NGO sector (or other equivalent senior management role);

•Demonstrable experience of managing and leading a successful team and the ability to manage a growing team with mixed roles from team supervisors to administrative support staff, working co-operatively with colleagues to maintain transparency and effective working relationships within the team;

•Strong communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with people from a wide range of backgrounds

•Strong understanding of good governance including legal, regulatory and financial responsibilities;

•Ability to work with a range of stakeholders from trustees to external partners;

•Experience of leading and/or participating in organisational strategic planning;

·Experience of legal policy work within the human rights field and /or of strategic litigation, whether as an NGO claimant or legal representative;

•Experience of managing diverse funding sources and setting and implementing budgets;

•Experience of working in a service delivery partnership with other organisations;

•Experience of fundraising, especially grants from trusts and foundations;

•Sound working knowledge of the law and policy as it relates to immigration,  asylum, human rights and modern slavery/trafficking;

•Demonstrable understanding of the asylum and human rights sector in the UK;

•An understanding of the barriers migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers face regarding access to legal advice, reasons why they may become destitute and why this makes it more difficult to access advice and support; and

•The passion for working empathetically and supportively with migrants, refugees, stateless people and asylum seekers.

Desirable Experience

·Experience of managing the delivery of frontline casework with people in the asylum or trafficking systems

·Experience of tendering for and delivering publicly funded contracts e.g. LAA or local authority funding;

·Working knowledge of Legal Aid Agency contracts, including the delivery of casework and billing under a legal aid contract in the immigration and asylum category and/or the public law category;

How to apply 

The first stage is to complete on our online application form on our website by 9am on 23 June 2025.

The website form will ask you to:

1.Upload a short covering letter. Please tell us why the position appeals to you, and how your relevant skills and experience, including any voluntary experience and lived experience, matches the listed responsibilities and person specification. Please also state in your covering letter when you would be available to start the role.

2.Upload your current CV

3.Complete an online Equal Opportunities monitoring form – completion of this form will help us ensure that our recruitment procedures operate in such a way as to provide genuine equality of opportunity. The questions are entirely optional, and this information will not be available to members of the selection panel.

For an informal conversation about the post before applying, please contact Alison Pickup, the current Executive Director.

Selection Process

We anticipate that we will invite candidates to an initial online interview on Wednesday 3rd July 2025, followed by shortlisted candidates attending in-person interviews at our office in Old Street on Wednesday 9 July 2025.

We regret that we can only respond to applicants who make it to the interview stage.

We offer a guaranteed initial interview for refugees, stateless people and others with lived experience of forced migration, provided that they meet at least 50% of the essential criteria.

Eligibility

Please note that the successful candidate must have the right to work in the UK (as a small charity we do not have the capacity to sponsor work visas).

Successful candidates will also be subject to a basic DBS check. If appointed, you will also be required to give your consent to the charity to receive regular updates on your criminal records status throughout your employment and to disclose any relevant convictions incurred during your time with us.

Adjustments

We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we’ll always endeavour to be as accommodating as possible. If you require a different format of the application form, such as large print or Word format, or if you would like to discuss any specific requirements, please get in touch with us.

EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Our commitment to principles of equity, diversity and inclusion is an integral part of our approach to our clients, our volunteers and our staff, and we are an equal opportunities and Living Wage employer.

We are committed to attracting and recruiting diverse candidates because we are keen to make sure that our staff, trustees, volunteers and ambassadors reflect the communities we serve and the wider community we work in.

We genuinely welcome and encourage applications from candidates from a range of backgrounds, especially people of colour, people with disabilities, people from low socio-economic backgrounds, refugees, stateless people and others with lived experience of forced migration or trauma and of the housing and welfare system, who are under-represented in our organisation.

We recognise and value the role of lived experience in meeting the needs of our clients and acknowledge the under-representation of people with lived experience of forced migration and statelessness in the advice sector. We value experience gained overseas as well as in the UK.

We are also proud to be a member of the Experts by Experience Employment Network which aims to increase representation of people with lived experience in the charitable sector.

If you are an expert by experience (a refugee or a migrant with direct, first-hand experience of issues and challenges of the UK asylum or immigration system), you can ask for an independent and confidential support for your job application from the Experts by Experience Employment Network and access other information and resources which may help in preparing your job application.

Please complete the form on their website to request support and they will confirm if they can match you with a mentor to support your application.

The Gender & Peacebuilding Adviser will work within Gender Team and Policy and Advocacy Team to deliver Saferworld’s gender, peace and security (GPS) and gender equality strategy with a focus on ensuring strong links between organisational programmes, research, comms and GPS advocacy at all levels. They will provide technical support in the following areas:

• In close coordination with the Senior Gender Adviser and the Global Policy and Advocacy team lead on the development of GPS advocacy strategies and tools that can be used to effectively influence change beyond direct programmatic impact.
• Advise on producing and disseminating research and analysis and supporting programme and policy teams to produce, disseminate and implement this analysis within a gender-transformative approach.
• Support gender-focused advocacy and communications efforts at sub-national, national, regional and international levels, with a focus on ensuring local and national learning and analysis to feed into and shape international GPS research, policy and advocacy priorities
•  Connect programmatic issues and global policy, advocacy and communications on GPS to ensure they are complementary and conducive to external change based on evidence from the ground; the post-holder will lead an organisational vision and process to ensure advocates across Saferworld work together to increase our collective impact and contribute to collective learning on GPS, in close coordination with the Global Policy and Advocacy Team (GPA).
• Provide advice and support for the implementation of Saferworld’s Gender Equality Strategy in programmes across the organisation, working with country teams and with gender coordinators, advisors and focal points. Provide capacity-strengthening initiatives and coordinate Gender Reference Group meetings, brown bags, and information exchange sessions to facilitate internal knowledge sharing.

The post-holder will be committed to inclusive ways of working, with a strong understanding of working in multi- cultural settings and accompanying people and processes, including partner organisations. They will support Saferworld’s international programmes and global policy teams to increase Saferworld’s collective influence and impact on gender peace and security through strategic research and advocacy

Closing Date: 20 June 2025

These are innovative roles to develop social prescribing in the local NHS. Based in one of the six Primary Care Networks (PCN) you will work in different GP practices across that Network to deliver their specific priorities. You will join a team of ten Social Prescribing Link Workers working in Haringey PCNs and be part of a wider community-based Borough team which offers information, signposting and short-term support across the eight localities in Haringey.

Social prescribing empowers people to take control of their health and wellbeing through referral to non-medical Social Prescribing Link Workers, who give time, focus on ‘what matters to me’ and take a holistic approach, connecting people to community groups and statutory services for practical and emotional support.

Social prescribing can help to strengthen community resilience and personal resilience and reduces health inequalities by addressing the wider determinants of health, such as debt, poor housing and physical inactivity, by increasing people’s active involvement with their local communities. It particularly works for people with long-term conditions (including support for mental health), for people who are lonely or isolated, or have complex social needs which affect their wellbeing.

At the centre of the social prescribing process is the Social Prescribing Link Worker, working with GP Practices in a Primary Care Network, who connects patients who are referred to a range of activities and services in the local area depending on their needs, interests and capacity for engagement. This is a complex role as the SPLW will need to have good interpersonal skills to engage with the patient and have a comprehensive knowledge of the services and activities available in the local area.