Senior Policy & Advocacy Adviser

Closing Date: 1 April 2024
Ref 6676

Save the Children UK has an exciting opportunity for a collaborative and influential individual with advocacy experience to join us as our Senior Policy & Advocacy Adviser where you will work with the Education Policy and Advocacy Team.

Please note, this is an 18 month fixed term contract. This role is also part time at 21 hours a week.

About Us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.  When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave.  We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

About the role

As a Senior Policy & Advocacy Adviser you will work in the Education Team within the Global Policy, Advocacy and Research department.

Your role will focus on advocacy on school safety and risk reduction in the education sector. Specifically, you will be working closely with colleagues at Save the Children and members of GADRRRES (Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction & Resilience in the Education Sector) to promote the global implementation of the Comprehensive School Safety Framework (CSSF). This is an important time for this area of work, as the revised CSSF was launched in September 2022, and as the education sector contends with the increasing risks posed by climate change, health pandemics, and conflict. This project is being delivered in partnership with Prudence Foundation, who have partnered with Save the Children to promote school safety and resilience at the national, regional and global level. Our ideal candidate for this role would be someone who is a sharp strategic thinker, who understands how to make political and policy change happen across different contexts. You will have experience of working with partners through coalition, and have strong networking and relationship building skills. Experience of working in global education, humanitarian or climate sectors is desirable but not necessary.

In this role, you will: 

• Design, lead and implement complex policy and advocacy strategies and products, to a high standard and with minimal supervision
• Identify global policy and research needs and influencing opportunities in your thematic area
• Represent the organisation externally including in high-level meetings and events and with donors and other key stakeholders, building relationships with external experts, partners and coalitions
• Write advocacy briefings, reports, externally published articles and blogs, as well as assist in the drafting of press releases, Q&As and opinion pieces
• Maintain and develop very high-level knowledge and expertise in global education and advise colleagues across the global movement, including at a senior level, as well as senior external stakeholders

About you

To be successful, it is important that you have:

• Very high-level expertise in global development policies, including national developing-country government policies, donor behaviour, international institutions and NGOs
• Very high-level knowledge and expertise in global education policy and advocacy.
• A proven track record of carrying out first-class research, policy and/or advocacy
• Ability to think creatively, innovate, strategize, set priorities, manage a workplan and evaluate progress with minimal supervision
• Strong networking and experience of participating in coalitions and working with civil-society actors to achieve change
• Commitment to Save the Children's vision, mission and values.

What we offer you:

Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance.

• We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work.
• We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day. You can read more about our benefits here.

Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Ways of Working:

The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but there are likely to be times when you will be required to come to your contracted office (up to 2-4 days per month or 6-8 days per quarter).  This will be agreed with your Line Manager and team and is intended to be time spent on collaborating with colleagues and relationship building. 

Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense. 

Flexible Working - We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: 

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be "Free to Be Me". We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think. 

We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences - of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability - help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here.