Programme support manager jobs in barnet, greater london

Location (UK): Office Hybrid* - London
Hours: Full-time, 35 Hours per week
Salary: £55,155 per annum (London)
Benefits: Read more about the excellent benefits we offer on our website
Contract type: Fixed-term - 2 years
Travel: Occasional travel across the UK including Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Closing date: 23:59 hours, Sunday 4 January 2026

Join us and use your skills, knowledge, passion and energy to help us achieve a future free from arthritis.
You will join the UK Advocacy and Health Intelligence Department within the Chief Executive's Directorate. The team is responsible for leading UK strategy development and delivery across advocacy (policy, public affairs, campaigning) and health intelligence, working closely with colleagues across the UK to ensure effective delivery of the strategy in each nation. The department sits in the Chief Executive's Directorate to ensure driving positive change with and for people with arthritis is at the heart of the organisation.

The Department works closely with colleagues across the charity, including Services, Research and Income and Engagement to ensure we are joined up in our approach to arthritis.

About the role
The Researcher is a new, important post at Arthritis UK. Working within our Health Intelligence team, you will lead on providing expertise on the latest relevant research evidence, providing a responsive, robust and balanced assessment of the available evidence and any key gaps to shape the charity's UK advocacy agenda, and drive organisational priorities. Working across a range of issues you will play a crucial role in ensuring that the experiences and needs of people living with arthritis are understood and acted upon, and that arthritis is taken seriously across the UK.

About you
If your knowledge, skills and experience include the following then we'd love to hear from you:

• In-depth knowledge and experience in working in health-related, research.
• Experience in the synthesis and evaluation of research evidence across a range of sources (including grey literature), including in the design and delivery of rapid reviews.
• Experience in communicating clearly and succinctly to non-technical and non-expert audiences, through both written formats (e.g. briefing papers) and verbally (e.g. via presentations and meetings with senior stakeholders), with a robust approach to accessibility throughout communication.
• Demonstrable understanding of how research can be used to shape policy and practice.
• Experience of consistently applying a range of techniques and research methods applicable to framing research questions, evidence review and research evaluation.
• Able to communicate findings and conclusions clearly to non-specialist and specialist audiences.
• Educated to at least master's degree level or equivalent.

*As a hybrid worker the expectation is that you will spend around 40% of your working time in our office spaces or working in community settings. As an inclusive employer we will consider home-based working for anyone where office-based hybrid working would be a barrier to being able to work for us, for example for someone living with a long-term health condition or disability.

Benefits
Your excellent benefits include:

• Flexible hours, environments and working practices to promote a healthy work/life balance.
• Health and wellbeing support - including the Employee Assistance Programme (free confidential 24/7 support with mental health, legal and financial queries).
• Simplyhealth cash plan.
• Supportive and inclusive culture, with a wide range of employee networks and support groups available to join.
• Learning and personal development opportunities.
• Competitive annual leave, with the option to buy/sell up to five days per year.
• Generous pension plan, with employer contribution of up to 10%.
• Life Assurance plan (4 x salary).

Application deadline and shortlisting 
We advise candidates to apply early as we reserve the right to close applications ahead of this date.  
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. 
We do not wish to receive contact from agencies or media sales. 

Please note that we do not use Artificial Intelligence (AI) during our recruitment and selection processes, and we would respectfully ask that you also refrain from using AI during the selection process. Whilst we do recognise that AI may be a beneficial tool for some when aiding research and preparation for an application or interview, we want to maintain a fair, inclusive and positive recruitment experience at Arthritis UK where candidates can feel supported to demonstrate their experience, knowledge, and skills without the use of AI generated answers.

Interview
Interviews are expected be held Thursday 15 January 2026, Arthritis UK London office

As a Disability Confident Leader, we guarantee you will be offered an interview if you disclose a disability and demonstrate sufficient evidence within your application that you meet the essential criteria for this role. We will also make any reasonable adjustments you may require for your interview.

About us
We have made a commitment in our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy to increase the diversity of our charity and we welcome candidates from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. We want our employees, volunteers and trustees to represent the broad diversity of the communities of which we are a part.

There are over 10 million people living with arthritis. That's one in six, with over half of those living in pain every single day. The impact is huge as the condition slowly intrudes on everyday life - affecting the ability to work, care for a family, to move free from pain and to live independently. Yet arthritis is often dismissed as an inevitable part of ageing or shrugged off as 'just a bit of arthritis'. We don't think that this is OK. Arthritis UK is here to change that.

Arthritis UK is committed to keeping children, young people and vulnerable adults safe from harm. During the recruitment process we will undertake safer recruitment practices and relevant checks to ensure applicants are suitable to work with children, young people and vulnerable adults.

Arthritis UK is a Registered Charity No: 207711 and in Scotland No. SC041156.

Why this role exists

We deliver practical legal support that changes lives. To grow responsibly, we need a COO to build operational excellence and keep systems ready to scale.

What you will lead

• Financial leadership — Build, manage and monitor the annual budget; lead forecasting and cashflow; produce reports; oversee accounting, payments, payroll and invoicing; maintain strong controls and compliance; track restricted funds; support grant bids and donor reporting.

• Day-to-day operations — Maintain efficient systems across casework, admin and volunteers; design policies, SOPs and QA; oversee IT, digital tools and case management; ensure GDPR-compliant data handling; lead operational responses to risk and regulation.

• Strategy and organisational development — Work with the Executive Director on strategy; lead service development, scaling projects and national expansion; improve volunteer pathways, client experience and internal processes; provide data-driven insight for the Board.

• People, volunteers and HR — Support recruitment, onboarding and retention; develop clear HR processes and documentation; ensure supervision, wellbeing and safeguarding frameworks.

• Governance, risk and compliance — Manage risk registers and mitigation plans; lead internal audits and quality reviews; prepare Board papers; ensure compliance with legal, regulatory and charity requirements.

You’ll thrive here if you show

• Ownership and follow-through: you take responsibility and land the work.

• Planning under pressure: you bring order, rhythm and clarity.

• Bold, informed judgement: you improve systems based on evidence, not habit.

• Entrepreneurial drive: you simplify, standardise and scale what works.

• Inclusive practice: you design operations that are easier to use and safer to deliver.

• Clear communication: you turn complexity into simple actions and updates.

• Team-building and collaboration: you help staff and volunteers succeed together.

• Constant learning: you refine processes and leave usable documentation.

What you will bring

• Significant operational leadership in a non-profit, legal, community or mission-driven setting.

• Strong financial management across budgeting, forecasting, reporting and controls.

• Ability to build robust systems in a small but scaling organisation.

• Strategic, organised and analytical working style.

• Confident people leadership and clear communication.

• Understanding of governance, safeguarding, risk and regulatory compliance.

• Commitment to trans equality, dignity and client-centred practice.

Helpful extras

• Experience in legal services or legal operations.

• Managing grants or donor-funded programmes.

• Experience scaling an organisation or building new infrastructure.

• Knowledge of trans community needs and support services.

Practicalities

• Hours: part time, with occasional evenings or weekends around live moments.

• Location: Central London base with sensible hybrid flexibility.

• Reporting line: Executive Director.

• Salary: based on experience and time commitment.

The Co-Founders Mindset

We are building a trans rights revolution at the Trans Legal Clinic. We deliver work that changes outcomes for people, case by case and system by system. That calls for a particular mindset. We call it the co-founder mindset. Co-founders take the mission personally, set the pace, turn ideas into working services and campaigns, bring others with them, and make change you can point to. Co-founders are entrepreneurial: they spot openings others miss, move decisively, and create momentum. Co-founders build teams, drawing in volunteers who believe in our mission, care deeply about our clients, enjoy working with us, and keep one another going. Co-founders are bold: they are willing to innovate, to be first, and to change the status quo; they check the source, avoid assumptions, solve problems, make firm, collaborative, evidence-based decisions, and take responsibility for results. Co-founders are pioneers. If you want responsibility, pace, and the chance to pioneer new routes to justice and public impact, this is the place to build your career.

Our Recruitment Criteria

Ownership and follow-through

You are a self-starter who owns tasks and takes responsibility without waiting to be asked. You carry your work through to a tangible result. You define the problem, set a course, keep the right people informed, and deliver what you said you would.

Bold, informed judgement

You are willing to change accepted practice when the evidence supports it. You check primary sources rather than rely on assumptions, weigh real options and risks, make a clear, evidence-based, collaborative decision, and stand behind it.

Entrepreneurial drive

You spot openings other people miss and turn ideas into useful services, processes or campaigns. You move decisively and get others working on the plan alongside you with clear roles and timelines.

Planning under pressure

You keep priorities straight when time is tight. You organise people and tasks, set simple checkpoints, communicate early when plans shift and always deliver.

Inclusive practice

You design work that is easier for others to take part in with people who face barriers in mind. You identify what is getting in the way, make practical changes that remove those barriers, and check the effect with the people involved.

Clear communication

You write and speak in plain English and adjust tone and detail to suit clients, volunteers, partners and the public. You choose the right format for the moment and make it easy for people to act on what you say. You like feedback, don’t get offended and see it as a chance to improve.

Team-building and collaboration

You bring people with you and help groups perform well together. You draw in volunteers who believe in the mission and care about our clients, set shared expectations, handle disagreements well, and leave relationships stronger.

Constant learning

You improve your own practice and the system around you. You reflect honestly on what worked and what did not, learn quickly, and turn that learning into simple tools or habits that make future work better.

• Team-building and collaboration: you lead creatives and volunteers well.

• Constant learning: you test, measure and iterate.

What you will bring

• A strong portfolio showing strategy-led creative across static, motion and copy.

• Three or more years in creative communications or campaigns (agency, newsroom, charity or in-house).

• Confident in Adobe Creative Cloud and either Figma or similar; comfortable with short-form video editing and basic motion.

• Platform literacy across Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube, and working knowledge of analytics and paid promotion.

• Clear writing and an ear for tone; calm leadership and useable feedback.

• Sound judgement on reputation, privacy, GDPR and consent.

• Commitment to trans-led practice and the communities we serve.

Helpful extras

• Clinic or not-for-profit experience.

• Familiarity with gender recognition, healthcare advocacy, discrimination, housing and employment.

• Basic SEO and email automation.

Practicalities

• Hours: full time, with occasional evenings or weekends around live moments.

• Location: Central London base with sensible hybrid flexibility.

• Salary: £25,000.

• Reporting line: Executive Director.

The Co-Founders Mindset

We are building a trans rights revolution at the Trans Legal Clinic. We deliver work that changes outcomes for people, case by case and system by system. That calls for a particular mindset. We call it the co-founder mindset. Co-founders take the mission personally, set the pace, turn ideas into working services and campaigns, bring others with them, and make change you can point to. Co-founders are entrepreneurial: they spot openings others miss, move decisively, and create momentum. Co-founders build teams, drawing in volunteers who believe in our mission, care deeply about our clients, enjoy working with us, and keep one another going. Co-founders are bold: they are willing to innovate, to be first, and to change the status quo; they check the source, avoid assumptions, solve problems, make firm, collaborative, evidence-based decisions, and take responsibility for results. Co-founders are pioneers. If you want responsibility, pace, and the chance to pioneer new routes to justice and public impact, this is the place to build your career.

Our Recruitment Criteria

Ownership and follow-through

You are a self-starter who owns tasks and takes responsibility without waiting to be asked. You carry your work through to a tangible result. You define the problem, set a course, keep the right people informed, and deliver what you said you would.

Bold, informed judgement

You are willing to change accepted practice when the evidence supports it. You check primary sources rather than rely on assumptions, weigh real options and risks, make a clear, evidence-based, collaborative decision, and stand behind it.

Entrepreneurial drive

You spot openings other people miss and turn ideas into useful services, processes or campaigns. You move decisively and get others working on the plan alongside you with clear roles and timelines.

Planning under pressure

You keep priorities straight when time is tight. You organise people and tasks, set simple checkpoints, communicate early when plans shift and always deliver.

Inclusive practice

You design work that is easier for others to take part in with people who face barriers in mind. You identify what is getting in the way, make practical changes that remove those barriers, and check the effect with the people involved.

Clear communication

You write and speak in plain English and adjust tone and detail to suit clients, volunteers, partners and the public. You choose the right format for the moment and make it easy for people to act on what you say. You like feedback, don’t get offended and see it as a chance to improve.

Team-building and collaboration

You bring people with you and help groups perform well together. You draw in volunteers who believe in the mission and care about our clients, set shared expectations, handle disagreements well, and leave relationships stronger.

Constant learning

You improve your own practice and the system around you. You reflect honestly on what worked and what did not, learn quickly, and turn that learning into simple tools or habits that make future work better.