About Us
The Early Education and Childcare Coalition unites the voices of parents, children, providers, early years professionals and the wider business community, working together for investment and reform of early education and childcare in England.
We believe that we all benefit from a well-functioning early education system and we all have a role to play in ensuring it works for children, parents and the economy.
We are backed by some of the most high-profile campaign and research organisations in the UK. Our members include early years provider membership bodies, parent campaign groups, early childhood experts, trade unions, the business lobby, anti-poverty campaigners and NGOs. Together, we use our collective voice and research to build public and political support for early education and childcare. And it’s worked. Thanks to the dedication of our members, early years is one of the top priorities for the government’s Plan for Change.
But our work isn’t done – we have an ambitious agenda to ‘rescue and reform’ the system, ensuring that:
- Every child can access high-quality education and care that their parents can afford and that will support them to thrive
- Every provider is funded fairly for the places they offer
- Every early years professional is rewarded and recognised for the skilled work they do
This is an exciting time to join the Coalition. We have experienced significant growth in recent years and with early years firmly on the policy agenda, we expect this to continue.
We are now looking to appoint a Deputy Director to help steer that work and further drive the development of the Coalition. You will work closely with the Executive Director (ED) to lead our influencing work at the highest level, strengthening our policy platform, and ensuring we translate evidence into meaningful impact. At the same time, you will play a pivotal role in supporting a talented and experienced team and shape the continued growth of the Coalition as a charitable organisation.
About The Role
- Hours: Full-time, 37.5 hours per week over 5 days. We may consider 4 days per week.
- Duration: Two-year contract, renewed subject to funding.
- Location: Home-working but based in or near London.
· Salary: £62,000 - £64,170 per annum FTE
We are a remote team, with most colleagues based outside London. This role requires regular access to Westminster, so you will need to be based in or within easy reach of London.
We work flexibly and understand the realities of balancing work with caring commitments. We trust you to manage your time but expect that most of your hours are worked within core office hours to fulfil the requirements of the role. To support fluent remote working, we require all staff to work on Thursdays.
This is a dual role, delivering our policy, engagement and public affairs strategy while also supporting the Executive Director to grow the Coalition as an organisation and movement. You will play a central role in shaping the Coalition’s strategy, culture and growth. This is a senior, outward-facing role, suited to someone who can think strategically, build influence at the highest levels, and remain hands-on within a small and ambitious team.
About You
You are a senior public affairs professional with a strong track record of strategic influencing and engagement to shape policy. You bring robust judgement and credibility and are motivated by the opportunity to deliver meaningful change in a high-profile policy area and may have experience on public-service reform.
You are equally comfortable setting direction and delivering through others as you are rolling up your sleeves to respond to fast-moving political developments. You are a confident relationship-builder who can operate effectively at senior levels, while working collaboratively across a diverse coalition.
You should have previous experience of managing functions and teams and working in senior leadership teams. Ideally you will be live to the challenges of working in a small, but high-impact national organisation and have experience of scaling teams and functions.
What You Can Expect To Be Doing
- Executive leadership
This will include supporting the ED with key senior stakeholder relationships including funders, ministers and policymakers. You will be required to deputise for the ED during periods of leave or when directed to do so. This is a pivotal role which straddles the executive and senior leadership functions. Consequently, you will be expected to make decisions that balance multiple interests and help scale and grow the Coalition as a sustainable organisation. - Lead the Coalition’s policy and influencing function
Work with the Senior Leadership Team and Coalition members to turn evidence into clear, credible policy positions and priorities, ensuring members are aligned, informed and able to contribute. - Develop and deliver a cross-party influencing strategy
Building on the Coalition’s profile, you will further nurture and maintain relationships with MPs, peers, special advisers, civil servants and key stakeholders, ensuring strong reach across Westminster, local government and the wider policy community. - Maximise key moments for impact
Identify and respond to opportunities in the parliamentary and policy cycle to maximise influence, including producing briefings, consultation responses and submissions. - Oversee policy-related events to support engagement
Lead activity such as events, roundtables and party conference attendance to strengthen the Coalition’s visibility and impact. - Align policy, public affairs, research and communications
Work closely with the Head of Communications and Campaigns, and the Associate Director of Research to ensure a joined-up approach across research, influencing, media and campaigning. - Represent the Coalition externally
Act as a senior spokesperson at high-level meetings, events, and in the media where appropriate. - Strengthen how we measure impact
Work with the Executive Director to further develop our impact framework, improving how we track, evaluate and communicate influence. - Lead and develop the team
Provide support to team members, fostering a collaborative, inclusive and high-performing culture.
Person Specification
Essential
- Experience of leading a team or working at executive/senior leadership levels where you have managed budgets and had to make decisions related to organisational effectiveness. This should also include demonstrable experience of building and nurturing teams that can deliver an organisational strategy.
- Proven experience leading influencing functions in an advocacy or policy environment and delivering change
- Experience turning research and insight into clear, credible and persuasive policy positions.
- Knowledge of system change approaches, ideally within public service reform or similar
- Knowledge of how Government, Parliament, Whitehall, political parties and the wider policy community operate, and how to navigate them effectively.
- Able to operate confidently in complex, fast-moving and politically sensitive environments, working across party lines with diplomacy.
- Demonstrable experience building and maintaining trusted relationships with politicians, advisers, officials and sector leaders.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience producing high-quality briefings and representing organisations externally.
- Experience of supporting fundraising activities either through relationship-building or bid-writing.
Desirable
- Understanding of early education and childcare policy in England and the challenges currently facing the system.
- Experience working in or with coalitions, membership organisations or alliances.
- Proven ability to work flexibly as part of a small, remote team.
The application process
Please apply with a CV and cover letter (no more than two pages) by the listed closing date. No agencies please. We recognise that the use of AI technologies can be useful in reducing the work that goes into job-hunting, however, we kindly request that you use your cover letter to evidence that you have understood the requirements of the role and provide examples of how you can meet the criteria.
The EECC is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion. We use anonymous recruiting during the application process and we use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the disabled or Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic candidate in order to diversify our staff team.
We regret that our small team does not have capacity to provide individual feedback on every application.
Recruitment timeline
- Closing date: 23:30, Thursday 11th June.
- Notified for interview by: Tuesday 16th June
- Interviews: We expect this to be a two-stage interview process with first interviews held on either 24th or 25th June and second stage interviews arranged an agreed time.
In the event that we don't receive suitable applications, we may extend this deadline and timeline.
Non Charity Employer
6 - 10
Working together for an early education and childcare sector that delivers for our children, for parents, and for the economy.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Contract: Permanent
Hours: 28 hours per week (35 hours is full time)
Location: Glasgow
Starting salary: Psychological Therapist -£38,939 - £45,169 (full time £48,674 - £56,462)
Clinical Psychologist £45,360 - £ 53,417 (full time £56,700 - £66,772)
Closing date 10 June 2026
Expected date of interviews: 17 June 2026 in Glasgow
Job ref:
Join a powerful and passionate human rights organisation and winner of the UK charities 2023 Overall Award for Excellence.This included successfully challenging the UK government on the lawfulness of the Rwanda scheme for people seeking asylum and leading a multichannel, survivor- led campaign to directly compel 4 out of the 6 airlines to rule themselves out of flying refugees to Rwanda, including survivors of torture.
Would you like to use your clinical skills to lead a team who provide tailored psychological therapies to help improve the lives and wellbeing of survivors of torture and organised violence?
We have an exciting opportunity for a Clinical/Counselling psychologist or psychological therapist Clinical Lead to work with an innovative and friendly multidisciplinary adult team at our Glasgow Centre.
You will support a team of highly skilled and dedicated clinicians, in the service delivery of a range of NICE guideline recommended therapy interventions, offered to our clients, who are survivors of torture and organised violence. You operate as an integral part of the our Clinical Services Team. This is an exciting chance to join us as we place survivor empowerment and movement building at the heart of our strategy.
About the role
This is a wide-ranging position, and your key areas of responsibility will include:
- To supporta multi-disciplinary team, including paid staff and volunteers from different professions and disciplines and provide professional and clinical supervision to qualified clinicians and trainees in the service including, clinical/counselling psychologists.
- This role may also include providing remote clinical supervision, support and advice as well as line management and guidance around risk and safeguarding to clinicians across our other centres as required.
- To ensure that Freedom from Torture's clinical model continues to be fully rolled out, with particular emphasis on survivor empowerment and evidence-based practice for addressing PTSD and other mental health impacts of torture.
- Championing people development as well as influence delivery of evidenced -based practice, clinical standards, quality initiatives and audit-based services.
- To formulate psychological treatment and management plans for survivors of torture and to provide psychological treatment for a caseload, using a range of psychological interventions in line with our clinical pathway that draws on a range of evidence based models for the treatment of survivors of torture.
- Being an effective role model and leader to encourage, develop and enhance skills of others.
About you
This is an important role within Freedom from Torture. To be successful in this role you must have a high level of commitment to maintaining excellent standards of client care and service delivery. It is a key requirement that you must have knowledge of appropriate clinical standards and external regulatory bodies. You must also have sound financial awareness and experience of balancing the provision of quality care against budgetary parameters.
To be considered for this role you must fulfil the professional qualification section of the person specification. You must have professional experience of working with clients with complex PTSD and have post-qualification experience of using evidence-based trauma focused therapy models. It is essential that you have a clear understanding of the experience of refugees and people seeking asylum, both in terms of pre-flight experience and the experience of living in exile. You must have previous management and supervision experience and be able to provide demonstrable examples of how you have successfully led and influenced clinical teams within community or health care settings.
We also offer access to high quality clinical supervision and a clinical case load alongside your management practice
You will also have the opportunity to attend a range of forums and working groups to support the clinical development of Freedom from Torture.
In return, we offer a competitive package, with a generous 30-day annual leave entitlement, and 6% employer pension contribution. (minimum 1% employee contribution)
Freedom from Torture is committed to showing the salary for all advertised roles and not negotiating salaries for roles, in light of evidence that this contributes to structural inequality.
Our policy is that all appointments will be at the start of the salary range but successful candidates will have the opportunity to move up the scale over time. The progression up the salary range is reviewed on an annual basis and subject to affordability. For this role, the full time salary range is Psychological Therapist £48,734 - £56,531.Clinical Psychologist £56,700 - £66,772
To view the Job Description and Person Specification, please see the attached files. We may consider applicants who fulfil the essential clinical professional and experience criteria but who may not have all the management criteria. If so, this may be recruited for a lower grade than Clinical Lead.
Please note a CV and a cover letter addressing the job description and person specification of the role are mandatory to be considered for the position.
Freedom from Torture is dedicated to healing and protecting people who have survived torture. We provide therapies to improve physical and mental health, we medically document torture, and we provide legal and welfare help. We expose torture globally, we fight to hold torturing states to account, and we campaign for fairer treatment of torture survivors in the UK.
We campaign for national and global change, using evidence from our services and survivor voices to protect and promote survivors' rights and hold torturing states to account. We are proud to play a significant role in the global anti-torture movement. Survivors, active and empowered, are at the centre of all of our work.
Freedom from Torture is committed to its responsibilities under safeguarding and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is subject to an enhancedPVG disclosure, as well as a need for full employment history and up to date employment references.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.)
Freedom from Torture is an equal opportunity employer. People with lived experience of torture or asylum, from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQIA+ individuals and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.
We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications.
No agencies please.
