The Youth Endowment Fund
Senior Research Manager (Toolkit)
Reports to: Head of Toolkit
Salary: £52,700
Contract: 2-year fixed term contract
Location: Central London, Hybrid*
Closing date: 27th June 2025
About the Youth Endowment Fund
We’re here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. We do this by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.
Last year, 244 people in England and Wales tragically died after being assaulted with a knife. Of these, 32 were children. Every child captured in these numbers is an important member of our community and society has a duty to protect them. Even beyond knife crime, we know that the fear of violence has a terrible effect on children’s daily lives.
The Youth Endowment Fund exists to try and permanently change things. To succeed, we must build an exceptional body of knowledge about violence affecting young people and how we reduce it. This knowledge has to be both rigorous and highly relevant to those making decisions about how to support vulnerable young people. We need to find out what works and what doesn’t through evidence synthesis, data analysis and qualitative research into children’s lives. We then need to convert this into highly accessible content on what works, how delivery organisations need to change their practice and how the systems they operate in need to be reformed.
About the Toolkit Team
The Toolkit team is at the heart of our work to spread knowledge of what works to prevent children becoming involved in violence. We want research to lead actual changes in outcomes for children.
Our flagship resource, the Toolkit, is a free, online resource that summarises the best available evidence about the effectiveness of various approaches to preventing children becoming involved in violence. It explains the evidence, how confident we can be about the findings, and provides actionable guidance to help policy makers, commissioners, and practitioners to turn evidence into action. The Toolkit is influencing real world policy and practice: the Home Office requires Violence Reductions Units to allocate at least 30% of their funding to interventions that have an impact rating of ‘high’ or ‘moderate’ in the Toolkit. Over half of Youth Justice Services use the Toolkit to align their work with the latest available evidence. Our Change team use the Toolkit to influence systems, policy and practice across children’s services, education, health, neighbourhoods, policing, youth services and youth justice.
The Toolkit is a live resource that currently contains 35 approaches to violence prevention, and we will add at least ten updates to the content this year. New research is published every day around the world. We collate relevant studies in our YEF programmes evidence and gap map and YEF systems evidence and gap map, and we collate study results in our Effect Size Database. We are working in partnership with the National Children’s Bureau and the EPPI Centre to implement new technology and to use machine learning to create a ‘living platform’, that contains relevant studies and their results in one place. This is an exciting development that will significantly speed up our production of systematic reviews and meta-analyses to keep the Toolkit up to date.
Key Responsibilities
The Senior Research Manager will be an essential part of the YEF Toolkit Team and will develop a portfolio of impactful projects. The core of your role will be leading the commissioning of evidence synthesis, using our new methodology, across a range of topics and producing Toolkit content.
You will:
Commission new systematic reviews.
- You will lead the commissioning and management of systematic reviews of the evidence through our Toolkit and Evidence Synthesis Partners: the National Children’s Bureau, the EPPI Centre, and the Race Equality Foundation. This will involve scoping and prioritising violence prevention approaches, convening expert advisory groups, reviewing research protocols and technical reports, and ensuring that research products produce actionable insights.
Write accurate and actionable summaries of evidence for the Toolkit.
· You will use findings from evidence synthesis to write new summaries for the Toolkit, and to inform YEF’s guidance and implementation resources.
· You will ensure that Toolkit content is only ever easy-to-understand and written in plain English with incredible clarity.
·You will collaborate with our Research team and our Change team to feed insights from the evidence into systems, sector and practice guidance.
Lead Toolkit communications.
· Collaborating with the YEF Communications and Public Affairs team, you will produce accurate social media content, blogs, and briefings on new Toolkit content to facilitate accurate journalism and press coverage.
Become an expert on the Toolkit.
· You will be an advocate for Toolkit evidence, and you will ensure insights from this evidence are accurately communicated to policy makers and practitioners. You will do this by delivering presentations on Toolkit evidence and providing briefings.
· You will also ensure YEF colleagues are up to date on the topics and content in the Toolkit by providing training and updates internally and sharing guidance about how to accurately explain the evidence.
About You
You are this sort of person:
· You want to play a significant part in reducing children and young people’s involvement in violence. You care about having an impact.
· You share our belief that an evidence-based approach is our best hope of preventing violence. You are fascinated by research, but you’re not just interested in research for its own sake. You want to achieve actual changes in outcomes for children.
·You’re a confident reader of research and have strong critical appraisal skills. You know when research can be trusted and when it can’t and can confidently articulate your views on the strength of research. You might have gained this expertise through your academic studies, research, or professional experience.
· You have a proven track record of commissioning or conducting high-quality evidence synthesis. You have a good understanding of these methods and can discuss the pros and cons of them. You might have gained this expertise through your academic studies, training, research or professional experience. You can scrutinise a budget to ensure it provides value for money.
· You have at least three years’ experience working in a role that required you to think about research. This could include a range of roles in policy, academia, funding, and practice.
· You write in a way that people easily understand. You have that rare skill of writing in plain English. You have experience of translating complex research findings into plain writing that everyone can understand.
· You have excellent project and time management skills. You can work independently, quickly, and to a high standard.
·You are good with people. You are comfortable working with a wide range of people, including senior academics and other research experts, children and their families, practitioners, and policy makers. You’re able to provide constructive challenges when required.
·You learn fast but remain humble. You like learning. You are very good at synthesising information. You know how much you don't know and that you can always learn more.
·You work well in a team. You care more that good things happen than who gets the credit. You support your colleagues to produce excellent work.
·You’re committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. You believe and act in a way that celebrates and encourages a range of experiences, views and values.
You may have:
·A good level of knowledge and understanding of crime or violence. You know the facts, understand the issues, know the key people, and can discuss the theories. You’re knowledgeable on this topic and very at ease discussing it with experts. Alternatively, you might have a strong understanding of a relevant area such as education, youth work or social care.
·Confident public speaking skills. You’re an excellent verbal communicator. You’ve delivered dozens of talks on complex topics. You’re calm and confident when answering challenging questions.
While it’s not a criterion, we’re especially interested to hear from applicants who have lived experience of violence.
It’s also important to us that the people we hire do not discriminate. We believe in being inclusive and giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race, sexual orientation, transgender status or socioeconomic background.
Hybrid Working
The office is based in Central London. Those living in and around London are expected to be in the office for a minimum of 2 days per week. If you live outside of London and work remotely, you’ll be expected to work from the London office 2 days per month.
To Apply
To apply, please send a CV and cover letter, and complete the monitoring form click on "Apply for this" button by 27th June 2025.
When applying for this role, please ensure that your cover letter can answer, within a maximum of 1000 words, the following questions:
1. Briefly describe the key evidence synthesis projects that you have undertaken or commissioned and be clear about the role you played in the work.
2. Provide some clear examples of products, presentations, events, or other materials that you have produced to help explain complex research evidence to policymakers, commissioners, and practitioners.
You will also be required to provide proof of your eligibility to work in the UK. As part of our commitment to flexible working, we will consider a range of options for the successful applicant. All options can be discussed at interview stage.
Interview Process
Interviews will take place in the week commencing the weeks commencing 7th and 14th July.
If you are invited to interview, we will send you a systematic review ahead of the interview and we will ask you to prepare a 10-minute presentation to explain the main strengths and weaknesses of the review and its conclusions.
Benefits Include
- £1,000 professional development budget annually
- 28 days holiday plus Bank Holidays
- Four half days for volunteering activities
- Employee Assistance Programme – 24hr phone line for free confidential support
- Volunteering days - 4 half days per year
- Death in service - 4 times annual salary
- Flexible hours. Core office hours 10am – 4pm
- Financial support including travel and hardship loans
- Employer contributed pension of 5%
Personal Data
Your personal data will be shared for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes our HR team, interviewers (who may include other partners in the project and independent advisors), relevant team managers and our IT service provider if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles. We do not share your data with other third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you. We do not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.
Registered Charity
51 - 100
We exist to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Turn2us is a national charity tackling poverty and the structural causes of financial insecurity. We work with co-producers and partners to provide people in financial crisis with the means and agency to get back on their feet, build resilience, move forward with their lives and thrive.
As an equal opportunities employer, we are committed to equity, inclusion and diversity and the value people from different backgrounds bring to a team. If, like us, you believe everyone has the right to have enough to live on, and you are ambitious about eradicating poverty, join us and build your career with a charity dedicated to ensuring dignity and equity for all.
We're now looking for an exceptional Senior PR and Press Officer to help us amplify voices, challenge persistent, negative narratives around the social security system, and shift public attitudes about financial insecurity. Ideally, you’ll already have solid PR and press experience within a charity or comparable organisation’s press office, excellent media contacts, and the strategic mindset to put people’s real lives and complex challenges front and centre in your storytelling.
You’ll be someone who writes clearly and persuasively, handles sensitive topics with genuine care, and who’s excited by the challenge of finding creative ways to engage diverse audiences. Your strong relationships with journalists will help us ensure the voices of people facing financial insecurity are represented accurately, widely, and compassionately in the media.
We offer flexible working patterns, both in terms of hours and remote working. All team members come into our welcoming Farringdon office at least once a week, and you'll be joining a warm, supportive team that believes in each other, celebrates great work, and loves what we do.
Please note that all employees are required to work from the office a minimum of 1 day a week.
Some roles may be required to be in the office more often than others and this will be agreed with the hiring manager upon starting at Turn2us.
Please note that all job offers are subject to 2 – 3 satisfactory references and a disclosure satisfactory to Turn2us from the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS).
We’re genuinely excited to hear from you.
Closing date: 20th July, 23:59
Interview date: 11 Aug for first interviews, 18 Aug for second interviews
Thank you!
Location: MSSC, 200B Lambeth Road London, SE1 7JY (hybrid working)
Contract: Full-time, Permanent
Salary: up to £41,500 per annum dependent upon experience
Closing Date: 2 July 2025
Application: CV & Supporting Statement
Are you an HR People Partner looking for a new opportunity?
The Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) is the leading maritime charity for youth development and lifelong learning. We are a vibrant and growing charity inspiring young people to achieve their potential through challenge and nautical adventure and also enabling seafarers and maritime professionals to realise their potential through learning and career development. Working with our employees, cadets, and volunteers, we have built a strong vision and five-year Future Ready strategy to meet the growing demand for what we provide, both for young people, seafarers and maritime professionals – and the thousands who aspire to be the sea cadets and marine professionals of the future. It is also about equipping them to achieve their potential and thrive in a rapidly changing world, while growing our charity to benefit even more people – including those from under-represented or marginalised groups.
We are currently looking for an HR People Partner – ER and Projects to join our team.
About the role
We are looking for a self-driven, highly motivated team player to join our HR department. Reporting to the Director of Human Resources, this postholder will work closely with the two HR People Partners. The post holder will lead and manage all formal employee relations cases whether it be disciplinaries, grievances or complaints. They will also Project manage and deliver on HR projects including the development of new initiatives and HR policy updates.
Responsibilities
- To lead and manage employee relations activity across the charity by working closely with the key stakeholders.
- To provide guidance and advise senior managers in line with MSSC policies, employment legislation and ACAS Code of Practice regarding complex HR situations.
- To lead and take notes at all MSSC disciplinaries, grievances and formal complaints to support the process. These could include conduct, performance management/capability, absence management. grievances, bullying and harassment, discrimination, whistleblowing etc.
- Ensure appropriate documentation of cases including file notes, correspondence, accurate meeting minutes etc, ensuring their employee file is kept up to date and organised.
- To provide support to the HR People Partners on broader ER issues, if necessary, such as absence management/OH referrals, performance management/PIPs.
- To support and assist the Director of HR and the team on a range of HR projects and initiatives.
- To develop, review and implement HR policies, procedures and guidance documents, ensuring legal compliance and best practice.
- Manage the appraisal process including launch communications, monitoring completions and reviewing forms for any ER issues and logging training needs.
- Lead the annual staff survey launch and collation and analysis of data.
- To cover for the Director of HR and other team members as required.
Requirements
- CIPD qualified or equivalent experience
- Strong experience of leading employee relations cases and advising senior management
- Strong knowledge of employment legislation and best practice
- Strong organisational skills – the ability to juggle a demanding workload and manage priorities and working under pressure and takes pride in producing high quality work
- Strong communication and influencing skills; clarity in writing style and verbal expression
- Excellent interpersonal skills – friendly, approachable and professional
- Experience of managing HR projects and leading through to effective delivery
- Strong attention to detail and the drive to get things right first time
For further information, please download the Recruitment Pack. If you are interested in this role, please apply now!
Benefits
- 25 days annual leave per annum increasing with length of service
- Hybrid working for many roles
- Life assurance (4x salary)
- Private medical insurance
- Generous pension (employer contribution up to 10%)
- Cycle to work scheme
- Wellbeing portal and EAP with 121 counselling
- Employee development: We are investing in our employees' development and have an annual calendar of learning and development opportunities, designed to support employees to develop into their roles and stretch them to achieve their full potential.
Additional Information
MSSC positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates from all backgrounds. Equity, diversity, and inclusion really matters to us, so we can best serve our beneficiaries from every community. We work to ensure a fair and consistent recruitment process and aim to be a charity where diversity of experience, identity and skills are valued and welcomed. MSSC is an equal opportunities employer.
We recognise our responsibilities to safeguard and protect the young people and vulnerable adults with whom we work. We do all we can to promote their health, safety and wellbeing, and we expect our staff to share this commitment and work in line with safeguarding policy, the MSSC’s values and ethos of inclusivity. We adhere to safer recruitment practices and therefore employment is subject to detailed pre-employment checks for successful candidates, including references and criminal disclosure checks and the completion of a disclosure questionnaire.
All successful applicants are required to attend safeguarding training and undergo pre-employment checks.
Registered Charity
101 - 500
We help launch young people for life through adventure.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.