Advocacy and communications officer jobs in Rochdale, greater manchester

Do you seek to champion a culture where innovation, learning and cross-organisational collaboration become the norm? Connecting insight with action to reduce inequalities and strengthen community connection?

Involve believes that everyone, regardless of the challenges they face, should have the opportunity to thrive. Using both strategic influence and service leadership, as the Head of Adult Services you will lead the design, delivery, and continuous improvement of high-quality, evidence-driven adult adult services rooted in lived experience, community voice and meaningful partnership.

See the vacancies page on our website for full job and person specification. 

Director of Professional Standards & Accreditation
Home based (with regular UK travel)
circa £65,000 pa
Full time – 35 hours per week

The Director of Professional Standards and Accreditation is a senior position focused on establishing, overseeing, and upholding the standards that support professional registration and the award of professional titles within the cyber security industry. The role is responsible for overseeing operations that support the Councils core duties to:

• Set and enforce the standards of competence and behaviour required of those whose name is included of the Register of Cyber Security Professionals;

• Approve qualifications, certifications and assessment routes delivered by third party providers recognised as leading to professional registration;

• Award the professional titles of Chartered, Principal, Practitioner and Associate cyber professional and associated specialist designations.

• Determine continuing competence and CPD requirements to support ongoing entitlement to remain on the Register and hold a professional title in cyber security.

• Investigate complaints related to the professional conduct, competence or fitness to practice of registered cyber security professionals and enforcement of sanctions where deficiency or failure is determined.

• Acting as the Council’s principal authority on professional assessment and accreditation, the Director will also serve as the strategic interface with Ofqual, QAA, and other qualification regulators, ensuring national recognition, consistency, and public trust across all pathways—from vocational and apprenticeship routes to higher education and chartered levels.

• The Director of professional standards & Accreditation will have direct line management responsibilities and will be accountable for the wider professionalisation team and outcomes, including the direct delivery of the Associate professional registration title.

Key Responsibilities and Functions:

• Standard Setting: Develop and implement the ethical code, process for ethical complaints and professional competency standards that registrants must meet and adhere to.

• Regulatory Oversight: Accountable for the accreditation and quality assurance of bodies licensed to provide recognised assessments or routes to registration with The Council.

• Policy Development: Contribute to the development of policy for The Council, ensuring it aligns with the organisation’s vision and statutory responsibilities.

• Compliance & Enforcement: Ensure that registrants comply with the standards and regulations applicable to them and take action when non-compliance occurs.

• Public Protection: Protect the interests of consumers by promoting high professional standards within the cyber security profession.Job Description | Director of Professional Standards & Accreditation

• Strategic Input: Provide advice and guidance on matters of professional registration, standards, assessment and quality assurance including Licensed Body accreditation to the leadership team and The Council Board of Trustees.

• Stakeholder management and collaboration: Work closely with our key partners including UK Government, Regulators, Industry, Academia and licensed bodies and engage them with our vision and mission.

• Ensure effective co-ordination and collaboration with volunteers to feed into the quality improvement cycle and growth of the Council (expert advisory panels/groups/moderation/TAPs etc)
• Co-ordination and oversight of the Ethics Committee and Panel.

• Leadership and Management: To recruit, manage, supervise and support the individual members of staff for the professionalisation team, including setting and agreeing objectives within the organisation’s appraisal framework.

Required Experience and Skills

Professional Expertise:

• Deep understanding of the processes and requirements that underpin the development, implementation and upholding of professional standards including competency frameworks, ethical codes and practice guidance.

• Substantial experience leading accreditation, assessment, and quality-assurance functions in a chartered, regulatory, or Ofqual-aligned organisation

• Knowledge and experience of assessment methodologies, validation, qualification design and structure, internal and external quality assurance and moderation approaches to support the recognition of routes to professional registration and award of professional titles.Job Description | Director of Professional Standards & Accreditation

• Experience with qualifications and career pathways – shaping progression routes, aligning with industry standards, and ensuring recognition nationally/internationally.

• Strong grasp of the UK education and qualification ecosystem, Ofqual, QAA, apprenticeships, higher-education frameworks, and national occupational standards, capable of aligning professional recognition with formal qualifications.

Essential Experience:

A minimum of ten years of significant experience operating in comparable organisations to UKCSC whether Chartered Institutes, professional associations or regulatory bodies with a public interest purpose to set and uphold professional standards, maintain a Register and award professional titles.

Regulatory Principles:

Understanding of professional regulation and the role it plays in providing public assurance, trust and confidence.

Strategic Thinking:

Ability to think strategically and contribute to the future direction of the cyber security council and wider cyber security profession.

Analytical & Problem-Solving Skills:

Capacity to interpret data and develop solutions to complex issues and drive continuous improvement.

Communication & Interpersonal Skills:

Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, able to represent the Council with clarity and authority to boards, regulators, and external partners.

Commercial & Business Acumen:

Sound business and commercial awareness to sustain and expand the Council’s professional-registration community.Job Description | Director of Professional Standards & Accreditation.

Leadership and Management:

• Experience of managing and leading a high performing team, with a management style that empowers others.

• Ability to work flexibly within changing priorities and a capacity to be adaptable as required to deliver completed tasks to set deadlines.

• Experience of engaging and working effectively with committees, public-interest boards, and volunteer stakeholders as part of development activities.

• To carry out such tasks as the COO/CEO may from time to time deem necessary for the effective and efficient functioning of the Council.

• Reporting requirements and attendance at key strategic meetings.

• Record of representing an organisation at national level with credibility and gravitas.

Accreditation and Qualification Expertise:

• Experience in education and training accreditation.

• Knowledge or experience of the education pathways (apprenticeships to degrees).

• Good understanding of the UK education system.

• Understanding of competence-based assessment methodologies (portfolios, experiential learning, exams, interviews).

To apply, please send your up-to-date CV, along with a covering letter showing how you meet the personal specification and key duties via the email application button.

Closing date for applications: Friday 15th May at 12:00pm

Volunteer and community involvement is a core part of what we do here at Sands. From Sands United Teams, Support Groups, knitters, Parent Speakers and event volunteer, volunteers are at the heart of Sands delivering peer support, and building a local community for bereaved parents.

Sands Groups are volunteer led, and community driven.  

Sands has a vision to grow community-based peer support, community activity and volunteer involvement across the organisation. This requires an investment in enabling, innovation in peer support and volunteer involvement and partnership working.At the heart of this is our Befrienders.

Befrienders are in every Group across the UK and enable online support groups too.

This post is all about developing, delivering and managing our fantastic volunteer befriender programme across Sands. Ensuring that Sands befrienders are enabled to provide warm, supportive, evidence-based and values-driven peer support to bereaved families across the UK.

This maternity cover post will have two key focus areas

- Maintaining key components of the befriender programme, including regular communications and meeting with Befrienders, driving recruitment opportunities, supporting innovation in Befriending and troubleshooting in partnership with volunteers.

- Deliver a fixed timeline project focused on developing the Befriender programme.

Responsibilities

Best practice in peer support and befriender programmes

• Manage the direction and growth of the Befriender programme
• Work with the Development Leads and Community Development Officers to create plans for regions to support existing Befrienders and grow the peer support offer across the UK

· To engage, inspire and support existing Sands befrienders, providing a positive volunteer experience from recruitment to saying goodbye

• Be the point of contact for Befriender safeguarding issues. Be proactive in addressing and be an escalation point for challenges, risks and safeguarding issues.

• Practice and support excellent standards in all aspects of inclusion and diversity, particularly in reaching marginalised groups in recruitment and enabling volunteers to provide inclusive support spaces. 
• Lead on development of processes, guidance and resources, ensuring good governance and risk management of the Befriender Programme
• Work with the Volunteering Coordinator to ensure delivery of key processes, process development and improvement to enhance the volunteer experience. 

· To identify learning and development opportunities for befrienders and create a culture of continued learning for all Befrienders

Develop and innovate

• Be an opportunity spotter, picking up innovation opportunities to grow and develop the Befriender programme, alongside relevant Sands’ staff teams. 

• Manage short- and long-term projects and where appropriate join cross organisational working groups to represent the Community and Volunteering Team. Including projects that may have budgets.

• Advocate the voices and needs of Befrienders, bringing in knowledge and feedback to enable good decision making and volunteer participation in new ways of working

• Through supporting approaches to recruitment and partnerships, ensure that individuals with a wide range of bereavement experiences are at the heart of Sands’ volunteering 

· Build a data driven understanding of gaps in service and representation, and make promotion and recruitment decisions to support growth for under-represented towns/regions/groups

· Support continuous improvement and accurate delivery of processes in the welcome journey for new befrienders, including in recruitment, on-boarding and off-boarding processes in partnership with the Volunteer Coordinator

· Use the CRM to record accurate information and help make data informed decisions

Internal and external partnerships 

• Work with the Bereavement Support Services Team (BSS) to ensure collaboration across the Befriender programme and national BSS support groups and ensure the Befriender programme continues to be rooted in trauma-informed practice.
• Work with the Training Team to ensure that training and learning experiences for Befrienders are up to date, relevant and accessible.

• Work with the Philanthropy and Partnerships team and the Head of Community and Volunteering to maximise compelling cases for support, storytelling and funding opportunities at a national and local level.

· Work with the Engagement Team to ensure Sands befriending is represented in an engaging and positive way across Sands social media and the media

GMRC is a registered charity working with adult women who are victims and survivors of sexual violence and child sexual abuse, providing independent, specialist support and promoting and representing their rights and needs.

We are looking for a qualified Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA) to join our friendly and committed team.

Your role will be to support women practically and emotionally as they go through the criminal justice system.

PLEASE NOTE

this role is restricted to female applicants under the Genuine Occupational Requirement (GOR), Schedule 9 (Work; Exceptions), Part 1 (Occupational Requirements), of the Equality Act (2010)

Overall Objectives

To work within a multi-agency setting to provide a proactive service to adult victims of sexual violence within and outside the criminal justice system to:

• Risk assess and maintain client safety
• Help clients access their rights
• Monitor and keep clients informed of case progress and provide support through the criminal justice system
• Help clients access health and other services they require
• Build ongoing relationships with loved ones of a victim/survivor engaged in the ISVA service
• Provide an information point for loved ones on the CJS

Applicants who are not yet ISVA‑qualified, but who have relevant experience working within the criminal justice system and/or sexual violence services will also be considered. In this case, the successful candidate would be supported to complete the ISVA qualification.

During the training year, the salary would be £28,000 per annum, reflecting the cost of training and supervision. On successful completion of the ISVA qualification, the salary would increase to £30,000 per annum.

The salary for a qualified ISVA would be £30,000 – £32,000, depending on experience.

If you have a trauma informed and feminist ethos and want to contribute to changing and improving the lives of survivors of sexual violence, we would love to hear from you.

Employee Benefits

• Flexible working TBC
• Generous annual leave (30 days a year exc. BH)
• Pension contributions
• Reasonable travel expenses
• Free on-site parking

#isva #independentsexualviolenceadvisor #advoacy