Project manager jobs in leicester, england

Job TitleHead of Communications

LocationHome based (Home working with regular meetings in London)

Salary£45,000 - £55,000

HoursFull Time, permanent 

Reports to                   Chief Policy Officer 

About Parentkind

As one of the largest federated charities in the UK, with arguably greater reach into the lives of families and educational settings than any other non-Government organisation, Parentkind is on a bold and urgent mission: to support, champion, and empower parents to be partners in their children’s education and wellbeing. 

Although best known for our support of almost 24,000 Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), Parent Councils, and Schools, helping them build strong school communities whilst they raise approaching £140 million each year to enhance children’s education, our work stretches far beyond the school gates. Parentkind is building a powerful movement that recognises parental engagement not as a nicety, but a necessity.

Supporting parents beyond the school gate

In recent years, families have faced a series of compounding challenges: the cost-of-living crisis, rising child poverty, and deepening educational inequality. These pressures have left many parents struggling to meet basic needs—let alone feel confident engaging in their child’s learning journey.  Parentkind has responded to this moment with compassion, agility and purpose, through a series of transformative campaigns, resources, and partnerships. 

Our No Cold Child initiative with FatFace stepped in to address a stark statistic: over 150,000 children in the UK do not own a winter coat due to poverty. Through our trusted relationships with schools we distributed 10,000 warm, high-quality coats worth £600,000 to the children who needed them most. Winning the Business Charity Awards ‘Fashion & Retail’ Award, and shortlisted for two further awards, the campaign has been praised not just for providing warmth, but for restoring dignity, inclusion, and school readiness to thousands of children.

The All Dressed Up campaign—developed with World Book Day and Rubies Masquerade—confronted the often-overlooked issue of financial exclusion on key celebration days. More than 100,000 free dressing up costumes worth £1.34 million were delivered to children from low-income families. By enabling participation in events like World Book Day, we helped spark imagination, joy, and belonging for children who might otherwise feel left out—boosting self-esteem and supporting a positive connection to learning.Furthermore, helping attract children into school on a day which often sees struggling parents keep their children at home.

Alongside these national campaigns, Parentkind supports families year-round through a growing suite of programmes designed to inform, prepare and empower parents. Our Be School Ready programme offers crucial guidance and confidence to parents preparing their children for the leap into primary education. With a mix of practical advice, developmental tips, and reassurance, through the distribution of 150,000 copies of Be School Ready and an online campaign, it supports families at one of the most formative moments in their child’s life.

We also deliver a wide-ranging series of live expert webinars and parent-friendly resources, covering topics such as managing anxiety, supporting special educational needs, navigating school transitions, and building home-school partnerships. These resources, developed in consultation with experts and rooted in lived parent experience, equip families to feel informed and empowered, no matter what challenges arise.

Our direct support of schools

Our collaboration with Asda on Cashpot for Schools is another example of unlocking support at scale. This innovative community-led funding model allowed shoppers to nominate and fund their local schools simply through everyday spending. This campaign has generated £5.78 million for schools during the past twelve months, supporting everything from basic classroom supplies to vital extracurricular programmes and pupil wellbeing initiatives. Also shortlisted for a Business Charity Award, it is already a model for community-driven philanthropy.

In April, we launched our Parent-Friendly Schools Accreditation Programme, designed to formally recognise schools that go above and beyond in fostering positive, inclusive relationships with parents. The accreditation celebrates schools that actively listen to parent voices, make engagement easy and accessible, and embed family partnership in their culture. It is a practical and inspiring tool to drive long-term change in the sector and offers a roadmap for schools wanting to strengthen their community.

Our focus on Policy & Research

Our work is grounded in evidence. Since 2023, we have conducted the UK’s largest annual parent survey: the National Parent Survey. With approaching 6,000 participants providing 130,000 bits of data to provide invaluable insights into the struggles, concerns, hopes and fears of parents. The findings are fed directly into government consultations and have already informed national debates on school funding, attendance, mental health support, SEND provision, and curriculum reform.

In each of the past two years the number of policymakers, educators, parents and researchers accessing the National Parent Survey exceeded seven thousand, and the survey featured in more than two hundred media outlets each year.Excitingly, the Times & Sunday Times are partnering with Parentkind to raise the profile even further in September 2025 and the survey will be launched at a lighthouse event featuring the Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson), the Ofsted Chief Inspector of Schools (Sir Martyn Oliver), the CEO of Mumsnet (Justine Roberts), the Children’s Commissioner (Dame Rachel De Souza), and our own Chief Executive (Jason Elsom). 

In addition to the National Parent Survey, Parentkind undertakes representative polling of parents throughout the year on a variety of important topics, which increasingly find exposure in the media and policy discussion.

Parentkind provides the secretariat for the Westminster APPG for Parents and the Stormont APG for Parental Participation in Education. Two very successful parliamentary groups bringing together policymakers and a variety of stakeholders to consider the challenges faced by parents and act as a voice for them through a variety of policymakers.

Our Media Engagement

Since becoming recognised as the UK’s largest parent charity, with likely more groups and frontline volunteers than the Scouts or Girlguiding, Parentkind has gained increasing prominence in the media.Beyond the reach of the National Parent Survey and our regular polling, Parentkind receives frequent requests for quotes of reflection and input by media in relation to their journalism and from Government and non-Government entities in support of policy announcements.

Beyond this, the Parentkind community of volunteers and PTAs share local or regional media announcements of their own.Whether or not it celebrating the completion of large projects they have invested countless hours and thousands of pounds into realising, or the community event they have worked into the night to deliver for their school communities.

It will be your role to take this much further, gaining increasing exposure for the work of Parentkind, its community, and parents more broadly. 

If you believe, like we do, that when parents matter, children succeed, we’d love to hear from you.

The role will involve:

· Promoting our parent polling data and work across social media platforms with eye catching content. 

· Providing comment on topical issues for social media so that we are part of the conversation. 

· Build the right relationships to dramatically increase the number of of media organisations seeking input and thought leadership from Parentkind.

· Build relationships with broadcast media so we get asked to appear on broadcast media more often. There’s a chance for you to be a talking head too.

· Help to draft parent polls and reports with a focus on compelling questions that will hit the front page. We need a brilliant writer, able to turn facts and figures into engaging narratives with bold headlines and strong messages that catch the eye. Boring writers need not apply…

· Draft eye catching press releases with bold headlines and a compelling narrative to promote the work we do across the charity. You’ll also place the press releases with national journalists leading to high profile coverage.

· Support the authoring of articles, op-eds and blog posts by members of the Executive Leadership Team.

· Be responsible for media monitoring, measuring our media hits, and reporting on coverage and interesting themes for the Executive Leadership.

Your mission is to massively increase our online, in print and social media presence to make us the highest profile parent charity in the UK. We don’t need you to be an education expert, we need someone to get us on the front page.

We have a huge amount of data on what parents think and we need you to get it seen. This is a great job for someone who wants to grab hold of a “comms” function and make it their own.

Parentkind is a UK wide charity, you will be expected to support our work in other parts of the UK where necessary.

For 'Person Specification' please see the job description

Location: Home-based, with occasional travel to Respect’s office at Voluntary Action Islington (VAI), 200A Pentonville Rd, London N1 9JP or other meeting locations including staff meetings twice a year

Responsible to: Head of Helplines

Salary: Point 31-34 £34,016 - £36754  (a London Allowance of £3299 will be applied to employees who live in London)

We are pleased to offer a starting salary at the beginning point of the salary band. This position offers opportunities for salary increases based on performance and tenure. 

Hours: 35 Hours per week; Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm

Job type: Fixed Term Contract until 31st March 2026, with a possibility to extend, subject to funding.

Benefits:

• Friendly and collaborative working environment
• Remote working 
• 25 to 30 days holidays per annum plus bank holidays (depending on length of service and pro-rata for part-time employees) 
• Contributory pension scheme including 6% employer’s contribution (subject to employee’s minimum 2% contribution) 
• Enhanced maternity, adoption and paternity pay 
• Occupational sick pay depending on length of service and pro-rata for part-time employees.
• Access to Employee Assistance Programme 
• Access to staff discounts

Closing date: 27th August 2025, 17:00

Interviews to take place: Week commencing 10th September 2025 (TBC). These will be held online via Teams link

About the role:

Respect is seeking two Helplines Advisors to provide support to male victims of domestic abuse on the Men’s Advice Line and perpetrators of domestic abuse on the Respect Phoneline.

You will support service users by phone, email and webchat, providing emotional support, practical advice, information on the available options, and signposting to other services. As well as work with male victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse in ways that support them to increase safety and reduce harm, as described in the Models of Work and relevant policies and procedures.

About you:

• An understanding of the nature of domestic abuse and its effects on victims, in particular male victims
• An understanding of the help-seeking barriers for male victims of domestic abuse 
• An understanding of the reasons why perpetrators use abusive behaviours towards partners in relationships 
• Experience of providing information, advice, and support by telephone, email and webchat in a helpline environment 
• A commitment to anti-discriminatory practice and an approach that centres survivors, in particular Black and minoritised survivors.

About Respect 

Respect is a pioneering UK membership organisation in the domestic abuse sector.  Founded in 2000, we have built our expertise over the last 25 years in what was then a fledgling sector and recently have seen significant and rapid growth. 

How to apply 

You must download an application form from Respect's job page, and submit in word doc. format only, please.