Policy and research assistant jobs in belfast

About Kinship

We are Kinship. The leading kinship care charity in England and Wales. We’re here for kinship carers – friends or family who step up to raise a child when their parents aren’t able to. 

Together, let’s commit to change for kinship families.

About the role

This role will support Kinship to operate as an effective charity by ensuring effective day-to-day operations and seamless delivery of the People function at the charity.

You will bring your People leadership experience, attention to detail and excellent communication skills to the role. You will be structured in your approach to ensure that day-to-day issues are handled while also working to improve processes and systems. You will be credible with senior management and able to articulate and balance the trade-offs of a People leadership role.

You will be able to balance multiple competing priorities and prioritise effectively, A positive mindset is key to being part of the team, as is thinking creatively to problem solve and being empathetic to colleagues. You will be highly motivated by our mission, recognising that excellent internal People processes are essential to allowing others to effectively complete their roles and achieve our mission.

You will be a powerful ambassador for our mission, credible with other HR and CSR professionals working to implement kinship friendly employer policies and processes.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Work with the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and the Executive management team to design, develop and embed a high-quality HR function to support the employee life cycle.

• Responsible for ensuring all policies, procedures, and processes relating to people and culture, work effectively, efficiently and in line with legal requirements.

• Responsible for all People matters, ensuring they are handled fairly and consistently in line with policies and procedures.

• Support and advise line managers on People, EDI and change management activities, including promotions, disciplinary, capability and grievance procedures.

• Organise line manager training to ensure line managers understand their responsibilities and apply policies consistently.

• Responsible for the candidates’ recruitment experience. Ensure candidates receive a consistent and professional recruitment experience.

• Responsible for job descriptions, person specifications, recruitment packs and job adverts.

• Ensure offboarding processes are robust and implemented consistently to safeguard the charity’s assets and to comply with Data Protection rules.

• Lead on the delivery and growth of the ‘Kinship Friendly Employers’ scheme, driving growth in the scheme and the number of bronze, silver and gold partners

• Ensure Kinship role models ‘Kinship Friendly’ employment practices and seek opportunities to share these as examples with other HR professionals.

• Support fundraising efforts with corporate supporters who are ‘Kinship Friendly Employers’

Essential criteria includes:

• HR qualification or significant demonstrable experience.

• Coaching qualification or significant demonstrable experience.

• Demonstrable experience of supporting the development of a high-quality People function within a growing organisation.

• Demonstrable experience working in a changing and flexible organisation.

• Demonstrable problem-solving and conflict resolution abilities.

• Demonstrable knowledge of best practices, employment laws, and regulations.

• Effective communication skills.

• Strong interpersonal skills – a genuine team player able to relate to a wide range of people.

• Ability to work on own initiative and manage own workload.

• Demonstrable experience of EDI principles.

Desirable experience includes:

• Personal experience of kinship care.

• Experience of working in a dynamic and fast-changing workplace.

• Exceptional business-partnering skills

What we’ll offer you 

Kinship offers 30 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part-time) as well as a generous pension scheme. We have an excellent wellbeing offer including the Employee Assistance Programme and clinical supervision. We will invest in your professional development with training and career development opportunities.

Kinship is committed to championing equality, diversity and inclusion.  We believe our work is greatly enhanced by the varied backgrounds, experiences and views represented within our teams.  We aim to create inclusive teams, celebrate differences and encourage everyone to join us and be their true self at work. We therefore encourage applications from anyone who fits our values, whatever their religion or belief, sex, gender identity, race, age, sexuality or disability and are actively seeking candidates that can bring real innovation and commitment to us. 

This is a fantastic time to join a supportive and well-established team within an organisation with rapid growth ambitions. This role will be what you make it and we’re looking for someone to seize this opportunity!

How to apply

Please apply via Charity Job with your CV and a cover letter of no more than 2 pages. Please include your notice period and earliest availability to start in your cover letter.     

• Application deadline:  Thursday 22 May, 9am
• First interview:                 29 May - 2 June
• Second interview:            TBC

Kinship reserves the right to close applications early on receipt of sufficient applications. Apply early!

Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, yet historically just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease. Brain Tumour Research is determined to change this. 

Their vision is to find a cure for all types of brain tumours. To achieve their mission, they are looking for a Community Fundraiser who will proactively engage with supporters, community groups and volunteers across the West Midlands to join their team of 12 Community Fundraisers across the UK.

The Community Fundraiser (West Midlands) is responsible for providing support and guidance to fundraisers within their communities to achieve their ambitions and ultimately raise vital funds for Brain Tumour Research. This is achieved through a wide variety of activities such as helping supporters to make the most of their own fundraising, engaging participants with externally organised events such as the Great Birmingham Run, and encouraging communities to get involved in events organised by Brain Tumour Research such as Wear a Hat Day and Walk for Hope. The Community Fundraiser will be the face of Brain Tumour Research in the area, providing excellent stewardship to existing supporters, and building great relationships with new supporters.

This post has been vacant since Autumn, and as such needs a fundraiser with confidence and capability in fundraising to join the team, provide donor love to the loyal supporters in the area, and approach developing the areas potential with energy and enthusiasm. If you have fundraising experience and are keen to join a charity with ambition and an amazing supporter base, then this could be the role for you.

Please note the successful candidate will need to live within the region (Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Gloucestershire), have access to a car and be willing to travel around their region. If you are not currently based in this area, please clarify if you have plans to relocate.  

Application notes 

Please download the Candidate Info Pack provided for further information about the role, timelines and next steps.

To progress your application, please follow instructions in the pack to organise an informal screening call. Please note, we cannot shortlist candidates who have not had a screening call. 

As this role has been vacant for some time, we are running rolling interview to see suitable candidates as they apply. Interviews will be kept to one stage, and organised to suit the candidate, where possible. Don’t delay – apply today! 

Job Profile

CAFOD’s mission in the Catholic community of England and Wales is to inspire and equip Catholics to actively engage in the Church’s efforts to overcome poverty and injustice. Our regional teams focus on recruiting and supporting a dedicated group of volunteers within parish and school communities, empowering them to educate, engage, and inspire others to act in solidarity for the common good. Regional teams also collaborate with clergy and other representatives across the Catholic community to ensure CAFOD’s volunteer programme is aligned with faith life.

The primary purpose of this role is to provide administrative and communications support to the Community Participation Coordinators across England and Wales, with a focus on the West & Wales region as the first point of contact. This includes coordinating administrative tasks performed by office volunteers and identifying opportunities for process improvements. The role also involves volunteer recruitment administration, overseeing and training Office Volunteers, and ensuring effective database management.

This role can be based anywhere in the UK including our head office in London, working from home, from one of CAFOD’s Volunteer Centres, or a combination of both. The role requires occasional travel to London and other areas within the East & West side of the country. Travel expenses will be reimbursed, and time off in lieu will be granted for travel beyond normal working hours.

This is a full-time position (35 hours per week) and reports to the Volunteer Support and Development Coordinator.

Key Responsibilities Overview
The post holder will play a key role in driving smooth, efficient operations across CAFOD’s West & Wales region. As the go-to person for admin excellence and volunteer support, you’ll work closely with your line manager and colleagues in the East to streamline processes, improve systems, and keep everything running like clockwork.

You’ll lead on volunteer recruitment and engagement—welcoming new volunteers, managing onboarding, and ensuring everyone feels valued, equipped, and inspired to support CAFOD’s work. Your people skills and attention to detail will shine as you manage applications, data entry, and training coordination.

Communications will be at the heart of your role. You’ll create engaging e-bulletins and social media content that keeps our community informed and motivated, while ensuring messages are clear, consistent, and aligned with CAFOD’s wider goals.

You’ll be the guardian of accurate data, working with office volunteers to maintain up-to-date records that support smarter outreach and efficient workflows. Your collaborative spirit will help strengthen connections across teams, share best practices, and contribute to creative new approaches for engaging communities.

This is a role for a proactive, organised, and people-focused individual who’s excited to innovate, solve problems, and make a tangible impact in a supportive, values-led organisation.

Safeguarding

All CAFOD staff share responsibility to promote and maintain a strong safeguarding culture, including identifying the key actions they should take given their role and responsibilities.

Person Specification

Understanding our context

1. Understanding Catholic identity: sympathetic knowledge of the life, culture and structure of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and an ability to work effectively within it and especially an understanding of parish community life.
2. Understanding CAFOD: ability to express what motivates people to volunteer for, and support, CAFOD and the main activities in which Catholic community primarily participate. Being informed about, supportive of, and actively promoting our anti-racism work.

Working together

1. Managing ourselves: strong interpersonal skills including an ability to develop personal relationships quickly and to convince others.  Ability to be self-motivated and able to work in isolation linking with different people in a variety of contexts; confident with articulating support required for you to work well.
2. Working with others: builds positive and fruitful partnerships, particularly with volunteers; works effectively as part of a team which may work at a distance to ensure sharing of good practice and shared workload; being willing and able to help other team members and be helped to achieve delivery of shared objectives.
3. Communicating: ability to identify how best to communicate instructions and processes clearly and how this helps achieve the objectives CAFOD seeks to deliver and how to share knowledge and information across teams.

Making change happen

1. Managing resources: confident with processing data for planning, monitoring and reporting:  proven time-management, data-management and organisational skills/experience of delegating tasks clearly and making improvements to processes.
2. Achieving results: ability and willingness to focus on achieving efficiencies, especially in support of regional plans for community participation and income growth.
3. Managing our performance: ability and willingness to work to targets and achieve results.

Job-Specific Competencies

Administrative Process Improvement:

Proven ability to assess, streamline, and document administrative processes. Strong organisational skills are required to manage a variety of tasks and ensure efficient delegation to volunteers. Ability to identify inefficiencies and propose practical solutions to enhance office operations.

Volunteer Recruitment & Engagement:

Expertise in recruiting, onboarding, and maintaining volunteer engagement. You will build strong relationships with volunteers, ensuring their experience is positive and aligned with CAFOD’s mission. Experience in using volunteer management systems and managing volunteer data is essential.

Communication & Content Creation: Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience in producing engaging content for e-bulletins, newsletters, and other media resources. Ability to tailor messaging to different audiences, ensuring clarity and consistency in CAFOD’s communications.

Data Management & Accuracy:

Attention to detail is crucial for maintaining accurate records. Experience with databases, data segmentation, and ensuring data integrity is essential. A strong understanding of data protection standards, including GDPR, will be necessary.

Collaboration & Team Communication:

Effective communicator with internal teams, ensuring smooth communication and alignment across various regions. Ability to foster positive working relationships and collaborate across teams, both virtually and in person. Proficiency with communication tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom is required.

Training & Support:

Experience in delivering training to volunteers and staff, ensuring they have the necessary skills and knowledge. Ability to provide ongoing support to regional office volunteers, helping them succeed and contribute effectively to the team.

Adaptability & Problem-solving:

Flexible and resourceful, able to adapt to changing priorities. You will be expected to identify challenges and propose solutions to keep operations running smoothly.

Commitment to CAFOD’s Mission & Values:

A deep understanding of CAFOD’s mission and Catholic social teaching, with the ability to align volunteer engagement and administrative activities with the organization’s goals of addressing poverty and injustice.

Use of Digital Tools & Systems:

Competence in using databases, Microsoft Office Suite, and collaboration tools. Ability to train volunteers in these systems to ensure smooth operations across teams.

Project Management & Accountability:

Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring tasks are completed within deadlines and to a high standard. You will be responsible for delivering results aligned with CAFOD’s objectives.

Safeguarding for Children and Vulnerable Adults

CAFOD recognises the personal dignity and rights of children and vulnerable adults, towards whom it has a special responsibility and a duty of care and respect.  CAFOD, and all its staff and volunteers, undertake to do all in our power to create a safe environment for children, young people and vulnerable adults and to prevent their physical, sexual or emotional abuse.  CAFOD is committed to acting at all times in the best interests of children and vulnerable adults, seeing these interests as paramount.  Any candidate offered a job with CAFOD will be expected to adhere to CAFOD’s Safeguarding policy and sign CAFOD’s Code of Behaviour as an appendix to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents. This post involves contact with children, young people and vulnerable adults, or has responsibility for people who will do, and applicants will be subject to specific checks related to safeguarding issues.  If based in the UK the post holder is required to present or obtain a Disclosure from the DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service).  If the post is based outside the UK the post holder will be subject to a different checking process.

All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references, and appropriate screening checks can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks. CAFOD also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of, and consent to, these recruitment procedures.

Please click here for a full list of CAFOD’s Staff Benefits

Come and join us and help make a real difference in the lives of the world’s poorest communities.

CAFOD is an equal opportunities employer. Recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.