Head of policy and public affairs jobs in edinburgh, scotland
Policy and External Affairs Manager
Location: Any CHAS site - hybrid with base in Edinburgh, Stepps (Glasgow), Robin House in Balloch or Rachel House in Kinross
Salary Band: £45,900 - £51,000 per annum, pro rata
Contract Type: Permanent, Full Time, 35 hours per week
Closing Date: 23/06/2025 23:59
Are you a strategic communicator with a passion for policy and public affairs? Do you want to make a real difference in the lives of children and families across Scotland?
Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) is seeking a dynamic and experienced Policy and External Affairs Manager to lead our national profile, strengthen our reputation, and drive forward our mission as leaders in children’s palliative care.
Purpose: You will play a pivotal role in strengthening CHAS’ national presence, growing trust and credibility, and positioning CHAS as a thought leader in children's palliative care. You will be responsible for managing all external affairs, with a focus on strategic communications aligned with CHAS’ mission and objectives. You will also oversee crisis communications, ensuring the organisation responds effectively and maintains public trust in challenging situations.
About You
To be successful in this role, you will have skill and experience in all of the following areas:
- Policy development and influencing at devolved and national government level.
- Public affairs and stakeholder management
- Managing strategic partnerships
- Corporate communications
- Line management
- Crisis Communications management
You’ll also hold a driving licence and have access to transport.
It would be great in addition to the skills and experience above if you demonstrated your experience in the following areas:
- Expert advice to senior colleagues
- Horizon scanning
- Media relations
- Project management
About CHAS
At CHAS, we support families during the toughest of times offering unwavering care to children and families in the face of death. We have ambitions to reach every family in Scotland who is living with the heart-breaking prognosis that their child is dying. We know decisions from government, local councils and NHS boards have significant impact on the families we support and our policy and external affairs delivery is focused on ensuring CHAS offers its voice and influence where it is needed most.
The Policy and External Affairs Manager is a key role in the Marketing and Communications team and reports into the Head of Marketing and Communications. This team manages marketing, fundraising communications, external affairs, policy development, public affairs and internal communications. CHAS Marketing and communications team sits within the Income Generation and Engagement directorate led by the director of Income Generation and Engagement.
This pivotal role will support CHAS to strengthen our national presence, growing trust and credibility, and positioning CHAS as a thought leader in children's palliative care. Working across the charity this role is responsible for managing policy, public affairs, external affairs and managing communications with internal and external stakeholders including support for crisis management.
We offer
- Flexible Working: our teams work flexibly and in a hybrid manner with time split between at home and onsite in Edinburgh and Glasgow. CHAS offers flexible and family friendly working. and are happy to discuss working arrangements that work for you
- Development Opportunities: exposure to professional development.
- Professional Growth: Work with industry leaders in a high-performing team where you will be encouraged and supported to excel and develop your skills.
- Comprehensive Benefits: Including generous annual leave and pension, incremental salary progression, access to Blue Light discounts, and health and wellbeing support.
Further Information and How to Apply
If this sounds like you, we would love you to apply! Click apply and you will be taken to our website where you can answer a couple of questions and upload your CV or complete our full application form.
Further information about the role and benefits of working for CHAS can be found in the attached documents.
Interview date July 1st 2025
This role will require travel across our sites in Scotland, not all of which are accessible by public transport therefore a full driving licence and access to a car, or an equivalent means of travel, would be required.
This post is subject to a Disclosure Scotland Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG).
Registered Charity 
101 - 500
Thank you!
Do you share our dream of a UK where poverty is a thing of the past?
Founded in 2019, the Poverty Truth Network believes that this can only happen when those most impacted by poverty are at the heart of the movement to end it. Our specific contribution brings together people experiencing poverty with those with responsibilities for alleviating it. “Nothing About Us Without Us Is For Us.”
Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, we are recruiting for a Parliamentary Officer who will develop and coordinate effective links between the Poverty Truth Network and parliamentarians, promoting a relationally-based approach to policy development and legislation.
You will be a highly motivated person with a proven track record of developing and delivering strategies to influence policy and political stakeholders to achieve change, ideally within a parliamentary or government setting.
Key Tasks
- To develop, with appropriate input from the Director and Partnership Manager, the Network’s approach to engaging with parliamentarians (Politics Alongside) in line with its values and practices
- To ensure that Poverty Truth Commissioners are at the heart of the Network’s parliamentary engagement
- To develop and, where appropriate, establish links with UK and devolved Parliaments and governments to promote the work of the Network
- To coordinate and help to deliver parliamentary events on behalf of the Network, including mapping topics and attendees, working with other partners as appropriate
- To support the development of effective links with Combined Authorities and other devolved administrations
- To work closely with members of the Amplify Team to promote its groups proposals for change
- To support parliamentary engagement, including through written briefings, for the Network’s other national programmes, including Economics for All
- To work with the Communications and Learning & Evaluation Officers to promote and identify best practice to governments and parliaments
- To undertake other appropriate duties as requested by the Partnership Manager
This role involves working from home with some travel.
To apply for this role, please submit your CV with a cover letter that clearly shows you have the necessary skills and experience to do the job. The cover letter should be no more than 900 words. Include the names and contact details of two referees (at least one of whom knows you on a professional basis). The application deadline is 5pm on Friday 27th June. Interviews will be held online 14th/ 15th July.
Applications will only be considered from applicants who already have the right to work within the United Kingdom.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Job title: Marketing Manager
Reports to: Charis Evans, Managing Director, CST Professional Development
Location: Home-based, with occasional travel for meetings and events. We provide equipment to support you working from home and pay reasonable expenses when you need to travel for work.
Salary: £40,000-£45,000 a year.
Pension: We offer a workplace pension and life assurance scheme. CST makes contributions equivalent to 10% of your gross salary.
Annual leave: Initially 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, with an additional two days leave after three years.
Working hours: Full time, 37.5 hours a week. We are happy to consider part time and flexible working options.
Job overview We are seeking an experienced and dynamic Marketing Manager to lead and execute marketing strategy for our conferences, events, membership and consultancy services within the education sector. The ideal candidate will play a pivotal role in promoting the CST brand, increasing attendance and engagement at our events and driving membership and business growth through strategic marketing activities. They will also line manage, support and develop a Marketing Executive.
Key responsibilities
1. Developing and implementing integrated marketing strategies for CST’s services, aligned with organisational goals and values.
2. Working closely with key stakeholders to define and achieve marketing goals and income targets.
3. Engaging with CST thought leadership and policy output to understand key trends in the school trust sector and undertaking competitor analysis to identify opportunities for CST in the education market.
4. Understanding CST membership engagement data and using it to inform the planning and execution of multi-channel marketing campaigns that build audiences and pipelines for CST events and services.
5. Managing marketing calendars to ensure timely delivery of campaigns, in line with the events, communities and membership calendars.
6. Overseeing the creation of compelling marketing materials including, brochures, landing pages, social media and email campaigns, blog content and promotional video.
7. Collaborating with subject matter experts in-house and across a wide range of partners to produce thought leadership and guidance for the benefit of CST members.
8. Supporting the delivery of conferences and events and working in partnership with the events team and external partners to ensure seamless integration and quality assurance of marketing and operational activities, including onsite branding and promotional activities.
9. Working closely with CST’s Head of Communications to manage the services areas on CST’s website.
10. Build relationships with CST partners and other sector organisations to identify and create cross-promotional opportunities.
11. Using the CST CRM and other analytics platforms to report on the performance of marketing activities.
12. Any other duties that may be delegated by the MD of CST PD.
Person specification
Essential skills and experience
• 5+ years marketing and communications experience, ideally in the education or membership sector, including experience of managing people.
• Output focused, able to execute a range of communications across channels efficiently.
• People-centred, adept at forming and maintaining positive relationships with colleagues and external stakeholders.
• Fluent and precise, an excellent communicator who writes well and oversees good design.
• Data driven, with a relentless focus on monitoring impact and hitting ambitious targets.
• Proficient with CMS, CRM and marketing automation tools and analytics software.
• Familiar with Adobe Creative Cloud suite and Canva
• Highly organised, with the ability to prioritise and work to tight deadlines.
• Committed to ongoing development of themselves and their colleagues.
• Someone that embodies the Nolan Principles and acts with integrity and discretion.
• Aligned with CST’s aims to promote education for public benefit.
• Skilled at working remotely as part of a close-knit team. Desirable skills and experience
• A degree and/or professional qualifications in marketing and/or communications
• Membership of the Chartered Institute of Marketing
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
We are seeking a dynamic and experienced strategic lead to drive the next phase of our Right to Health campaign. This new role will work with our experienced and well respected team and our extensive network, to make the political case for the better legal recognition and real-world protection for the right to health.
An ideal candidate
You will be a passionate and experienced advocate for health, human, social or environmental rights, committed to driving meaningful change in the UK. You will bring proven expertise in leading policy, advocacy, or parliamentary engagement work - ideally within health, human rights, social or environmental justice sectors - and thrive in building strong, strategic relationships with government, civil society, and community stakeholders.
You have a good understanding of the structural causes of health inequality and the power of human rights frameworks to address them. You will know how the UK political and parliamentary systems work, and you are skilled at influencing these processes through clear, compelling narratives backed by evidence.
You are able to communicate with clarity and impact, tailoring your message to diverse audiences - from policymakers to grassroots activists. You are confident working independently and collaboratively within a small, flexible team, balancing strategic vision with practical delivery. Your approach is solutions-focused, inclusive, and grounded in the lived realities of people affected by health inequalities.
Most importantly, you are motivated by the opportunity to join a dynamic and well respected organisation and lead a strategic campaign that challenges the status quo and contributes to a fairer, more just UK.
You have the right to work in the UK and be able to work from home in London or within easy reach of London. A minimum of weekly attendance in London will be required.
This opportunity is open to applicants wishing to deliver the work on a self-employed freelance or employed basis.
For application, please complete:
- the Application Form
- a CV outlining your career (including paid and unpaid work), with any academic and professional qualifications, to date.
Applications that do not include both documents will not be considered.
