Researcher Jobs in City Of London, England

Every childhood is worth fighting for. This is our belief. It drives us. 
 
It drives our award-winning Policy and Public Affairs team to shape law, policy and practice to ensure children can grow up free from abuse and neglect.
 
To help us achieve even more for children, we are recruiting six Policy and Public Affairs Officers across the UK. We are looking for: 

• 1 x Policy and Public Affairs Officer based in Northern Ireland
• 1 x Policy and Public Affairs Officer based in Scotland
• 1 x Policy and Public Affairs Officer based in Wales
• 3 x Policy and Public Affairs Officers based in England, with one focused on online safety 

These will be key roles in a high-performing team with an inclusive, supportive and empowering team dynamic. Post-holders will support the delivery of a range of policy-focused projects both within their respective nation policy team, and across our UK-wide team. 
 
The successful candidates will be: 

• committed to our mission to prevent child abuse; 
• able to demonstrate good policy development and policy research skills; 
• a strong communicator and effective network builder; and 
• have experience of influencing policy change in England/Northern Ireland/Scotland/Wales, as the specific role requires. 

 Join us and you'll become part of a team that cares about the work they do and the people they work with. You'll discover opportunities to grow, along with challenges and a shared purpose that'll bring the best out in you. And you'll get to find your own way to make a difference that means more, and that impacts millions of young lives.

Would you like to support Blood Cancer UK to secure high-value philanthropic income that will help beat blood cancer? Then this role is for you. 

This is a really exciting time to join the Major Gifts team at Blood Cancer UK. Over the last three years we have seen significant income growth in this area, enabling us to invest more money in life-saving research. 

We’re looking for an ambitious and resilient member of the team who will help drive forward new opportunities for income growth in the team, and provide a first class stewardship experience for our supporters. You might have existing experience working with high-value donors, however we are also open to candidates who have transferable experience from other areas – for example a sales or account management background.  

We offer a truly agile and flexible working environment alongside other excellent benefits including 5 wellbeing days a year. If you’re looking to work in a collaborative, supportive and ambitious fundraising team then we would love to hear from you.

Salary: £30,000 PRO RATA £18,000 for 0.6FTE – 21 Hours per week

Contract length: 1 YEAR Fixed Term Contract

Location: Thames21’s main office at the Guildhall, City of London or at our Satellite Office in Bow; but we also offer hybrid working.

Responsible to: Head of HR

About Thames21:

Thames21 is an environmental charity putting healthy rivers at the heart of community life. Through environmental improvements, community engagement, education and advocacy we bring about effective and lasting change by working hand-in-hand with communities to deliver tangible and measurable improvements to our network of rivers.

Diversity at Thames21

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Thames21 is key to our success and as such we employ staff from a diverse range of backgrounds, this we feel is key in ensuring that everybody has an equal opportunity and is not treated differently or discriminated against because of their characteristics. We value the voices of our individual employees, and we strive to work in a collaborative, innovative balanced way. The postholder must actively support this.

 Purpose of the job:

 This newly created HR Officer position will support the Head of HR in a busy HR function potential for a busy charity. The role will concentrate on the operational and administrative aspects of HR and will also act as a first line support to staff but will also provide administrative support to the Operations Manager.  There will also be an opportunity for the HR Officer to get involved in project and research work.

This a part-time role of three days which can be worked in number of ways with either three full days or with less hours across four days, but you will be required to work at least two days in the office. 

 Main duties and responsibilities:

· Be the first point of contact for general HR queries

· Oversee the HR and recruitment inbox

· Drafting contracts and offer letters

· Produce and place job adverts

· Coordinate and arrange interviews and book meeting rooms

· Manage onboarding documentation for new joiners

· Manage both incoming and outgoing reference requests

· Manage the DBS checks and Safeguarding training systems

· Conduct right to work checks prior to employment

· Work with the Head of HR to ensure HR policies are updated when required

· Updating the Thames21 Org Chart

· Communicate any employment law updates

· Carry out research and other projects as required by the Head of HR

· Manage and maintain the HRIS (Breathe HR)

· Manage and maintain HR files on SharePoint

· Research, source and book training for staff as and when required

· Support the Operations Manager with any Health & Safety administrative tasks as required

 Other Duties

This job description cannot cover every issue or task that may arise within Thames21. At various times the post-holder will be directed to carry out other reasonable duties in support of other Thames21 activities that are consistent with those in this Job Description.

The role

As the motion design producer at Breast Cancer Now, you’ll play a key role in helping bring our work to life.

You’ll be creating high quality, engaging content about our life-changing research, campaigning, fundraising, services and health information. And you’ll be part of the multimedia team, where we produce video, photography, motion design and audio that help strengthen our brand and tell our story.

Reporting to the senior multimedia manager, you’ll be producing motion design projects that cover all aspects of the organisation. This includes producing multiple small and large-scale motion projects throughout the year to support major campaigns and projects. Experience of producing long and short-form content with an eye towards social trends is also desirable.

The role may require some work on larger video and photography projects throughout the year to support the wider team, so any skills in video production, video editing or photography would be an advantage.

About you

You’ll have a keen interest in all things motion design and have a good portfolio of work to show this. You’ll be hard-working and highly motivated, with a flexible approach to your work. And you’ll be used to working in a busy team environment and able to work on your own initiative.

Strong communication skills are essential as you’ll be working with teams across the charity, supporters and people affected by breast cancer. 

You must have considerable experience using adobe creative suite, particularly after effects, illustrator, photoshop and premiere. Any knowledge of blender or other 3D software would also be welcome.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who shares our ambition. Right now, breast cancer is at a tipping point. More women are surviving. But more are being diagnosed than ever before. And every 45 minutes, another woman dies from the disease.

About us

We’re Breast Cancer Now, the research and support charity. We’re the place to turn to for anything and everything to do with breast cancer. However you’re experiencing breast cancer, we’re here. 

The brightest minds in breast cancer research are here. Making life-saving research happen in labs across the UK and Ireland.

Support services, trustworthy breast cancer information and specialist nurses are here. Ready to support you, whenever you need it.

Dedicated campaigners are here. Fighting for the best possible treatment, services and care, for anyone affected by breast cancer.

Why? Because we have a bold vision. That by 2050, everyone diagnosed with breast cancer will live, and be supported to live well. But to create that future, we need to act now. 

Job description and benefits

The job description and our attractive benefits package are available for you to download.

Primary location of role and hybrid working

This role is primarily based in our London office. However, our hybrid working model allows full-time staff members to work up to 3 days per week at home.

When applying

We hope you choose to apply for this role. You’ll be asked to submit your anonymised CV and a supporting statement alongside your application.

When applying, make sure you refer to the essential criteria on the person specification and give as much information as possible, including examples, to show how and where you meet the criteria.

As part of the application process, please provide a showreel/portfolio in the format of a link to share your previous motion design work. Please send your showreel/portfolio to the Breast Cancer Now recruitment team and this will be considered along with your CV and supporting statement.

If you’ve got any questions about this role, please contact the Breast Cancer now recruitment team.

We’re committed to promoting equity, valuing diversity and creating an inclusive environment for everyone. This is for those who work for us, work with us, support us and who we support. EDI is core to the vision, mission and strategic objectives of our charity. This is being continuously adapted to the way we work. So, we all have a part to play in embedding and living our EDI values to translate our ongoing commitment to EDI.

Closing date 9:00 am on Monday 27 May 2024

Interview date Week commencing 3 June 2024

Since 1962 the National Autistic Society has been campaigning to transform lives, change attitudes and create a society that works for autistic people. In National Programmes we champion the rights and interests of autistic people and their families, making sure national policy and legislation to reflect their needs. We provide autism training and best practice services and want all autistic people to have access to services and support that fully meet their needs. We provide diagnostic services, training, accreditation, consultancy and conferences, designed to support all professionals and organisations. 

Who we are looking for:

We are pleased to be able to offer an enthusiastic and experienced professional the opportunity to join our Evidence and Research Department. You will support the Head of Department in organisation wide strategic planning to ensure NAS outputs are evaluated using robust research methods that measure the impact of what we do.

You will manage researchers and be accountable for ensuring a consistent and quality assured approach to NAS evaluation research projects. We need someone who can ensure best practice research and evaluation methods are used in data collection, analysis and dissemination to co-produce impact reporting.  It will be essential that you support other NAS teams to use research and evaluation to measure the impact of their work and influence the future development of outputs and products.

Your focus will be to help to improve the quality of National Programmes and own services, and set standards for others by evaluating training, consultancy and accreditation products. You will directly manage a portfolio of evaluation research projects and coordinate the commissioning of individual projects to external evaluation partners, maintaining a schedule of work for next 3-5 years. 

This is a permanent full-time role working Monday to Friday, 35 hours per week.

To view the job description please click here

What we can offer you:

• Auto-enrolled Pension Scheme
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Excellent induction, training and development programme including training about autism and opportunities to attend our conferences
• Online staff discount scheme for a range of benefits such as cycle to work scheme, season ticket loan & shopping discounts for places such as Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, Halfords, Nike, Apple and loads more!
• Healthcare Cash Plan
• Life Assurance at 2 x base salary
• A portfolio of fantastic new salary sacrifices benefits and other flexible benefits private health, dental insurance, car salary sacrifice scheme, activity pass, holiday trading, enhanced pension & salary deduct loans (eligibility criteria may apply)
• Access to a 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme & counselling programme
• Free access to the Headspace App – a global leader in mindfulness and you can enrol up to three friends or family members for free!
• Eligibility for a Blue Light Card

Where you will be working: 

This role is homebased. 

About our application process: 

When providing a supporting statement, please refer to the job description and person specification and include any information that shows your suitability for the role.

We do reserve the right to close this advertisement early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications.

For some roles, successful applicants will be required to complete the relevant safeguarding checks which will include additional references and criminal background checks.

Applications for this job are sought from anyone who is suitably qualified and experienced for the role but particularly welcome from those with a diagnosis of autism.

The National Autistic Society is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and adults who use our services and as such expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Successful applicants will be required to complete the relevant safeguarding checks. 

We are an equal opportunities employer.

The salary is in line with the BITC job framework - minimum of £22,770 per annum regional and £25,875 per annum London office based. 

The location is flexible - across the UK - homebased or based out of a BITC office with a hybrid approach.

The responsibilities include: 

• Undertaking project management, including coordinating the team
• Tracking, monitoring and evaluating engagement with our inclusion campaigns via internal systems including Salesforce and Power BI
• Supporting the team with primary research, literature reviews of secondary sources and analysis of numerical data
• Developing content such as toolkits, factsheets, blogs, slide decks, case studies and other knowledge-based content to support businesses to engage with and implement campaign asks
• Managing internal and external stakeholder relationships
• Managing the Employment and Skills Twitter channels, posting content and driving engagement
• Using your own initiative to anticipate and vary the effort needed to meet internal and external deadlines
• Supporting on all aspects of delivering events, including occasional presenting

The successful candidate must be willing to undertake some travel within the UK, up to once a month.

Closing date - Sunday 19 May 2024 at midnight 

Interviews on Tuesday 28 May 2024 

Press and Media Relations Officer

The Press and Media Relations Officer represents the work of SCIE, acting as the point of contact for members of the press and other media representatives. The post holder is responsible for maintaining the profile and reputation of the charity and helping to achieve our influencing objectives with policymakers and leaders in the social care sector. Responsibilities include disseminating information to members of the press and other media to raise awareness of SCIE’s policy positions, research findings and improvement programmes. The post holder will help shape and deliver media influencing plans that support SCIE’s influencing objectives and use a variety of channels to achieve these objectives, including both traditional and social media. 

About us

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is a national charity with a clear vision of a society where care and support maximise people’s choices, removes social inequality, and enables people to live fulfilling, safe and healthy lives. To achieve this we research, evidence, share and support the implementation of best practice. We use this evidence and experience to shape policy and outcomes, and to raise awareness of the importance of social care and social work for creating a fair and equal society. Everything we do is informed by people with experience of care and support.

At the SCIE, we are driven by our values:

· Progressive – always learning and developing.

· Inclusive – working together for equality, diversity, and fairness.

· Credible – evidence-based, robust, and reliable.

· Transparent – open and honest.

General responsibilities: 

• Have fun and challenge yourself at work, model the charity’s values and abide by our policies and practices. 

• Embrace diversity and share in our commitment to equality of opportunity and to eliminating discrimination. 

• Work flexibly and positively contributing to good team working and the delivery of the SCIE’s objectives through matrix working. 

• Show a clear commitment to working with people with lived experience in a sensitive and non-judgmental way to facilitate positive working relationships. 

• Other tasks as may be required, commensurate with the level of the post 

Please see the Job Description as an attachement for further detail

Purpose of the role 

We are looking for enthusiastic consultant ready to work in a fast-paced organisation who can easily grasp and communicate impact to the different audiences across our work for fair finance. The consultant will be an exceptional writer across different platforms and a strategic thinker, with a solid understanding of our audiences and the best ways to share our story with them. They will join up three components of our finance work – transparency, consumer voice and our Fair Digital Finance Accelerator – with a core focus on our consumer voice profile. They will love the opportunities that come with working in an entrepreneurial environment, with a drive to deliver excellence and aptly raise our profile across core moments part of our fair finance agenda  - launches of our latest findings and research, events and campaigns.

Key Responsibilities 

Content generation  

• Draft compelling content for the different audiences of our fair finance work and for a broad suite of communications, including for our website, social media, materials and externally placed opinion pieces. Both this and the Leadership responsibility are core focus areas for this position.

Leadership  

• Develop the Communications Strategy for our Fair Finance work, creating informed and compelling messages and strategic KPIs which help deliver on programme and organisational goals and resonate with audiences.

• Provide strategic oversight to the design, delivery and evaluation of core global finance moments (such as research, events and campaigns).

• Navigate any communications issues relating to this work.

Driving efficiency and continuous improvement  

• Use and develop efficient systems and processes to help improve how we plan and evaluate communications for this work, and to pre-plan to mitigate issues. 

• Be diligent in monitoring the results of our communications performance, to proactively share outcomes with the team and help to improve outcomes. 

Using relationships for change 

• Build relationships with our Members, partners and donors to share their story, make them feel valued and ensure they promote our initiatives.

• Collaborate and work closely with the Fair Finance Team, Global Communications Coordinator and Head of Communications and Membership.

Deliverables

Typical deliverables during the tenure of this post will include:

• Content generation for long/short form content placed on our website and social media.

• Content (primarily opinion pieces) developed, pitched and placed on external partner platforms and/or the media.

• Media placement where relevant, including through press releases, letters to editors and op-eds.

• Strategic Communications Strategy for Finance, and project specific communications plans, which shows understanding of our audiences, messages and with goals aligning to organisational KPIs.

• Finance Communications Address book developed across core partners, based on strong relationships developed.

• Materials and/or audio visual content developed (working with external suppliers to do so) as and when there is a case for it.

The Head of Scotland and Northern Ireland is responsible for leading our vision to end the need for food banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Scotland currently leads the way in having a rights-based, progressive agenda to ending the need for food banks, but there is much to do to ensure political intentions become a reality. This role directs Trussell Trust’s policy and public affairs work in Scotland and Northern Ireland, leads our Scotland and Northern Ireland department as they support our network of food banks and works strategically with key partners to tackle the underlying reasons why people need to come to food banks.  

Based in Scotland or Northern Ireland, with travel around the UK as necessary

Role responsibilities 

• Lead the delivery of the Trussell Trust strategy for ending the need for food banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland, working to embed the Changing Communities, Changing Minds and Changing Policy programmes across the network, including through providing strategic support for the effective delivery of the Pathfinder, FI and organising programmes in Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

• Work with key partners to direct Trussell Trust’s policy and public affairs and work with the Scottish government and local authorities across Scotland. 

• Facilitate the sharing of learning from Scotland to help shape our long-term policy and public affairs work in Northern Ireland. 

• Lead the Scotland and Northern Ireland department to ensure the safe and effective operations of the food bank network. 

• Work with our Head of Strategic Church Engagement to deliver a church engagement strategy that will mobilise the church in Scotland and Northern Ireland to work to end the need for food banks. 

• Work with the Policy, Research and Impact, and Network Programmes and Innovation directorates to ensure effective cross-departmental working on policy and research opportunities, strategic priorities, church engagement, external partnerships and impact reporting. 

Person Specification 

Technical skills and minimum knowledge: 

• Senior level experience of leading delivery programmes nationally and locally. 

• Senior level experience of directing policy and public affairs programme nationally and locally, and representing the Trussell Trust to senior government representatives, national stakeholders and the media. 

• Expertise of significantly growing and managing services, project and programmes to drive change; leading, motivating and inspiring teams; leading culture change; able to manage multiple projects, identifying conflicting demands and establishing clear priorities in order to meet agreed objectives. 

• An effective communicator, verbally and in writing. Diplomatic and with the interpersonal skills required by the role. 

• Ensure that due regard is given to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion within all objectives that report into this department. 

Behaviours and competencies: 

• Demonstrate a commitment to the values of the Trussell Trust. 

• Demonstrates empathy for people from disadvantaged, marginalised or socially- excluded backgrounds. 

• Comfortable working in a fast-paced and high-performing organisation, combining problem-solving with collaborative interpersonal skills. 

• Effective communication skills; diplomatic; effectively builds rapport with individuals and groups; presents information accessibly and in a format appropriate to the audience. 

• Role model inclusive behaviour and leadership. 

About Us

Fundraising and Supporter Development (F&SD) provides a fundraising and alumni engagement function in support of King’s College London. We are proud to work with colleagues across the university and its health partners to help them serve society through world-leading education, research and healthcare. 

Our work also includes a partnership with the Maudsley Charity in support of children’s mental health initiatives between the university’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust.

We are a committed team that brings together fundraisers working across different channels, alongside colleagues who promote King’s College London’s engagement with its worldwide alumni community. Our work is underpinned and enhanced by a range of dedicated professionals in supporting areas covering proposition development, supporter engagement, supporter operations and business operations. 

We have an impressive, well-established track record of success in securing support that allows the university and partners to deliver on their missions. This includes our global, award-winning World Questions: King’s Answers campaign, which set the standard in the sector and enabled us to raise substantial funds to help tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges. Ambitious and innovative, the team has won awards such as a CASE Platinum Award for Fundraising and a CASE Gold Award for Donor Relations and Stewardship. We are strongly values-driven with a focus on sustaining an excellent and supportive culture, which we see as key to creating a successful team that can support the university and its partners in making a real and positive difference to the world, we live in.

More on King’s College London

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The university is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place.  Through its commitment to exceptional education, impactful research and genuine service to society, King’s College London is creating positive change in its communities, both in London and on the world stage. The Strategic Vision 2029 looks forward to King’s College London’s 200th anniversary in 2029 and sets out ambitious plans in five key areas: 

· Educating the next generation of change-makers

· Challenging ideas and driving change through research

· Giving back to society through meaningful service

· Working with our local communities in London

· Fostering global citizens with an international perspective.

About the role:

We are looking for two exceptional Senior Philanthropy Managers – Health to join our Fundraising & Supporter Development (F&SD) team to significantly increase philanthropic income for health fundraising priorities across King’s College London (KCL). The roles will focus on major gifts (£100k - £3m gift level) to raise funds in support of the Faculty of Life and Medical Sciences (FoLSM) and the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care (NMPC).

There are two posts available (full time - 35 Hours per week) on Fixed Term Contracts until August/September 2025. We welcome applications from those seeking part-time and flexible working - minimum of 0.8FTE.

F&SD has a hybrid working approach, with a minimum of 40% of time in the office. Typically, this equates to two days per week, but we’re very happy for colleagues to be in more frequently if they so wish.

Closing date: 28 May 2024.

To apply, please click “Apply Now”.

About The Role
Closing date: 20th May
Contract: This is a fixed term contract opportunity for 12 months.
 
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are
interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
 
Can you harness the power of stories to improve life for people with dementia and those around them?

Our magazine, Dementia together, helps people affected by dementia to feel less isolated and better able to make decisions. We also inspire readers and listeners to be a force for change by campaigning, fundraising and more – people act on the real-life stories and ideas that we share.

You’ll work with the Magazine Editor to plan and create content that reflects the full range of people’s experiences of dementia, being true to their voices while also fulfilling the Society’s aims. You’ll speak with a great range of people in this role – people with a dementia diagnosis, their carers, friends and relatives, supporters, volunteers, activists, researchers, and colleagues across our teams as well as representatives from other organisations.
 
You’ll help make content available online and elsewhere, producing a podcast and enabling colleagues to draw on our content and material in other ways too.
We never stop improving what we do and how we do it. One example is our focus on finding new ways to involve people with lived experience of dementia in planning and creating content.

This is a homeworking role, but you may be required to travel to attend some meetings and team-days, so you must reside in the UK, have the correct right to work documents to work in the UK and be comfortable/willing to travel to our flagship offices (London or Birmingham) if/when required.
 
Alzheimer's Society has recently been named on the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2023! We have achieved excellent scores for workplace happiness, pride, and job satisfaction. This is a fantastic achievement and we're incredibly proud as this is a fantastic indication of how far we’ve travelled over the past few years.

About you

- Strong writing and interviewing skills.
- Verbal and written communication skills to liaise with a diverse range of stakeholders.
- Extensive journalism or publishing/editorial experience.
- Ability to create user-centred content with various channels in mind, using good news sense and working to house guidelines.
- Ability to learn, adapt and share knowledge, while handling competing demands and delivering to deadline.
- Be committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, and to championing the diverse needs of people affected by dementia.

About Alzheimer's Society
At Alzheimer's Society, we believe passionately that life doesn't end when dementia begins. We are here for anyone affected by dementia, and we do everything we can to keep people with dementia connected to their lives and the people who matter most.

Everything we do is shaped by people affected by dementia. Their knowledge and experience are critical to bringing about real-world solutions. From choosing the most promising research through to telling their stories to raise awareness; they are the heart of this organisation.

Prospectus has been appointed as an approved supplier for the London and Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC/SUPC), which includes over 100 organisations in just London alone. As a result of this, we anticipate an uplift in the amount of exciting temporary opportunities we will have available to offer candidates in the higher education space.    

We recruit for varied permanent and temporary opportunities in the higher education space and with over 60 years of recruitment experience in the higher education and non-profit sector, we've been the go-to partner for many renowned universities in London.
 
We are currently looking to increase our pool of higher education academic candidates who are interested in registering for future opportunities. Candidates will have had previous experience in academic roles within Higher Education (e.g. Lecturer, Teaching Fellow, Researcher etc.)   
 
Please note that due to the current climate for temporary and permanent work across the HE sector, we are initially looking to engage with potential candidates and carry out registrations online with those that demonstrate suitable experience.             

Given the unprecedented volume of interest in our roles, consultants are unable to support with general job search advice or specific enquiries before application. Instead, please do either register your CV on our website or submit your CV for any roles that interest you to ensure that your application is reviewed in line with the position. Should you be successfully longlisted, or we are able to assist in your job search we will be in contact to discuss next steps.

As a specialist Recruitment Practice, we are committed to building inclusive and diverse organisations, and welcome applications from all sections of the community. We invest in your journey as a candidate and are committed to supporting you in your application.

The Task Ahead: Finance Manager

As The Difference moves from its early start-up phase into the delivery of our 2025-30 strategy, our programmes and sector-influencing work are expanding to reach more schools and to deepen our impact. Alongside this growth, our team - and the operational function which supports them - is also growing.

As Finance Manager, you will be a key member of the Finance & Operations team. You will hold end-to-end responsibility for the finance function, from reconciliations to budgeting. You will decide where and how our existing processes could be improved, as well as developing new systems that will underpin our work as a larger and more established charity. You will be supported by the Director of People, Finance & Operations, as well as our external auditors.

The Difference is still a small and growing charity. This means that our work is fast-paced, our roles are broad, and there is a culture of being reactive and flexible, as the needs of the organisation evolve. If this sounds exciting rather than daunting, then this could be the role and team for you!

Areas of Responsibility

The Difference is looking for a Finance Manager to lead our finance function in the following ways:

• Oversee our internal bookkeeping, payment, and accounting processes, and improve these systems ongoingly.

• Lead on budgeting and forecasting across the organisation, supporting teams to predict income and expenditure and make sound financial decisions.

• Lead on the production of management accounting information, including internal monthly management accounts, quarterly reports for Trustees, and financial reports for investors.

• Lead on The Difference’s audit process, with external auditors.

• Work with the Development & Impact Manager to update fundraising pipelines, and ensure the availability of high quality income projections for Trustees.

• Support accurate budgeting and reporting for grant funding, including tracking spend of restricted funds.

• Support business planning by working with teams to model potential future work - e.g. costs of expansion of an existing programme; modelling potential new programmes.

Person Specification

Essential – We are looking for the following skills, aptitude and experience; though you may be stronger in some areas than others:

• Values – Your experience evidences shared values with The Difference (see below) and a personal commitment to our mission to improve life outcomes for vulnerable people.

• Finance experience, operational and strategic – Experience across all areas of finance, from accurate invoicing, payments and record-keeping, through to setting and managing budgets, financial modelling and forecasting, and working with external accountants or auditors.

• Finance process development – Experience of developing finance systems; the ability to recognise how processes could be continuously improved, and enact this improvement.

• Leadership of self and others – Confident in identifying skills or information gaps within your team, and drawing on the expertise of others to address these gaps. Able to show how you've continually grown your own skills and those of your team members so that together you can efficiently cover workload and plan ahead.

• Proactive problem-solving – Ability to thrive in a fast-paced start-up environment and to problem-solve: from rolling sleeves up and diving into detail to working collaboratively to build capacity.

Desired – You are more likely to be successful in your application if you have one or more of the following additional experiences: 

• Accounting qualification and experience - Some form of accounting qualification and post-qualification experience.

• Early-stage charity/social enterprise experience – You may have specific experience growing charities or businesses for social good at the early or start-up phase.

• Experience of charity finances – You may have worked for or supported other charities, and have experience of working with philanthropic grants, charity accounting, and governance.

• Insight into schools – You may have experience working in the education sector, whether that’s through working for a business or charities that partnered with schools, or through working in a school yourself. 

Why Work for The Difference?

Schooling isn’t working for the children who need it most. Every week in England 109 children – equivalent to three full classrooms – are permanently excluded. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Since the pandemic, school suspensions have risen significantly, as has persistent absenteeism. 1 in 5 children are missing more than 10% of their time in school. Children who are excluded or persistently absent are much more likely to already be experiencing vulnerability or disadvantage. They are more likely to live in poverty, have additional learning needs, suffer mental health challenges, or experience a lack of safety outside school. Certain ethnicities are also disproportionately affected, notably Gypsy Roma Traveller and black Caribbean children. 

Exclusion and high rates of absence can have a dramatic effect on life chances. These young people are more likely to drop out of education or employment, become vulnerable to long-term mental ill health, or be at risk of criminal exploitation. The Difference believes that children and young people deserve better and that the education system has to change.

Our Organisation 

The Difference is a young education charity, founded to change the story on lost learning.  By 2030, we want rates of exclusion and absence to be falling nationally and for schools to be better equipped to support all children, including those who may be vulnerable. The Difference was born out of a year of research into school exclusions with think-tank IPPR. This research identified a lack of inclusion expertise in schools and proposed a new leadership development programme to fill this gap. In 2018, Difference founder Kiran hired the team who took this idea from concept to reality, beginning work with our first schools.

The Difference is now a 22-strong team delivering multiple school leadership programmes, alongside a growing research and policy arm. The team is supported by our Youth Advisory Board, made up of young people who have experienced exclusion and who provide their expertise and insights on how school inclusion work should be done. This work is needed more than ever. Effects of COVID-19, coupled with the spiralling cost of living, have substantially increased levels of vulnerability. Schools serving excluded pupils face under-funding. The Difference has had excellent early impact but there is work ahead to capture this, share learning with schools and policy-makers, and grow our capacity to lower exclusions across England.

Our Values

• High Expectations - We are ambitious for excellence from young people, colleagues and ourselves.  We don’t believe in writing off someone’s potential because of their identity or experience of crisis. 

• Strong Relationships - We prioritise genuine relationships over transactional interactions, and know that this requires deliberate relational practice. We see colleagues and partners as people first and their roles second; and know this greater trust allows us to take more risks, gain more feedback and have greater impact.

• Internalised Locus of Control - We work hard to reframe difficult situations to discover what we have within our power in terms of solutions. We take it upon ourselves to walk towards challenges and can take a high level of ownership and agency in our work/

• Pragmatism - We believe leadership means recognising current limitations and striving for improvements within and beyond them.  We develop consensus and chart new ways forward, challenging false and extreme positions like “zero exclusions” or “no excuses”.

• Scientific approach - We take a diagnostic approach to unpicking causes of problems. We are loud and proud of our failures, recognising failing fast and often is key to finding the best solutions. We test solutions and are willing to use data and feedback to make adjustments and choose new directions. 

• Not Squeamish about Structural Inequality - We believe patterns of inequality can and should be disrupted. We strive to be clear-eyed about these inequalities, and both the individual practice and system-changes required to address them. We push ourselves to overcome awkwardness in talking about this; and begin by acknowledging our own biases and blind spots.

• Asset-based - We work hard to avoid deficit thinking and aim to start with what’s strong, not what’s wrong. We are careful not to frame our colleagues and stakeholders - particularly young people and families – as victims but instead to recognise their agency.

• Wise selves - To both enjoy work and do their best, we want to make decisions and work with others in our “wise” - or regulated - selves. We also want to bring our compassionate self to those we work with, externally and internally, to support one another through challenging times. 

How To Apply 

To apply, please complete all sections of the application form by midnight on Sunday 19th May.

First round interviews will be held during the week beginning 27th May, over video call. Please indicate if you would not be available to attend an interview during this week.

If successful in this stage, second round interviews (including a task to be completed the same day) will take place on the week beginning 3rd June, at our office in Bethnal Green. 

We are committed to building a diverse team and strongly encourage applications from under-represented groups in the charity sector such as people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, people with experience in the care system, non-graduates and first-in-family graduates. 

As part of our commitment to fairer recruitment, all applications will be assessed with names and any protected characteristics redacted.

Recommended Reading 

If you’d like to understand more about The Difference and what we are trying to achieve, we would recommend the following:

• The research which underpins our organisation.

• Our latest Impact Report, sharing our work in 2023

Would you like to join RBL’s influential Campaigns, Policy and Research team? Would you like to to champion and advocate for the interests of the Armed Forces community?

We are looking for a Policy Officer to join our busy team, specialising in welfare and employment policy.

This role will see you working to influence the policy landscape, and develop evidence-based policy positions, on issues concerning finances and debt, welfare benefits, and employment, affecting the Armed Forces community.

Come and be part of the leading Armed Forces charity, making a difference to the lives of those who have served to keep us safe and protect our way of life.

Reporting to the Policy Manager, key responsibilities will include:

· Monitor the policy landscape and upcoming policy development across the welfare and employment portfolio, within central, local, and devolved government

· Track and analyse changes in needs, priorities, and concerns of the armed forces community

· Use qualitative and quantitative research, policy analysis and lived experience to develop robust, evidence-based policy positions and proposals

· Identify, establish, and maintain an impactful network of key policy stakeholders across the charity sector and government

· Represent RBL publicly through securing opportunities to present policy issues and products, including at relevant events, workshops, external committees and working groups

Here at RBL, we support our people and their wellbeing, with a package including generous paid holiday allowance and pension scheme contributions, and a range of optional benefits and discounts.

You will be contracted to your home address, and you will perform most of your work remotely there using our collaboration tools to work with colleagues, with occasional travel (incl. for monthly team meetings) to our London Head Office hub.

Should you wish to explore a hybrid London working contract (to include an additional London Supplement to salary), this can be discussed at interview stage.

For more detailed information about the role, please see our Vacancy Information Pack attached to our direct advert.

RBL is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive organisation, reflecting the diversity of the armed forces community and of wider society. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and personal characteristics.

Closing Date: Sunday 19th May 2024

 

Interview Date(s): Interviews (including a short assessment/task) to be virtually on 4th and 5th June 2024

We may close this vacancy early if we believe we have enough strong applications to be able to successfully fill the role(s). Interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.