Public affairs jobs

Astra Foundation is seeking a Foundation Director; a dynamic, seasoned and strategic leader with a background in philanthropy who is motivated by their mission to combat loneliness in young adults, empower youth to reach their full potential, and reduce plastic pollution, primarily in the UK and France. This is an exciting opportunity to lead a young foundation and support the next phase of its evolution, building on strong foundations to further steward support for their priority areas and civil society partners. The ideal candidate will be collaborative, with a willingness to handle all aspects of the Foundation’s work, from high-level strategy and external relations to day-to-day administration.

Job title: Partnerships Manager

Responsible to: Director of Delivery, Innovation & quality (MindCHWF) & Senior Operations Manager (Turning Point)

Hours: 37.5 hours per week - Full-time

Salary: Starting salary is £ £46,448.13 PA at full time equivalent (P04-SP41) with scope to increase to £49,612.14 (P04-SP44)

Contract type: 31 March 2027 (with potential for extension)

Location: [102-110 Mare Street, Hackney] with working across locations in City & Hackney

Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest, working in partnership with Turning Point and Antidote, provide the City and Hackney Integrated Recovery Service (Substance Use).  The service is based in each of City and Hackney’s neighbourhoods in order to be accessible, local and inclusive.  A full integrated service will contribute to recovery, social inclusion and improving the quality of life of all our service users in the City of London and Hackney borough. A full integrated service, shaped by the community needs and voices of service users, carers, families, communities, all staff and volunteers will contribute to recovery, social inclusion and improving the quality of life of all our service users in the City of London and Hackney borough.

The service has three elements: Out There, Everywhere- specialist outreach, in reach and engagement, Building Blocks- low, medium and hi intensity support pathways, and Get Connected- building on our local, individual, and shared assets to provide recovery capital and peer support.

This role will connect the staff teams and service users to wellbeing opportunities within the local community. The role will promote the City & Hackney Recovery Service within the local community through events, social media and local community engagement. They will identify the needs of the client group and provide adequate support.

This role will lead on management of subcontractors, coordinate quarterly contract monitoring and build partnerships including commissioners, GPs, politicians, and other stakeholders to increase collaborative and effective service in City and Hackney’s neighbourhoods. The role will also lead to support MindCHWF’s policies and delivery in the blended service in order to provide efficient and high-quality service.

Job Role:

1. Nurture external partnerships across specific areas and being responsible for overseeing and ensuring all appropriate pathways are in place and reviewed

2. Maintain and enhance appropriate key relationships with statutory and VCS partners who co-locate/joint work with or refer into the service

3. Lead on expanding the partnership network on an ongoing basis by identifying opportunities to streamline delivery and maximise joint working

4. Work as part of the service-wide team developing recovery treatment services that are truly connected to the community

5. Lead on development and management of a broad range of internal and external partnerships including but not limited to, homelessness prevention, outreach, community development and engagement, peer mentoring

6. Take a lead role in supporting the teams to improve and adapt to changing demands

7. Promote and raise the profile of the service and partners across the boroughs

8. Establish and review joint-working protocols to deliver joined up and effective support, using a population health perspective, reflecting the service’s aims

9. Oversee the innovation fund, establishing processes and protocols to set it up and the ongoing governance of the fund

10. Lead on management of all service sub-contractors – including liaison and cascade of information back and forth between the service, co-ordinate quarterly (and ad hoc) contract monitoring (manage KPI’s, staffing, service support etc.).

11. Develop and manage a Partnership Board that meets quarterly comprising Mind, London Friend and NHS Homerton (and any other organisations we begin sub-contracting to).

12. Generate and maintain/oversee SharePoint folders for all key stakeholders – including contact info, management details, premises and any joint working agreement paperwork.

13. Maintain and overarching Stakeholder contact list in Excel to be stored on SharePoint, update and amend as necessary over time.

14. Maintain and update the service satellite spreadsheet (including internal and external satellites).

15. Attend relevant CDP’s to represent the service and cover for colleagues at CDP’s as and when required.

16. Be the main link for partners/stakeholders when they are looking to initiate some joint working enterprise or have feedback or concerns to raise with the service.

17. To lead on organising stakeholder events and community events.

18. To establish and continue building a wide network of contacts for the service within as many professions as possible within CoL and Hackney.

19. To branch the service out more into the night-time economy of the borough, in terms of awareness, literature/posters and training where relevant.

20. Support the Training and Practice Lead to offer and deliver more training to external partners.

21. Run regular feedback sessions and surveys of partners to elicit feedback from the service and gather intelligence on what training and support they would like from our service. Share this information/intelligence regularly with the service at MGM’s.

22. To maintain and bolster 12-step and other mutual aid groups in the service, be the main liaison for these contacts and establish a SMART recovery Group to complement our existing mutual aid arrangements.

23. Lead on changes to the service website, review this site and consider how we could optimise promoting the service this way.

24. Lead on liaison with TP External Affairs and Marketing teams. Create and manage a service promotion plan.

25. Lead on negotiating, writing, collating and storing all MOU’s, RA’s ISA’s and all other written agreements with partner agencies relating to co-location and joint working.

26. Manage the service’s digital footprint including google reviews, and control or delegate the management of the service’s social media channels to boost our digital engagement with the local community.

27. Create a regular C&H Recovery Service newsletter to share with partners and stakeholders.

28. Engage with local media and politicians where appropriate to promote the service and position the service effectively politically within the borough.

29. Oversee the work we do with commissioners and public health teams on the PH Van and Hot Spot Activity including attending meetings relating to these with the council. Ensure a rota and staffing is organised for these outreach exercises months in advance.

30. Continue to manage the contracts and joint-working agreements with the GPSC scheme and our separate GP alcohol satellites with a view to setting up at least two more GP satellites in the borough.

31. Organise regular forums and training sessions with GP’s in the borough.

32. To field any complaints coming from GP’s and other key stakeholders.

General

· To comply with, promote, and contribute to the writing and development of Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest's values and with all organisational systems, policies and procedures

· To work with colleagues and partners within the service to provide a seamless service

· In accordance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, to take responsibility for your own health and safety at work and that of any staff, service users or visitors you are working with, and to report any risks or potential hazards to the Health and Safety Representative

· To keep records and statistics for dissemination to effectively monitor the service, ensuring that all files and information are kept in accordance with Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest's policies on confidentiality and data protection

· To be administratively self-supporting

· To liaise with other Mind CHWF projects and staff from partner agencies and external stakeholders to facilitate and maintain effective links

· To attend and participate in staff meetings, contributing to discussions and giving reports if needed

· To attend supervision, appraisal meetings, and appropriate internal and external training courses as approved by your line manager

· To attend Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest staff away days

· To undertake any other tasks and duties commensurate with the post as directed by your manager, or any other senior manager in Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest

Person Specification

The following criteria will be used when assessing candidates. Criteria marked (E) are Essential and (D) are Desirable.

Values and Behaviours

· A passion and commitment to supporting good health for individuals and communities (E)

· A valuing of coproduction (E)

· Effective verbal and written communications that can be modified to different stakeholders (E)

· Collaborative team working skills (E)

· Proven negotiating and networking skills with an ability to establish new working partnerships (E)

· Adaptable and resilient to work in a changing and challenging environment (E)

· Ability to deliver against agreed goals, targets and outcomes (E)

· Ability to translate strategy into tangible action to enhance service KPI performance (E)

· Resilient and reflective (E)

· Ability to work under pressure and meet both service and central services deadlines (E)

· Able to work in a changing and sometimes challenging environment (E)

· Excellent report writing skills (E)

· Excellent organisational abilities, able to manage a complex workload of multiple priorities (E)

Knowledge & Experience

· Proven ability to establish new partnerships and collaboration with agencies, with enhanced negotiating skills (E)

· Significant Management experience of leading throughout challenge and change (E)

· Track record of developing innovative approaches to community-based collaboration and joint-working strategies (E)

· An understanding and interest in community development and peer support approaches (E)

· Proven knowledge of substance misuse (D)

· Experience of community-based interventions/collaboration / partnership making (E)

· Resilient and reflective (E)

· Ability to work under pressure and meet both service and central services deadlines (E)

Skills & abilities

· Strong collaborative leadership skills (E)

· Coaching skills to achieve successful outcomes (D)

· Proven experience in leading teams with an ability to improve and adapt to changing demands (E)

· Ability to prepare and manage the services Business Continuity Plans (D)

· Experience of Microsoft Office suite, Excel and Database systems (E)

· Experience of performance monitoring at a high level (E)

· Good communication skills and professional role model with staff and partners at all levels (E)

Qualifications

Essential

· Fluent written and spoken English with appropriate literacy and numeracy skills. (E)

Desirable

· Relevant qualification in health, social care, substance use, mental health, psychology, counselling, social work, or a related field, or equivalent experience. (D)

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

· Enhanced check required.

About us

Carers UK’s vision is to create a society that recognises, values and supports carers. As the leading national charity for unpaid carers, we exist to make life better for carers, however caring affects them. Our support, advice, information and campaigning work are now needed more than ever, as unpaid carers are providing more and more care, adversely impacting on their own health and wellbeing.

About the role

We recognise the value of social media in communicating with all our audiences; whether unpaid carers or their friends and families, employers, politicians, service providers, supporters and all those people who may become a carer for a partner, family member, friend or neighbour and will need information, support, and to know that there are people working to make their lives better.

This role works with colleagues across the organisation, including our senior management team - but also in partnership with external organisations and agencies - with targets set for engagement (and other indicators of the success of our campaigns). We're working on multiple campaigns simultaneously; whether that's Carers Week, campaigns to influence changes to the law to better support carers, encouraging unpaid carers to join us as members, updating on activities in the devolved nations or getting people to fundraise for Carers UK. And we use a mix of owned, earned and paid communications to drive engagement in a challenging and crowded environment in order to get our messages to cut through. It's a busy, but varied role, in a supportive and collaborative team.

About you

Working within the communications and marketing team, you'll be confident in managing our social media accounts (we have many), ensuring we're using platforms to get our messages out to both wide and targeted audiences with engaging and timely content.

You'll be happy using tools for social listening, interacting with our audiences and building our reach. You'll be familiar with key metrics for social engagement and will be reporting back to colleagues and other stakeholders - and using this data to constantly improve our communications.

You'll be skilled in writing longer form content for our members' magazine, Caring, proof reading articles, posting content on our websites, creating graphics and making sure our content is engaging, audience focused and dynamic. Oh, and you probably know your way around an emoji set and are not scared of a well timed pun. Plus you'll have a great eye for detail and be confident in your ability to prioritise (and sometimes reprioritise) your workload as needed.

We're a small but effective communications team and pride ourselves on getting stuck in and supporting each other when we need to deliver big on fast moving projects, so you'll need be able to juggle lots of demands while recognising the importance of always hitting deadlines.

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 contact us to discuss.  

The closing date for applications is 5pm, Tuesday 18 August.

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.