Head of Communications and Influencing

Reports to      Director of External Relations  

Hours             37.5 hours per week 

Salary             £56,959.05 - £63,886.54

Contract         Fixed Term Contract - 12 Months

Location         Remote (with occasional travel across UK) 

Benefits         A generous package including 25 days holiday per year plus public holidays, employee pension scheme with 4% employer contribution, Cycle2Work scheme, 365 days a year Employee Assistance Programme 

 

About SafeLives

We are SafeLives, the UK-wide charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for everyone, for good.

We work with organisations across the UK to transform the response to domestic abuse. We want what you would want for your best friend. We listen to survivors, putting their voices at the heart of our thinking. We look at the whole picture for each individual and family to get the right help at the right time to make families everywhere safe and well. And we challenge perpetrators to change, asking ‘why doesn’t he stop?’ rather than ‘why doesn’t she leave?’ This applies whatever the gender of the victim or perpetrator and whatever the nature of their relationship.

Last year alone, we delivered more than 700 sessions to over 15,000 learners across the UK in policing, health, housing, justice, education and the specialist sector. And we have reached 90,000 adult and 100,000 child survivors through programmes designed and delivered with partners.

In the last 9 years, close to 7,000 perpetrators have been challenged and supported to change through flagship interventions developed by our Drive Partnership and the programme continues to expand year on year.

Together we can end domestic abuse. Forever. For everyone.

Description

You will provide strong and steady leadership for SafeLives’ communications, marketing and public affairs work over the next year, communicating our Whole Picture Strategy, finding what works and helping it happen to end domestic abuse for everyone for good.  

You will shape and deliver strategic communications and influencing work to reach decision-makers, strengthen public trust, and support our mission to drive real change in the UK’s domestic abuse response.

You will be able bring to together robust data, the voice of survivors, and the view of practice experts to position SafeLives at the centre of the conversation with professionals, key policy and decision makers and influencers as a credible and trusted voice.

You’ll lead a cross-functional team of comms, marketing and public affairs colleagues to:

• Strengthen core messaging and consistency around our Whole Picture strategy and the WP Framework, to support delivery and impact
• maintain our communications and marketing and our brand
• provide oversight of our influencing through policy and public affairs, working with senior colleagues where escalation is required
• support income generation through targeted marketing, and support for fundraising
• ensure we are sharing evidence, data and research in support of our strategy

You will connect reactive work with long-term strategic priorities, ensuring our external engagement supports our strategic priorities, policy goals, and income generation ambitions. And you will lead high-quality responses to breaking news and emerging issues, providing clear strategic advice to the Senior Leadership Team and acting as a trusted lead on reputational risk.

You will ensure SafeLives is visible, authoritative and survivor-centred in public and policy conversations, with timely responses, briefings and support, ensuring our communications and influencing are clear, consistent and drive impact.

You will work with our training, practice, and fundraising teams to drive our business development and income generation, as well as helping us to understand all our audiences and better meet their needs.

And as part of the Operational Management Team (OMT), you’ll work closely with colleagues to ensure an inclusive and supportive organisational culture, role modelling our values.

Undertake any other duties as may reasonably be required.

Responsibilities

1. Leadership

·      Provide calm, structured and values-led leadership across the Comms, Marketing and Public Affairs team.

·      Ensure reliable systems, processes and workflows for communications, marketing and public affairs.

·      Set expectations, priorities and working rhythms that bring stability and clarity to the team.

·      Promote a supportive, inclusive and collaborative culture with clear communication channels.

 

2. Core Narrative, Messaging and Evidence Sharing

·      Lead the development of SafeLives’ core messages, ensuring they are used consistently across all teams, and the development of our influencing asks.

·      Translate SafeLives’ research, data and evidence into accessible, impactful content for external audiences, including practitioners, policy and decision makers.

·      Ensure all outputs are survivor‑centred, values‑aligned and evidence‑led

·      Develop our brand to reflect our approach to equity, equality, diversity and inclusion and in line with our values - human, rigorous, brave and inclusive.

·      Oversee production of communications, marketing and policy materials that help to amplify our Whole Picture strategy and our related priorities.

 

3. Communications and Media Leadership

·      Lead SafeLives’ overall communications strategy and activity.

·      Oversee media relations, with strong focus on clear messaging and reputational resilience.

·      Implement rapid-response and crisis‑comms protocols with clear escalation to Directors.

·      Lead the development and management of our website, digital channels and content strategy.

·      Ensure SafeLives is timely, authoritative and survivor‑centred in its external interventions.

 

4. Marketing and Audience Engagement

·      Lead marketing strategy to support:

·    Statutory and voluntary income generation

·    Training uptake

·    Consultancy and practice development

·    Fundraising and supporter engagement

·     Strengthen audience insight, segmentation and targeting.

·     Oversee campaigns that bring SafeLives’ strategy and evidence to life and drive measurable action.

·    Ensure that communication and marketing resources are used effectively to support business development.

 

5. Public Affairs and Policy

·      Provide strategic alignment between SafeLives’ core messaging and evidence sharing and our influencing work

·      Ensure public affairs activities and outputs (briefings, consultations, correspondence) are clear, accurate and consistent with SafeLives’ communications approach.

·      Maintain awareness of political and policy developments relevant to SafeLives’ mission, advising Directors on risks and opportunities for influencing, working with colleagues across the organisation to develop policy.

·      Senior level engagement will be led by Directors, as needed, with this role and the public affairs team leading stakeholder engagement and supporting preparation, messaging and follow‑up.

 

6. Planning, Governance and Performance

·   Lead forward planning for all communications, marketing and public affairs activity.

·      Set realistic, measurable KPIs that support the delivery of our comms and influencing strategy and our income generation.

·      Embed continuous improvement processes and ensure compliance with GDPR and data protection.

·      Oversee budgets for communications, marketing and public affairs, ensuring value for money and resource prioritisation.

 

7. Authentic Voice

·      Ensure that the voices, experiences and priorities of survivors remain at the heart of all external communications.

·      Support colleagues and Pioneers who use lived experience in SafeLives’ work in a trauma‑informed and respectful way.

Person Specification

Experience

·      Strategic communications, including influencing, brand/profile raising, media relations and reputation management in complex, high profile environments (E)

·      Media relations, including securing high quality coverage and rapid-response experience (E)

·      Developing and delivering effective communications and marketing cmapaigns, including support for fundraising and income generation (E)

·      Digital communications across owned, earned and paid media (E)

·      Experience using data, research and evidence to inform communications, influencing and storytelling (E)

·      Understanding of public affairs or policy environments within the social sector (D/E)

·      Leadership and people development, ideally across multi-disciplinary teams (E)

·      Influencing professional and policy audiences through clear, impactful communications, information and guidance (E)

·      Working with people affected by domestic abuse to support storytelling and influence change (D)

 

Skills

·      Confident in providing strategic communications advice aligned with organisational strategy and policy priorities (E)

·      Exceptional written, oral and influencing skills, including excellent writing and editing ability (E)

·      Strong political and media awareness

·      Excellent judgement under pressure, making sound, values‑led decisions at pace (E)

·      Ability to turn complex and fast‑moving information into clear messaging for different audiences, particularly professional and policy maker audiences (E)

·      Strong issue and risk management in sensitive public contexts (E)

·      Excellent digital and social media skills (E)

·      Strong analytical skills to design and deliver campaigns (E)

·      Numerate, with experience preparing and managing budgets (E)

·      Strong planning, prioritisation and ability to meet multiple deadlines (E)

·      Able to identify problems early and propose solutions (E)

·      Commitment to equity, equality, diversity and inclusion (E)

·      Commitment to ending domestic abuse (E)

 

Competencies  

Leadership, organisational and strategic awareness 

·      Inspires trust and confidence in others 

·      Commitment to SafeLives’ values – Human, Rigorous, Inclusive and Brave - underpins all actions and decisions 

·      Remains calm, decisive and collaborative in fast-moving situations, while maintaining message clarity, survivor focus and organisational credibility

·      Demonstrates an understanding of how your own role contributes to achieving SafeLives’ goals 

·      Is responsive to change which helps achieve goals

·      Pursues tasks/goals with energy, drive and need for completion 

 

Teamwork & collaboration 

·      Fosters an inclusive working environment so that others can contribute effectively 

·      Supports colleagues in demanding situations, recognises the importance of well-being in self and others, accepts help and support from other team members 

·      Listens to the views of others and shows flexibility in working with collective decisions 

 

People management and decision making 

·      Ability to lead and manage effective teams and create an inventive, responsible and generous team culture 

·      Strong focus on quality, performance and impact 

·      Coaches staff to reach their full potential 

·      Makes effective decisions on a timely basis 

·      Judgement and problem solving is based on identifying outcomes and victim focus 

 

Communications and relationship management 

·      Communicate with energy and direction 

·      Ability to build strong and effective relationships with key internal and external stakeholders 

·      Promote and contribute to cross team working 

·      Speaks and writes clearly and effectively and in a timely manner, tailoring communication to suit the audience 

·      Maintains confidentiality 

 

Delivering quality 

·      Self-starter with the ability to use initiative and judgement to identify problems and propose solutions 

·      Excellent organisational skills including the ability to manage multiple projects and meet tight deadlines 

·      Takes responsibility for own workload, acts on own initiative, seeks feedback from others, evaluates own performance and then acts upon it 

·      Tries out new ideas and ways of working and identifies and shares learning 

 

Influence 

·      Inspires confidence and trust– demonstrating high standards of integrity, honesty and fairness 

·      Actively engages the knowledge, ideas and contributions of others 

·      Uses appropriate techniques to influence others