Policy specialist jobs in west wickham, greater london
Today, 12 children and young people will be diagnosed with cancer. We’ll stop at nothing to make sure they get the right care and support at the right time.
- £70,000
- 35 hours
- Permanent
- Location- Hybrid, based between home and at the London office on a weekly basis
- Closing date: 6th July 2025
- Interview date: w/c 14th 2025
Change lives in a life-changing career
When a child or young person is diagnosed with cancer, their whole world can feel like it’s falling apart. Independence is taken and confidence is stolen. Stability no longer exists. The future suddenly feels uncertain.
The impact of cancer on young lives is more than medical. That’s why we exist. Our specialist social workers help children and young people with cancer and their families navigate the emotional and practical impact of cancer. We remove barriers, solve problems and prioritise wellbeing. And we stop at nothing to make sure they get the right care and support at the right time.
We challenge the systems and policies that surround children and young people, we highlight gaps and campaign for change. Because we know what a better future could look like. And we know what we need to do to make that future a reality. We need to push harder, reach further and work smarter. And we need the right people on our team to help us get there. People like you.
About the role
We’re looking for a Associate Director of Brand & Marketing Communications with excellent brand, marketing and digital experience at a leadership level to lead our Brand and Marketing Communications Team.
You'll provide inspirational leadership to a key team at the heart of our organisation. You’ll be responsible for the development and execution of our brand, marketing and digital strategies. You'll also oversee the delivery of impactful and audience-driven campaigns that grow awareness, engagement and income for Young Lives vs Cancer while supporting our influencing goals.
You will be line managing our Head of Strategic Communications and Head of Digital to lead successful, teams who can creatively deliver on our organisational strategy.
The role demands an agile creative thinker with strong leadership, a strategic mindset and a deep understanding of our diverse audiences. As well as managing and inspiring your team, you’ll create strong connections throughout the organisation, ensuring everyone can access the strategic and creative services they need to tell the charity’s story in a way that really connects with people.
This role is subject to a criminal record check. In the event of a successful application a Basic criminal record check will be completed.
What will I be doing?
No two days are the same at Young Lives vs Cancer. So, summarising your ‘day to day’ isn’t easy. Here are some of the main things you’ll be doing, but you’ll find more details in our Role Details document.
- Lead and develop a high-performing team of marketing, brand and digital professionals.
- Lead the development and delivery of the charity’s brand and marketing communications strategy, aligned to the organisational strategy and the system ‘North Star’, ensuring our positioning and voice are clear, compelling and visible.
- Champion a culture of creativity, collaboration and insight-driven decision making fully aligned with our values.
- Lead the development of our audience personas and engagement work to enable effective journeys and high-quality experiences for all our audiences, equipping the organisation to be customer-centric, insight driven and evidenced-based.
- Collaborate across directorates to align marketing, brand and audience engagement with organisational priorities.
- Provide effective leadership and direction for colleagues in your teams, ensuring accountability to build trust, good morale and teamwork.
- Ensure the voices of children and young people with cancer - and their families - influence decision-making within teams and that we are an accountable and transparent organisation to our beneficiaries, donors and other stakeholders.
What do I need?
Diverse perspectives and unique skillsets are at the heart of Young Lives vs Cancer. If you're passionate about making a positive impact and eager to learn, we encourage you to apply, even if you don't meet the criteria and person specification fully. Your potential is what matters most to us, and we’re committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment to help you develop.
The key skills we’re looking for in this role are:
- Proven experience leading brand, marketing and communications strategy, preferably in the not-for-profit sector.
- Inspirational leadership of multidisciplinary teams.
- Success in planning and delivering multi-channel campaigns with measurable outcomes, especially within income generation and system influencing contexts.
- Experience in digital marketing, content creation and engagement through digital channels, including social media.
- Experience of audience development and user journey planning.
- Experience influencing at a senior level and managing change.
- Effective planning, budgeting and risk management
What will I gain?
For people to reach their full potential, they need the right environment. As a member of Team Young Lives, you’ll be made to feel supported, valued and appreciated. Here’s how we do it:
- Flexible working: we’re open to working hours outside of 9 - 5 and we can talk through your flexibility requirements at interview stage
- Wellbeing and Development days: four days a year to do what works for you – from personal development planning, catching up on training to going for a walk
- Generous annual leave allowance
- Great family/caring leave entitlements
- Enhanced pension
- Access to our employee savings scheme
To find out more about our benefits package, have a look on our website.
Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
At Young Lives vs Cancer, we recognise that opportunities for too many people remain a condition of their sex, ethnicity, class, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation – or a combination. This has never been acceptable to us as an organisation. We don’t just accept difference, we value it, celebrate it, nurture it and we thrive because of it.
We’re on a journey to be reflective of the diverse children, young people and families we support. We know we aren’t there yet, and we’re passionately committed to taking actions and making changes to be a truly diverse, inclusive and equitable organisation. This includes taking anti-oppressive action and removing barriers in our recruitment practices. We particularly welcome applications from members of minoritised communities. Our Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging strategy will tell you more.
Accessibility
We’re committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we’ll always aim to be as accommodating as possible. Please let us know in your application form of any adjustments or access requirements we could make to help you with the application process and interview.
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Thank you!
This new role at Young Sounds UK will provide a wide range of support across the organisation, managing the logistics for our events, assisting our Development team with vital fundraising tasks, and handling a wide range of organisational administration.
You'll need to be proactive, highly organised, and looking for a busy role within a passionate team. With at least 3 years experience you'll be keen to use your strong communication skills and attention to detail to provide high standards of administrative support.
For full information on this role, including key responsibilities and person specification, please view the job pack.
The closing date for applications is Tuesday 15 July 2025 at 12 noon.
About Young Sounds UK
Young Sounds UK exists because musical talent is everywhere but opportunity isn’t: family finances and other obstacles too often get in the way. We’re here to change this in two key ways:
- We support young musicians from low-income families with funding and other help
- We support music education through training, advocacy and research.
Established in 1998 we work across genres and across the UK. Our four programme areas are:
- Discover: training teachers in how to spot young people’s musical potential
- Connect: targeting and sustaining young people’s emerging talent through strategic support
- Thrive: funding young talent UK wide through annual grants and tailor-made help for individual musicians
- Innovate: leading new thinking and action on talent development
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Are you our new Grants Manager?
- Are you committed to defending human rights and human dignity, and interested in issues affecting marginalised and excluded people?
- Are you passionate about social justice and believe in the agency of people to create change?
- Do you have a personal and/or professional connection to one or more of our priority areas, and experience or understanding of grant making?
- Are you emotionally intelligent and able to form and develop strong working relationships with a range of individuals and groups?
If so, then you might be the right person to join the AB Charitable Trust at this exciting time.
Our priorities and approach
- The human rights framework
- The criminal legal system
- Migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum
- Access to justice
The A B Charitable Trust exists to promote human dignity and defend the human rights of the most marginalised and excluded people. Our approach is founded on liberal principles of universalism and human rights. We believe in justice, not charity. For us, this means supporting work that promotes rights and does not diminish dignity. It also means supporting efforts to change the systems that shape the lives of marginalised and excluded people in pernicious ways. We have a particular interest in work that uses the law to address inequities and injustices.
Our journey
The Trust was founded 35 years ago to promote and defend human dignity. Since then, we have given over £47m to organisations, and this year we will spend some £10m. We have significantly increased our grantmaking over recent years and intend to continue on a trajectory of growth. This role will join us as we look to the longer term future and begin to develop a new strategy that will build on all that is being achieved through our current strategy, which ends in 2027.
We are excited by the future and are fortunate to have a modest but growing budget which is expected to reach £15m by 2027. But we are realistic about the challenges involved. The areas we work in are highly politicised and the need is ever increasing, which is why it is important that we attract candidates who are able to help us navigate these waters and who can contribute to maximising our impact at this critical moment.
About the role and you
The key purpose of this role is to:
- Effectively manage a portfolio or grants across all of our priority areas
- Work closely with the team, grant holders and Board members, developing strong and supportive working relationships
- Contribute to the development of our new strategy and be committed to our values and share our aspirations around best grantmaking practice
The new Grants Manager will need to be genuinely interested in grantmaking in our priority areas and will have the curiosity to learn and develop new areas of knowledge and expertise. You will need to be able to demonstrate a passion for the work of small, grassroots organisations, have emotional intelligence and strong communications skills, and also be genuinely excited about joining our team.
This could be the right opportunity for a range of potential candidates. We value the knowledge and expertise gained through lived experience of social injustice alongside sector experience. We’re not looking for a seasoned grant maker but you will need to bring commitment to our work and vision, demonstrate experience of seeking to bring about change on tough issues, and have experience of one or more of our priority areas.
If you would like to have an informal discussion about the role then please contact Allyson Davies, who is advising on this appointment.
We value, welcome and respect all the differences that make us who we are, including: age, cultural background, disability and mental health, ethnicity and race, sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, and social background.
Registered Charity
6 - 10
A B Charitable Trust exists to promote human dignity and defend the human rights of the most marginalised and excluded people.