Engagement and communications officer jobs in Cardiff

Location(s)   

This position is open to candidates currently based in Scotland, in line with the role’s operational requirements. The role is home-based with in person attendance to our ‘All Staff Days’ in London (5 per year), team meetings (roughly 6 meetings per year) and occasional travel to other meetings and Westminster as required. Where possible, these are combined with an overnight stay. 

London office: AdviceUK, 83 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0HW 

Job Title:  Policy and External Affairs Manager (Scotland) 

Employment Type:  Part-time 

Reporting to:  Head of Policy, Programmes and Media 

Pay scale: £40,000 - £42,500 Full time equivalent  (Actual salary £32,000-34,000)

Interview: In person interviews will take place on Friday 29th May at our London office

Working hours: 28 hours per week (4 days/0.8) within normal operating hours. Flexible working arrangements will be considered. (Normal operating hours are 8.00am - 6.30pm, Monday – Friday.) Lunch & other breaks are unpaid. 

Special conditions: Some evening and weekend work may be required for which time off in lieu (TOIL) will be granted. Some travel will be required which may entail some overnight stays.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from all backgrounds, particularly encouraging those from underrepresented groups. 

CHARITY OVERVIEW 

Since 1979, AdviceUK has been supporting advice organisations by helping them to be efficient, competent and effective, and by campaigning for a policy environment that supports advice agencies and people needing advice.

We are both a membership body and charity. We support our 700+ members (109 of which are located in Scotland) to provide advice to around 2 million people every year. We are working towards a world in which every individual, regardless of means, is able to access the advice they need to exercise their rights and deal with any legal and social welfare challenges they may face. 

JOB PURPOSE  

To set up and manage our policy and public affairs activities in Scotland ensuring AdviceUK has a strong voice, so we can secure policy change to benefit organisations delivering advice and the communities they serve. The post holder will be responsible for establishing AdviceUK’s first policy and influencing strategy for Scotland, including through developing policy solutions informed by strong evidence and rooted in member experience, and leading effective political and stakeholder engagement which will influence change. They will work closely with colleagues across the UK to join up policy, influencing and communications work. 

KEY TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES  

1.Strategy 

1.1 Develop AdviceUK’s first policy and influencing strategy for Scotland, through consultation with members and stakeholders and analysis of the landscape and opportunities in Scottish policy making. 

1.2 Put plans in place to roll out a specific programme of proactive and reactive policy work to further AdviceUK’s strategic aims in Scotland and represent the voices of Scottish members. 

1.3 Devise measures to monitor the impact of our policy and influencing work in Scotland and report back to staff, trustees, members and stakeholders about the difference we are making. 

2.Policy development 

2.1 Collaborate with AdviceUK members, partners, sector stakeholders and 

beneficiaries to develop clear, concise and authoritative policy positions on key issues. 

2.2 Produce high-quality, well-argued policy materials based on data and evidence, including reports, select committee responses, evidence statements, briefings and responses to Scottish Government consultations. 

2.3 Provide policy input for media statements, press releases and social media posts relating to Scotland, which are managed by the Press Officer and Digital Marketing Officer.

2.4 Develop an expert knowledge of policy issues affecting Advice UK members, keep up to date on the political and legislative environment and identify opportunities to use these to further Advice UK’s strategic objectives. 

2.5 Represent AdviceUK at policy and/or sector meetings and events.

3. Public affairs 

3.1 Roll out a programme of public affairs work including Scottish parliamentary engagement to promote AdviceUK’s strategic priorities. 

3.2 Build and maintain effective relationships with stakeholders across the Scottish Government and parliament, local and decision makers, non-governmental bodies and other relevant stakeholders. 

3.3 Champion an evidence based approach to all Advice UK’s advocacy and external relations work, drawing on research and member insight to inform our campaign messages. 

3.4 Ensure regular opportunities for Advice UK members in Scotland to feed into our public affairs and advocacy work, and regular communications on our impact, to demonstrate how we amplify their voice. 

3.5 Monitor and evaluate public affairs work, including collecting relevant metrics, to report back on our success and inform future campaigns. 

4. Research and data 

4.1 Work with Policy, Programme and Media (PPM) colleagues as well as the wider AdviceUK team to develop the evidence base needed to inform our policy and campaigns work in Scotland. 

4.2 Work with the Research and Policy Analyst to carry out analysis that identifies emerging trends in the Scottish advice world and use this to provide evidence-based policy briefings and specific policy solutions. 

5. General duties 

5.1 Ensure you effectively communicate Advice UK’s vision, mission and objectives to staff, members and external stakeholders.

5.2 Ensure you demonstrate Advice UK’s values and behaviours in all aspects of your work

5.3 Build and maintain positive relationships with key stakeholders including staff trustees; members, partners and suppliers 

5.4 With support from your manager, deliver your agreed personal objectives and undertake any agreed development or training

5.5 Maintain a strong understanding of our members and the advice sector more generally, by reading internal reports; accessing relevant data reports; following our social media channels and, where possible, attending member and other relevant events. With the agreement of you line manager, ensure you make time to speak to members and visit their services.

5.6 Adhere at all times to Advice UK’s policies and procedures

5.7 Carry out any reasonable duties compatible with the post assigned by your line manager 

Lloyds Bank Foundation 

Regional Public Affairs Manager 

Starting Salary: £50,582 (if based outside London); £53,777 (if based in London) 

Contract: Full-time, permanent contract (we are open to conversations about different ways of working - so please ask) 

Location: Remote role - can be based anywhere in England or Wales with an expectation of frequent travel across England and Wales 

About Lloyds Bank Foundation 

Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales is an independent charitable foundation, backed by Lloyds Banking Group and the people within it. We want everyone to be in a good place - personally, in a home that’s a good place to live, and in a community that’s a good place to belong. 

We play our role by connecting and catalysing community-led change, providing the money, time, tools and connections that build organisations’ capacity and capability, to make people’s lives better and their communities stronger. 

We back people and communities across England and Wales, to make that happen, because when you back brilliant people, brilliant things happen. Our communities are full of ambitious, energetic and determined people stepping up to make their neighbours’ lives better and their communities grow stronger. Day in, day out. 

About the Role 

This is an exciting opportunity to support the delivery of impactful public affairs and influencing activity, strengthening regional voice and national impact. 

As Regional Public Affairs Manager, you will work closely with colleagues to support influencing activity across England and Wales, helping to build confidence, capability, and effectiveness. You will support engagement with decision-makers, campaigns, and partnerships, ensuring activity is aligned and impactful. 

You will play a key role in connecting local insight to national influencing, identifying emerging themes and helping to shape wider organisational priorities. You will also build relationships with external stakeholders, supporting activity that raises the Foundation’s profile and impact. 

About You

We’re looking for someone with experience in public affairs, policy, or influencing, particularly at local or regional level. You will have experience of supporting or delivering influencing activity and working with a range of stakeholders. 

You will be a strong relationship builder who combines practical delivery with the ability to use insight and evidence to inform work. A good understanding of the UK political landscape and a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging is essential. 

How to Apply 

Please click ‘Apply’ to be redirected to our website, where you can download the Candidate Information Pack and find details of how to apply. 

For an informal conversation about the role and application process, please contact our recruitment partner, Atkinson HR via the information in the candidate pack.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 

We hold Disability Confident Employer status (Level 2) and are working towards full status by 2027. This means that if you're a disabled applicant and your CV and application answers clearly demonstrate that you meet the essential criteria for the role, we will invite you to interview. 

More broadly, we are committed to building a diverse team that reflects the communities and people we work with. We believe that diversity of background, experience and perspective makes us stronger and helps us make better decisions. We actively welcome applications from people who are under-represented in the charity sector, including people from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic communities, disabled people, and those with experience of the issues our funded charities work to address. 

Key Dates 

Closing Date: Wednesday 13th May 2026 

Optional Q&A Session: Wednesday 6th May 2026 at 09:00-10:00 

First Interview: Friday 22nd May 2026 

Second Interview: Wednesday 3rd June 2026 

About us

Our mission is to make life better for carers. Across the UK today, 5.8 million people are carers, supporting a loved one who is older, disabled or seriously ill. We provide information and advice on caring, help carers connect with each other, campaign with carers for lasting change, and use innovation to improve services. 

About the role

This is an exciting new post; with oversight of Carers Wales information and advice service, training and learning offer, and Employers for Carers support.  Find out more about Employers for Carers Wales on our website. 

As part of a small and busy team, the post holder will be required from time to time to support with delivery of these services, as well as playing a key role in their strategic development.

About you

We are looking for someone with a background in service delivery; with experience of providing information and advice, and designing and delivering training and learning. 

The ideal post holder will be equally comfortable planning strategically and rolling up their sleeves to deliver. This means we need someone who is a great communicator with excellent leadership skills who can also turn their hand to managing budgets and client accounts, helping us to plan the future development of our services offer.  

You’ll be fluent in Welsh including in written correspondence with a solid understanding of carers and the issues and challenges they face. 

Diversity and inclusion

Carers UK is committed to becoming a diverse and truly inclusive organisation; fostering an environment and working culture that celebrates and promotes diversity and inclusion.  We strive to create a workplace where our colleagues and volunteers can truly be themselves and feel like they belong and constantly seek to ensure all voices are heard.
To embrace this culture of diversity, our employee and volunteer recruitment should reflect our stakeholders and the society that we serve and support, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, physical abilities, disabilities or religious practices. We value individual diversity and are actively building diverse teams here at Carers UK and value our colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds.

As a membership charity for carers, we particularly seek employees and volunteers with a real understanding of the issues faced by carers. Reasonable adjustments can be made to the process and role, dependent on the needs of the applicant.

We are proud to be an Employers for Carers member. We have signed the Menopause Workplace Pledge and achieved the Disability Confident Employer accreditation. We aim to offer interviews to those who have a disability covered under the definition outlined in the Equality Act 2010 and who meet the minimum criteria for the role. The minimum criteria can be found under the Essential section of the Person Specification of the recruitment pack. Please let us know if your application is being made under the Disability Confident Scheme.  You are not required to share the nature of your disability or long term health condition. You will need to state in your email application that you are making your application under the Disability Confident Scheme as you consider yourself to be disabled, or as having a disability. If you meet the minimum criteria then you will be offered an interview.

At Carers UK we want our application process to be as accessible as possible. If you need any adjustments to apply, please email the recruitment team to discuss.

The closing date for applications is Friday 15 May 2026 at 5pm.

Carers UK anonymises all applications prior to shortlisting.

Carers UK reserves the right to appoint at any stage, should an outstanding candidate emerge.

Carers UK are actively interviewing as we receive applications.

Carers UK may carry out online and social media checks before a formal offer is made.

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. 

Please see attached Recruitment Pack for full job description and person spec for the Senior Programme and Network Lead.

This role leads our work across Birmingham at an exciting moment. We are developing a participatory, community-centred approach to analysing the city's economy, identifying opportunities for change and coordinating alliances to act on them. This means bringing together mixed groups, including grassroots changemakers, researchers, funders and other partners, and facilitating processes that help people make sense of complex information together, find common ground and make decisions about collective priorities. The role requires someone who can hold these processes well: strong facilitation skills, communicating complex ideas accessibly, building trust across groups, sustaining momentum over time and helping diverse coalitions move from analysis to strategy to action.

The Senior Programme and Network Lead will develop and deliver initiatives that support a growing movement for economic justice across the city, with a particular focus on building support and engagement amongst grassroots changemakers and communities experiencing economic injustice. It will manage projects and resources, conduct programme development and delivery, oversee outreach and partnerships, changemaker recruitment and contribute to fundraising, ultimately playing a key role in shaping our regional impact. This position is crucial in coordinating our work across Birmingham and driving meaningful collaboration with local and national stakeholders, in particular working collaboratively with Economic Justice Brum, a long-standing initiative working on local economic systems change.

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

Settled is a dynamic charity that supports the rights of EU and Ukrainians citizens who have made the UK their home, through providing expert, multi-lingual services. We seek a full-time experienced and capable manager who will work jointly with another service manager to deliver Settled's advice services to EU citizens UK-wide, with special attention to localities in England and Wales. You will hold IAA accreditation and be able to manage staff and volunteers to provide immigration advice. You will understand how strong relationships, especially with the Welsh Government and other funders, ensure the sustainability of a charity and help it meet the needs of its beneficiaries.  Role is hybrid with minimum of 4 days per month in Settled's Cardiff Bay office and some travel to cities in other parts of the UK. If you would like to join our supportive and impactful team, please include a cover letter which explains how you fulfil the person specification, along with your CV.