Parliamentary And Public Affairs Manager Jobs in Farringdon, Greater London
Job title: Director of Policy and Strategy
Term: Full time, permanent
Salary: Circa £100,000 per annum plus generous benefits, and 30 days’ annual leave.
Location: London (Victoria) – hybrid (one to three days in the office as a minimum), with some travel around England required
Closing date: 10am 22 April 2024
Interviews: w/c Monday 6 May 2024
NHS Providers is the membership organisation for the NHS hospital, mental health, community, and ambulance services that treat patients and service users in the NHS. We help those NHS foundation trusts and trusts to deliver high-quality, patient-focused care by enabling them to learn from each other, acting as their public voice and helping shape the system in which they operate.
NHS Providers has all trusts in England in voluntary membership, collectively accounting for £115bn of annual expenditure and employing 1.4 million staff.
Our Policy directorate encompasses around 35 people, and the director of policy and strategy has responsibility for four direct reports and sits on our Executive Management Team (EMT), also helping to lead strategy and development across our 100-strong organisation. As director of policy and strategy, you will play a pivotal role in developing and strengthening our Policy and Strategy directorate. This will include ensuring we continue to operate in an integrated way across our Policy and Strategy, Communications, and Development and Engagement directorates to deliver the greatest impact for members and our organisation.
You will provide strategic leadership for the organisation’s policy, strategy, analysis and public affairs functions, providing high-level advice and support to the chief executive, deputy chief executive, chair and board, as well as playing a key role as part of the NHS Providers director team.
NHS Providers is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and supported and welcomes applications regardless of sex, gender identity, race, age, sexuality, beliefs, or disability. To be successful in this role you will need to be personally committed to being anti-racist and support our broader diversity work across all protected characteristics
Role: Public Affairs and Campaigns Officer
Location: London, Haig House, with hybrid working
Contract Type: Permanent, Full Time
Hours: 35 hours per week, Monday to Friday
Salary: £33,701 to £36,072 per annum, inclusive of London Supplement
Would you like to join the Campaigns, Policy and Research team for a leading national charity? Are you looking for a challenging new opportunity which will truly make a difference?
We are looking for a Public Affairs and Campaigns Officer to join the Royal British Legions London based team. This role will see you help to shape and carry out RBLs public affairs and campaigning activities at a national level, and to devise and deliver our political engagement events and campaigning work in Westminster.
Come and be part of the leading Armed Forces charity, making a difference to the lives of those who have served to keep us safe and protect our way of life.
Reporting too the Public Affairs and Campaigns Manager (UK), key responsibilities will include:
· Planning and organising political engagement events, including Parliamentary and Party Conference receptions, exhibitions, panel discussions, consultation events, Poppy Rides and more
· Devising and delivering a bespoke engagement programme for MPs and their staff
· External and internal team communications, including social media, team website and intranet content, responses to enquiries from the public.
· Monitoring and researching Parliamentary developments, consultations and legislation of interest to RBL and produce briefings for senior colleagues across the organisation on relevant issues
· Developing and maintaining good working relationships with key Parliamentarians and their staff, as well as partner organisations key to the successful delivery of RBL’s campaigns and engagement events programme
Here at RBL, we aim to support our people and their wellbeing, with a package including generous paid holiday allowance and pension scheme contributions, and a range of optional benefits and discounts.
You will be contracted to our London, Haig House Hub. Under our Future Working framework, there will be some flexibility for working remotely/at home, using our collaboration tools to work with colleagues but with a minimum expectation of two days/week connecting directly face-to-face with colleagues at the hub.
For more detailed information about the role, please see our Vacancy Information Pack attached to our direct advert.
RBL is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive organisation, reflecting the diversity of the armed forces community and of wider society. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and personal characteristics.
Closing Date: Sunday 14th April 2024
We may close this vacancy early if we believe we have enough strong applications to be able to successfully fill the role(s). Interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Age UK's impactful External Affairs Team are currently offering a 12 month Fixed Term Contract for an External Affairs Support Officer.
In this role, you'll support the delivery of our highly effective campaigns and public affairs activities which positively change the lives of older people. This is the perfect opportunity to develop a career in campaigning or public affairs, offering you varied experience and exposure to public and parliamentary campaigning, as well as supporting our Network of local Age UKs to campaign locally.
As External Affairs Support Officer, you'll provide efficient administrative support to the External Affairs team, assist with logistical planning and event organisation, keep track of relevant parliamentary activity; whilst preparing engaging communications relating to our campaigns and public affairs work for a range of audiences.
With an astute attention to detail, you'll be able to prioritise your workload, critically listen and confidently communicate both verbally and in written form; as well as having a sincere interest in politics and/or campaigning for change.
This is a hybrid opportunity, a blend of homebased and office working. Our linked office for this role is in London and you would be expected to attend the office once a week and more often if needed, to support events or campaign activity.
Closing date for applications - Friday 5th April
There will be an initial task for shortlisted applicants - 11th/12th April
Must haves:
- Confident written and verbal communication skills. You are comfortable writing for a range of audiences and tailoring style and content appropriately.
- Experience of organising or supporting events.
- An ability to provide appropriate attention to detail.
- An empathetic and sensitive approach to working with people sharing their personal experiences.
- Interest in politics and/or campaigning for change.
- Good organisational and planning skills, along with an ability to prioritise workload and competing demands.
Great to haves:
- Understanding of the voluntary sector.
- Broad understanding of the issues facing older people.
- Knowledge of the political process.
- Experience of using a range of digital tools.
What we offer in return
- Competitive salary, 26 days annual leave + bank holidays + annual leave purchase scheme
- Excellent pension scheme, life assurance, health cashback plan and EAP
- Car Benefit Scheme, Cycle to Work Scheme and Season Ticket Loan
- Techscheme - buy any tech from Apple or Currys, up to £1000, and spread the cost over 12 months, interest free
- Blue Light Card Scheme
- You Did It Awards - recognition awards from £100-250.
Additional Information
For a full list of benefits please click here
All CVs will be anonymised by our recruitment system when you apply for a role at Age UK. Please note that our system is unable to anonymise cover letters, and we would therefore ask that to support the work we are doing on making our recruitment selection process fairer and more unbiased, that you remove any personal information from your cover letter/supporting statement, including your name before uploading this. All equalities monitoring information is also anonymised and not shared with the hiring panel. Your name and address will only be known to us once you are invited for an interview.
Age UK is an Equal Opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates, regardless of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital/civil partnership status, or pregnancy and maternity. We guarantee an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria under the Disability Confident Scheme. Please note that on occasion, due to high numbers of applications, Age UK reserves the right to limit the overall number of interviews offered, and therefore, it may not always be practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people that meet the minimum criteria for the job.
Age UK is committed to safeguarding adults at risk, and children, from abuse and neglect. We expect everyone who works with us to share this commitment.
Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert at any time.
Age UK politely requests no contact from recruitment agencies or media sales. We do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.
Context and Background
The NSPCC’s vision is that together, we can stop child abuse and neglect. Through the collective power of our staff, volunteers, supporters, partners, and over 100 years of experience we will move closer to achieving that vision. We launched our ten-year strategy in 2021, which is centred around three impact goals. This is the difference we want to make by 2031:
1. Everyone plays their part to prevent child abuse: we’ll work together to make it easier for everyone to play their part and create a social safety net that prevents child abuse and neglect.
2. Every child is safe online: together, we’ll transform the online world, so it’s safe for every child to go online.
3. Children feel safe, listened to, and supported: more children will be able to speak out, so they feel safe, listened to, and understood – and abuse doesn’t shape their future.
The Policy and Public Affairs (PAPA) team is part of the Strategy and Knowledge Directorate at the NSPCC. The Directorate exists to help shape the world around us – and what the NSPCC does – so that it reflects what we have learned and can help keep children safe from abuse.
The Policy and Public Affairs team works across the four nations of the UK to influence legislation, policy and practice to ensure they are as effective as possible in preventing harm and abuse of children. We develop and hold the NSPCC’s positions on key public policy issues and harness these to influence policy makers and external stakeholders across the UK. We focus on policy priorities through our five core workstreams: the child protection system and children’s social care; early years and health; child sexual abuse; online safety; and young victims and witnesses.
We are recruiting a Policy and Regulatory Manager to play a central role in delivering our strategic ambitions to transform the online world so it safe for children. The post holder will play a management role in the high performing PAPA team which has a track record of successful influencing to ensure legal, policy and regulatory frameworks are fit for purpose in preventing, responding, and tackling child abuse and neglect.
The Policy and Regulatory Manager will spearhead our policy and influencing activity to make the Online Safety Act work for children. This will include delivering our regulatory strategy. They will be responsible for leading policy projects that contribute towards the NSPCC’s strategic objectives, using their skills and experience to strengthen our impact on public policy and regulatory decisions. In turn, they will make a significant contribution to keeping children safe.
They will play a key role in delivering our policy and influencing activity with figures in government departments, regulators, and civil society, with regular liaison with industry, and other sectoral experts.
The Policy and Regulatory Manager will manage cross-cutting projects across directorates, ensuring we can amplify the voice of the child by channelling the expertise held across the NSPCC’s policy, research, and knowledge teams, and from our wider services.
They will be responsible for line managing two policy and public affairs team members and supporting them to develop robust policy and regulatory analysis.
The successful candidate will have a good understanding of online harms or related public policy areas and in-depth knowledge of regulatory structures and processes from experience of working in regulated sectors or for a regulator.
Job purpose
The Policy and Regulatory Manager will deliver public policy projects to support the NSPCC’s strategic objective to transform online protections for children. They will use their skills and experience to strengthen the NSPCC’s impact on public policy and online safety regulation.
The Manager will ensure our policy calls are robust and well-evidenced and develop policy strategies and regulatory liaison to leverage our expertise and secure necessary changes to legislation, regulation, and industry practices.
They will develop impactful and influential relationships with regulators, and with senior stakeholders across Government, parliament, industry, and civil society to inform crucial decisions about legislation and regulatory design, and in turn, the development of regulatory schemes.
The Policy and Regulatory Manager will play a lead role in delivering the NSPCC’s strategy of amplifying the voices and experience of children. The postholder will lead our regulatory engagement and will leverage our research and insight to influence the shape of regulation. This will include representing the NSPCCs views on the design of the online safety regulatory framework and responding to formal consultation.
They will play a leading role within the child safety online (CSO) workstream within the wider Policy and Public Affairs team and will line manage members of staff and help them develop their policy and public affairs skill sets.
Key relationships - Internal
· Reports to Associate Head, Policy and Public Affairs - Child Safety Online
· To line manage a Senior Policy and Public Affairs Officer (in post) and a Policy and Public Affairs Officer (recruiting)
· Colleagues in the London-based Policy and Public Affairs team
· The Policy and Public Affairs teams in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
· Colleagues in the Strategy and Knowledge directorate including the CSO Solutions Labs
· Media and Campaigns teams
· Services Directorate
· NSPCC Senior Management and trustees, including Policy Committee
Key relationships - External
· Key civil servants in central government departments (such as the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
· Regulators (Ofcom, Information Commissioner)
· Technology companies, including social media and gaming companies
· Civil society organisations working on online harms
· Law enforcement agencies e.g., National Crime Agency
· Other children’s charities
· Parliamentarians
Main duties and responsibilities
Policy and influencing
· Develop and deliver effective regulatory strategies which; identify achievable goals and objectives are underpinned by robust, evidence-based policy positions are high quality, impactful and support the NSPCC’s strategy ambition to transform the online world so that it is safe for children.
· Lead the NSPCCs thinking and approach to Ofcom’s codes of practices.
· Lead and oversee the development of high-quality public policy development and influencing projects to deliver strategic, high impact policy outcomes
· Build excellent relationships with civil service, parliamentary, industry and civil society stakeholders, and leverage these to deliver high impact policy change
· Deliver persuasive, evidenced policy interventions to ensure child-centred decisions on regulatory design and delivery
Leadership and representing the NSPCC
· Provide leadership, direction, and line management to two policy and public affairs team members
· Be a key point of contact for internal and external requests for information and advice about NSPCC’s positions on complex technological and regulatory positions
· Use strong project management skills to plan the delivery of policy development and aligned public affairs work, planning both your and colleagues’ time effectively
· Work closely with Press and Campaigns teams to deliver effective and authoritative external messaging, and manage cross-cutting projects across directorates
· Represent the NSPCC on relevant issues and where appropriate, act as spokesperson for the NSPCC including through the media.
Responsibilities for all Staff within the Strategy and Knowledge Directorate
· A commitment to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk.
· To maintain an overview of child protection policy and practice
· To maintain an awareness of own and other’s health and safety and comply with NSPCC’s Health and Safety procedures
· An active commitment to promoting ED&I, safeguarding and trauma informed practice
· An agile approach to work
· To maintain and develop competence in the use of IT systems
Person specification
· Strong support for NSPCC’s mission and values.
· Excellent understanding of online safety, child protection, tech regulation or related public policy areas.
· Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the clear ability to influence a wide range of audiences verbally and in writing, and to tailor information to different audiences.
· Strong analytical skills, with an ability to interpret a range of data and research to design compelling, evidence-based policy solutions
· Excellent policy development skills, including being able to draw up credible positions and policy interventions on complex and highly nuanced subject matter
· Excellent stakeholder and persuasive skills, with evidence of delivering tangible change through influencing key relationships (including with regulators, government and industry), forming tactical and strategic networks, and leveraging political and external dynamics
· Evidence of team management skills and experience of managing complex and competing projects with a strong track record for delivery at speed and under pressure, responding to tight external deadlines.
· An inspiring team player, with a collaborative and flexible approach and the ability to work across teams and directorates well
Safer Recruitment
As an organisation, we are committed to creating and fostering a culture that promotes safeguarding and the welfare of all children and adults at risk.
Our safer recruitment practices support this by ensuring that there is a consistent and thorough process of obtaining, collating, analysing and evaluating information from and about candidates to ensure that all persons appointed are suitable to work with our children and adults.
The recruitment and selection of our people will be conducted in a professional, timely and responsive manner and in compliance with current employment legislation, and relevant safeguarding legislation and statutory guidance.
Our principles:
· Always seek to recruit the best candidate for the role based on merit including their skills, experience, motivation and competencies. Our robust recruitment and selection process should ensure the identification of the person best suited to the role and the organisation.
· Committed to diversity and equality of opportunity and will interview all applicants (internal and external) who self-declare at application as having a disability and who meet the minimum requirements in the person specification of the vacancy they are applying for.
· We will make reasonable adjustments at all stages of the recruitment process in order to enable successful candidates who declare disabilities to start working or volunteering their time with us.
· Any current member of staff or volunteer who wishes to apply for vacancies and is suitably qualified will be considered and addressed fairly and objectively based on their merit.
· As an organisation committed to safeguarding, we will ensure all under 18’s joining the organisation will have ongoing risk assessments to ensure their role and activities are safe and appropriate.
· All documentation relating to candidates will be treated confidentially in accordance with the GDPR legislation.
Job title: Public affairs and campaigns adviser
Contract type: Permanent
Salary: Grade 4, £32,119 - £35,000
Working arrangements: Full time, 35 hours per week. Hybrid working, with a minimum of 6 days per month in the office.
This is an exciting opportunity to join the Royal College of Physicians at a crucial time. The RCP is a patient centred and clinically led organisation in the health sector and is the oldest medical royal college representing hospital doctors.
The public affairs and campaigns adviser supports the development of the RCP’s influence and networks, particularly in government and Parliament, identifying opportunities to involve RCP fellows and members in our influencing work.
Working closely with the public affairs manager, you will help support our public affairs and policy work, proactively identifying opportunities to ensure the organisation is influencing the health agenda effectively on a range of topics including the NHS workforce, health inequality, sustainability and climate change and clinical research.
You will be as comfortable speaking to parliamentarians and other stakeholders as you are writing consultation submissions and briefings. You will understand and be able to engage with the detail of legislation, while appreciating the bigger picture and our place in it. You will have experience of carefully analysing the external environment to spot opportunities to raise the profile of our policy priorities.
The policy and campaigns team – and the wider communications, policy and research department - is a fast paced, collaborative and innovative environment. We value the opinions and ideas of every member of the team and actively seek their contributions. You will help us set our objectives and improve the ways we work.
Purpose and scope
Key responsibilities
- Helping the RCP meet its objectives by contributing to the development and implementation of strategies to engage with and influence decision makers.
- Maintaining a keen awareness and understanding of issues within health and care in order to help identify opportunities for influencing, contribute to policy development, advise senior officers and work with communications colleagues and other staff as appropriate.
- Proactively identifying opportunities for engagement, working with the media team to craft statements so relevant issues are highlighted to the media.
- Maintaining and developing relationships with Parliamentarians, their staff and civil servants.
- Maintaining and developing relationships with other health organisations and bodies involved in the delivery of care.
- Working flexibly and proactively, undertaking a range of work such as writing briefings, policy positions, parliamentary bulletins and consultation responses.
- Preparing senior officers and staff for stakeholder meetings, and yourself representing the RCP at meetings and events.
- Any other duties commensurate with your post, including deputising for the public affairs manager.
About you
You will
- have a background in public affairs, understanding how the UK political system works and how to effectively influence it
- be able to quickly develop positive and effective working relationships with a diverse range of people
- have excellent writing skills and experience of producing letters, briefings, parliamentary consultation responses and other communications on behalf of senior people
- have contributed to developing and delivering successful influencing campaigns, including tailoring communications to a variety of audiences
- be able to act on your own initiative to develop new work, proposing reasonable and realistic solutions
- understand the importance of and be committed to involving a diverse range of organisations and people in developing and delivering campaigns.
You may have experience of
- health and/or social care policy
- policy development and/or communications management
- working directly with draft legislation
- working in a membership organisation and involving members in advocacy.
For more information about the role please view the job description.
Our benefits
Working at the RCP comes with lots of benefits designed to ensure that you feel valued and supported in your role. The benefits we offer include:
- 27 days holiday per annum, plus bank holidays
- group personal pension plan with 7% employer contribution
- interest-free season ticket loan
- life assurance
- annual pay award
- flexible working hours
- employee assistance programme – 24/7 advice and support for any work-related issues as well as any problems affecting your home life
- occupational health team – includes employment and work-related health assessments, health checks and work station assessments
- cycle to work scheme
- corporate eye care scheme
- professional training and development opportunities
- enhanced maternity and paternity pay
- staff discounts platform – including discounts on cinema tickets and a range of high street brands
About the RCP
The Royal College of Physicians is a rewarding and friendly place to work with an incredible history, dating back to our foundation in 1518. We are a professional membership body for physicians – doctors who work in hospitals – with over 40,000 members in the UK and around the world working to improve patient care and reduce illness. Our activities focus on educating, improving and influencing for better health and care.
How to apply
To apply, please submit your CV and cover letter outlining how your skills and experience meet the job description. Please note that applications received without a cover letter will not be shortlisted.
For more information about the role, please view the job description and person specification. If you would like to talk to us about it, please email Oliver Parsons, public affairs manager.
Closing date: Thursday 4 April
Shortlisted candidates will be notified by: Friday 12 April
Interview date: Wednesday 17 April (interviews will be conducted in person at our London office).
The RCP positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, transgender status, religion or belief, marital status or pregnancy and maternity.
The RCP is all about our people – our members, staff, volunteers and leaders. We educate, influence and collaborate to improve health and healthcare for everyone and know we can only do this by being inclusive, encouraging and celebrating diverse perspectives. Welcoming into our community people who represent the 21st-century medical workforce and the diverse population of patients we serve is a priority for us.
Job Title: Policy and Public Affairs Assistant (UK/England)
Directorate: Strategy and Knowledge
Team/Department (if specific): Policy and Public Affairs
Salary range: £21,840 to £22,362 (starting at the bottom of the range) Plus £3,366 London weighting
Location: London (hybrid working, with at least one day- Tuesday- in the office). The post holder will occasionally be expected to travel to locations across the UK.
Working hours: 35 hours (flexible working may be considered)
Context and Background
The NSPCC's vision is that together, we can stop child abuse and neglect. Through the collective power of our staff, volunteers, supporters, partners, and over 100 years of experience we will move closer to achieving that vision.
We launched our ten-year strategy in 2021, which is centred around three impact goals. This is the difference we want to make by 2031:
1. Everyone plays their part to prevent child abuse: we'll work together to make it easier for everyone to play their part and create a social safety net that prevents child abuse and neglect.
2. Every child is safe online: together, we'll transform the online world, so it's safe for every child to go online.
3. Children feel safe, listened to and supported: more children will be able to speak out, so they feel safe, listened to and understood - and abuse doesn't shape their future.
The Policy and Public Affairs team works across the four nations of the UK to influence legislation, policy and practice to ensure they are as effective as possible in keeping children safe. We focus on policy priorities through our five core workstreams: the child protection system and children's social care; early years and health; child sexual abuse; online safety; and young victims and witnesses. You will have the opportunity to work across a range of different policy areas.
We are recruiting a Policy and Public Affairs Assistant to support the work of the Policy and Public Affairs team in delivering real change and reform in the best interests of children.
The post holder will work in the UK/England part of the Policy and Affairs Team focussed on influencing the Westminster Government. The role involves a variety of responsibilities including assisting the team with parliamentary monitoring, policy analysis, organising meetings and events including with parliamentarians. This is a great opportunity to develop policy and public affairs skills as part of a high-performing, award-winning team.
The post holder will also support colleagues from across the UK by collaborating on one or more of our workstreams. You will support with project delivery, research into specific policy issues, as well as communication with internal and external contacts.
Job purpose
The Policy and Public Affairs Assistant (UK/England) will be responsible for undertaking a range of advocacy work to achieve the NSPCC's strategic goals. This will include supporting policy analysis and development, policy research and public affairs and influencing activities. The postholder will use their skills and experience to strengthen the NSPCC's impact on public policy and legislation, and in doing so make a significant contribution to keeping children safe.
Key relationships - Internal
· Reports to Policy and Public Affairs Manager in England
· Colleagues in the wider Policy and Public Affairs team across the UK
· Colleagues in the Strategy and Knowledge Directorate including peers in the Assistants' Forum
· Colleagues in the Media and Campaigns teams
· Colleagues in the Services directorate (to ensure policy development is informed by experiences and learning from our frontline professionals/ volunteers)
· Colleagues in the Participation Unit (to ensure the involvement of young people in policy and influencing work)
Key relationships - External
· Key civil servants and policy advisers in the UK Government
· MPs and Peers in the UK Parliament
· Colleagues in relevant voluntary and statutory agencies
· Practitioner bodies
· Key academics, researchers and research networks
Main duties and responsibilities
· Conduct desk research to scope public policy positions on a range of key issues. Develop and maintain a good understanding of key policy developments and provide advice and/or information to colleagues about the possible impact of such developments
· Summarise policy documents, research reports and parliamentary debates for members of the Policy and Public Affairs team in England, across the UK and other relevant colleagues within the NSPCC.
· Support the drafting of responses to government consultations, policy briefings and other public policy initiatives.
· Monitor relevant parliamentary activity and ensure that Policy and Public Affairs colleagues are kept up to date with developments in the field of child protection.
· Provide the Policy and Public Affairs team with administrative support, including ensuring financial processes are completed in a timely way
· Support with the organisation and smooth running of meetings and events, including taking minutes
· Coordinate and support the work of one or more of the Policy and Public Affairs team workstreams to ensure maximum four nations collaboration.
· Represent the NSPCC with colleagues at meetings with external stakeholders. This may include deputising for more senior colleagues on occasion.
· Support the delivery of influencing campaigns, help organise our communication with key stakeholders in a well-planned, clear, and effective manner.
Responsibilities for all Staff within the Strategy and Knowledge Directorate
There is a set of responsibilities for all staff within each directorate.
· A commitment to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people
· To carry out the responsibilities of the post in a manner consistent with promoting equality and diversity, and which demonstrates respect for children's rights.
· To participate actively in regular department and team meetings, contributing to strategy, discussions and decisions.
· To maintain an awareness of own and other's health and safety and comply with the NSPCC's Health and Safety policy and procedures.
· A willingness to take a flexible approach to work.
Person specification
1) Strong support for the NSPCC's mission and values.
2) Ability to collect data/ information from various sources, analyse findings and present them clearly and accurately in a way that meets desired outcomes.
3) Strong written skills, the ability to write clearly, concisely and persuasively in a variety of formats and for a variety of audiences.
4) Well-developed verbal communication skills to deal effectively, efficiently and appropriately with internal and external stakeholders.
5) Ability to work on own initiative and be proactive in developing and delivering projects.
6) Confidence in working as part of a team, with experience of working collaboratively with colleagues to help ensure the successful delivery of projects, being flexible where required.
7) Strong organisational and administrative skills, including maintaining information and contact systems.
8) Strong IT skills, with the ability to accurately proof-read and complete basic editing tasks on documents and materials prior to publication.
9) Experience or demonstrable interest in policy, public affairs, and political developments relevant to the NSPCC.
10) Some knowledge of UK parliamentary processes.
Safer Recruitment
As an organisation, we are committed to creating and fostering a culture that promotes safeguarding and the welfare of all children and adults at risk.
Our safer recruitment practices support this by ensuring that there is a consistent and thorough process of obtaining, collating, analysing and evaluating information from and about candidates to ensure that all persons appointed are suitable to work with our children and adults.
The recruitment and selection of our people will be conducted in a professional, timely and responsive manner and in compliance with current employment legislation, and relevant safeguarding legislation and statutory guidance.
Our principles:
Always seek to recruit the best candidate for the role based on merit including their skills, experience, motivation and competencies. Our robust recruitment and selection process should ensure the identification of the person best suited to the role and the organisation.
• Committed to diversity and equality of opportunity and will interview all applicants (internal and external) who self-declare at application as having a disability and who meet the minimum requirements in the person specification of the vacancy they are applying for.
• We will make reasonable adjustments at all stages of the recruitment process in order to enable successful candidates who declare disabilities to start working or volunteering their time with us.
• Any current member of staff or volunteer who wishes to apply for vacancies and is suitably qualified will be considered and addressed fairly and objectively based on their merit.
• As an organisation committed to safeguarding, we will ensure all under 18's joining the organisation will have ongoing risk assessments to ensure their role and activities are safe and appropriate.
• All documentation relating to candidates will be treated confidentially in accordance with the GDPR legislation.
About this role
Director of Policy and Advocacy is a senior leadership role within Sustain, working across a range of policy, project and campaign areas. We are seeking a strong leader, with management experience and a keen interest in promoting solutions to many of the biggest challenges currently facing us: climate change, restoration of nature, and achieving a healthy, fair, diverse and sustainable system for food and farming. Leadership includes senior oversight:
- On ‘policy’, of the priorities, coherence and cross-fertilisation between our various projects and campaigns and the priorities identified by our alliance members, expert working parties and project/campaign leads.
- On ‘advocacy’, of Sustain’s range of approaches to achieving change – e.g. campaigning, partnership working, standards-setting as well as soft influence, at national and local level.
The Sustain alliance – members and colleagues – represent a rich source of expertise and well-proven, viable solutions to many of the challenges that face us. These need to be supported and replicated at scale, with barriers to adoption removed. It is the job of the Sustain alliance to cultivate the movement, win the policies and other support for solutions, and accelerate the process of change.
As a Director, you will have a key role in supporting the development of new and fundable areas of work, as well as contributing to organisational strategy and decision-making for Sustain. You will also hold strong people leadership skills, as the role oversees key teams at Sustain with five direct reports, and will support the delivery of our organisational plan.
Tasks and responsibilities
The Director of Policy and Advocacy for Sustain will have a varied and stimulating workload, working closely with the Chief Executive and in collaboration with Sustain’s senior management, project and campaign leads, project partners, Sustain alliance members and associates, and strategic funders. The postholder will provide strategic leadership on a range of policy, campaign, influencing and communications matters relating to advocacy for healthy and sustainable food and farming. The work will include:
Policy, advocacy and campaign development
- Creating an advocacy strategy for Sustain, working with colleagues and members, and building productive relationships with key audiences and partners, including an annual programme of activities and events.
- Leading on publishing policy reports, evidence submissions, statements and press releases, and overseeing those generated by Sustain colleagues and/or wider alliance activities.
- Overseeing key policy, advocacy and campaign themes, to ensure these are pursued effectively and prioritised within advocacy and campaign work, with line-management responsibilities in relation to relevant campaign coordinators and their teams.
- Providing everyday advisory and/or skills-building support or other opportunities for colleagues to develop their policy, influencing and communications work.
Stakeholder relationships
- Ensuring that members of the Sustain alliance are engaged in policy and advocacy and benefiting from the opportunities provided by their alliance membership.
- Building trusted relationships with a range of alliance members, government departments, elected representatives, project and campaign partners, journalists, media outlets, funders and opinion formers; and cultivating opportunities to work together to achieve positive change, including potential partnership initiatives.
Leadership in organisation management
- Working with the core team to ensure that this work is adequately resourced, and budgets are managed effectively, understanding and contributing to how this fits within Sustain’s overall financial management, resource use and fundraising needs.
- Developing compelling and impactful activities, evidence-gathering, partnerships and funding bids and feeding into development of impact reporting and theories of change.
- Leading on one or more operational priorities, working with the senior team and other key members of the staff team to ensure that tasks happen in a timely and effective way.
- Maintaining excellent financial records, contact databases and mailing lists, in line with good governance, data protection and accountability.
- Ensuring that monitoring, evaluation and learning is undertaken in relation to the campaigns and advocacy work, to help shape the way these develop, and to ensure that this informs reporting to funders and Sustain’s Council of Trustees, organisational learning and development of future activities.
Oversight on public communications
- Overseeing public communications in service of advocacy goals, working with expert project and campaign coordinators at Sustain. This will include representing the Sustain alliance externally – for example, with journalists, in the media, at high-level political opportunities such as giving oral evidence to parliamentary enquiries, chairing or speaking at panel events, organising roundtables or conferences, pitching or reporting to funders, etc.
- Overseeing the work of Sustain’s colleagues who lead on communications, social media, digital and design and parliament/public affairs to enable effective delivery of the policy and advocacy strategy.
- Editorial oversight and senior sign-off for Sustain’s political, campaigning and public communications activity, ensuring consistency of tone and approach and cultivating helpful cross-fertilisation of ideas and joined-up policy responses across the range of Sustain activities. Also ensuring that communications and public affairs activities serve and respect the alliance’s strategy, agreed tone, opportunities to influence, political impartiality, legal boundaries and our charitable objectives.
The Head of Policy and Advocacy will also:
- Undertake other tasks and responsibilities that may arise from time to time.
This is a Hybrid Role however the succesful candidate will be based On Site for the duration of their probation period.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Job Title: Senior Policy Research Officer
Directorate: Strategy and Knowledge
Team/Department (if specific): Policy and Public Affairs
Salary range: £35,423 (plus £3,366 London weighting)
Location: London (hybrid working, with at least one day- Tuesday- in the office). The post holder will occasionally be expected to travel to locations across the UK.
Working hours: 35 hours (flexible working may be considered)
Date Written/ Amended: March 2024
Context and Background
The NSPCC's vision is that together, we can stop child abuse and neglect. Through the collective power of our staff, volunteers, supporters, partners, and over 100 years of experience we will move closer to achieving that vision.
We launched our ten-year strategy in 2021, which is centred around three impact goals. This is the difference we want to make by 2031:
1. Everyone plays their part to prevent child abuse: we'll work together to make it easier for everyone to play their part and create a social safety net that prevents child abuse and neglect.
2. Every child is safe online: together, we'll transform the online world, so it's safe for every child to go online.
3. Children feel safe, listened to and supported: more children will be able to speak out, so they feel safe, listened to and understood - and abuse doesn't shape their future.
The Policy and Public Affairs (PAPA) team is part of the Strategy and Knowledge Directorate at the NSPCC. The Directorate exists to help shape the world around us - and what the NSPCC does - so that it reflects what we have learned and can help keep children safe from abuse.
The PAPA team works across the four nations of the UK to influence legislation, policy and practice to ensure they are as effective as possible in keeping children safe. We focus on policy priorities through our five core workstreams: the child protection system and children's social care; early years and health; child sexual abuse; online safety; and young victims and witnesses.
We are recruiting a Senior Policy Research Officer to develop and deliver our early years and health policy work to deliver real change and reform in the best interests of children.
The post holder will work in the UK/England part of the Policy and Affairs Team focussed on influencing the Westminster Government. The role involves a variety of responsibilities including policy research, policy development and public affairs. This is a great opportunity to drive policy work in an exciting policy area, by building a strong evidence base and contributing to effective influencing strategies.
Job purpose
The Senior Policy Research Officer will be responsible for undertaking policy research to achieve the NSPCC's strategic goals, using their skills and experience to strengthen the NSPCC's impact on public policy relating to the early years and health. In doing so, they will make a significant contribution to protecting the youngest children from abuse and neglect
Key relationships - Internal
· Reports to the England Policy and Public Affairs Manager
· Colleagues in the wider Policy and Public Affairs team across the UK
· Colleagues in the Media and Campaigns teams
· Colleagues in the Research and Evidence team
· Colleagues in the Services directorate (to ensure policy development is informed by experiences and learning from our frontline professionals/ volunteers)
· Colleagues in the Participation Unit (to ensure the involvement of young people in policy and influencing work)
Key relationships - External
· Key civil servants and policy advisers in the UK Government
· MPs and Peers in the UK Parliament
· Colleagues in relevant voluntary and statutory agencies
· Practitioner bodies
· Key academics, researchers and research networks
Main duties and responsibilities
· Develop and maintain a high level of expertise on priority policy areas, with lead responsibility for early years and health policy.
· Scope, develop and refine NSPCC policies on priority policy issues, putting forward the economic case for change where possible.
· Analyse a wide range of primary and secondary sources of evidence (such as official data sets and statistics, policy documents, academic literature, economic analyses, FOls and survey data) to develop innovative and evidence-based policy solutions to complex problems.
· Prepare high-quality policy outputs such as briefings, summaries, consultation responses, papers and presentations for internal and external audiences.
· Contribute to the delivery of our research activity, working with teams across NSPCC to assess policy and evidence needs, then design and undertake impactful research projects to address these.
· Contribute to the commissioning of methodologically robust and ethically sound research to investigate a substantial child protection challenge, including by devising clearly defined requirements for the work.
· Manage policy research projects from development and commissioning stage through to completion, providing direction and supervision to ensure the highest standards of delivery.
· Develop and maintain a network of key contacts across parliament, the civil service, and civil society, using this network to amplify the NSPCC's voice and take advantage of opportunities to influence policy making.
· Represent the NSPCC on relevant internal and external advisory groups, meetings, and stakeholder events.
· Act as media spokesperson for the NSPCC on relevant subject areas, including live and pre-recorded interviews as well as background discussions with journalists on policy relating to early years and health.
Responsibilities for all Staff within the Strategy and Knowledge Directorate
There is a set of responsibilities for all staff within each directorate.
· A commitment to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people
· To maintain an overview of child protection policy and practice
· To maintain an awareness of own and other's health and safety and comply with NSPCC's Health and Safety procedures
· An active commitment to promoting ED&I, safeguarding and trauma informed practice
· An agile approach to work
· To maintain and develop competence in the use of IT systems
Person specification
1) Strong support for the NSPCC's mission and values.
2) Good understanding of child protection, early years, health or related public policy areas combined with knowledge of the wider legal, government and media context.
3) Excellent policy development skills, with the ability to develop and refine policy solutions to complex problems.
4) Proven ability to undertake research (qualitative and/ or quantitative) and analyse findings, with an ability to design methodologically robust and ethically sound research that is delivered to a high standard and agreed timescales.
5) Experience of successfully presenting research accurately to make a clear and compelling case for policy and legislative change.
6) Excellent communication skills including a clear and concise writing style, combined with good oral presentation skills, that can be tailored to a variety of audiences.
7) Good public affairs skills, with strong knowledge of parliamentary processes, sound political judgement, and experience of contributing to the delivery of influencing strategies to secure support from decision makers in parliament and beyond.
8) Ability to work on own initiative with strong organisational and project management skills, including demonstrable experience of project managing small research projects, working at speed and under pressure when required, while successfully managing project progress, risks and quality.
9) Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build constructive working relationships with external stakeholders, as well as to work effectively as part of an internal, cross departmental team.
Safer Recruitment
As an organisation, we are committed to creating and fostering a culture that promotes safeguarding and the welfare of all children and adults at risk.
Our safer recruitment practices support this by ensuring that there is a consistent and thorough process of obtaining, collating, analysing and evaluating information from and about candidates to ensure that all persons appointed are suitable to work with our children and adults.
The recruitment and selection of our people will be conducted in a professional, timely and responsive manner and in compliance with current employment legislation, and relevant safeguarding legislation and statutory guidance.
Our principles:
Always seek to recruit the best candidate for the role based on merit including their skills, experience, motivation and competencies. Our robust recruitment and selection process should ensure the identification of the person best suited to the role and the organisation.
• Committed to diversity and equality of opportunity and will interview all applicants (internal and external) who self-declare at application as having a disability and who meet the minimum requirements in the person specification of the vacancy they are applying for.
• We will make reasonable adjustments at all stages of the recruitment process in order to enable successful candidates who declare disabilities to start working or volunteering their time with us.
• Any current member of staff or volunteer who wishes to apply for vacancies and is suitably qualified will be considered and addressed fairly and objectively based on their merit.
• As an organisation committed to safeguarding, we will ensure all under 18's joining the organisation will have ongoing risk assessments to ensure their role and activities are safe and appropriate.
• All documentation relating to candidates will be treated confidentially in accordance with the GDPR legislation.