The vacancy
We are seeking to appoint one lay member to sit on our GOC Council.
About the GOC
We are the regulator for the optical professions in the UK. Our purpose is to protect the public by promoting high standards of education, performance and conduct. For more information about us please visit our website:optical. org.
About the Council
The role of Council is to lead on the GOC’s mission to protect the public by upholding high standards in eye care services. The Council is composed of six lay members (including the Chair) and six registrant members (i.e. registered optometrists and dispensing opticians). At least one member of the Council must work wholly or mainly in each of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. One Council member acts as a Senior Council Member whose role is to carry out the Chair’s appraisal as well as provide a sounding board for the Chair and serve as an intermediary for Council members, Executive and stakeholders as necessary.
The successful candidate will contribute to Council by exercising oversight, ensuring effective corporate governance, and making high-level policy decisions. They will be able to operate strategically and impartially; listen, communicate, and influence effectively; exercise judgment; and inspire confidence and support amongst our stakeholders.
Remuneration and time commitment
Council members are remunerated in accordance with our member fees policy (£13,962 per annum plus reasonable travel and subsistence expenses). The member fee includes time for reading and preparation.
The appointed member will be expected to commit approximately 2-3 days per month. Meetings will usually take place via MS Teams but may on occasion be held at the GOC Offices at Level 29, One Canada Square, London, E14 5AA. There are occasional online catch-up meetings - these are currently scheduled on a Tuesday evening every 6-8 weeks, from 5.30pm – 6.30pm.
How to apply:
Please email the the following to appointment@optical. org
· your CV outlining your employment history, any relevant voluntary work, public service or other experience; together with any relevant professional, academic or vocational qualifications;
· the application form, stating how your experience matches the criteria for the vacancy you are applying for; and
· complete the EDI monitoring form linked in the candidate pack (this is an online form and does not need to be included in the email with your CV and application form).
APPLICATION DEADLINE: midnight on Sunday 10 August 2025.
Online interviews will be held on between Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 October 2025.
If you have any questions, please email them to appointment@optical. org and we will aim to respond to you within 48 hours.
We welcome applications from individuals who are disabled and from diverse ethnic backgrounds as these are currently under-represented on our council and committees.
We strive to be as diverse as the public we protect and welcome applications from everyone, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy, maternity and geographical locations outside of London.
Registered Charity 
51 - 100
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Job Title: Senior Building Surveyor (Qualified)
Hours: 35 hours (full time)
Location: ISHA, 102 Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park, N4 2DR
Salary: £56,195 per annum
Contract: Permanent
This role is based at our Head Office but there is some flexibility to work in a hybrid way if preferred.
Requirements
Are you a qualified Building Surveyor who cares as much about people as you do about properties? Do you believe that everyone deserves a safe, warm, and well-maintained home? If so, you might be just the person we need. We’re on the lookout for a Senior Building Surveyor who's ready to roll up their sleeves, dive into projects, and a person who enjoys collaborating with colleagues.
This is a fantastic opportunity for a qualitied Surveyor to join our Assets and Repairs Team that makes up one element of the wider Housing and Neighbourhoods directorate. The team is led by an Assets and Repairs Manager with a small team of Repairs and Maintenance Advisers, a Disrepair Coordinator, two Surveyors and a Senior Building Surveyor. Whilst we may be small, we’re perfectly formed.
It’s an interesting and varied role for someone with a passion for keeping homes safe, decent, and future-proof—whether that means identifying structural issues, managing planned maintenance, or working with residents to make sure they feel heard and respected. It’s important to us that you’re someone who keeps residents, and their homes, at the heart of your work.
There’s a lot of positive changes happening at ISHA, and within our team, so now is a great time to join so you can be involved, have influence over those changes, and see the beneficial impact they will have over the next 12 months. There are plenty of opportunities for you to shape this into a role you’ll love.
This role will suit you if you have an eye for detail, a head for problem-solving, and ideally, a sense of humour—because we promise there will be blocked drains, pressing deadlines for report submissions, and occasional out of hours work to deal with resident emergencies. You need to be ready for anything, which means working flexibility to find solutions, alongside facilitating the delivery of excellent repairs, voids and planned works.
We’re not just looking for a surveyor. We’re looking for someone who sees the bigger picture—and wants to be part of it.
Some key responsibilities include:
- Supporting Building Surveyors with problematic jobs to ensure a successful outcome.
- Ownership and responsibility for service-related complaints, disrepair cases or queries from customers ensuring that the customer experience is positive, professional and within set timescales.
- Authorising works and approve payments ensuring suppliers are paid in accordance with terms of contracts. Resolve disputes and queries promptly and ensure ISHA’s interests are always protected.
- Carrying out post-works inspections on a proportion of completed works to assess quality of work, value for money and tenant satisfaction.
Don’t feel you meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that some candidates are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single requirement. At ISHA, we are dedicated to building an inclusive workforce, so if you’re excited by this role but your experience doesn’t quite align perfectly, we encourage you to apply anyway. You just might be the right candidate for this, or other roles, because of your transferable skills.
About ISHA
We are a small but ambitious housing association at a critical juncture. Our ambition is for the communities we are anchored in and exist to serve, and we have done and achieved much over the past few years. But in these challenging times we know we’ll achieve nothing unless we are equally ambitious for own our people.
Our values are at the heart of who we are and everything we do, inspiring our thinking and guiding our actions. We strive to build a more diverse organisation, where everyone feels empowered to bring, and be, their best self to work.
We can’t be a brilliant landlord if we don’t partner with brilliant colleagues. Could you be one of them and be trusted to make the difference?
If this sounds exciting, we want you on our team. Please do apply.
Staff Benefits
We’ll offer you a generous pension scheme (up to 10% employer matched contributions and a death in service benefit), 29 days annual leave (increasing after five years’ service), eye care vouchers, a cycle to work scheme and other great benefits (see attached). We have an evolving wellbeing offer, that is being developed following employee feedback, and we will invest in your professional development with on-going training and career development opportunities.
Inclusion and Diversity
We want ISHA to be a great place to work and to ensure that our communities are represented across our workforce. A vital part of this is ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and those of Other Ethnicities, LGBTQ+, disabled and neurodiverse communities to make a real difference to our residents so that passionate commitment to customers, respect for everyone, pride in Team ISHA and trusted to make the difference remains at the heart of everything we do.
Deadline: 12:00pm 25 August 2025
Interview: To be confirmed.
Interested?
Please click the apply button. You will then be redirected to our website where you can find out more information and complete your application.
Once you have landed on our website, you will need to do the following in order to apply for this role:
Application Process
Please apply with your CV and a covering letter telling us: -
(a) After reading the job description and person spec, why you feel you are a great fit, and how your experience matches the skills and requirements of the role?
(b) About one challenge (ideally work related) that you have had, how you managed it, and what did you learn?
(c) What you enjoy most about working in income related environment or where you have delivered excellent customer service.
(d) When completing multiple tasks with competing deadlines, how do you prioritise?
(e) Anything else you want us to know about you.
Please note: We can only be able to accept applications from candidates with eligibility to currently work in the UK.
Applications sent without a covering letter will not be accepted.
Asking for adjustments
ISHA is committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long-term health conditions. If you would like us to do anything differently during the application, interview, or assessment process, including providing information in an alternative format, please contact us.
No agencies please.
Thank you!
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.
BACKGROUND
Over the past 90 years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has developed unparalleled expertise in responding to emergencies and helping uprooted communities to rebuild. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. The IRC is on the ground in more than 40 countries, providing emergency relief, relocating refugees and rebuilding lives in the wake of disaster.
The IRC is committed to a culture of bold leadership, innovation in all aspects of our work, creative partnerships and, most crucially, accountability to those we serve. The IRC is a tireless advocate for the most vulnerable.
IRC UK
IRC UK is part of the IRC global network, which has its global headquarters in New York. Our team in the UK works to raise profile, deliver policy and practice change, and increase funding to help restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Since 2021, IRC UK has also provided integration services directly to refugees in England.
In Europe, the IRC also has offices in Berlin, Bonn, Brussels, Geneva and Stockholm.
EXTERNAL RELATIONS
The External Relations (ER) unit comprises four complementary functions: Private Fundraising, Marketing & Mobilization, Policy & Advocacy and Operations & Analytics. To enable IRC to deliver our Strategy100 commitments, the ER unit established a bold new approach that enhances our ability to raise diverse and flexible funding aligned with IRC’s top priorities, while raising our profile and influence. The ER unit is international, with colleagues in more than 10 offices globally.
The Purpose of the Role
As Director of Communications, UK, you lead IRC UK’s core communications strategy with the objectives of growing our profile, influencing policy, driving income, and building our reputation. This is done by taking a strategic approach to generating effective messaging for cross-team use, creatively collaborating to produce cut-through external products across media and digital channels, and generating top tier media coverage in collaboration with communications, advocacy and fundraising colleagues globally. In this role you will be expected to use expert judgment to manage IRC UK’s reputation, as well as ensure media and digital outputs protect clients, staff and programming from harm.
The Director will report to the UK Executive Director and the Acting Senior Director of Global Public Affairs. The Director will collaborate closely with the Director for Digital Engagement, UK Advocacy Director, and the Director of UK Mass Markets to meet the organization’s strategic objectives surrounding profile, income and influence.
Scope and Authority
Authority:
●The role holder sets strategic direction for UK communications, with a focus on earned media, public advocacy and organic digital.
●The role oversees the UK comms operational budget, with access to the Global External Relations budget.
●The role has the authority to brief journalists with agreed messaging and act as spokesperson for the organisation.
●The Director will line manage the communications team and other positions when required.
●The role is a key member of the UK Senior Management Team, with collective responsibility for the leadership, culture and efficacy of IRC UK.
Key Working Relationships
●Reports to the UK Executive Director and Acting Senior Director Global Public Affairs & Communications.
●Close collaboration with External Relations staff in the UK, US and globally, including Policy and Advocacy, Mass Markets, Fundraising, Awards Management, Digital Engagement, Entertainment Relations, Creative Studio, and Experiential Marketing.
●Works closely with key country directors, country programme staff and technical unit colleagues.
●Supports policy staff in the IRC President’s Office on key UK messages and policy initiatives involving the IRC President.
●Works closely with counterparts in NGOs and donors particularly FCDO and the DEC.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
Strategic Direction
●Raise IRC UK's profile, income, influence and brand in the UK market by developing and delivering a 360 comprehensive communications & marketing strategy that reaches target audiences, attracts new supporters, and connects supporters with IRC clients.
●Partner with global external relations leadership to set Key Performance Indicators for achieving the strategy, and drive and monitor progress towards them with the support of your team.
●Contribute to the development and delivery of the UK Strategic Plan.
Team Management & Stakeholder engagement
●Manage a team of communications professionals, setting objectives, portfolio scope, and partnering on professional development opportunities
●Drive creative insights and strategic thinking within the UK comms team and influence / maximize policy, advocacy and fundraising outputs and results
●Lead strategic communications planning to maximize opportunities of partnering with income and influence objectives and outputs
●Ensure the UK Communications Team are clear on systems, processes and organization to drive efficiency and team productivity
●Review team performance quarterly and present on results to global stakeholders
●As a member of the UK Senior Management Team (UK SMT) support the UK Executive Director in the creation and delivery of IRC UK strategies and priorities, foster cohesion and collaboration among UK based departments, representing the needs and objectives of the team in the UK SMT and UK office.
Execution: Driving IRC profile, influence and income; and protecting the reputation of the IRC
●Work alongside global communications colleagues, Policy & Advocacy colleagues, Digital Engagement and UK Fundraisers to develop appropriate messaging on key proactive and reactive issue areas across the scope of IRC’s work.
●Plan and identify key moments of opportunity for IRC UK Communications according to internal and external landscape and timetables.
●Ensure pro/reactive message accuracy and cut through calls to action that engage audiences for proactive campaigns and news cycle opportunities.
●Develop, commission and drive creative cut-through tactics and products, from revealing IRC research and analysis to emergency media briefings.
●Secure top tier media coverage of IRC’s work, solutions and innovation, balancing mentions with long-form/features and profiles.
●Influence and shape key media and digital narratives around IRC UK priority issues.
●Oversee strategic media opportunities by commissioning, writing, editing and disseminating messaging for multi-channel use includingpress-releases, op-eds, statements, web and social content to secure coverage of the IRC in the UK across print, broadcast and online media.
●Work with global communications colleagues and country office staff to create strong, persuasive and impactful outputs, and to arrange interviews and media visits to frontline work.
●Act as a spokesperson for the organization in the media as needed.
●Liaise closely with Fundraising teams to collaborate on timely messaging, client-centered storytelling, digital outputs, and media coverage to bring in donations to the IRC during emergencies and other fundraising appeals.
●Manage the communications component of IRC UK’s relationship with the DEC and lead communications on DEC appeals.
●Use expert judgment to ensure the IRC’s brand is protected and to develop and enact strategies to enhance IRC’s reputation, as well as ensure media outputs protect clients, staff and programming from harm.
●Ensure coordinated and topical messaging across media outreach and digital channels.
●Establish close relationships with press counterparts within statutory donor organizations that lead to opportunities to promote IRC in the media.
●Leverage IRC’s President and CEO, and UK Executive Director to grow our profile in the UK, through proposing and implementing op-eds, interviews and other media activities.
●Support, prepare and coach staff, spokespeople and board members for media interviews and visits; and provide guidance across the organisation to dealing with media.
●Build expertise on current and potential issues in the humanitarian NGO arena via research and monitoring of national media and competitors and in liaison with global colleagues.
●Work with the global media colleagues to ensure that IRC has a system for managing media enquiries at all times, as needed.
●Responsible for reporting to the IRCUK board, subcommittees and Executive Director on press activity, trends and upcoming opportunities.
●Responsibility for the budget oversight, tracking & administration as well as ensuring adherence to financial processes
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Experience
●**Track record in creating, driving and evaluating a 360-degree communications and marketing strategy that focuses on media, digital and enabling income.**
●**Experience leading and managing media and digital teams.**
●Experience navigating and influencing within large matrixed organizations.
●Extensive experience of developing key messages and implementing media strategies with an international, and ideally humanitarian or development focus.
●**Experience of conducting media relations and communications opportunities in developing countries and sensitive contexts.
●Experience of organising international media visits to projects in order to facilitate reporting on key issues.**
●**Experience responding to reputational threats.**
●**Experience leading a digital communications team that delivers breakthrough digital content
●Experience/knowledge of tools for monitoring media coverage and digital results.**
●Experience of dealing with media enquiries into crisis and sensitive issues.
●Experience of acting as a spokesperson for an organisation.
●Experience managing a budget, ensuring timely payment and adherence to finance protocol
Skills and Knowledge
●Creative thinker who can identify opportunities and collaborate internally to produce external products that cut through media and digital and meet strategic IRC UK objectives.
●Strong communication and interpersonal skills: ability to communicate effectively with colleagues both in the UK and overseas and manage working relationships diplomatically.
●Excellent eye to detail and commitment to high speed and high quality writing and editing
●Strong understanding of marketing and how communications intersect with income generation, and influencing
●Strong organisational and time management skills: ability to prioritise team’s work, and multi-task in a fast-paced work setting.
●Good knowledge of UK and international media landscape and news cycle
●Good instinct for digital marketing and digital environment
●Good contacts with key UK journalists and media outlets, and knowledge and ability to develop relationships quickly.
●Excellent writing, editing and proofreading skills; adept at writing clean, engaging, jargon-free copy for a range of channels.
●Ability to represent IRC-UK and the wider IRC professionally and appropriately at all times.
●Knowledge/interest in international affairs, particularly of conflict and humanitarian crises and issues.
●Knowledge of key political debates in the UK around international development and aid.
●Flexibility as regards working hours, as the need arises.
●Willingness to travel occasionally to conflict areas.
●Fluency in English, spoken and written.
