Head of Media Relations
Upto £55,000 per annum
Homebased with easy access to our Newark Office
Full time: 35 hours per week
Permanent contract
This role is predominantly home-based with regular travel to locations across the UK. Office facilities are available at our Newark office (Tuesdays to Thursdays) for those within easy travelling distance. There is a requirement to attend in-person the monthly team meeting at the Newark office.
Closing date for applications: 31st May 2026
First interview: 15th June 2026 (In person at Newark office)
Second interview: 26th June 2026 (Online)
About Us:
The Wildlife Trusts are a grassroots movement of people from a wide range of backgrounds and all walks of life, who believe that we need nature and nature needs us. We have more than 945,000 members, over 33,000 volunteers, 4,100 staff and 600 trustees. There are 46 individual Wildlife Trusts, each of which is a place-based independent charity with its own legal identity, formed by groups of people getting together and working with others to make a positive difference to wildlife and future generations, starting where they live and work.
Every Wildlife Trust is part of The Wildlife Trusts federation and a corporate member of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, a registered charity in its own right founded in 1912 and one of the founding members of IUCN – the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Taken together this federation of 47 charities is known as The Wildlife Trusts.
The next few years will be critical in determining what kind of world we all live in. We need to urgently reverse the loss of wildlife and put nature into recovery at scale if we are to prevent climate and ecological disaster. We recognise that this will require big, bold changes in the way The Wildlife Trusts work, not least in how we mobilise others and support them to organise within their own communities
About You
Can you use your expertise in shaping powerful media narratives to help drive nature’s recovery with one of the UK’s best-loved environmental charities? The Wildlife Trusts’ experienced Media team plays a vital role in shaping the public conversation about nature.
We create compelling, authoritative stories for broadcast, print and online national media outlets and generate billions of opportunities each year for people to see, hear and read about The Wildlife Trusts’ important work to restore wildlife and reconnect people with nature. Our work spans a wide and ambitious agenda. We respond to and comment on Government policy, we champion bold solutions for nature’s recovery, and we spotlight the impact of our work across issues as varied as peatland restoration, nature for mental health, and whale and dolphin conservation. Through interviews, opinion pieces, press releases, video content and expert commentary, we regularly appear on flagship programmes including BBC Countryfile, Springwatch, ITV News and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, as well as international media.
Our high-profile coverage ensures that The Wildlife Trusts remain at the heart of the national conversation about the urgent need to tackle the nature and climate crises. Our work continues to grow and adapt. The scale and pace of the challenges facing our wildlife demand even greater ambition, clarity and leadership in how we communicate. We are now seeking a strategic and operationally experienced Head of Media Relations to lead the next phase of our media work – who can continue to strengthen our national profile in the media, identifying new opportunities for The Wildlife Trusts, and ensuring our message continues to cut through to drive awareness and meaningful action.
You are an experienced and credible media professional with a track record of leading and supporting high-performing teams in a fast paced, high-profile environment.
You will have demonstrable expert knowledge of the media landscape, with a wide network of trusted media relationships that you use thoughtfully and effectively to achieve impact. You are equally confident developing and placing softer news stories as you are managing complex or high-stakes situations, exercising sound judgement and acting decisively when it matters most.
You will have substantial experience of reputation management, including advising senior leaders and stakeholders on sensitive or contentious issues. An understanding of the issues affecting UK wildlife and nature recovery is highly desirable, alongside a commitment to using the power of media to inform, engage and drive positive change
Thank you!
The Organisation
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is the UK’s leading children’s charity, driven by a single, unwavering belief: every child deserves to be safe, loved, and free from abuse. Established in 1884 and operating under Royal Charter, the organisation has spent more than 140 years working to prevent cruelty to children and create lasting change in their lives.
Today, that mission has never been more urgent. As the challenges facing children continue to evolve, from the risks of online harm to complex family circumstances, the NSPCC provides vital frontline support while also working to influence the systems that protect children. Each year, it helps make over a million children safer from abuse, with thousands of adults turning to its Helpline and children and young people relying on Childline’s 24/7 counselling when they have nowhere else to turn.
Working across all four nations of the UK and the Channel Islands, the NSPCC combines direct services, education programmes, and national advocacy to drive impact far beyond its immediate reach. Central to its work is a commitment to evidence-led practice, ensuring every action is informed by what works, and that the voices and experiences of children and young people remain at the heart of a safer, more protective society.
The Role
At the heart of NSPCC is its Services Directorate, delivering practical, child-centred support that helps keep children and young people safe. These services translate the organisation’s mission into action through prevention, therapeutic support, and strengthening safeguarding practice.
The Services Director will play a critical role in shaping the NSPCC’s future as a member of the Executive Leadership Team, leading the development and delivery of a national services strategy and overseeing a complex portfolio of services.
Key aspects of the role include:
- Leading high-quality national and local services that improve outcomes for children and young people
- Shaping and delivering the services strategy to support the organisation’s wider ambitions
- Driving integration and impact across NSPCC and Childline services
- Building strong relationships with senior stakeholders, including the Chief Executive, Board, and external partners
The Person
This is an opportunity for a collaborative, values-driven leader to navigate complexity, drive meaningful change, and make a lasting difference to children’s lives at scale. The successful candidate will demonstrate the following:
- Extensive experience and proven track record at Director level of successfully developing and delivering services, including co-production and collaboration with partners, in a complex stakeholder environment that have a measurably positive impact for beneficiaries.
- Highly experienced in child protection with demonstrable knowledge and experience of child safeguarding. A social work qualification will be highly advantageous.
- Proven experience leading and managing teams of functional experts, overseeing significant income and expenditure budgets, and driving operational performance through the setting and monitoring of clear, aligned objectives.
- Experience of designing and delivering transformational change and driving performance management using appropriate quality and management methods and models, to deliver efficient and effective services.
- Demonstrable understanding of the operational context for services including the commissioning and market environment.
- Experience of managing senior stakeholders, both internally and externally, and confidence in dealing with, and influencing, senior employees and volunteer colleagues, and producing and imparting clear and non-technical advice and information.
- Values the different skills and attributes of others, utilising the insight, experience and expertise of colleagues.
- Experience of representing an organisation at the highest level. Clearly articulates a compelling vision, focussing on both what the future might hold and the more immediate stepping stones to realise those outcomes.
- Challenges constructively and evidences a willingness to receive constructive challenge in order to drive our individual and collective efforts forward.
Further Information
For further information about NSPCC, the role responsibilities, and the person we are looking for, please download the Candidate Briefing Pack.
How to Apply
If you are interested in this key role within the NSPCC and feel you have the skills and experience required, please include the following with your application:
- An up to date CV with the details of two referees (we will not contact them without your prior permission).
- A supporting statement which addresses how you meet the criteria for the role as detailed in the Person Specification. Please also discuss your motivations for applying.
Closing date for applications: Monday 1st June 2026
Preliminary interviews with Russam: 12th-16th June 2026
First stage interviews with NSPCC: Week commencing 29th June 2026
Second stage interviews with NSPCC: Week commencing 6th July 2026
Thank you!
Lloyds Bank Foundation
Head of Programme Design and Organisational Development
Starting Salary: £66,438 (if London-based); £61,872 (if not London-based)
Contract: Full-time, permanent contract (we are open to conversations about flexibility - so please ask)
Location: Remote role - can be based anywhere in England or Wales with an expectation of frequent travel across England and Wales
About Lloyds Bank Foundation
Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales is an independent charitable foundation, backed by Lloyds Banking Group and the people within it. We want everyone to be in a good place - personally, in a home that’s a good place to live, and in a community that’s a good place to belong.
We play our role by connecting and catalysing community-led change, providing the money, time, tools and connections that build organisations’ capacity and capability, to make people’s lives better and their communities stronger.
We back people and communities across England and Wales, to make that happen, because when you back brilliant people, brilliant things happen. Our communities are full of ambitious, energetic and determined people stepping up to make their neighbours’ lives better and their communities grow stronger. Day in, day out.
About the Role
This is a leadership opportunity to shape how the Foundation designs, delivers and strengthens its programmes across England and Wales.
As Head of Programme Design and Organisational Development, you will lead the Foundation’s approach to programme design, organisational development and volunteering, ensuring everything we do is high quality, evidence-informed and grounded in lived experience.
You will set the standards, frameworks and tools that underpin programme design across the organisation, working closely with Programme Leads to design new programmes and strengthen existing ones. You will also lead our organisational development offer, ensuring charities and partners are supported to become stronger, more resilient and better connected.
Alongside this, you will shape how volunteering contributes to our work, embedding it across programmes and ensuring it supports both community capacity and connection.
You will work across teams and directorates to ensure programme design, organisational development and volunteering are fully aligned and working together to deliver meaningful community-led change.
About You
We’re looking for an experienced and credible leader with a strong background in programme or service design, ideally in complex or multi-partner environments.
You will bring a deep understanding of how organisational development builds capacity and resilience, alongside experience of using evidence and insight to improve programmes and outcomes.
You will be confident developing frameworks, standards and approaches that ensure quality and consistency, while also enabling innovation and learning.
You will be a collaborative and relational leader, with strong partnership skills and the ability to work across internal teams and external organisations. A commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging is essential.
How to Apply
Please click ‘Apply’ to be redirected to our website, where you can download the Candidate Information Pack and find details of how to apply.
For an informal conversation about the role and application process, please contact our recruitment partner, Atkinson HR via the information in the candidate pack.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We hold Disability Confident Employer status (Level 2) and are working towards full status by 2027. This means that if you're a disabled applicant and your CV and application answers clearly demonstrate that you meet the essential criteria for the role, we will invite you to interview.
More broadly, we are committed to building a diverse team that reflects the communities and people we work with. We believe that diversity of background, experience and perspective makes us stronger and helps us make better decisions. We actively welcome applications from people who are under-represented in the charity sector, including people from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic communities, disabled people, and those with experience of the issues our funded charities work to address.
Key Dates
Closing Date: Thursday 28th May 2026
Optional Q&A Session: Wednesday 6th May 2026 at 09:00-10:00
First Interview: Tuesday 9th June 2026
Second Interview: Thursday 18th June 2026
Registered Charity
21 - 50
We support small, local and specialist charities across England and Wales.
