Head of digital jobs in crook, county durham
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 – £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
Using Anonymous Recruitment
This organisation is using Anonymous Recruitment to reduce bias in the first stages of the hiring process. Submit your application as normal and our system will anonymise it for you. Your personal information will be hidden until the recruiter contacts you.
About the role
As one of two Regional Programmes Manager, you’ll inspire and lead a team of Senior Programmes Officers and Kinship Family Workers to effectively deliver high quality support services for kinship families across Greater London, the South of England and the Midlands.
You’ll do this by working in close collaboration with local authority teams who have commissioned our services and other funders where appropriate.
You’ll have accountability and ownership for ensuring we deliver impactful services for kinship carers and that we meet targets for our commissioned services. Working collaboratively with our other managers in other services, you’ll ensure we’re delivering high impact programmes.
You’ll ensure your team have real clarity and direction on their role and responsibilities - encouraging curiosity, learning and solutions-focused thinking. As a leader in the organisation, you are a key model for the team.
Your team will deliver the following programmes:
- Kinship Connected – in-person one-to-one support and support groups in the community
- Kinship Reach – remote one-to-one support and virtual support groups
- Kinship Ready – online workshops to prepare new and prospective special guardians for their role, as well as wraparound one-to-one support (in one local authority)
You will also manage a new role of Grants Officer - London, funded by the Aviva Foundation.
As one of our deputy safeguarding leads, you’ll be part of our key safeguarding structure. This means you’ll take ownership to make sure our people feel confident and well supported to demonstrate best practice and making sure safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.
Key responsibilities include:
-
Oversee the day-to-day running of programmes, supporting mostly home-based Senior Programmes Workers and Kinship Family Workers to ensure high quality, consistent and impactful programme delivery.
-
Meet performance targets as directed.
-
Create and keep developing processes and systems which support consistency across all programmes, ensuring good quality documentation and manualisation on Notion.so
-
Develop quality assurance frameworks with other service managers and directors.
-
Support your team to establish and deliver in-person and virtual peer support groups regionally and generate engagement with kinship carers.
-
Line management and supervision of Senior Programmes Workers and Kinship Family Workers as required.
-
Actively encourage personal development and support staff to deliver key targets and outcomes and ensure high levels of wellbeing.
-
Work with the Director of Services and Digital, Head of Programmes and the Business Development team to develop proposals and present to local authorities to secure commissions.
-
Manage the delivery of commissioned contracts through collaborative relationships with local authorities, ensuring targets are met.
-
Manage the programmes and services within budget, in accordance with Kinship’s financial procedures and ensure the reporting of progress in line with funder requirements.
-
Work actively and positively with other managers within Kinship to ensure sharing of best practice, problem solving, relevant connections and consistency of delivery across England and Wales.
-
Act as a deputy safeguarding lead at Kinship
Essential requirements include:
- Substantial experience in managing a regional service or programme with high quality outputs (national experience desirable but not essential).
- Substantial experience of managing, developing and evaluating effective and innovative services for families experiencing crisis and experience in reaching ‘hidden communities’ and a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
- Experience of leading and managing continuous improvement in changing contexts.
- Experience of governance and managing risk on high profile service delivery.
- Experience of ensuring that services are designed and led with user needs at the heart, ensuring that the voices of our kinship carers inform ongoing design and development of our programmes.
- High quality digital and data literacy and using technology to help us to be better in our processes. You’ll have to own Salesforce and be a massive champion for the team. You will be accountable for ensuring they use it well.
- Substantial experience of leading high-performing service teams including managing wellbeing, development and performance.
How to apply
In place of a cover letter, you will be asked to answer the following five questions, alongside providing your CV. Please keep your answers to a maximum of 250 words.
- Tell us why you’re interested in working for Kinship in this role and what experience you bring that would make you successful? This is an opportunity to tell us about you, your experience and your values.
- Please give an example where you have managed a successful regional programme or service (this could also be national). Please include scale, key performance indicators and outcome. What made it a success?
- What makes you a great team manager? Give one example of how you have supported teams and individuals to flourish and one example when you have had to step in to address behaviour or performance issues. (This is an opportunity to share your enthusiasm for supporting others to develop and deliver to a high standard. You can share evidence of how your approach has worked and how you’ve tackled challenges and difficult conversations along the way).
- Quality assurance and consistency is key to making sure our programmes deliver impact for our kinship carers. This includes ensuring your team are following processes, using our case management system effectively and have the tolls to do their role. Please describe how you would approach this at Kinship using a previous example.
- In this role you will be a deputy safeguarding lead at Kinship. This is a key role, the lives of kinship carers are incredibly complex. Give one example of a safeguarding situation that required your response in a previous role. Explain what your rationale and thought process was. How did you hold appropriate boundaries and progress actions to effectively safeguard vulnerable children and adults?
Key Dates
- Application deadline: Friday 9th May, 10pm
- First interview: Online – Tuesday 6 May
- Second interview: In person (Vauxhall, London) – Tuesday 13 May (travel expenses covered if required)
About Kinship
We are Kinship. The leading kinship care charity in England and Wales. We’re here for kinship carers – friends or family who step up to raise a child when their parents aren’t able to.
We are made by and for our community of kinship carers. Like family, relationships run deep. And we hear their experiences; for too long they have been isolated without the help they need.
We support, advise and inform kinship carers. Connecting them so they feel empowered. Because a child needs the love and warmth of a thriving family.
We develop research, campaigns and policy solutions. Creating positive change across society. Because for kinship families, love alone is not enough.
Through our work we harness frustrations to fuel passion for change. And tough experiences to inspire ideas that transform lives.
And as we see momentum building, we keep using evidence to demonstrate the value of kinship care. Helping kinship carers navigate challenging circumstances. Believing in a child’s potential.
Join us. Together, let’s commit to change for kinship families.
• Make sure you’ve read the job description and the essential requirements – make sure your answer reflects those points in the requirements very clearly.
• Really tell us why you want to work for Kinship. We’re interested in working with people who share our values.
• Keep your response clear – use bullets points and short paragraphs if that helps. It will help the recruitment team to really focus on your answer.
• Please do not use AI tools like ChatGPT to produce your answers. We use software to check and your application will be rejected if you do.
We support kinship carers in their homes and communities, giving advice and helping them work through problems to find the best way forward.





The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Senior Accessibility Specialist
Reference: APR20257021
Location: Flexible in UK
Salary: £44,315.00 - £47,312.00 Per Annum
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full Time, 37.5 hours a week – Flexible working pattens to be discussed
Benefits: Pension Scheme, Life Assurance Scheme, 26 days' Annual Leave
Whilst we have a huge presence and influence in the conservation sector we recognise that our work is not reaching everyone. We need to enable more, and more diverse people to engage with and act for nature.
Recognising that people are at the heart of delivering our ambitions, we have an exciting opportunity for a talented person to join as Senior Accessibility Specialist.
What’s the job about?
Our 2030 strategy commits the RSPB to becoming more relevant to the communities and supporters we work with by involving a more diverse range of people. Recognising that people are at the heart of delivering our ambitions, we have an exciting opportunity for a talented person to join as Senior Accessibility Specialist. Reporting to the Head of EDI, and as part of the EDI leadership team, you’ll hold close relationships with a wide range of stakeholders across the organisation. You’ll work collaboratively to support the transformation in behaviours and skills needed to make the RSPB a more accessible and equitable place for all.
The role does have flexibility to shape and innovate but will be focused on the continuation and delivery of two main priorities:
- Working with our nature reserve teams to implement accessibility improvements that make our spaces more inclusive for Staff, Volunteers and Visitors
- Working with Communications and Learning and Development teams, internal networks and other stakeholders, to deliver better experiences for our disabled workforce from the point they apply for a role.
Essentials:
- Experienced in delivering strategic accessibility interventions and influencing positive change at all levels of a large and complex organisation and the wider sector
- Personal commitment to making a tangible difference to accessibility with a focus on physical disability, sensory disabilities and neurodiverse people and communities.
- An advocate and practitioner of accessible design and clear communication
- Background and confidence in working with people with lived experience of access barriers and providing support and advice to organisations around accessibility.
- Comfortable to proactively challenge internal policy, practices and communications to better include marginalised groups.
- Expertise on accessible communications, with experience working to improve standards of internal communications and co-designing engaging content for external communication
- Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills to role model and drive behaviour change across all areas of accessibility
- In depth knowledge of accessibility standards and best practise within the UK. Including: WCAG, social model of disability, universal design principles, access to work, reasonable adjustments and working application of the Equality Act 2010
- Significant experience of designing and delivering resources and training around accessibility in a range of formats to meet learner needs
- Strong internal and external stakeholder management skills, ability to recognise a build key relationships and influence at a sector level
- Sound understanding of intersectionality of disability and other protected characteristics and a good generalist EDI knowledge to inform specialist advice and guidance
- Strong and effective communication skills, with ability to influence leaders and mobilise other teams to act
- Strong written communication and digital presentations skills to communicate accessibility and disability inclusion to a wide range of audiences
- Analytical evaluation to inform and report on areas of focus and impact
- Awareness of project and process management to enable work to be planned and delivered to a high quality, on time and within resource capacity
Desirable:
- Experience or interest in accessibility in the Conservation section, nature or climate emergency
- Understanding of the intersectional context of race and gender equity within accessibility
- Practical experience supporting accessibility changes at visitor attractions
- Experience working in the Voluntary sector or in volunteering
- Experience of movement building or membership organisations
Additional Information
This role is available full time and permanently for 37.5 hours a week, but we welcome applications for those looking for different working patterns and are happy to discuss further with interested candidates.
We are committed to developing an inclusive and diverse RSPB, in which everyone feels supported, valued, and able to be their full selves. To achieve our vision of creating a world richer in nature, we need more people, and more diverse people, on nature’s side. People of colour and disabled people are currently underrepresented across the environment, climate, sustainability, and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled, we are particularly interested in receiving your application.
Closing date: 23:59, Wednesday 21st May 2025
Interviews will take place around the 18th and 19th of June.
Please note: We reserve the right to close this advert at any time.
Open briefings
If this sounds like the role for you and you'd like more information on what the day-to-day responsibilities are, or a chance to ask questions, please get un touch with EDI at RSPB to enquire about one of our open briefings.
Interested?
If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.
As part of this application process you will be asked to complete an application form including evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge, and experience listed above. Contact us to discuss any additional support you may need to complete your application.
This role is not eligible for UK Visa Sponsorship - the successful applicant will need to have a pre-existing Right to Work in the UK in order to be offered an employment contract.
No agencies please.
The RSPB brings people together – people like you – to protect the things that matter to us all.



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
Research Associate - National Youth Agency
Contract: 12-month Fixed Term Contract (with potential to extend)
Hours: Full-time - 37 hours per week
Salary: £30,000 – £35,000 per annum, dependent on experience
Remote: This role is 100% homebased with occasional travel for staff residentials and other events.
What we do
As the national body for youth work, the NYA has a dual function. We are the professional statutory and regulatory body (PSRB) responsible for qualifications, quality standards, and safeguarding for youth work and services in England. In line with our charity mission and aims, we also champion youth work through research, advocacy, campaigns, and programmes.
We work in partnership and believe in collaborative leadership, listening to youth workers and the youth work sector so that we can understand their needs and respond to the challenges they face. We are ambitious for youth work and for young people and integrate youth voice and influence across our work
About the Role
This is an exciting opportunity to join our Knowledge Team, working alongside two existing Research Associates and a Data Analyst.
You will be integral in delivering research, data, and insights that support organisational development and programme delivery across NYA.
We are looking for an experienced mixed-methods researcher with a strong understanding of social research and evaluation approaches. Ideally, you will have experience working in or alongside the youth sector and be confident using both qualitative and quantitative methods.
You’ll need to be flexible, proactive, and a strong communicator, able to explain complex ideas to varied audiences.
This role is ideal for someone looking to make a tangible difference through evidence-led approaches that shape policy, practice, and impact in youth work.
Key responsibilities for this role will include:
- Designing and delivering research projects using a range of methods including surveys, interviews, and focus groups.
- Supporting the development of the NYA research and data hub, including external research collation and data visualisation.
- Leading on evaluations to meet funder requirements and contribute to NYA’s growing evidence base.
- Analysing data from NYA programmes to support impact measurement.
- Promoting evidence-based practice across NYA and the wider youth sector.
- Communicating findings clearly through reports, briefings, and presentations.
- Managing research projects and collaborating with internal and external partners to deliver on time and to quality.
- Responding to internal and external research enquiries.
The ideal candidate will have experience in social research, familiarity with various research methodologies, and the ability to communicate complex findings to diverse audiences.
Please refer to our Candidate Pack for more information on the role and the requirements.
Why Work for NYA?
NYA operates as a people-first organisation, prioritising the well-being and needs of its employees.
NYA offers an exceptional flexible working approach which encourages our team to balance professional responsibilities with their personal life.
A remote based team, spread across England, fostering inclusivity and diverse talent. Despite geographical distances between team members, NYA maintains a highly motivated and connected team through the optimisation of digital tools.
NYA is committed to supporting the continual personal and professional development of our team and helping them achieve their ambitions.
We provide 25 days leave plus 8 days, life assurance scheme, 5% employer pension contribution and a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme via Spectrum.life with unlimited specialist support available to all NYA employees.
How to Apply:
Please download our applicant pack to find out more about the role and requirements
To apply, please submit the following via our online application platform by 11:59pm on Monday 12th May 2025:
A detailed CV setting out your career history, with responsibilities and achievements in line with the person specification in the About You section.
A covering letter (maximum two sides) highlighting your suitability for the role and how you meet the requirements in the
About You section.
We will request data for our EEDI monitoring purposes, providing this is optional.
Please note: the covering letter is an essential part of the application process and will be assessed as part of your full application. We use AI detector software, so cover letters or CV’s with over 30% AI generated content with be disregarded. We understand that AI tools can offer support to candidates who have learning differences, which is why we will accept applications with some AI assistance. CV’s will not be accepted without a cover letter.
The National Youth Agency is an equal opportunities employer.
At NYA our inclusive culture means that we embrace individual differences and understand that we need a diverse team to achieve our organisations mission.
We wish to recruit candidates from all backgrounds to ensure our team reflects the rich diversity of the communities we serve. We encourage applications from anyone regardless of disability, ethnicity, heritage, gender, sexuality, religion, socio-economic background and political beliefs but we particularly welcome applications from global majority candidates and those from other minoritised ethnic groups in the UK as they are currently underrepresented in our team.
Youth Work changes lives
Which is why we’re committed to ensuring that as many young people as possible get to benefit from it. As the national body for youth work in England, the National Youth Agency (NYA) exists to champion its transformative power. We believe all young people should have the opportunity to benefit from the life-changing impact of extraordinary youth workers and trained volunteers.
We help to grow youth work provision in ways that keep it effective, relevant, safe and engaging, to help millions of young people reach their potential and thrive. We do this by providing guidance, support, advice, training and staff development opportunities for youth workers and youth work organisations. At the heart of everything we do are young people themselves. We work hard to ensure their voices are integrated into all our work, to develop provision that truly meets their needs.
REF-221126
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