Head Of Communications And External Affairs Jobs in Coventry, West Midlands
We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Head of Public Affairs and Advocacy to join our team in Birmingham, with hybrid working (two days a week in our Birmingham office and three days working from home). In return, you will receive a competitive salary of £40,560 - £45,000 per annum depending on experience.
NGA is an independent, not-for-profit national membership organisation for state school governors, trustees and governance professionals in England. Our work aims to improve the educational standards and wellbeing of young people by increasing the effectiveness of governing boards and promoting high standards. As expert leaders in school and academy governance, we provide information, advice, guidance, professional development and e-learning.
About the role:
The role of Head of Public Affairs and Advocacy would suit candidates who are visionary leaders, passionate about transforming education and governance across England. NGA are looking for a candidate who will be able to innovate and enhance our current outreach and influence at national level, maintaining NGA’s reputation as the go-to authoritative voice on school and trust governance. As the role is new to the organisation, the ideal candidate will have considerable experience of developing an external affairs programme and leading on parliamentary work, harnessing the voice of NGA members to develop the advocacy strategies. Excellent project management and communications skills and the ability to work to strict deadlines are essential.
Benefits of working for NGA:
- Annual leave entitlement of 25 days (FTE) increasing to 27 with continuous service, 8 days bank holiday and 3 days Christmas closure, with the ability to buy and sell annual leave
- Employer contribution pension scheme at 7%
- Hybrid working (between our Birmingham office and home working) and other flexible working arrangements on request
- Wellbeing support through our employee assistance programme
- A healthy training and development budget (CPD) with a wide range of learning and development opportunities
- A commitment to environmental sustainability includes a cycle to work scheme and encouragement to use public transport, including railcards
Key responsibilities of our Head of Public Affairs and Advocacy:
- Development and delivery of programme of advocacy and influence
- Craft and implement effective strategies to influence national education and governance related policy and practice, working closely with NGA’s chief executive and Deputy chief executive
- Maintain effective oversight of NGA’s PR activity
- Ensuring NGA positions, research findings and recommendations are well defined and effectively articulated through impactful messaging
- Ensure invitations to address external events are taken by and used to their best extent to further governance practice and our policy positions
- Oversight and development of NGA’s campaigns
- Lead of the development and, with the Senior Policy Officer, the delivery of NGA’s specific campaigns to influence policy and practice for example NGA’s Visible Governance, Funding the Future 2024 and Everyone on Board campaigns
- Managing NGA’s parliamentary work
- Establish a strategy for NGA’s parliamentary focus, driving NGA’s political engagement and related activities
- Monitor parliamentary business on a weekly basis to identify issues arising and opportunities to engage parliamentarians in discussion and debate about education policy and school governance
- Oversight of NGA Member voice and events
- Working with NGA’s Event Coordinator and SLT to ensure plans are in place, implemented effectively to budget and events evaluated to ensure member voice is both heard and acted upon
- Oversight of NGA’s webinar and podcast programme, ensuring these engage members and the wider sector on NGA’s policy and practice priorities and messaging
- Contributing to NGA’s policy, information and research work
What we’re looking for in our ideal Head of Public Affairs and Advocacy:
- Experience in public affairs, developing and implementing impactful external affairs strategies
- Experience of influencing public policy and/or parliamentary business
- Educated to degree level or equivalent, or similar ability gained through work experience relevant to the role
- Excellent understanding of local and national government, political and legislative processes
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including a proven ability to write confidently and concisely for a variety of audiences
- Strong interpersonal skills to build and maintain relationships with diverse stakeholders including members, partners and officials
- Analytical mindset with the ability to interpret data and metrics
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office, social media and media monitoring tools
Closing date: Wednesday 24 April at 9am
Interview Date: Wednesday 8 May
We will aim to offer alternative dates if shortlisted candidates are unavailable on this date.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role.
If you feel that you are the right candidate for the role as our Head of Public Affairs and Advocacy or would like to find out more information about the role, then please click ‘apply’ now.We’d love to hear from you.
Campaigns Manager
Salary: Salary: £34,237 - £38,325 (depending on experience and with potential for progression)
About Voice 21
Voice 21 is the national oracy education charity. We exist to empower every child to use their voice for success in school and life. Our work transforms learning and life chances through talk by increasing access to a high-quality oracy education for those that need it most.
Voice 21 is leading the conversation to prioritise oracy within schools and teaching. In July 2023, the Labour party announced its commitment to prioritise oracy and speaking lessons as part of its future mission for education. As a result oracy has become a major talking point, with the topic and Voice 21 appearing on the front pages of the national newspapers and leading discussion on TV and radio.
Your opportunity
Tackle a vital challenge, with great people. Voice 21 exists to transform young people’s learning and life chances through talk and we are aiming to be working with 2,000 schools a year by 2025. To reach this goal we recruit great people and give them real responsibility, training and support.
Output-focused culture, with flexible working opportunities. We have an agile and flexible approach – our team can work when and wherever works best to deliver the requirements of their role. For staff working at home, we support them to create a workspace and provide technology that enables them to work effectively.
Real development opportunities. We believe in supporting people to develop the skills they need to be excellent – whether this means funding external training, finding a mentor to support them or giving them the time to learn from others in the organisations through our regular CPD sessions. We also offer paid study leave for team members taking part in formal studies outside of work.
For more information on why we think you should apply for the role, see the “Why work for us” section at the end of this job description.
Your purpose
This year Voice 21 are recruiting to a newly formed Communications, Campaigns and Public Affairs department to help address these challenges. As Campaigns Manager, you will support the Head of Communications, Campaigns and Public Affairs to make oracy education ordinary, co-ordinating and project managing communications campaigns as well as leading content delivery. In doing so, you will play an integral role in ensuring all children, regardless of their background, find their voice for success in school and in life.
Your responsibilities
● Play a senior role in the Communications, Campaigns and Public Affairs team, as part of the wider Learning, Impact and Influence directorate
Campaigns (70%)
● Responsible for developing and delivering integrated campaigns working closely with Fundraising, Marketing, Customer Service and Service Delivery teams.
● This will include, but is not limited to: growing charity awareness, recruitment and retention, growing our advocacy base and policy change campaigns
● Taking a lead role in development and project management, you will deliver our national campaigns and business as usual communications projects
● Utilising matrix management, you'll bring internal and external teams and freelancers together to oversee all aspects of our campaigns.
● Engaging the entire marketing mix, you'll develop, implement, integrate, and evaluate campaigns across various channels, including PR, digital, advertising, and influencer amplification
● Planning, delivering and leading purposeful and planned communications cycles & campaigns
● Delivering and using implementable insights from analysis and user intelligence
Content and brand (30%)
● Creating, co-creating and commissioning communications materials and content and proactively spotting new opportunities to raise awareness of our work across the sector
● Implementation of the communications strategy and ensuring content constantly delivers against strategic needs
● Spotting reactive opportunities for content creation in line with the communications strategy
What the role might look like:
Within 3 months, you’ll have:
● Become embedded in the organisation’s systems and processes
● Built strong relationships with key members of staff
● Started leading the coordination of communications across the institution
● Contributed to our brand development
● Contributed to our public affairs campaign strategy and delivery
Within 6 months, you’ll have:
● Deliver project management template for campaigns delivery
● Built strong relationships with colleagues from around the organisations including in Fundraising, Marketing, Customer Service and Service Delivery teams
● Make recommendations for improving coordination systems and processes to better grow awareness of oracy and capacity to make policy changes
● Deliver strong analytics and insights systems
From 6 months onwards, we expect for you to be fully embedded in the organisation, delivering sector-leading campaigns and enjoying your working life!
This job is for you if you…
Have experience in these areas
● Project managing campaigns and business as usual from conception to delivery and evaluation
● Matrix managing projects with staff from across various departments
● Co-creating content with staff from various departments and personally creating multi-channel content in multiple formats
● Using analytics and user intelligence to deliver insights which meaningfully shape campaigns
● Strong eye for detail, including in copywriting and proofreading
● Ability to form excellent working relationships, internally & externally
You may also have experience in these areas
● Relevant experience in and a strong understanding of the education sector
● Experience project managing in an organisation with staff with content creation responsibilities dispersed across various teams
Reporting lines
Reporting to: Head of Campaigns, Communications and Public Affairs
Managing: None
Where you’ll work: Remote, with travel to our London office and elsewhere for meetings. Occasional overnight stays may be required depending on where you are based.
Contract: Permanent, subject to successful probation review at 3 months.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Working hours - 22.5hours per week. This is a job share. The job share working days will either need to be Friday, Monday, Tuesday or Thursday, Friday, Monday.
The Head of South England & Wales is responsible for leading our vision to end the need for food banks in South England & Wales. This role will lead our team of Network Leads and Area Managers as they empower every food bank to orientate their work towards ending the need for their services through the provision of bespoke support, enabling them to reduce the numbers of people requiring emergency food. This role will work with key national partners in South England and Wales to support our network to tackle the underlying drivers of poverty.
Role responsibilities
· Responsible, as a member of the organisation’s Senior Leadership Team for leading the delivery of the Trussell Trust strategy for ending the need for food banks in South England and Wales, working to embed the Changing Communities, Changing Minds and Changing Policy programmes across the network.
· Lead the Area team in South England and Wales to ensure the safe and effective operations of the food bank network, in partnership Trussell Trust’s People Directorate.
· Oversee the investment in and upskilling of our Area team to ensure they have the capacity, skills and resources required to deliver the five-year strategy and support to food banks.
· Drive the delivery of the baseline service for food banks across South England and Wales, ensuring tools, resources, services and systems are fit for purpose and tailored to local contexts.
· Oversee the effective roll-out of strategic projects, partnerships and resources to food banks across South England and Wales, in collaboration with other Directorates, that help to reduce the need for food banks and tackle the underlying drivers of poverty.
· Work with the Strategy & Impact team and Policy, External Affairs & Research teams to ensure effective cross-departmental working on network facing policy and research opportunities, church engagement, external partnerships and impact reporting.
Person Specification
Technical skills and minimum knowledge:
· Leading complex delivery programmes nationally and locally,
· Expertise of significantly growing services and programmes; leading, motivating and inspiring teams; leading culture change.
· An effective communicator, verbally and in writing. Diplomatic and with the interpersonal skills required by the role.
· Manage multiple projects, identifying conflicting demands and establishing clear priorities in order to meet agreed objectives.
· Ensure that due regard is given to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion within all objectives that report into this department.
Behaviours and competencies:
· Demonstrate a commitment to the values of the Trussell Trust.
· Demonstrates empathy for people from disadvantaged, marginalised or socially- excluded backgrounds.
· Comfortable working in a fast-paced and high-performing organisation, combining problem-solving with collaborative interpersonal skills.
· Effective communication skills; diplomatic; effectively builds rapport with individuals and groups; presents information accessibly and in a format appropriate to the audience.
· Role model inclusive behaviour and leadership.
Key Stakeholders
· Director of Operations
· Operations Leadership Team
· Head of Pathfinding
· Head of Financial Inclusion
· Head of Strategic Communications
· Head of Brand and Marketing,
· Head of Audience Insight and Engagement,
· Head of Supporter Retention and Development
· Head of Strategic Church Engagement
· Head of Strategic Development and Head of Evidence and Impact
· Head of Policy and Research
· Network Leads and Area Managers
· Head of Safeguarding and Quality
· Head of Volunteering
· Food Bank Network
Our Values
The Trussell Trust is a charity that works to end the need for food banks. It is founded on and shaped by Christian principles.
Our values of dignity, justice, compassion and community, are central to all that we do and therefore supports our aim to be an organisation where the diversity of all employees is valued. We welcome people of all faiths and none and those that are committed to these values.
We recognise that we have under-represented groups within our workforce. As part of our commitment to diversity and equality of opportunity we are actively encouraging applications from under-represented groups such as returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people who are LGBT+, from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, with a disability, impairment, learning difference or long-term condition, with caring responsibilities, from different nations and regions and those with a lived experience of poverty as well as any other under-represented group in our workforce. We are committed ensuring the safety and protection of our employees from all forms of harm.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
We are SafeLives, the UK-wide charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for everyone and for good.
Last year alone, 14,000 professionals received our training. Over 80,000 adults at risk of serious harm or murder and more than 100,000 children received support through dedicated multi-agency support designed by us and delivered with partners. In the last six years, over 4,000 perpetrators have been challenged and supported to change by interventions we created with partners, and that’s just the start.
Together we can end domestic abuse. Forever. For everyone.
The Community Fundraiser plays a vital role in fostering and expanding our network of individual givers and community fundraisers. The position is responsible for:
- Developing and managing relationships with our supporters.
- Signing SafeLives up to a programme of fundraising events.
- Maintaining and growing our supporter base.
- Responding to fundraising opportunities from individuals and corporates.
We will occasionally require you to support with organising events for our high-net-worth individuals. The role is managed by our Trusts and Grants Manager. It was a new role in 2022 and the successful candidate will build on the foundations that have been set over the last year and a half.
The ideal candidate will bring creativity and proactivity to the role – thinking outside the box and finding new ways to grow our supporter base and market our opportunities. You will be the perfect balance of engaging and motivational and a rigorous planning coordinator with exceptional attention to detail. You will help us reach new supporters, through events and fundraising, and communicate our key messages in a way that encourages people to support our work.
Benefits include a generous package, such as:
- 34 days’ holiday per year, including public holidays
- Flexible Working (compressed hours)
- Cycle-to-work Scheme
- Eye Care Vouchers
- Pension Scheme with 4% employer contribution
- Childcare Vouchers
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Clinical Supervision
- Holiday Purchase Scheme (buy up to an additional 5 days)
- Enhanced Family Leave Policies
- Enhanced Sick Pay
- Professional Development Fund
- Individual Learning Budget
- Restorative Practice Training
- Time Off In Lieu.
If this challenge sounds as exciting to you as it does to us and you believe you have the qualities we have described, please take a look over the job description and submit a 500-word cover letter and CV.
Closing date: Thursday 18th April 2024.
SafeLives is a committed provider of equal opportunities for all, please see our job description for full details.
No agencies please.