Community leadership team assistant jobs
Using Anonymous Recruitment
This organisation is using Anonymous Recruitment to reduce bias in the first stages of the hiring process. Submit your application as normal and our system will anonymise it for you. Your personal information will be hidden until the recruiter contacts you.
This is a hands-on role that moves between two registers: structured qualitative research with proper analytical underpinning, and fast-turnaround reactive policy work. You will need to be genuinely comfortable in both able to run a multi-month thematic publication and turn around a tight briefing or consultation response within 48-72 hours when a policy window opens.
The role will lead The Difference's qualitative research and insight function, including research workstreams tied to the Difference Schools Partnership's annual thematic priorities, and our Harmful and Abusive Behaviours (HaB) workstream convening a sector council to build a shared framework for how schools understand and respond to peer-on-peer harm. You will produce briefings, evidence submissions and publications, manage external research partners, and work with the CEO, Head of Policy and Communications team to launch research with real impact. The role reports to the Head of Policy and works closely with colleagues across Strategy, Research and Programmes.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead The Difference's qualitative research and insight function, running research workstreams tied to annual DSP thematic priorities and emerging strands on MAT inclusion and LA working
- Design and deliver qualitative research with schools, MATs and local authorities interviews, focus groups, school visits and thematic analysis translating findings into evidence and policy recommendations
- Lead the Harmful and Abusive Behaviours research workstream, convening a sector council, producing briefing material and managing the route from convening to publication
- Produce timely, citable evidence for policy influence including drafting briefings, consultation responses and evidence submissions on fast turnaround
- Project manage publication cycles from scoping through to launch, working with coalition and media partners to maximise reach and tracking policy traction post-launch
- Brief, manage and integrate the outputs of external research partners where commissioned (e.g. FFT Datalab, Pro Bono Economics)
- Capture and develop case studies from DSP schools and the wider Difference network
About The Difference
-
Every day, the equivalent of 5,500 children are suspended from England's schools, doubling their likelihood of being NEET by 24. The Difference is a young education charity founded to change this story through whole school inclusion. We train school leaders, carry out our own research, and turn frontline insights into policy recommendations lobbying Ofsted and the Department for Education to improve funding and support for inclusion. Our vision is to see lost learning falling nationally by 2030.
About You
Essential
- Dual capability across reactive and structured research : comfortable producing tight briefings on a 48–72 hour turnaround and running multi-month qualitative publications
- Experience in education research, policy research or applied social research, with examples of published, commissioned or internally-influential work
- Strong qualitative research skills : interview and focus group design, thematic coding, framework development, synthesis across multiple sources
- Persuasive writing for mixed audiences : able to write clearly and concisely for policymakers, school leaders, the press and the sector, and comfortable ghost-writing for senior colleagues
- Project management discipline : able to run multiple workstreams in parallel, manage your own deadlines, and keep colleagues and external partners on track
- Comfortable working at pace in a fast-moving environment where priorities shift as policy windows open and close : self-directed, flexible and able to make good judgement calls under pressure
- Shared values with The Difference and personal commitment to improving life outcomes for young people
Desired
- Strong working understanding of UK education policy, particularly around inclusion, exclusion, SEND, accountability and school improvement
- Confident data literacy and basic quantitative analysis : comfortable interrogating population-level datasets and translating findings into accessible policy language
- Understanding of why language matters when writing about behaviour, exclusion and vulnerability, and the ability to frame behaviour as a signal of unmet need consistently across all work
- Lived experience or insight into the school experiences of marginalised young people
- Experience of working in or with schools, multi-academy trusts or local authorities
- Existing relationships in education research, policy or sector organisations
Please see the attached Job Description for full role details and person specification.
We are committed to building a diverse team and strongly encourage applications from under-represented groups in the charity sector. As part of our commitment to fairer recruitment, all applications will be assessed with names and protected characteristics redacted.
Registered Charity
21 - 50
The Difference exists to improve the life-outcomes of the most vulnerable children by raising the status and expertise of those who educate them.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
This is an exciting opportunity to lead our approach to monitoring and evaluation at a key moment, ensuring that high-quality evidence underpins our programmes and future growth.
Villiers Park is a national social mobility charity with a strong track record of delivering impactful programmes that support young people from under-represented backgrounds to fulfil their potential. The ability to demonstrate impact clearly and credibly, both to inform our own learning and to evidence our effectiveness externally, will be critical to achieving our strategic ambitions.
As a core part of our 2025-30 strategy, the Data and Insights Manager will work to embed consistent and robust evaluation across the organisation. This will be achieved by approaches such as Stories of Change, which combines quantitative data with rich qualitative insight to build a compelling and nuanced understanding of the difference our programmes make.
Our work is possible because of a brilliant team of staff, trustees and volunteers and committed funders and partners who believe in what we do and want to make the greatest possible difference. The Data and Insights Manager will work closely with colleagues across programmes, communications, fundraising and leadership, you will ensure that data and evidence are actively used to inform decision-making, improve delivery and demonstrate impact to funders, partners and the wider sector.
This is a highly collaborative role with organisation-wide impact, offering the opportunity to shape how Villiers Park learns delivers on its long-term strategic ambitions.
Alex Grant
Assistant Director
Job purpose
The Data and Insights Manager will play a key role in supporting Villiers Park through the collection, analysis and reporting of robust evaluation and monitoring. Working across teams and hubs, the postholder will support consistent data collection, lead analysis and synthesis, and help ensure evidence informs learning, decision-making and external communication. The role will focus on coordinating mixed-methods evaluation, with qualitative approaches, including Stories of Change, as a key way of understanding young people’s experiences of change, or clarity, and the impact of our programmes.
Key responsibilities:
- Working closely with the Assistant Director, develop, implement and review monitoring and evaluation approaches for all programmes, ensuring that the data outputs can be used in a range of ways.
- Collaborate with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and wider staff team to develop, implement and review Theories of Change.
- Work with the Programmes team to design and deploy monitoring and evaluation methods to capture and store relevant quantitative and qualitative data from a range of sources, including individuals and via schools/colleges and partner organisations.
- Undertake data analysis and write reports for internal and external audiences on process and impact evaluations for all programmes, including annual school impact reports.
- Support the Communications and Fundraising Teams by providing regularly updated data and evaluation, regional contextual demographic data and comparative national datasets.
- Manage programmes and impact data storage to ensure relevant access is delivered for SLT, Programmes, Fundraising and Communications teams and compliance with GDPR.
- Keep up to date with changes in regulation and best practice in data management and data protection/consent, especially when data subjects are under 18.
- Ensure that all data management and evaluation practices are compliant with statutory safeguarding and GDPR regulations and Villiers Park’s safeguarding, data protection and privacy policies.
- Deliver evaluation training and evaluation review meetings to inform and engage the wider organisation with evaluation practices and the implementation of data and insights.
- Undertake other duties as required to support the mission and work of Villiers Park.
Knowledge, experience and abilities (essential)
- Experience of, and strong interest in, high quality evaluation methodologies, including programme theory, process evaluation, mixed-methods approaches.
- Strong experience of critically appraising data and evidence, and staying abreast of developments within evaluation of youth-based charities and university widening participation, using this to support proportionate, well-evidenced conclusions.
- A strong track record in planning, coordinating and delivering successful evaluation activity across programmes, sites or stakeholder groups, including managing complex workloads, setting priorities and working to agreed timelines and standards.
- Experience of effectively communicating evaluation findings, both written and verbal, to different audiences.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving and decision-making ability, including using evidence, judgement and stakeholder input to resolve challenges in evaluation delivery.
Skills and competencies (essential)
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build effective relationships and influence stakeholders, articulating evaluation concepts and findings clearly and concisely.
- Skilled in planning, prioritising and managing multiple strands of work to deliver high quality evaluation outputs.
- Analytical and methodical, with the ability to interpret evidence carefully and proportionately.
- An effective manager of evaluation activity across teams, hubs and programme cycles.
- Strong qualitative and mixed-methods analysis skills, including interpretation and reporting.
- Ability to anticipate and identify challenges in evaluation delivery, and work with colleagues to resolve these productively.
- Demonstrate a curiosity about other evaluation methodologies and research from the wider evaluation sector.
- Strong IT and digital skills including Microsoft suite and data management systems.
- A collaborative team member who can also take initiative, work proactively and operate independently where needed, and who has excellent interpersonal skills to facilitate learning conversations and support and advise colleagues to use evidence confidently in practice.
Desirable
- Familiarity with longitudinal or progression tracking and/or data-sharing partnerships.
- Experience of contributing to fundraising proposals with ready evidence and an understanding of fundraising audiences.
- Proficiency in qualitative analysis software, such as NVivo, to support coding, thematic analysis and synthesis.
- Confidence using data management tools such as Dataverse, MS Forms and PowerAutomate, and Power BI for reporting or visualisation.
- Understanding of value-for-money or ROI-related analysis in a social context.
Additional Information:
- The postholder will have some travel to schools, events and partner organisations.
- An enhanced DBS check will be required.
- On occasion, evening work and overnight stays may be required.
- Hybrid – location local to our Cambridge office or near to one of our Regional Hubs
Employee Benefits
- 26 days annual leave plus bank holidays (pro rated) and additional leave over Christmas.
- A dedicated wellbeing day for you to take at any time and three days (pro-rated) paid leave for volunteering or study each year.
- Training and professional development, including termly staff development days.
- Support from our wellbeing working group and access to an employee assistance programme.
- Opportunity to join working groups with other colleagues from across the organisation as well as wider networks such as the Fair Education Alliance.
- Flexibility in working hours.
- Additional sick pay and compassionate leave policies.
Safeguarding
Villiers Park Educational Trust is committed to safeguarding and to providing a safe and supportive environment, which secures the well-being and best outcomes for the young people with whom we work.
Safeguarding is embedded in all aspects of Villiers Park's work and integral to the commitment we make to our schools, partners and the young people and communities we serve and work with. All employees and volunteers are expected to share this commitment by adhering to our organisational safeguarding procedures, attending regular in-house training and keeping up to date with developments in policies and legislation.
All employees and volunteers will also agree to undergo an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Services check and successfully complete our mandatory online training courses including NSPCC Safeguarding in Schools and PREVENT training.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
The Woodland Trust is looking for a Senior Legacy Officer to support the strategic objectives of the Legacy Income Management Team by administering and managing legacies left to the Woodland Trust, ensuring that all legacy income is secured, protected and maximised.
The Role:
• Manage a complex caseload of legacy files, including pecuniary, residuary, specific gifts, and life interest trusts, protecting income where legal challenges arise.
• Recruit, line manage, and mentor the Legacy Assistant, providing ongoing support and guidance.
• Maximise legacy income through proactive case management and strategic decision-making.
• Deputise for the Legacy Income Manager and support team leadership and mentoring.
• Provide legal and advisory support on legacy-related matters to internal stakeholders.
• Monitor legacy notifications and income, supporting forecasting, reporting, and audit requirements.
• Collaborate with fundraising teams to enhance legacy journeys and secure future pledges.
• Contribute to policy development, process improvements, and data quality initiatives.
• This is a hybrid position with a mix of home working, and from our head office in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Head office attendance would be required no more than once a month on average. Occasional travel to other offices and remote locations may also be required.
The Candidate:
• Experience in legacy management or administration and/or Wills, Probate and Trust law.
• Background working in a charity legacy management team.
• Skilled in case management systems (ideally First Class 4) and Microsoft Office.
• Proven ability to manage residuary estates, probate disputes, and complex caseloads.
• Experience managing, mentoring, and advising colleagues.
• Strong stakeholder relationship-building skills across internal and external teams.
• Knowledge of probate, tax, charity, and data protection law relating to estate administration.
• Qualified in legacy administration (e.g. ILM Certificate in Charity Legacy Administration) and/or other legal qualifications.
Benefits and Wellbeing:
Joining our team means you’ll be a big part of tackling environmental and climate issues. We take good care of our staff, offering support and training opportunities. We also offer:
• Enhanced Employer Pension
• Life Assurance
• Flexible & Hybrid Working Options
• Generous Annual Leave - 25 Days Plus Bank Holidays (pro rata’d for part-time)
• Buy and Sell Holiday Scheme
• Enhanced Parental Pay
• Employee Assistance Programme
About Us:
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity. We want to see a world where trees and woods thrive for people and nature. The Trust engages and inspires people to make their difference tackling the nature and climate crisis helping protect, restore and create our vital woods and trees.
Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion:
To achieve our vision of a world where woods and trees thrive for people and nature, we need to better reflect society and the communities we work in. All people, no matter their background, identity, ability, or circumstance, should benefit from trees.
People of colour and disabled people are currently under-represented across the environment and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled, we particularly encourage you to apply.
Please contact us to discuss any additional support or adjustments you may need to complete your application.
Application Advice:
For fairness we keep our candidates’ personal details hidden from the hiring managers, and we do not ask for your CV at application.
Make sure that your Personal Statement clearly shows how your skills and knowledge link to the specifications in the job description and you share with us your passion for the role.
Acceptable Use - Artificial Intelligence (AI):
We understand that candidates may choose to use AI tools to support their job applications-for example, to help structure or edit written responses. We welcome the use of AI in this way, particularly where it helps improve accessibility, such as for neurodivergent applicants. However, we ask that any information submitted reflects your own experience, skills and understanding. During interviews, candidates are expected to respond independently without the use of AI tools.
Apply Now:
If you're ready to make a difference and grow with us, send in your application today. We might close the job opening early if we get a lot of applications, so it's a good idea to apply soon. If we do close the advert early, and you have an application in process, we will email you prior to closing to give you time to complete.
Interviews will be held via Microsoft Teams on 9th & 10th July.
