Policy and research manager jobs

About the Role

Citizens Advice, in partnership with The Trussell Trust, have been running the Help through Hardship Helpline (formerly the Trussell Trust Foodbank helpline) for just over a year. The helpline has been highly successful in reaching those clients most in need. To date Citizens Advice has answered nearly 57,000 calls, helped feed over 70,000 people and recorded £13 million in expected financial gains for clients.

The Helpline has been extended to local Citizens Advice offices and we're looking for new advisers to join our team in Liverpool who will provide information and advice on the issues clients are facing, and help them access foodbank vouchers.

The successful candidate will provide generalist advice in a wide range of enquiry areas such as benefits, housing and employment. You will provide telephone advice within the working hours of the service and work with the on-site supervisor to support Clients most in need.

You will have excellent communication skills, be confident, motivated and willing to try new things. We’re not looking for the finished article, if you have the right attitude then we can help to develop your skills.

Requirements

Desirable

1. One years’ experience of delivering generalist advice within Citizens Advice or another quality assured environment such as AQS.

Essential

2. Good IT knowledge with an ability to support delivery of advice

3. Ability to support and encourage others in using online systems and resources to enable them to self-help.

4. Experience of using interpersonal skills, including sensitive listening and questioning skills to understand the needs of others, especially in the context of telephony.

5. Understanding of barriers individuals have to accessing telephone services.

6. Ability to give and receive feedback objectively and sensitively.

7. Effective oral and written communication skills, with particular emphasis on telephone work.

8. Ability and willingness to work both on own initiative and as part of a team.

9. Willingness to learn and develop skills and be flexible with service delivery.

10. Understanding of the issues affecting society and their implications for clients and service provision.

11. Ability to assist with research and campaigns works by providing information about clients’ circumstances

12. Understanding of and commitment to the aims and principles of the Citizens Advice service and its equal opportunities policies.

About us

Citizens Advice Liverpool is a charity that provides free, confidential and impartial advice to people who live and work in the city. We depend on a workforce of paid staff and over 120 trained volunteers. We give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward – whoever they are, and whatever their problem. We are the leading provider of advice and advocacy services in Liverpool and have helped clients with over 106,000 issues in 2022/2023.

CAL have achieved accreditation with the Workplace Wellbeing Charter, showing we are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our workforce. We've also gained an award for outstanding contribution by an employer to workplace health and wellbeing 2022 by Merseycare NHS Foundation Trust.

We've gained awards from Citizens Advice National recognising our Advising Margainalised Communities Team for championing equity, diversity and inclusion in both 2021 and 2021. We were also named volunteer team of the year in 2022.

This is a brand new leadership role at a pivotal moment for the Greyhound Trust.

We’re creating a new team, with a new remit, to take on a new challenge: driving our work across brand, income generation, marketing, communications and engagement so that more greyhounds can be supported, homed and championed.

As Head of Marketing, Communications and Income Generation, you’ll build and lead a compact, hands-on, multi-disciplinary team, bringing together specialist skills and embedding genuinely integrated, collaborative ways of working. This role will suit someone who enjoys shaping teams as much as shaping strategy — and who is excited by the opportunity to create something from the ground up.

Reporting directly to the Chief Executive, you’ll be a key member of the senior management team, contributing to the organisation’s strategic development, long-term planning and operational effectiveness. You’ll work as part of a highly motivated, close-knit leadership group based at the National Greyhound Centre in Horley, Surrey, where collaboration, mutual support and shared accountability really matter.

Alongside leading the Trust’s brand, marketing and income generation activity, you will also develop and manage our wholly owned trading subsidiary, Greyhound Events Ltd — ensuring it grows sustainably and plays a meaningful role in both income generation and supporter engagement. You’ll see events not just as fundraisers, but as powerful opportunities to build relationships, tell our story and bring new audiences closer to our cause.

You’ll be responsible for creating and delivering an integrated brand, marketing and income generation strategy, grounded in audience insight and sector best practice, and flexible enough to evolve as we grow. From individual giving and digital campaigns to partnerships, events and retail, you’ll oversee a diverse income portfolio while ensuring supporters and volunteers have a consistently positive experience with the Greyhound Trust.

This is a role for a leader who combines strategic vision with practical delivery, and who leads with empathy, creativity and determination. You’ll support colleagues and volunteers across the organisation, champion high standards, and help ensure that everything we do reflects our values — committed, compassionate and determined — always doing what is best for every greyhound.

We are excited to hear from you if you bring experience, energy and a commitment to our casue.

Please see the full JD / Job pack below.

For over 100 years, we have been the central fundraiser and grant maker for maritime welfare. As a truly independent charity, we always put seafarer welfare first.

We’re looking for someone who genuinely cares about people, someone who lights up at the idea of looking after supporters and understands just how important thoughtful donor care is to meaningful fundraising. If you’re enthusiastic, detail‑driven, and love building relationships, you’ll feel right at home with us.

As our Fundraising Officer, you’ll play a vital role in keeping our fundraising engine running smoothly. This isn’t a marketing job, this is real, hands‑on fundraising. You’ll be the person who ensures our donors feel valued, seen, and appreciated. You’ll work across multiple income streams, supporting everything from donation processing to stewardship journeys, helping us maintain the high standards our supporters deserve.

You’ll be joining a small, ambitious, and incredibly committed Development team. A team that truly believes in the work we do and the people we do it for. You’ll need to be comfortable talking to supporters, nurturing relationships, managing details accurately, and getting stuck in wherever needed. If you have a natural warmth, a positive mindset, and pride in doing things well, you’ll thrive here.

Most importantly, you’ll be part of a charity with a unique role in the maritime world, one with a long history, a strong reputation, and a real, measurable impact on the lives of seafarers. This is a brilliant opportunity to grow, learn, and take meaningful steps forward in your fundraising career, surrounded by people who are just as dedicated and driven as you are.

If you’re ready to bring your passion, energy, and commitment to a role where every interaction matters, we’d love to hear from you.

You'll be joining a diverse, friendly, committed team of about 20 staff. We work on a hybrid basis, with a minimum of 3 days per week in the office. There are regular organisation-wide staff meetings at the office to ensure opportunities for people to get to know each other face-to-face, plus smaller departmental team meetings, and cross-organisational working groups.

This role is an exciting opportunity for a passionate, digitally confident person to join our growing charity and create content for a new online resource hub, currently in development. We have big plans for this hub and want to pack it with expertise from brilliant chefs, leading educators and celebrities passionate about school food.

Our charity is growing again - this time we’re transforming online learning for school food. You’ll help shape and create resources for our new online hub. This hub will become a central point for schools, kitchen teams and caterers to seek inspiration. You’ll be creative and confident enough to work with busy chefs, celebrities and educators who all care deeply about feeding children brilliant school food. This role will sit in our communications team and focus on creating clear, engaging and practical resources that help people take action, whether that is a headteacher looking to improve their whole school to food or a school chef looking to transform their school meals.

You will help turn complex ideas, research and on the ground practice into user friendly content, in a range of formats, that reflects our brand, showcases the work of our chefs, schools, patrons and partners, and puts the wellbeing of children and young people at its heart. 

This is a hands-on creative role, well suited to someone starting out in content creation or design who wants to build their skills while helping future generations thrive.

Who we are

Chefs in Schools is a young, ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. We believe every child has the right to eat and learn about good food in school. 

We focus our efforts in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, where more than a third of children are entitled to free school meals, and diet-related disease is driving further inequality.

We support and train school kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share learning and resources, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.

We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.

About you and the role

This role will initially support the set up and roll out of a national school food resource hub, supporting the creation of resources for the platform, working closely with internal teams and external partners. With the hub still in development, you will be joining at a crucial point to help shape what goes live, how it looks and sounds, and how useful it is for the people we most want to reach.

Our aim is that schools and the wider school food community can quickly find practical, trusted resources that help them improve food in schools. That might be a headteacher looking for a simple starting point, a school chef wanting a clear guide to implement new practices, or a teacher looking to introduce food education. 

Your role will focus on creating and maintaining high quality resources for the hub. You will turn ideas, evidence, and stories into clear content in different formats, including short one to two pagers, multi-page guides, videos, photographs and interactive resources. You will adapt your writing and framing to different audiences, keeping content aligned with brand guidelines.

This role sits within our comms team but works closely with our school transformation and membership teams. You will work with internal and external stakeholders to gather information and develop content, including supporting interviews and capturing case studies. You will also help manage the day to day flow of content into the hub, keeping resources organised, up to date and easy to navigate, while bringing a curious, practical mindset that helps us keep improving what we publish. You’ll identify any resources that could be a wider engagement tool to draw more people to the hub.

The responsibilities, skills and experience listed below are intended to give you an idea of what we need for this role. If you don’t meet every requirement but feel you would be able to work with us to deliver the majority of them, we urge you to apply anyway. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and for us the most important ‘experience’ is passion for our mission. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, especially those from underrepresented communities, to apply.  

We want to get to know you at the interview and understand we can do this best if you’re at ease. We’re an inclusive employer and work hard to create a welcoming working environment for everyone, including appointing a neurodiversity champion to help us identify how we can make our work environment work for everyone. If you need adjustments to the interview process please let us know.

As we work with children & young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy.

Key responsibilities: 

• Work with internal teams and external partners to develop and produce resources for the resource hub, aligned with project priorities and timelines.

• Turn existing programme materials, case studies and evidence into clear, attractive resources for different audiences (e.g. school leaders, kitchen teams, young people, parents, funders, policymakers).

• Write and edit copy for 1–2 pagers, multi page guides, slide decks, toolkits and the resource hub’s webpages.

• Work with colleagues to storyboard, script and produce short films for the resource hub. Where the resources could appeal to a wider audience, you will link up with the comms team to promote the hub.

• Create and maintain website content for the resource hub, writing clear copy for landing pages, navigation and resource descriptions, and working with the CMS to keep content up to date and well-organised

• Create short videos and films on your phone and capture photography in schools and at events.

• Work with the programme teams to build simple infographics, charts or visuals that explain impact and evidence.

• Ensure all content follows our brand guidelines, tone of voice and accessibility standards.

• Liaise with internal and external stakeholders, including teachers, chefs, young people and partner organisations, to gather information, quotes and approvals.

• Support interviews with pupils, school staff, chefs and partners, including preparing questions, note taking and transcribing.

• Support the management of content on the resource hub content management system, including tagging, links and basic SEO.

• Help maintain a content calendar for the resource hub and keep track of versions, approvals and review dates.

• Support testing of resources with users (e.g. short surveys, feedback sessions with teachers or pupils) and feed learning into future content.

• Contribute to wider communications activity, including newsletters, social media and events, as needed. 

• Ensure all resources comply with our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.

• Help to maintain basic documentation for resource creation, such as user guides and internal process notes.

 Essential skills & experience:

• A commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and to centring the voices of lived experience and the school chef workforce in our work.

• You have interest and belief in our mission to improve kids’ health through improving food and food education in schools

• Experience of creating content or resources, through work, volunteering, study or personal projects.

• Strong writing and editing skills, with the ability to explain ideas in clear, simple and engaging language for different audiences.

• An eye for good design and layout, and confidence using basic design tools (for example Canva, PowerPoint or similar).

• Some experience of filming and photography, for example on a smartphone or basic camera, and an interest in improving these skills.

• Awareness of brand, tone of voice and visual identity, and the ability to apply agreed guidelines consistently.

• Confident interpersonal skills, with the ability to build positive working relationships with colleagues, schools, young people and external partners.

• Curious and proactive, willing to ask questions, gather information and turn it into practical, user focused resources.

• Good organisational skills, able to manage your time, juggle several pieces of work and keep clear records of versions and approvals.

• Comfortable working as part of a small, busy team, taking feedback on board and working collaboratively to improve content.

Desirable skills & experience:

• Knowledge of basic SEO

• Experience in education, charity or public sector comms

• Experience working with children

• Experience of using google drive and trello

• Video editing skills (Adobe Premiere, Final Cut, CapCut) 

Benefits

You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who work hard but believe in a healthy work/life balance. We were voted one of CODE Hospitality’s happiest places to work in 2024. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to and draw on various projects and strategic insights.

We offer 33 days of holiday per year including bank holidays, 3 additional office closure days over the Christmas period as well as wellbeing days over the summer school holidays.  We also have a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, enhanced parental leave, and free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.

We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the Aviva Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.

Application process

In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we invite candidates to answer a series of questions related to their day-to-day job. Please follow this link to answer the questions and submit your application along with your CV.

We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you’re ready to ensure you don’t lose your work if interrupted.

Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. A long list of candidates will then additionally have their CVs reviewed. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30 mins online interview. Successful candidates will be invited to attend a second, in-person interview at our office in Brixton, London.

Expected duration of this application process: 4-6 weeks

In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we will invite candidates to interview based on their answers to a series of questions related to their day-to-day job.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an online 30-minute interview to take place on the 26th or 27th February. 

Successful candidates will be invited to an in-person second interview to be held at our office in Brixton, London on March 10th. The interview overall will take a maximum of one hour.

The deadline for applications is 23.30 on Fri 6th Feb.

The Chief Executive provides strategic leadership and operational oversight for the Sheila McKechnie Foundation, ensuring the organisation delivers meaningful impact, remains financially sustainable, and continues to be a respected voice in social change and activism.

Leading a small, committed team, the Chief Executive will set the strategic direction, secure and steward funding, and ensure effective delivery of programmes and services. They will work closely with the Board of Trustees, act as an ambassador for the Foundation, and foster strong relationships with partners, funders, and stakeholders.

This is a hands-on role suited to a versatile leader with a passion for social change and building communities, who thrives in a small charity environment.

Please note this is a UK-based role and applicants must have the right to work in the UK.