Principal policy advisor jobs

Reducing the Risk is an Oxfordshire-based charity with a growing regional and national reputation for delivering high-quality, victim-centred domestic abuse services. Established in 2007, we empower communities, train multi-agency professionals, and provide critical Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) services to ensure the safety and wellbeing of adults and children at risk.

We are now looking for an exceptional, values-driven leader to build on these strong foundations and guide us through our next exciting phase of growth and innovation.

The Role

As our next Chief Executive Officer, you will work closely with an ambitious Board of Trustees to shape and deliver the charity’s strategic plan. Inheriting a highly skilled, dedicated team of practitioners and a network of over 1,800 Domestic Abuse Champions, you will balance compassionate strategic vision with sound operational and financial leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Develop and execute the charity's strategic plan, driving innovation and service development across our local and national footprint.

• Income & Sustainability: Diversify income streams beyond traditional grants, growing our accredited training and consultancy services into sustainable earned revenue.

• Partnership & Influence: Act as the principal public voice for the charity, building high-impact relationships with statutory, corporate, and voluntary sector partners.

• People & Culture: Foster an inclusive, high-performing, and trauma-informed workplace culture that prioritises staff wellbeing.

• Governance & Compliance: Oversee robust risk management, safeguarding frameworks, and regulatory compliance alongside the Board.

Who We Are Looking For

You are a credible, resilient senior leader with a proven track record in the charity, public, or social impact sectors. While a background in the domestic abuse sector is highly valued, what matters most is your ability to navigate complex funding environments, secure multi-source income, and champion victim-centred practices. You are a collaborative relationship-builder who combines commercial awareness with genuine empathy and integrity.

How to Apply

To apply, please submit your up-to-date CV alongside a covering letter explaining how your experience meets the job description and person specification.

• Application Deadline: Midday, 14th August

• Shortlisting: 19th August

• Interviews: 26th August (In-person at our Oxford office)

Help shape the future of access to justice in North Wales.

Permanent | 3 days per week (0.6 FTE)

£45,000 pro rata (£27,000 actual salary)

Based in Llandudno Junction (minimum two days per week in the office)

North Wales Community Law is a young and ambitious charity with a simple vision: that everyone in North Wales should have access to the legal advice they need to uphold their rights, challenge injustice and improve their lives.

Since opening in 2023, we’ve established a housing legal aid service, developed strong partnerships across Wales and the UK, and built a growing reputation for high-quality, community-based legal advice.

We’re now looking for an experienced charity leader to work alongside our Board of Trustees to lead the next phase of our development.

This is a varied role combining strategic leadership, governance, fundraising, partnership development and organisational management. You’ll work with a committed team, an engaged Board and a wide range of partners to build a financially sustainable organisation that delivers lasting impact for communities across North Wales.

We’re looking for someone who:

• Has significant senior leadership experience within the charity sector
• Enjoys working closely with trustees and supporting good governance
• Has a track record of fundraising and organisational development
• Can combine strategic thinking with practical delivery
• Is passionate about social justice and access to justice.

If you’re excited by the opportunity to help shape a growing organisation and build something with lasting impact, we’d love to hear from you.

Closing date: Thursday 17 September 2026, 12noon

About the role

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who wants to contribute to our vision to make sure that everyone in North Wales has access to the services and expertise they need to uphold their rights, fight inequality and challenge injustice.

We are looking for an experienced charity leader to provide strategic and operational leadership to North Wales Community Law. Working closely with an ambitious Board of Trustees, you will lead the organisation through its next phase of development, ensuring financial sustainability, strong governance and high-quality legal services while building partnerships and growing our impact across North Wales.

Duties

Organisational Leadership and Governance

• Lead the organisation in line with its vision, mission and values
• Act as principal adviser to the Board of Trustees, supporting effective governance and helping trustees discharge their legal and strategic responsibilities
• Build a productive relationship with the Chair and ensure trustees receive timely, highquality information to support decision-making
• Work with the Board to develop, implement and review the organisation’s strategy
• Ensure high standards of governance, compliance & organisational assurance, including risk management & adherence to charity, company, employment & legal requirements
• Ensure effective governance systems, including delegated authority, policies and decision-making processes
• Work with external advisers, including auditors, legal advisers and compliance specialists, where appropriate
• Lead organisational planning, ensuring resources are aligned with strategic priorities

Finance and Sustainability

• Lead financial management, budgeting and long-term sustainability
• Lead income generation, fundraising, contract management and funder relationships
• Monitor organisational performance, finances and risk, reporting regularly to the Board
• Work with the Team Leader to ensure legal services meet contractual, funding and quality requirements

HR and Organisational Systems

• Lead people management, ensuring effective recruitment, performance management and staff wellbeing
• Develop and maintain effective HR policies, systems and good employment practice
• Foster a positive, inclusive and values-led organisational culture

Performance Monitoring and Reporting

• Ensure effective systems are in place to monitor organisational & service performance
• Provide clear, accurate reporting to the Board on performance, risk and impact

Community Engagement

• Lead the organisation’s community engagement and outreach strategy, ensuring services reach communities most affected by poverty, discrimination and disadvantage
• Develop strategic partnerships with community organisations, local authorities and other stakeholders to improve access to services
• Ensure community engagement supports organisational sustainability, contractual requirements and organisational objectives

External Relations and Partnerships

• Represent the organisation externally at local, regional and national level
• Develop strategic partnerships and collaborations
• Promote the organisation’s profile and influence

Person Specification

Leadership

• Significant experience in a senior leadership role within a charity or not-for-profit organisation.
• Ability to balance operational delivery with long-term strategic development.

Finance and Fundraising

• Demonstrated experience of managing budgets and financial planning
• Experience of assessing financial risk and making informed decisions
• Experience of income generation and fundraising
• Experience of managing funded contracts and funder relationships

Governance

• Significant experience of working closely with a Board of Trustees or equivalent governing body
• Experience of preparing Board papers and presenting complex information clearly
• Good understanding of charity governance, trustee responsibilities and good governance practice
• Experience of developing organisational risk management and assurance processes

People Management

• Experience of line management, performance management including ability to work effectively with specialist leads (e.g. legal, finance)
• Strong commitment to staff wellbeing and positive organisational culture
• Ability to lead inclusively and promote equality, diversity and inclusion
• Experience of developing HR policies, systems and good employment practice

External relationships

• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills
• Ability to represent the organisation credibly with external stakeholders
• Experience of partnership working and stakeholder management

Personal Commitment

• Strong commitment to social justice and the organisation’s mission
• High levels of integrity, resilience and professionalism
• Ability to work collaboratively while holding others to account

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of working in or with the not for profit legal advice sector
• Knowledge of the Legal Aid regime and publicly funded legal services
• Ability to work in Welsh (spoken and/or written)

To Apply

If you would like an informal discussion about the role this would be welcomed.

The deadline for applications is 12noon on Thursday 17th September 2026.

Please apply with your CV and a cover letter of up to two pages. You should email this. First interviews will be held online in late September. Candidates who are successful at first stage will be invited to a final in person interview.

We recognise the value of diverse perspectives in our work and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, communities, identities and experiences, including those with
personal experience of the inequalities and injustices we seek to address.

If you require any reasonable adjustments as part of the recruitment process, please let us know by emailing.

We look forward to hearing from you.

About us

Carers UK’s vision is to create a society that recognises, values and supports carers. As the leading national charity for unpaid carers, we exist to make life better for carers, however caring affects them. Our support, advice, information and campaigning work are now needed more than ever, as unpaid carers are providing more and more care, adversely impacting on their own health and wellbeing.

About the role

We recognise the value of social media in communicating with all our audiences; whether unpaid carers or their friends and families, employers, politicians, service providers, supporters and all those people who may become a carer for a partner, family member, friend or neighbour and will need information, support, and to know that there are people working to make their lives better.

This role works with colleagues across the organisation, including our senior management team - but also in partnership with external organisations and agencies - with targets set for engagement (and other indicators of the success of our campaigns). We're working on multiple campaigns simultaneously; whether that's Carers Week, campaigns to influence changes to the law to better support carers, encouraging unpaid carers to join us as members, updating on activities in the devolved nations or getting people to fundraise for Carers UK. And we use a mix of owned, earned and paid communications to drive engagement in a challenging and crowded environment in order to get our messages to cut through. It's a busy, but varied role, in a supportive and collaborative team.

About you

Working within the communications and marketing team, you'll be confident in managing our social media accounts (we have many), ensuring we're using platforms to get our messages out to both wide and targeted audiences with engaging and timely content.

You'll be happy using tools for social listening, interacting with our audiences and building our reach. You'll be familiar with key metrics for social engagement and will be reporting back to colleagues and other stakeholders - and using this data to constantly improve our communications.

You'll be skilled in writing longer form content for our members' magazine, Caring, proof reading articles, posting content on our websites, creating graphics and making sure our content is engaging, audience focused and dynamic. Oh, and you probably know your way around an emoji set and are not scared of a well timed pun. Plus you'll have a great eye for detail and be confident in your ability to prioritise (and sometimes reprioritise) your workload as needed.

We're a small but effective communications team and pride ourselves on getting stuck in and supporting each other when we need to deliver big on fast moving projects, so you'll need be able to juggle lots of demands while recognising the importance of always hitting deadlines.

Diversity and inclusion

Carers UK is committed to becoming a diverse and truly inclusive organisation; fostering an environment and working culture that celebrates and promotes diversity and inclusion.  We strive to create a workplace where our colleagues and volunteers can truly be themselves and feel like they belong and constantly seek to ensure all voices are heard.

To embrace this culture of diversity, our employee and volunteer recruitment should reflect our stakeholders and the society that we serve and support, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, physical abilities, disabilities or religious practices. We value individual diversity and are actively building diverse teams here at Carers UK and value our colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds.

As a membership charity for carers, we particularly seek employees and volunteers with a real understanding of the issues faced by carers. Reasonable adjustments can be made to the process and role, dependent on the needs of the applicant.

We are proud to be an Employers for Carers member. We have signed the Menopause Workplace Pledge and achieved the Disability Confident Employer accreditation. We aim to offer interviews to those who have a disability covered under the definition outlined in the Equality Act 2010 and who meet the minimum criteria for the role. The minimum criteria can be found under the Essential section of the Person Specification of the recruitment pack. Please let us know if your application is being made under the Disability Confident Scheme. You are not required to share the nature of your disability or long term health condition. You will need to state in your email application that you are making your application under the Disability Confident Scheme as you consider yourself to be disabled, or as having a disability. If you meet the minimum criteria then you will be offered an interview.

At Carers UK we want our application process to be as accessible as possible. If you need any adjustments to apply please contact us to discuss.  

The closing date for applications is 5pm, Tuesday 18 August.

Carers UK anonymises all applications prior to shortlisting.

Carers UK reserves the right to appoint at any stage, should an outstanding candidate emerge.

Carers UK are actively interviewing as we receive applications.

Carers UK may carry out online and social media checks before a formal offer is made.