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Working closely with our Communications Lead, you'll focus on building our digital presence to grow the political and public support we need to put people at the heart of decision making.

Involve is leading the way in shaping a 21st-century democracy through innovative, high-quality public participation. We're now looking for a Digital Communications Officer to join our Advocacy and Communications Function, bringing digital communications skills that help us tell the story of our work in creative and engaging ways.

You'll create and deliver a steady stream of compelling content, work directly with project teams, partners and commissioners, and help build the political and public support we need to put people at the heart of decision-making.

Key responsibilities include:

• Creating and delivering engaging digital content across our social, web and email channels

• Supporting our major programmes of work and wider project teams with digital communications

• Helping us to grow and diversify our audiences to build political and public support for participatory democracy

• Bringing creative, platform-savvy thinking to how we tell Involve's story
   

If you enjoy using content and creativity to engage people, and like the idea of putting that to work for a stronger democracy, follow the link to find out more and we'd love to hear from you.

This exciting new role sits within REUK’s Education Pathways work which has been in a pilot phase for the last few years and is rapidly growing now that the UK government has made a commitment to expanding safe and legal routes to higher education in the UK for refugee students.

Higher education provides a transformative pathway for refugee youth, but establishing sustainable institutional access routes requires systemic collaboration. This role will lead the growth, formalisation, and management of university partnerships required to make an education pathway to the UK grow and flourish. You will oversee the complete partnership lifecycle: from university outreach and onboarding (including negotiating formal agreements at senior level), to enabling the formation of campus welcome groups, leading on initial and ongoing university and welcome group training and support, and monitoring and improving all university-facing processes within the pathway.

The postholder will work alongside a newly created Students Lead role, enabling you to focus on the institution-facing workstreams, while student-facing onboarding, welfare, and direct casework are handled by your counterpart.

This is a critical role within a small, high-capacity specialist unit within REUK. Because this is an emerging and new area of work you must be comfortable working with risk and ambiguity, refining and learning rapidly as parameters evolve. You will be an allrounder - as comfortable presenting to university executive boards and Vice-Chancellors as you are drafting MoUs, establishing Terms of Reference, organising and facilitating institutional training, and handling complex partnership operations independently.

Role outcomes

1. UK universities actively partner with REUK to create, expand, and sustain dedicated safe and legal education pathways for displaced students. To this end, key responsibilities include: 

• Developing and executing a national university engagement strategy to identify, pitch to, and secure new partner universities across the UK higher education sector.

• Engaging directly with key university representatives - including Vice-Chancellors, Pro-Vice-Chancellors, Heads of Admissions, Sanctuary staff and key academics - to build institutional buy-in and secure long-term commitment to refugee education pathways.

• Negotiating university support packages, including as appropriate fee waivers, scholarship or bursary structures, and accommodation commitments.

• Nurturing and strategically managing existing university partnerships to ensure institutional sustainability, high-level engagement, and year-on-year growth in pathway placements.

• Representing REUK where appropriate in sector-wide higher education networks and working groups on displaced student pathways.

2. Partner universities establish institutional frameworks, well-trained staff networks and campus welcome groups to receive refugee education pathway learners. To this end, key responsibilities include: 

• Guiding universities in establishing and structuring sustainable on-campus welcome groups (bringing together university staff and students) to support the welcome and integration of education pathway students.

• Designing and delivering high quality training sessions for on-campus welcome groups and other key staff members.

• Developing practical toolkits, guides, and frameworks for university staff to accompany above training.

• Collaborating with the Students Lead to ensure campus welcome structures integrate with REUK's student support mechanisms.

• Advocating within partner institutions for structural policy improvements (e.g. contextual admissions and flexible documentation policies).

3. University partnership governance, agreements, and operational systems run effectively and efficiently. To this end, key responsibilities include: 

• Drafting, negotiating, and finalizing formal Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), Terms of Reference (ToRs), and operational service agreements with partner universities. 

• Managing all administrative and governance aspects of university partnerships independently, including contract tracking, partnership reviews, and operational timelines without junior admin support.

• Coordinating institutional admissions frameworks and placement quotas with university registry and admissions departments.

• Serving as the primary point of contact for senior university leads when strategic, structural, or other partnership challenges arise

• Maintaining robust data systems and records relating to university commitments, funding allocations, and institutional agreements.

4. REUK’s Education Pathways university partnerships work is robustly evaluated, financially sustainable, and aligned with REUK’s broader strategy. To this end, key responsibilities include: 

• Reporting directly to the Education Pathways Lead  on partnership growth, institutional engagement metrics, and strategic pathway goals.

• Working in close alignment with the Students Lead to ensure institutional frameworks effectively support cohort needs and programme delivery.

• Collecting sector data, university feedback, and institutional metrics to demonstrate impact to funders, university boards, REUK’s board of trustees, and government stakeholders.

• Supporting grant reporting and budget management related to university pathway expansion and partner development.

• Feeding operational insights from university partnerships into REUK’s broader research, policy, and systemic change initiatives.

Person specification

Although each role requires particular competencies, we seek staff members - irrespective of role - who are willing and able to demonstrate core competencies related to 1) character and values, 2) personal working style and 3) team working. Please see the applicant pack for more details. The competencies required for this specific role are:

• Higher Education sector expertise: Deep understanding of UK university governance, executive structures, admissions procedures, international frameworks, and sanctuary initiatives.

• Senior stakeholder engagement and negotiation: Proven track record of engaging and influencing senior decision-makers within universities.
   

• Partnership governance: Demonstrated experience drafting, negotiating, and executing formal and operational agreements, including MoUs and ToRs.
   

• Facilitation and training: Strong training and facilitation skills, with a track record of designing and delivering workshops and guidance, ideally within the higher education or refugee education sectors

• Operational self-sufficiency: Outstanding organisational skills with the ability to manage high-level administration, systems setup, and contract management independently without administrative support.

• Knowledge of education pathway models: Familiarity with international refugee education pathway models (such as Canada’s WUSC; Australia’s RSSP/SkillPath and or others operating in Japan, Italy, Ireland etc).

• Knowledge and understanding of refugee tertiary education: Strong understanding of the systemic barriers faced by refugee students in higher education both in the UK and in first countries of asylum. 

• Interpersonal skills: An ability to build and maintain positive, warm and confidence inspiring working relationships with internal colleagues and external partners and stakeholders, including in complex situations.

• Communications: Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, including ability to appropriately communicate nuance and complexity; confidence communicating with and presenting to high level audiences.

The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust is looking to recruit a Communications and Media Officer to join our small and driven team supporting young people aged 8-24, who are living through and beyond cancer.

Use your storytelling, editorial, copywriting and creative skills to help inspire young people to join our lifechanging trips and generate the fundraising support we need so the door is open for more young people to benefit from our adventures.

No sailing experience or knowledge is required, just a passion for applying your talents to make a real difference in young people believing in their brighter future after treatment for cancer.

You might be a graduate journalist, PR account executive, communications assistant, or someone with equivalent experience who is ready to take your next step in a varied and rewarding role with one of the country’s leading young people’s cancer charities.

What you will do

A year-in-the-life of our Largs-based Communications and Media Officer has two distinct parts. October to April - where it’s all about getting the word out there to support fundraising and encouraging young people to sign up for our life-changing adventures. Then it’s the summer - May to September - when the magic happens and you’re around the trips, interviewing young people and telling their stories. You can go sailing on the trips too!

You will be responsible for identifying story opportunities year-round, and writing press releases, media advisories or editorial content to pitch those stories to a range of media outlets, from local newspapers and regional broadcasters to national, charity, marine and other specialist publications, and facilitating inbound requests for interviews or other profile-raising opportunities.

You will serve as our go-to copywriter for print, online and digital marketing materials as well as writing other articles and feature content as requested. This includes responsibility for writing and overseeing the production of our annual in-house publication, Inspire.

You will also work closely with the social media team, gathering (and if you have the experience, producing) multimedia content for our digital and online platforms. There will be wider responsibilities across the communications team too.

Key responsibilities and duties

Copywriting

• All editorial and copy creation (internal and external requirements/requests).
• Organisation-wide marketing collateral process management and copy support.
• Inspire – content planning, writing and overseeing production (Sept-Apr). 
• Trust News (monthly e-newsletter) stories.
• Website – regular news stories and copy updates as required and/or requested.
• Internal copy oversight and/or proofreading, including but not limited to young person onboarding and
  fundraising communications.

Media & PR

• Identifying cross-organisation year-round storytelling and profile-raising opportunities and proactive media outreach (local/regional/specialist/marine).
• Facilitate all inbound interview and other media requests including setting up interviews and briefing
  interviewees.
• Facilitate Largs-based PR and/or experiential requests.
• Media monitoring, recording and reporting (Google Alerts).
• Onclusive PR & media platform – relationship and media list management.

Trip season (all of the above plus...)

• Interviewing young people and seasonal team (volunteers, skippers and trip leads) to gather stories and content for PR and/or social media.
• For Largs-organised trips…
  • photo management (sort, uploading and image tagging)
  • media phone management
  • Social media posts (including photos and/or short-form video) in liaison with the Senior Digital and
    Social Media Lead.
  • Wider Largs team support.

Wider comms function

• Year-round story management including case studies and website updates.
• Campaigns – ideas generation and support with delivery (with comms team)
• Sad News process management – ensuring respectful use of photos/videos.
• Largs office/marina branding – organisation and coordination as required.
• Crisis comms - part of incident response media team.
• Looking for new opportunities/platforms to raise our profile.

This exciting new role sits within REUK’s Education Pathways work which has been in a pilot phase for the last few years and is rapidly growing now that the UK government has made a commitment to expanding safe and legal routes to higher education in the UK for refugee students.

Once a student is selected for participation and offered a university place, this postholder becomes their core anchor and primary REUK point of contact. This role oversees the entire student journey—from pre-departure preparation and arrival orientation to ongoing academic support, psychosocial wellbeing, community building on campus and monitoring of student outcomes.

The postholder will work alongside the newly created Education Pathways Universities Lead. While the Universities Lead focuses on institutional partnerships, you will focus on the student support side of the pathway: equipping university welcome groups to develop integration plans, pairing scholars with academic mentors (with support from REUK’s educational mentoring team), building a vibrant national student network, and providing hands-on casework escalation when complex issues arise.

This is a critical role within a small, high-capacity specialist unit within REUK. Because this is an emerging and new area of work you must be comfortable working with risk and ambiguity, refining and learning rapidly as parameters evolve. You will be a versatile practitioner - equally skilled at designing cohort orientation programmes and delivering student workshops as you are at managing administrative workflows, tracking student outcomes, and delivering compassionate, individual casework support.

Role outcomes

1. Refugee Education Pathway students transition smoothly into UK higher education through comprehensive pre-departure guidance, arrival orientation, and holistic onboarding. To this end, key responsibilities include: 

• Serving as REUK’s primary point of contact for scholars in the months immediately preceding travel, delivering pre-departure briefings and managing expectation-setting.

• Supporting the Education Pathways Lead to recruit, select and match eligible students.

• Coordinating arrival logistics and initial orientation in close collaboration with partner universities and campus welcome groups.

• Establishing clear, trauma-informed onboarding protocols to help students adapt quickly to the academic and cultural environment of UK universities.

• Designing and delivering (in collaboration with young refugees who participated in the pilot pathway) high-quality orientation resources, toolkits, and interactive induction sessions tailored to the unique practical and psychosocial needs of newly arrived refugee students.

• Working alongside the Universities Lead to conduct campus visits to ensure scholars are safely settled and Welcome Groups are offering appropriate integration support

2. Scholars thrive academically, socially, and emotionally through tailored REUK-added support structures, mentorship, and peer networks. To this end, key responsibilities include: 

• Supporting the Universities Lead in training campus welcome groups (staff, student unions, and peer volunteers) and maintaining ongoing liaison to ensure high-quality local support.

• Overseeing REUK’s added-value support framework, including:

  • Sourcing, matching, and managing academic mentors for students on the programme;

  • Facilitating a vibrant, national network for education pathway students, organising regular in-person and online meet-ups and peer connections, as well as referrals to REUK’s refugee student leadership programme;

  • Providing occasional direct, high-level casework support and conflict resolution when complex student welfare, academic, or integration issues are escalated from universities to REUK.

• Fostering an empowering community environment that prioritises student agency, mental health, and long-term wellbeing throughout their studies.

3. Student support operations, cross-team coordination, safeguarding and administrative processes are managed efficiently and self-sufficiently. To this end, key responsibilities include: 

• Managing all student-facing administrative processes, communication channels, and record-keeping systems independently without junior administrative support. 

• Working in close alignment with the Universities Lead to ensure institutional arrangements and campus support delivery are fully synchronized.

• Maintaining robust safeguarding and data protection protocols across all student casework, communications, and interactions. 

• Liaising with external specialist organizations (e.g., legal advisors, healthcare providers, mental health services) when complex casework exceeds standard university support.

4. Student progress and outcomes are robustly evaluated and clearly communicated, contributing to programme learning and REUK’s wider mission. To this end, key responsibilities include: 

• Reporting directly to the Education Pathways Lead and Chief Executive on cohort wellbeing, retention rates, academic progress, and key student outcomes.

• Designing and implementing (with the support of REUK’s Research Manager) student feedback mechanisms, regular check-ins, and longitudinal evaluation frameworks to track scholar progression.

• Supporting grant reporting and contributing qualitative impact stories and student reflections for funders, communications and organisational learning.

• Working alongside the Youth Advocacy Manager to provide Education Pathways students opportunities to engage with our Refugee Changemakers team

• Feeding student-led insights and operational learning into REUK’s broader research, policy, and systemic change work to improve refugee education nationwide.

Person specification

Although each role requires particular competencies, we seek staff members - irrespective of role - who are willing and able to demonstrate core competencies related to 1) character and values, 2) personal working style and 3) team working. Please see the applicant pack for more details. The competencies required for this specific role are:

• Student support and safeguarding: Proven track record of delivering direct support, pastoral care and complex casework for displaced young people or international/refugee students in higher education and supporting others to do the same.

• Training and resources: Experience designing and delivering transition, orientation, or onboarding programmes that support cross-cultural adaptation and academic readiness.

• Volunteering management: Strong experience in recruiting, training and supporting volunteers and volunteer groups (e.g., akin to academic mentors or campus welcome groups).

• Network and community building: Skills in facilitating student-led networks, organizing cohort events/meet-ups, and building inclusive peer-to-peer support spaces.

• Operational self-sufficiency and willingness to travel: High level of personal organization, ability to manage admin independently without junior support, and willingness to travel regularly across the UK.

• Knowledge of education pathway models: Familiarity with international refugee education pathway models (such as Canada’s WUSC; Australia’s RSSP/SkillPath and or others operating in Japan, Italy, Ireland etc).

• Knowledge and understanding of refugee tertiary education and the needs of resettled refugees more broadly: Strong understanding of the systemic barriers faced by refugee students in higher education both in the UK and internationally in first countries of asylum, as well as the support needed on resettlement to a third country.

• Student participation: Deep understanding of the principles of youth or student leadership and co-production, with the ability to embed these meaningfully across the education pathway 

• Interpersonal skills: An ability to build and maintain positive, warm and confidence inspiring working relationships with internal colleagues and external partners and stakeholders, including in complex situations.

• Communications: Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, including ability to appropriately communicate nuance and complexity; confidence communicating with and presenting to a variety of audiences.

Pay: M1 (£36,642 - £40,356 a year based on 44.6 weeks per year which is term time, plus one week for insets and holiday pay. This is split over 12 monthly payments).

The trust is part of the Local Government Pension Scheme that contributes 17.8% as employer pension contributions.

Start Date: Ideally September 2026 (please note our intention is for our outgoing Service Manager to work alongside you for approximately 6 weeks so you feel confident in the role before she departs)

Forest House Education Centre (FHEC) is a hospital school for 13-17-year-old pupils, attached to the Forest House Adolescent Unit, a Tier 4 CAMHS inpatient facility on the Kingsley Green hospital site. The Centre provides education for the patients occupying the Adolescent Unit's sixteen beds, while additionally being the sole educator for eight 'day pupils' who are referred by Hertfordshire County Council through ESMA (the LA's tutorial service for pupils who are out of mainstream education for medical reasons).

The Service Manager at Forest House Education Centre will work closely with Trust leaders to effectively manage the day to day provision of the service.

The candidate’s key role will include liaising with stakeholders to ensure effective communication and collaboration between ESMA, Forest House Adolescent Unit, base schools, pupils and their families and professionals involved in the care and education of our pupils; to ensure the best outcomes for all those at FHEC; attend multi-agency meetings as necessary and work in conjunction with the Trust staff to ensure that all aspects of the SLA (service level agreement) are met.

The candidate will have experience of dealing with pupils with Mental Health issues and have excellent communication skills. Interested parties must have a diplomatic, tactful and creative approach to team working.

Please see job description for more information.

Closing date for applications is 9am on Friday 4th September 2026. Candidates are welcome to call and speak to the Head Teacher and/or arrange to visit the school site. Please use contact details above to make arrangements.

 Applications Close: 9 am on Friday 4th September 2026

 Interviews: Week Commencing Monday 7th September 2026