External Communications Manager
Salary: £40,000–£42,000 FTE
Hours: 30 hours per week
Location: Remote, with regular travel to FitzRoy services, team and stakeholder meetings as agreed. The role requires attendance in London once per month and applicants must be able to commute to services in Norfolk, Nottingham and Hampshire.
Reports to: Head of Communications
Directorate: Business Development and Partnerships
FitzRoy is a national charity supporting people with learning disabilities, autism and mental health needs to live lives rooted in choice, meaning and happiness.
We are strengthening our external voice and looking for a confident, perceptive and warm communicator to help more people understand FitzRoy’s expertise and impact and increase our influence.
This is a moment of change for social care. We want to play a more active role in shaping its future, ensuring the people at the heart of it are seen, heard and involved in the decisions that matter.
About the role
As External Communications Manager, you will help build FitzRoy’s profile and reputation by identifying the stories, insight and opportunities that show what good support looks like in real life.
You will work closely with the Head of Communications, fundraising, business development and operational colleagues to turn external communications priorities into practical plans, content and opportunities.
This is a delivery role with real influence. You will be expected to bring ideas, advise colleagues, shape practical plans and turn opportunities into action.
What you will do
You will:
- develop proactive external communications activity that raises awareness of FitzRoy’s work, expertise and impact
- spot opportunities for FitzRoy to contribute constructively to sector conversations
- identify realistic opportunities for media, sector press, partner or local coverage
- gather stories, photos, video and quotes that help people understand what good support looks like in real life
- use social media, website content, audience insight and analytics to strengthen FitzRoy’s external profile
About you
You may come from charity communications, PR, journalism, public affairs, stakeholder communications or another external communications background.
You do not need to have worked in social care before, but you will need to be interested in people, willing to learn quickly and able to handle stories about people’s lives with care, respect and good judgement.
We are looking for someone who is:
- an excellent writer and editor
- confident developing clear, accessible content for different audiences
- warm, curious and able to build rapport quickly
- able to spot strong stories, ideas and opportunities
- confident creating social media and website content shaped by audience insight
- comfortable working independently and managing competing priorities
- able to think strategically about audiences and influence, while being practical about what can be delivered in a small team
- confident gathering content including photos, videos and quotes
- willing and able to travel to FitzRoy services and meetings as needed
A full clean driving licence and access to a car for work travel are required, as some services are not easily accessible by public transport.
Working at FitzRoy
You will join a small, friendly communications team with big ambitions. This role will suit someone who enjoys a mix of planning, writing, relationship-building, story-gathering and hands-on delivery.
You will help us show the difference good support makes – and help ensure the voices, experiences and achievements of people with learning disabilities, autism and mental health needs are seen and heard.
How to apply
To apply, please submit your application and a covering letter.
We do not expect your covering letter to address every point in the person specification. We would like you to tell us:
- what interests you about this role and FitzRoy
- three things you would bring to the role
- a piece of communications work you are proud of and why
- how you approach using social media, website content and audience insight to build external profile
- how you would approach telling stories about people’s lives with care, respect and good judgement
If you are using AI tools to write your application, please use them with caution. We are looking for your own voice and writing style.
Registered Charity
More than 1000
Our vision, mission and values guide us each step of the way, and are as important now as when the charity first began. Our vision A society where p
Thank you!
About the opportunity
You will help drive the quality and impact of our key stage 2 (KS2), key stage 3 (KS3) and key stage 4 (KS4) English tutoring programmes through improving our English resources. You will create training materials and provide advice and support to our volunteers and our (mostly) non-teaching staff members who manage these volunteer tutors day to day. You will be engaged in our AI tutoring pilot including undertaking pedagogical reviews of potential English AI tutoring tools.
Deadline: Sunday, 26th July
Interviews: Monday, 3rd August 2026
Start date: Ideally, Thursday, 1st October 2026
Contract and hours: 0.6FTE (all year) or 0.8FTE (term time only), 12-month fixed-term maternity cover contract. A full working week is 37.5 hours.
Duties and responsibilities
- Following a defined brief, generate improvements to our KS4 English curriculum resources to enable pilot testing in AY26.27 Summer Term.
- Maintain our KS2 - KS4 English curriculum resources to ensure volunteer tutors have high quality materials to use in sessions.
- Support Action Tutoring’s Programme Department to provide and respond to requests for additional materials for tutoring sessions, particularly English sessions.
- Design and deliver online English-focused training for volunteer tutors so that subject knowledge is secure within the tutor community.
- Provide advice and support, including some direct tutor communications, on subject-specific matters for Action Tutoring staff who manage volunteer tutors.
- Engage and support Action Tutoring’s AI research including by undertaking pedagogical reviews of AI tutoring tools and supporting with tool development.
Person specification
Qualification criteria:
We are looking for someone who is/has:
- Qualified (QTS) secondary school teacher of English
- At least two year’s teaching experience in English state schools with an understanding of the barriers facing disadvantaged pupils
We are looking for the following attributes, though you might be more experienced in some areas than others:
- Experience designing and formatting curriculum resources to support learning, either for print or digital use
- Understanding of the different pedagogical approaches required in small-group learning compared to classroom teaching, with a robust understanding of tutoring as a mechanism for supporting pupil personalised learning
- Willingness to learn and become confident in the KS2 English curriculum
- Able to communicate pedagogy in jargon free, accessible ways to non-specialists
- Empathetic and skilled at providing feedback in a sensitive but constructive way
- Organised with strong time-management skills, able to independently manage a varied range of tasks and responsibilities
- Good attention to detail with administrative tasks, able to follow instructions well with a working understanding of the importance of data privacy
- Adaptable and open to learning with a passion for self-improvement, proactively seeking opportunities to develop and upskill
- Commitment to Action Tutoring’s Mission
- Committed to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)
- Committed to promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children
You will likely be more successful in this role if you:
- Experience delivering training or CPD to adults with energy and confidence, able to engage attendees, facilitate discussion and manage time effectively
- Experience as a private, school-based or volunteer tutor or experience of teaching exam resit classes
- Evidence-based knowledge of how children and adults learn online compared to in person
- Provided coaching or mentoring to trainee teachers
- Experience as a GCSE English examiner
Registered Charity
51 - 100
Award-winning national education charity working towards a world in which no child’s life chances are limited by their socio-economic background.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.