Policy and public affairs assistant jobs

35 hours per week
£47,000 per year
Permanent
This role will be expected to spend at least one day a week in our award winning accessible national office near King's Cross. The postholder must be within 90 minutes travel of Westminster to be responsive to the organisation's needs.
We are looking for an experienced Public Affairs professional to manage and oversee RNIB's work in Parliament and build powerful relationships with the right politicians to drive change for blind and partially sighted people.

With your creativity and attention to detail, you'll make sure that RNIB is top of mind for sight loss in Parliament, that accessibility is well understood by politicians, and that our internal expertise is showcased to politicians to drive change in line with our strategy.

In this new role, you'll drive excellence in public affairs activity, with a forensic attention to detail, a flair for people, and lots of creativity in communications.

You'll build relationships with the right people to open doors for us, and use them effectively in targeted initiatives to make policy effective for blind and partially sighted people.

You'll make sure that the views and experiences of blind or partially sighted people underpin our public affairs strategy and are championed in how we tell our stories.

You'll manage and support staff in the public affairs team, which is made up of an officer and an assistant. The role will evaluate and guiding performance, and providing mentoring and coaching as necessary.

You'll ensure our public affairs activity aligns with our team planning, and delivers strategic outcomes, in line with organisational strategy, and establishing productive relationships with a range of internal stakeholders in other parts of RNIB.

You'll have strong knowledge of the workings of Parliament, and experience of building exceptional ongoing relationships with MPs, Peers and party decision-makers. You'll be confident in leading meetings with decision-makers, and overseeing both tailored one-to-one briefings and largescale email correspondence.

You'll have superb attention to detail, making sure our briefings, evidence and correspondence are impactful, accurate, expertly tailored to what MPs need, and make best use of our internal expertise. You'll also be meticulous about record keeping so we can track and monitor our engagements on diverse topics such as eye health, disability benefits, accessible voting and travel.

You'll be comfortable working at pace, overseeing other staff, and collaborating closely with other roles in Policy and Campaigns to develop effective strategies to succeed in our influencing goals.

You'll understand how to win the attention of Ministers and Parliamentarians using creative and engaging communications as well as events and lobbies, and you'll be confident providing updates and briefings to senior RNIB stakeholders such as our Chief Executive and Chair of Trustees.

What We Offer

RNIB prides itself on being a great place to work with a positive, progressive culture. We offer a wide range of benefits including 26 days of holiday per year (plus bank holidays) which rises with service, enhanced family friendly benefits, a contributory pension scheme with an employer contribution of up to 11% and a rewards platform with employee discounts across over 800 retailers.

For more information on our available benefits, please visit our .

How to Apply

If you'd like to apply for this opportunity, please apply online, uploading your CV and supporting statement, telling us how you meet the essential criteria in the person specification.

Save the Children UK is offering an exciting opportunity for a purpose-driven, collaborative, and influential leader with extensive strategic experience to join us as our Executive Director of UK Impact. In this role, you will lead our UK Impact group—comprising teams across the devolved nations, as well as the north and south of England—to ensure that families have the resources, services, and power they need to end child poverty.

This is a critical and growing area of our work, and we are committed to deepening our investment and expanding our impact across the UK. 

You will also oversee our Public Affairs, Campaigns and Organising, and Child & Youth Participation departments. Working collaboratively across Save the Children UK and with external partners to deliver lasting, systemic change for children and families. 

This is a permanent hybrid role, based out of our London Farringdon office. The nature of this role is likely to require a presence in our offices or with partners 3 days a week. 

About Us 

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.

When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach. 

About the role 

As Executive Director of UK Impact, you will lead our ambitious strategy to end child poverty in the UK by working alongside families, communities, grassroots organisations, and national-level actors.

You will ensure that Save the Children UK is a human-centric, impact-driven organisation where children and communities are empowered, and where the systems and structures needed to achieve lasting change are influenced and reshaped through collaborative, inclusive leadership. 

In this role, you will: 

• Lead and inspire a highly skilled team of leaders reduce the impact and reach of child poverty in the UK. 

• Strengthen our influencing impact through local, devolved country-level and national networks. 

• Share funds and expertise with grassroots community organisations to strengthen their capacity and collaborate on shared goals. 

• Build internal and external capacity to learn, share learning and influence lasting change. 

• Empower local communities with the resources and autonomy to drive change in their areas. 

• Champion inclusive leadership, agile working, and a human-centred, values-driven organisational culture. 

• Provide children with safe and meaningful opportunities to shape our work, influence decision-makers, and improve their lives and communities.

About you 

To be successful, it is important that you have: 

• Excellent strategic and systems thinking skills with a proven ability to adapt ways of working in a fast-changing context. 

• Extensive experience creating lasting change for children in the UK across multiple sectors, including government, communities, and networks. 

• Deep understanding of, and commitment to, sharing power, knowledge, and resources more equally with those who share our mission. 

• Strong track record of driving systemic change through programming, advocacy and/or policy, using relevant political theories of change. 

• Demonstrable experience leading high-performing senior teams with a focus on inclusive, autonomous, and accountable ways of working. 

• Outstanding influencing, relationship-building and communication skills with diverse internal and external stakeholders. 

• A strong personal commitment to championing equity, diversity, inclusion and building a culture of belonging. 

• Commitment to Save the Children's vision, mission and values. 

What we offer you 

Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others.

We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work. 

This role is based in Farringdon, London, with a salary of approximately £120K.

We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day. You can read more about our benefits. 

Advert closing date: 18th May 

First stage interviews are expected to take place week commencing 2nd June. 

Second stage interviews are expected to take place week commencing 9th June.   

35 hours per week
£47,000 per year
Permanent
Flexible with ability to attend meetings in Kings Cross, London as required

We are looking for an experienced campaigner with hands-on knowledge of digital campaigning and digital mobilisation techniques, to join our high performing Campaigns and Public Affairs team.

You'll have previously played a key role in successful campaigning activities which have brought about a change in policy and practice, and will be comfortable with fast-paced work.

You'll have a proactive, and collaborative approach which will make sure our campaigning is joined up between the national and regional levels, and that our engagement activities are embedded across the organisation.

In this busy role, you'll co-ordinate our national campaigns activity, helping to lead RNIB's national campaigns activity and strategy, working closely with our Senior Campaigns Manager.

You'll be managing a Campaigns Officer and a Campaigns assistant, providing coaching and support to make our national campaigning as effective as possible.

You'll provide strong project management for our influencing campaigns, whether campaigning to protect disability benefits, or to make streets and transport more accessible for blind and partially sighted people, for example.

You will bring our campaigns to life in a way that embeds lived experience and tells the story effectively for sighted people, driving them to take action. You will own content for our 'campaigner' audience, making sure our communications are effective, whether someone is new to RNIB's campaigns or is already a committed campaigner ready to go the extra mile.

This role will ensure that lived experiences are integrated into our storytelling, and will seek creative ways to motivate decision-makers or the public to take action.

Day to day, you'll collaborate with other teams across Policy, Campaigns, and Social Action to maximise opportunities for driving change, and will make sure national campaigning is aligned with our local campaigning, working with our two Local Campaigns Leads.

You'll also join forces with colleagues in RNIB's Engagement directorate to get campaigning fully embedded in our engagement and volunteering supporter journeys.

You'll have experience of project managing campaign activities, with a strong attention to detail, and an instinct for crafting compelling calls to action. You'll bring expertise in digital campaigns, with an understanding of best practice in digital and social content, as well as how to monitor the effectiveness of our communications.

You'll have a good understanding of disability issues and the social model of disability, and awareness of issues affecting blind and partially sighted people.

You'll be comfortable with collaborating with colleagues within and outside your immediate team, leading on the implementation of projects and coordinating day to day tasks.

You'll have effective verbal and written communication skills, and knowledge of how to adapt your communications style to suit the audience.

This might be your first step into line management or you may bring some experience of managing colleagues or volunteers.

What We Offer

RNIB prides itself on being a great place to work with a positive, progressive culture. We offer a wide range of benefits including 26 days of holiday per year (plus bank holidays) which rises with service, enhanced family friendly benefits, a contributory pension scheme with an employer contribution of up to 11% and a rewards platform with employee discounts across over 800 retailers.

For more information on our available benefits, please visit our .

How to Apply

If you'd like to apply for this opportunity, please apply online, uploading your CV and supporting statement, telling us how you meet the essential criteria in the person specification.

To further develop, deliver and strengthen CSE’s Human Resources function, ensuring that the organisation complies with all relevant legislation and guidance while recruiting and retaining good quality staff. Instilling a collaborative culture of high performance where staff are encouraged and supported to perform at their best and we collectively achieve outstanding results.

Pay and conditions

• The role is full-time, permanent role (37.5 hours per week).

• The salary for the role will be £47,508 - £55,954 (starting salary is expected to be at the lower end of the range)

• You will be entitled to 25 days paid holiday (plus statutory holidays).

CSE offer a range of benefits including, subsidised bike purchase and Tech Scheme, Life Assurance, Health Cash plan, retail discounts and discounted breakdown cover and many more.

We will pay fees and expenses on relevant training courses.

Specific responsibilities

An applicant appointed to the role will be expected to:

• To deliver all aspects of CSE’s Human Resources function, from recruitment, staff welfare, wellbeing and associated support, staff records, training and professional development, oversight and advice on any conflicts or disciplinary matters; and to include the development and maintenance of all appropriate staff policies and processes, including performance management and staff appraisals, remuneration, role progression and all staff benefits.

• To ensure the Staff Handbook remains regularly updated, and to lead on all amendments / updates to this key document for staff. Additionally, working alongside the Director of Finance & Operations, the Chief Executive and other directors to ensure all HR-related policies and procedures across CSE are reviewed regularly and remain updated accordingly, supporting staff needs as effectively as possible while also reflecting the needs and strategic objectives of the whole organisation, its charitable status and mission.

• To maintain the organisation’s personnel records in accordance with appropriate data protection standards and recognised good practice (utilizing the Cezanne HR system). To provide overall ownership of this system – in terms of data contents, security and ongoing operations for the system. The postholder will also act as primary contact for the Cezanne software supplier, liaising with the Director of Finance & Operations and other interested parties where necessary.

• To maintain oversight of staff welfare and working with line managers and other relevant staff, provide and promote access to support and advice to sustain good staff mental and physical health and wellbeing.

• To play an integral role supporting both the Employee Voice (EV) group and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) group and take a lead on related operational functions including administrating the 6-monthly Staff Survey and highlighting issues and trends in staff feedback.

• Provide oversight and guidance in respect of staff recruitment, onboarding, induction development and training, supporting and advising other relevant staff across all associated processes.

• To issue accurate and timely employment contracts, offer letters, job descriptions, pay review letters for all internal changes. Manage and oversee internal paperwork flows from relevant managers, relating to any changes to individual employee terms of employment. Support the SLT in reviewing and amending standard terms of employment contracts to ensure CSE’s practices reflect current best practice.

• To ensure that all payroll documents such as starter forms and payroll amendment forms are completed and saved in the correct location and sent to the payroll bureau where appropriate, and support the Finance team with the administration of our payroll and payroll records and pension scheme contributions and other employee benefits. To accurately track all staff absence and ensure that self-certification and return to work meetings are completed in a timely manner. Update the Bradford factor grid to monitor score against policy and, support line managers and employees in understanding how CSE uses this as a tool at all stages of process.

• To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of applicable employment, equity and diversity, and Health and Safety laws (with support from professional advisors where appropriate), standards, guidance, and good practice, advising the SLT how these can best be reflected in the organisation’s policies and practices as they apply both to individual members of staff and to the organisation as a whole.

• To prepare accurate and accessible reports for the Senior Leadership Team and Trustees on relevant organisational, team, and individual staff HR matters to enable informed and timely monitoring and decision-making, principally on a set cycle to feed into a routine schedule of meetings and occasionally to meet an ad hoc need.

• To work with the Senior Leadership Team and other staff as appropriate to support change management processes. This may include reviewing remuneration policies, job evaluation and salary benchmarking, skills audits, EDI Practices and line management practices.

• To identify opportunities to improve CSE’s Human Resources processes and practices, informed by a sound understanding of our mission and strategic objectives and our operating context and by keeping up to date with advances in personnel management and human resources practices. To see a more detailed list of responsibilities please see the supporting documents attached. These documents are also available to download from our website.

Essential attributes for this role include:

• CIPD qualification (Level 5) or equivalent Human Resources qualification.

• At least 5 years’ post-qualification work experience, including at least 2 years’ proven experience in an advisory role.

• Experience of developing and implementing effective HR policies and practices across an organisation, including managing any associated change processes.

• Experience in supporting both the organisation as well as individual employees through challenging employee relation conflicts and issues.

• Applied knowledge of employment legislation and good HR practices.

• Experience in overseeing the maintenance of a live HR system.

• Experienced in developing and supporting line managers in managing challenging situations.

• Excellent interpersonal skills with well-honed listening skills and an empathetic manner.

• Ability to explain often complex HR matters in a clear and concise manner, to audiences at all levels of seniority and experience across the organisation.

• Ability to maintain confidentiality and act with discretion, tact and diplomacy.

• Ability to maintain and organise effective electronic and manual filing systems.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Good organisational and time management skills, with experience of working to tight deadlines and budgets.

Please note, the above is an overview of the skills required for this role. To see the full list of essential and desirable skills please see the attached job description.

How to apply

To apply, please download and complete the application form available from our website.

Your application should demonstrate your suitability for the role against the criteria outlined in the person specification.

To apply, please download and complete the application form available from our website and send it to our Jobs email address.

Your application should demonstrate your suitability for the role against the criteria outlined in the person specification and job description. To be considered for this role an application form must be sent directly to our Jobs email address. 

The closing date for applications is 5pm on Wednesday 21 May 2025.

Interviews are expected to take place Tuesday 3 June and Tuesday 10 June 2025 though this is subject to change. If invited to interview, we will ask you to provide evidence of eligibility to work in the UK