Press And External Affairs Officer Jobs in City Of London, England
At Independent Age, we believe that no older person should face financial hardship. That’s why, by 2027, our goal is to have improved the lives of one million older people. Our impact across policy, campaigning, information and advice, grant-making and partnerships improves lives by increasing the financial well-being of older people in financial hardship, enabling greater choice and independence in wider areas of life. We want to find talented individuals from diverse backgrounds to join us on this journey.
Responsibilities and Person Specification:
This role will form an integral part of our three person Policy and Public Affairs team based in Scotland, working as part of a UK-wide Policy and Influencing team. The role will drive forward our policy projects to reduce poverty in later life, conducting expert research and policy analysis and turning this into persuasive evidence to catch the attention of decision makers and persuaders. The postholder will create opportunities to amplify the voices of older people in poverty and work to secure support for our policy recommendations in Holyrood.
You will have strong research skills with experience of turning quantitative and qualitative data into high quality, persuasive policy outputs. You will have experience developing credible, evidence-based policy solutions, informed by the perspectives and insights of people with lived experience.
You will be a skilled verbal and written communicator with the ability to engage different audiences. You will build strategic relationships with a variety of stakeholders to advance the solutions needed to address poverty in later life, using your knowledge of the political landscape in Scotland and passion for our cause.
For full details on the role and requirements, please review the job description and person specification. If your experience doesn’t align perfectly with all of the criteria in the person specification but you do meet most of them and are excited about the role, we encourage you to apply anyway.
This is a full-time role, 35 hours per week, which you can choose to work over five days or a 9-day fortnight.
Location: Homebased in Scotland (with occasional travel required)
What it’s like to work at Independent Age:
We celebrate diversity at Independent Age and champion the differences that make each of us unique. We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We aim to attract and retain a wide range of talent and create an environment where everyone can feel safe, protected, welcome and included.
We offer great benefits including 28 days annual leave plus public holidays, a generous pension scheme with life assurance, and fantastic learning and development opportunities. We also offer a number of enhanced leave provisions and benefits.
We know that a good work life balance helps us perform at our best and supports wellbeing. Flexible working hours and hybrid working is standard for all (those contracted to work in the office usually attend 1 day per week). But if you need a different form of flexibility, we are always happy to talk flexible working.
You can find out more about what it’s like to work at Independent Age by visiting our website.
Application Process:
To apply, please visit our website to submit a CV and a Supporting Statement, detailing how your skills and experience meet the criteria within the Job Description and Person Specification, by clicking the Apply Online button below (please do not hesitate to contact us if you have specific requirements and need support to apply in an alternative format).
To support our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion our hiring managers use anonymous shortlisting. Therefore, please do not include your name, photo, or information to indicate your gender or age in your CV and supporting statement. Please do not omit dates of employment. Please ensure the title of any uploads does not contain your name.
Independent Age is committed to safeguarding and follows Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding those we work with. We therefore ask that you supply your full work history with explanations for any gaps in the application documents you submit and, if offered the post, we will require two employment references including your current or most recent employer. A Basic Disclosure Scotland Certificate will be required for this role.
Closing Date: Sunday 14th April
Interview Dates: Wednesday 24th April & Thursday 25th April
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
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
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
The Public Affairs and Policy Manager will play a crucial role in helping to determine and shape TMs policy goals and how best to achieve them. Working closely and collaboratively with colleagues from across the organisation, and in close consultation with the TMs internal and external stakeholder groups and networks you will develop policy, research and campaigning projects to meet the organisations strategic objectives. You will be able to understand complex policy issues, recognise their relevance to the Traveller Movement and identify policy solutions. You will know how to generate and analyse data and bring issues to life by drawing out the lived experience of people from Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller communities
You will led develop and sustain a small committed team of two policy and campaign officers to produce policy, research and campaigning activities. You will lead TMs Public relations and influencing work developing relationships with policy makers, partner organisations, parliamentarians and the media. You will ensure co-production and the voice and lived experiences ethnic Romani (Gypsy), Traveller and Roma is central to all our engagement and influencing work.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
We are SafeLives, the UK-wide charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for everyone and for good.
Last year alone, 14,000 professionals received our training. Over 80,000 adults at risk of serious harm or murder and more than 100,000 children received support through dedicated multi-agency support designed by us and delivered with partners. In the last six years, over 4,000 perpetrators have been challenged and supported to change by interventions we created with partners, and that’s just the start.
Together we can end domestic abuse. Forever. For everyone.
The Drive Partnership, formed by Respect, SafeLives and Social Finance, is working to transform the national response to perpetrators of domestic abuse. We seek to change the domestic abuse narrative that asks ‘why doesn’t she leave?’ to ask ‘why doesn’t he stop?’At the same time as delivering interventions, we are working across the domestic abuse specialist sector, public sector partners and beyond to develop sustainable, national systems that respond effectively to perpetrators of domestic abuse.
Our vision is that one day there will be a national approach which sees agencies in all PCC and local authority areas across England and Wales working together with a focus on those who cause harm, the perpetrators, to disrupt abuse and change behaviour.
Our influencing work is changing the UK conversation about domestic abuse, with both national and locally-based elected representatives and the officials and colleagues who work alongside them. Our PPAC Officer, reporting to the PPAC Manager, will be crucial in helping us to develop our engagement, as well as deepen our policy-influencing capacity to support our roll-out of ground-breaking interventions to end domestic abuse and ensure support for the whole family to keep people safe sooner.
You will be joining the organisation at a pivotal moment. The Victims and Prisoners Bill will be making its way through its final stages in Parliament and a General Election is likely to take place in 2024, providing an unmissable opportunity to ensure that SafeLives’ priorities for improving the response to domestic abuse are taken forward by the next Government.
Location: London office and/or remote working, with regular meetings in London and occasional travel to other locations around the UK, including our Bristol office.
Benefits include a generous package, such as:
- 34 days’ holiday per year plus, public holidays
- Flexible Working (compressed hours)
- Cycle-to-work Scheme
- Eye Care Vouchers
- Pension Scheme with 4% employer contribution
- Childcare Vouchers
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Clinical Supervision
- Holiday Purchase Scheme (buy up to an additional 5 days)
- Enhanced Family Leave Policies
- Enhanced Sick Pay
- Professional Development Fund
- Individual Learning Budget
- Restorative Practice Training
- Time Off In Lieu.
If this challenge sounds as exciting to you as it does to us and you believe you have the qualities we have described, please take a look over the job description and submit a 500-word cover letter and CV.
Closing date: Monday 15th April 2024.
SafeLives is a committed provider of equal opportunities for all, please see our job description for full details.
No agencies please.
Media Officer
Position: Media Officer
Location: London office-based, with a minimum of 3 days a week in the office
Salary: £25,000 - £27,000 per annum
Hours: Full-time (35 hours/week)
Contract: Permanent
Closing Date: 15th April 2024
Benefits: Pension; up to 26 days holidays (plus an additional two days at Christmas for office closure); training and development opportunities; contribution to further studies and study leave allowance
We reserve the right to close the role early should a suitable candidate be found before this date. Applicants are required to submit a current CV and cover letter.
About the role:
Reporting to the Director of Engagement, the Media Officer is a key member of the organisation’s Engagement department (comprising the Marketing team and Publishing team). The post-holder is responsible for creating relevant and impactful media and content to support the promotion of and engagement with key activities.
This content includes but is not limited to video, animation and podcasts and the Media Officer should be able to recommend and deliver the right solution/s to support the targets and objectives. The Media Officer will help drive engagement across the organisation’s communication channels and raise the organisation’s profile and reputation through impactful content and messaging. You will devise creative solutions to bring key products and services ‘to life’ and champion the organisation’s mission and values internally and externally.
Key responsibilities include:
- Produce media and content to support marketing activity, campaigns and projects, including video, animation, podcasts
- Identify new opportunities for media and content, primarily in consultation with Marketing and Publishing teams
- Develop a network of contacts as sources for new content
- Prepare and disseminate press releases and other TOPRA news/updates
- Manage press and PR enquiries
- Monitor external activity (including competitor) and incorporate best practice
- Support engagement activity and monitor its performance across TOPRA channels, including:
- Social media
- Regulatory Rapporteur (online journal)
- Online communities
- TOPRA App
- Provide additional support to Marketing and Publishing teams where necessary
About you:
To be successful in this role, you will be enthusiastic about the organisation and its mission and you will have a good understanding of the role of media and content along with strong communication skills.
- You will also bring with you the following skills and experience:
- Be solution-focused and open to new approaches to achieve objectives
- Have a strong sense of project ownership and accountability
- Have a positive and can-do attitude
- Be able to thrive under pressure
- Have plenty of initiative and out-of-the box thinking
- Be confident in face-to-face situations with customers and stakeholders, e.g. at conferences and exhibitions
- A minimum of one year’s experience in marketing/communications or related field
- Educated to degree level, ideally in marketing/communications or related field
- Have a good working knowledge of Adobe Creative suite (particularly Premiere Pro) or similar
About the organisation:
The employer is a not-for-profit association with stunning offices near Canary Wharf in London. With a strong membership in over 60 countries, drawn from the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory agencies, and support services, they support regulatory professionals to deliver better, safer healthcare for patients. They offer an extensive range of regulatory affairs education and professional development, both for members and the wider regulatory community, in human medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, medical devices and veterinary sectors.
They are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their gender, race, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation, or age.
If you feel you have the necessary skills for this role, then apply today! Please apply with an up-to-date CV and a cover letter outlining your suitability!
Other roles you may have experience in could include Content Manager, Communications, Content, Communications and Content, Digital Communications, Marketing, Communications Manager, Communications and Content Manager, Digital Communications Manager, Marketing Manager, Media Officer.
PLEASE NOTE: This role is being advertised by NFP People on behalf of the organisation.
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.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Every 6 minutes someone learns that they are losing their sight. Every five hours, a baby is born with sight problems. In these moments, two profound questions emerge:
• Can this be stopped?
• How do I (or my child) live this life?
The merger of Fight for Sight and Vision Foundation on 1st April 2023 will enable us to address both questions. By combining our strengths and expertise we’ll be the only significant national funder with the efficiency, capability, and capacity to increase investment in medical research and social improvement. Together we can mitigate both the prevalence and impact of sight loss.
We have a clear ambition, led by our CEO, Keith Valentine, who has valuable lived experience of sight loss. We’ve secured well-respected and highly engaged ambassadors and patrons, such as Sir John Major and Marsha De Cordova MP. We also benefit from world renowned researchers on our Research Grants Assessment Panel.
We are now looking for experienced, committed, and creative individuals to join our dynamic team as we devise and launch new five-year organisational and research strategies. You’ll have a chance to contribute to the delivery of these strategies and lead on plans for disseminating them.
Sarah Kidner, Head of Communications and External Affairs
JOB DESCRIPTION AND PERSON SPECIFICATION
As Research Communications Lead, you will use your knowledge of the medical research field and science communication experience and expertise to create a suite of research impact communications and stories.
In addition, you will build the base for the charity to confidently talk and communicate the difference that our funded research makes to the lives of people affected by sight loss. These stories should substantiate our position as leaders in funding ground-breaking and world-class research and be used in any instance where we need to demonstrate our research impact, from fundraising materials to our brand marketing.
Working with teams across the organisation, you will act as an advisor, keeping teams up to date on the cutting-edge research we’re funding and what it could mean for people affected by sight loss conditions as well as building relationships with the research community and our partners.
Responsible to
Head of Communications and External Affairs with dotted line reporting to the Acting Head of Research. The role sits between the Marketing and Communications and Scientific Research teams and works closely with the Fundraising Directorate.
Direct reports
None
Working hours and contract
This is a 6 month fixed-term contract, 21 hours (3 days) a week.
Salary
£35,000 - £40,000 (pro-rated to £21,000 - £24,000) dependent on experience
Location
Aldgate E1 and hybrid working. Minimum two days in the office and external meetings and events as required
Start date: As soon as possible
Role Responsibilities:
Strategic Research Communications
· Support the Head of Communications and External Affairs and Research Grants team, to develop and deliver a Communications Strategy that amplifies our reach and demonstrates our impact
· Work with the communications and fundraising teams to plan, prioritise and schedule research content
· You will liaise with external research partners and colleagues, to ensure relevant information is available for use when communicating with prospects and donors.
· You will develop an in-depth understanding of the research portfolio, working with the Scientific Research Grants team, funded researchers and our funding partners.
· Communicate the vision and mission of the charity's new brand strategy to the research community with a focus on impact
Content creation
· Produce high quality content, including case studies, e-newsletters, web and other copy focused on the charity's funded research. This could include writing plain language summaries of the research we fund, describing recently published research and working with researchers to create video content to help our audience understand more about their work and to demonstrate the impact of our funding.
· Where appropriate respond to media stories that resonate with the charities vision, mission and values specifically relating to research
· Promote the impact of our funding on the career progression of academics, clinicians, and clinician scientists working in eye health
Cross-team and collaborative working
· Build a strong and collaborative relationship with the research team to support cross functional working including identifying stories that demonstrate the impact of our funding
· Build relationships with funded researchers and future funded researchers to engage them in communicating our impact
· Build relationships with the scientific communications community specifically trade and scientific press to inform them of our impact
· Promote grant funding opportunities to the scientific community encouraging quality applications from researchers across multiple disciplines
· Liaise with researchers as the key point of contact for fundraising and communications activities including PR and media opportunities, conferences and events (including webinars)
Representing the charity
· Provide authoritative and clear expert briefings to researchers and clinician researchers for media opportunities
· Support colleagues who are representing the charity at national and international conferences and events. Represent the charity at national and international events, including presenting the impact of our work.
· Be an effective ambassador for the charity at any activity you attend
· Leading the updating and development of content for the research pages of the website, ensuring that complex topics are communicated in an accessible and interesting format for people affected by eye conditions and other stakeholders.
· Develop and maintain a network of positive relationships with national, regional and academic/trade media contacts.
Person specification:
Skills, knowledge & experience
Essential
· A scientific or biomedical degree or equivalent in a science-based subject
· Demonstrable experience or passion for scientific research
· Excellent written and oral communication skills
· Ability to communication complex information simply and with passion and to flex tone of voice for the appropriate audience and tone of voice in keeping with our emerging brand identity and values and who can communicate how research contributes to vision and mission
· Excellent interpersonal and networking skills and stakeholder management
· The ability to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team (including grants, research, communications, fundraising and others)
· Evidence of a diplomatic and confident approach to handling stakeholders through negotiation, conflict resolution and presentation capabilities
· Good IT skills with proficiency in MS Office applications
· Demonstrable experience of working in communications, media communications or public affairs
· Meeting deadlines in a busy environment
· Producing high quality content for publications, website and social media
· A flair for finding a good angle, producing sharp headlines and for transforming information into a potential news story
· Proven ability to write tight, coherent well-argued and fluent editorial copy to an excellent standard
Desirable
· Experience of working in the charity sector or within a medical research charity
· Post graduate qualification in a relevant science discipline or equivalent qualification
· A degree or qualification with a science communication component and/or experience working in science journalism
· A clear understanding of a range of research methodologies, including basic biomedical research, clinical trials and qualitative research
Personal qualities:
· An understanding of and commitment to the sight loss community
· Good relationship management skills with the ability to build, grow and maintain rapport with internal and external stakeholders
· Strong design skills to create engaging, accessible content that helps to support engage and inspire a range of audiences across a range of mediums
· A self-starter, proactive with a constructive and collaborative approach
· The ability to make the complicated seem simple; you will enjoy sharing your skills, and developing others
· Highly motivated and able to juggle a varied workload
· Personable, with excellent listening skills and high emotional intelligence, with the ability to think creatively
· An intelligent and proactive approach to problem-solving
· Excellent accuracy and attention to detail
Flexibility
·The role description is a general outline of duties and responsibilities and may be amended as the newly merged charity develops and the role grows. The post holder may be required to undertake other duties as may be reasonably required from time to time.
When writing job applications, we want to see if candidates are the right fit for our charity, so they should be written using your own words. Use of Artificial Intelligence, such as Chat GPT, is considered plagiarism, and applications drafted with the assistance of AI will be automatically rejected.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
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.