Head of policy and public affairs jobs in edinburgh, scotland

Job TitleCommunications Manager

LocationHome based (Home working with regular meetings in London)

Salary£35,000+   

HoursFull Time, permanent 

Reports to                   Chief Policy Officer 

NOTE:

• Please include notice period and salary expectations in application letter.
• First round interviews will be held on Friday 7 November, final round interviews will be held on Friday 14 November

About Parentkind

As one of the largest federated charities in the UK, with arguably greater reach into the lives of families and educational settings than any other non-Government organisation, Parentkind is on a bold and urgent mission: to support, champion, and empower parents to be partners in their children’s education and wellbeing. 

Although best known for our support of almost 24,000 Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), Parent Councils, and Schools, helping them build strong school communities whilst they raise approaching £140 million each year to enhance children’s education, our work stretches far beyond the school gates. Parentkind is building a powerful movement that recognises parental engagement not as a nicety, but a necessity.

Supporting parents beyond the school gate

In recent years, families have faced a series of compounding challenges: the cost-of-living crisis, rising child poverty, and deepening educational inequality. These pressures have left many parents struggling to meet basic needs—let alone feel confident engaging in their child’s learning journey.  Parentkind has responded to this moment with compassion, agility and purpose, through a series of transformative campaigns, resources, and partnerships. 

Our No Cold Child initiative with FatFace stepped in to address a stark statistic: over 150,000 children in the UK do not own a winter coat due to poverty. Through our trusted relationships with schools we distributed 10,000 warm, high-quality coats worth £600,000 to the children who needed them most. Winning the Business Charity Awards ‘Fashion & Retail’ Award, and shortlisted for two further awards, the campaign has been praised not just for providing warmth, but for restoring dignity, inclusion, and school readiness to thousands of children.

The All Dressed Up campaign—developed with World Book Day and Rubies Masquerade—confronted the often-overlooked issue of financial exclusion on key celebration days. More than 100,000 free dressing up costumes worth £1.34 million were delivered to children from low-income families. By enabling participation in events like World Book Day, we helped spark imagination, joy, and belonging for children who might otherwise feel left out—boosting self-esteem and supporting a positive connection to learning.Furthermore, helping attract children into school on a day which often sees struggling parents keep their children at home.

Alongside these national campaigns, Parentkind supports families year-round through a growing suite of programmes designed to inform, prepare and empower parents. Our Be School Ready programme offers crucial guidance and confidence to parents preparing their children for the leap into primary education. With a mix of practical advice, developmental tips, and reassurance, through the distribution of 150,000 copies of Be School Ready and an online campaign, it supports families at one of the most formative moments in their child’s life.

We also deliver a wide-ranging series of live expert webinars and parent-friendly resources, covering topics such as managing anxiety, supporting special educational needs, navigating school transitions, and building home-school partnerships. These resources, developed in consultation with experts and rooted in lived parent experience, equip families to feel informed and empowered, no matter what challenges arise.

Our direct support of schools

Our collaboration with Asda on Cashpot for Schools is another example of unlocking support at scale. This innovative community-led funding model allowed shoppers to nominate and fund their local schools simply through everyday spending. This campaign has generated £5.78 million for schools during the past twelve months, supporting everything from basic classroom supplies to vital extracurricular programmes and pupil wellbeing initiatives. Also shortlisted for a Business Charity Award, it is already a model for community-driven philanthropy.

In April, we launched our Parent-Friendly Schools Accreditation Programme, designed to formally recognise schools that go above and beyond in fostering positive, inclusive relationships with parents. The accreditation celebrates schools that actively listen to parent voices, make engagement easy and accessible, and embed family partnership in their culture. It is a practical and inspiring tool to drive long-term change in the sector and offers a roadmap for schools wanting to strengthen their community.

Our focus on Policy & Research

Our work is grounded in evidence. Since 2023, we have conducted the UK’s largest annual parent survey: the National Parent Survey. With approaching 6,000 participants providing 130,000 bits of data to provide invaluable insights into the struggles, concerns, hopes and fears of parents. The findings are fed directly into government consultations and have already informed national debates on school funding, attendance, mental health support, SEND provision, and curriculum reform.

In each of the past two years the number of policymakers, educators, parents and researchers accessing the National Parent Survey exceeded seven thousand, and the survey featured in more than two hundred media outlets each year. In addition to the National Parent Survey, Parentkind undertakes representative polling of parents throughout the year on a variety of important topics, which increasingly find exposure in the media and policy discussion.

Parentkind provides the secretariat for the Westminster APPG for Parents and the Stormont APG for Parental Participation in Education. Two very successful parliamentary groups bringing together policymakers and a variety of stakeholders to consider the challenges faced by parents and act as a voice for them through a variety of policymakers.

Our Media Engagement

Since becoming recognised as the UK’s largest parent charity, with likely more groups and frontline volunteers than the Scouts or Girlguiding, Parentkind has gained increasing prominence in the media.Beyond the reach of the National Parent Survey and our regular polling, Parentkind receives frequent requests for quotes of reflection and input by media in relation to their journalism and from Government and non-Government entities in support of policy announcements.

Beyond this, the Parentkind community of volunteers and PTAs share local or regional media announcements of their own.Whether or not it celebrating the completion of large projects they have invested countless hours and thousands of pounds into realising, or the community event they have worked into the night to deliver for their school communities.

It will be your role to take this much further, gaining increasing exposure for the work of Parentkind, its community, and parents more broadly. 

If you believe, like we do, that when parents matter, children succeed, we’d love to hear from you.

What we are looking for…

• Someone with a “nose for news” and an understanding what makes a newsworthy opinion poll that will hit the headline and go big on social media. 
• We are a small, fast paced team, there are no line management responsibilities attached to the role. We’re looking for someone with a “roll up your sleeves up and get on with it” mentality.
• Being able to demonstrate you can sell our parent voice research and amazing existing data to media across broadcast, social media and print media 
• Being able to lead and deliver a plan to raise our profile on social media, broadcast and in print media
• A good understanding of the challenges faced by children and families, education debates and education policy, we are the voice of parents.
• We are a cross party charity and we work with all parties, we want someone who understands that approach and brings it to their work.
• Someone who can to respond to social media debates at pace and make sure are part of the debate.
• Experience of writing compelling written documents when 100 words would make a stronger case than 1,000. You can bring evidence to life and make an argument to convince.
• Someone with experience of appearing on broadcast media and willing to be a ‘talking head’ for Parentkind as required. This is not essential, but it would be great to have someone willing to do this.

Your mission is to massively increase our online, in print and social media presence with a specific focus on policy, research and impact, to make us the highest profile parent charity in the UK. We have a huge amount of data on what parents think and we need you to get it seen. This is a great job for someone who wants to grab hold of a “comms” function and make it their own.

Parentkind is a UK wide charity, you will be expected to support our work in other parts of the UK where necessary.