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Who we are:
Chefs in Schools exists to improve children’s health and futures through improving school food and food literacy.
We work alongside schools and catering teams to transform what children eat every day, particularly in communities facing the greatest barriers to good health. We combine practical support, training, operational expertise and sector influence to help schools serve fresh, nutritious food that children want to eat.
We are ambitious about both impact and scale. We want every child to have access to excellent school food and a real food education, regardless of background.
We are a values-led organisation. We are bold, honest, collaborative, innovative and focused on solutions.
About you and the role
We are looking for an enthusiastic and proactive Fundraising Officer to join our Partnerships and Engagement team. This is a brilliant opportunity to support a broad portfolio across income streams including Trusts and Foundations, Corporate Partnerships, and Major Donors.
You will play a crucial role in our fundraising efforts by leading prospect research to identify new funding opportunities to build a strong pipeline. You will support the Senior Partnership Manager and Philanthropy Manager to grow a portfolio of trusts, corporate partners and philanthropists. You will also be responsible for maintaining the CRM database (Beacon) and administrative tasks. This varied role is perfect for someone who enjoys building relationships and coordinating meaningful supporter engagement opportunities. You will work with colleagues across Chefs in Schools to gather compelling stories and impact data that demonstrate the difference our funders make.
The responsibilities, skills and experience listed below are intended to give you an idea of what we need for this role. If you don’t meet every requirement but feel you would be able to work with us to deliver the majority of them, we urge you to apply anyway. We’re dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and for us the most important ‘experience’ is passion for our mission. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
You will have excellent organisation skills, with good attention to detail and the ability to prioritise a varied workload. You will have strong communication skills and be able to build relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
We want to get to know you at the interview and understand we can do this best if you’re at ease. We’re an inclusive employer and are passionate about creating a welcoming working environment for everyone. We’re continually updating our DEI policy and have a neurodiversity champion. If you need adjustments to the interview process please let us know.
As we work with children and young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy.
Key responsibilities
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Lead prospect research to build a strong pipeline of trusts, corporates and major donors which align with our mission. This includes network mapping to identify existing connections and relationships.
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Act as the CRM champion for fundraising, ensuring all donor interactions and details are accurately recorded and updated.
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Support in developing and maintaining inspiring stewardship and engagement plans for funders and supporters.
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Provide events support; logistics, guestlist management and other duties where required.
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Prepare insightful briefings for the Senior Leadership Team ahead of key funder meetings.
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Work with the communications team to create engaging end of term/ annual reports for key funders and donors.
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Monitor sector trends and newly launched funding rounds to ensure we never miss an opportunity.
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Work with the finance team to process donations and Gift Aid declarations, ensuring thank-yous are sent out promptly.
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Pull regular financial and pipeline reports from the database to assist with team forecasting and planning.
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Provide warm supporter care as the first point of contact for public fundraising inquiries.
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Support the delivery of digital appeals, regular giving, and community fundraising initiatives.
Essential skills & experience
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You have at least 1–2 years of experience in a charity fundraising environment.
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You have interest and belief in our mission, to improve child health through improving food and food education in schools.
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You are an excellent writer and communicator with strong presentation and communication skills.
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You have experience of using CRM software.
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You have strong research skills and experience synthesizing complex information into succinct and accessible copy.
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You are highly organised and can juggle multiple deadlines while maintaining a sharp eye for detail.
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You are a natural relationship builder, comfortable interacting with a diverse range of stakeholders.
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You demonstrate self-motivation, flexibility and the ability to adapt to an ever-changing, growing organisation.
Desirable skills & experience
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Experience using tools like Canva or Mailchimp to create engaging fundraising content.
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Experience in planning and delivering fundraising events.
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Familiarity with fundraising regulations and data protection laws regarding donor privacy.
What success looks like
Within the first 12 to 18 months, success in this role is likely to include a comprehensive knowledge of our existing fundraising model and key funders, taking the lead in prospect research, leading on account management of restaurant partners, small to medium scale fundraising campaigns, and supporting with event organisation. You will also have gained a comprehensive knowledge of the organisational strategy and the wider school food system.
Our commitment to inclusion
We know that strong candidates may not meet every single requirement listed in this job description.
If this role excites you and you believe you could make a strong contribution to our mission, we would encourage you to apply.
We are committed to building a diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation where people from different backgrounds, experiences and communities can thrive. If you require assistance or reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process please let us know.
Benefits
You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who works hard but believe in a healthy work/life balance. We were voted one of CODE Hospitality's happiest places to work in 2024. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you'll be able to contribute to and draw on various projects and strategic insights.
We offer 33 days of holiday per year including bank holidays, 3 additional office closure days over the Christmas period as well as wellbeing days over the summer school holidays. We also have a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, enhanced parental leave, and free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.
We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the Aviva Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.
Application process
In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we invite candidates to answer a series of questions related to their day-to-day job.
Each question has a 250-word limit. We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you're ready, to make sure you don't lose your work if interrupted.
All communication about your application, other than a verbal job offer, will be sent through the Applied platform - please check your Applied account regularly (as well as your spam folder) for updates.
Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers are anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. A longlist of candidates will then additionally have their CVs reviewed. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30 minute online interview. Successful candidates will be invited to attend a second, in-person interview at our office in Brixton, London.
Expected duration of this application process: 4-6 weeks
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an online 30-minute competency based interview, held in the week commencing 7th September.
Successful candidates will be invited to an in-person second interview at our office in Brixton, London w/c 14th September. The interview overall will take a maximum of one hour.
We’re on a mission to transform kids’ health through food – plate by plate, class by class, school by school.



Using Anonymous Recruitment
This organisation is using Anonymous Recruitment to reduce bias in the first stages of the hiring process. Submit your application as normal and our system will anonymise it for you. Your personal information will be hidden until the recruiter contacts you.
This is an exciting new opportunity to help empower young people aged 8–16 to take action, build confidence and develop new skills through our youth-led programmes in schools.
The Programmes Executive will play a key role in supporting our community of primary and secondary schools throughout the school year. You will help design and deliver Bite Back in Schools, ensuring a positive and engaging experience for young people, their teachers and their schools whilst making sure the programme achieves meaningful impact.
Alongside day-to-day programme delivery, you will contribute to a range of initiatives across the organisation, including supporting an exciting collaboration with the School Food Project and helping to coordinate and support wider organisational events such as our youth residentials.
This role would suit someone who enjoys working with young people, is proactive and adaptable, and is ready to learn and grow at a leading youth-led health charity. You’ll be motivated by helping young people turn their ideas into action and seeing the difference that makes in schools and beyond.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Programme delivery
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Schedule and organise visits to schools, agreeing agendas with the schools in advance to include meeting pupils and teachers, leading feedback sessions and focus groups and supporting the development of their social action campaigns.
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Schedule and deliver assemblies with primary and secondary schools participating in the programme, coordinating with our Bite Back ambassadors.
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Support the School Ambassadors with travel logistics as they deliver assemblies in schools across England and Scotland.
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Deliver training and webinars for schools where necessary.
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Maintain and regularly update programme management software and associated data to ensure accurate and up to date information for all participating primary schools.
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Ensure successful end-to-end support for the 5+ primary schools participating in the programme throughout the 26/27 school year.
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Celebrate and share examples of best practice and impactful social action projects amongst our community of schools.
Relationship management
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Provide ongoing support to both primary and secondary schools throughout their time on the programme, building strong working relationships with participating schools.
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Support communication with all primary schools, providing a point of contact for the coordinator and lead teacher in each school.
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Support monitoring and evaluation through creation of surveys, ensuring completion of baseline and end of year surveys, and analysis of data submitted (working with our Impact & Evaluation Manager).
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Provide timely responses to school queries and alert the Programmes Manager of any potential risks.
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Proactively seek feedback from teachers and young people on our programmes.
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Ensure opportunities for schools to engage in at least two one-on-one meetings with our team during the school year.
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Build productive relationships with programme partners.
Project support
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Help coordinate our relationship with our partners in The School Food Project, including Chefs in Schools, School Food Matters, Food Foundation & Jamie Oliver’s Group.
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Support the national rollout of the Bite Back in Schools Primary programme, translating insights and evidence from two successful pilot programmes into engaging assemblies and high-quality resources that drive effective programme delivery and impact.
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Provide support to Programme Manager in the delivery of projects, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within budget and scope.
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Provide ad hoc input to evolving organisational requirements as directed by senior team members.
Event support
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Support the planning, coordination and delivery of Bite Back events throughout the year, including travelling as required to meet the operational needs of the Youth teams.
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Coordinate the logistical arrangements for youth residential events, including travel, accommodation and other practical requirements.
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Contribute to event planning and preparation, including resource ordering, coordination and ensuring all materials are organised and available in advance.
SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
The ideal candidate would have the following:
Essential
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Ability to build and maintain strong working relationships with a broad range of stakeholders at the individual level and in representation of the organisation.
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Strong organisational and project management skills, with excellent time management, ability to manage competing priorities and attention to detail.
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Excellent writing and communication skills, with the ability to adapt messages and language to resonate with different audiences.
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A willingness to build relationships across sectors, with young people and adults.
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Experience of creating resources which are engaging for young people.
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Experience of youth facilitation and/or delivering training.
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Experience in presenting and delivering content, ideally to young people such as an educational, heritage or other setting, for example such as leading assemblies and workshops.
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Demonstrated experience planning and coordinating events, including logistics, stakeholder communication, and on-the-day delivery.
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Confident public speaker or willingness to learn.
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Ability to travel across England and Scotland when required (occasional).
Desirable
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Proven experience coordinating programmes in partnership with external stakeholders, fostering strong collaborative relationships to ensure successful delivery and shared outcomes.
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Experience of working with CRM systems.
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Strong understanding of the education sector and experience of working with schools and teachers.
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Experience in drafting compelling copy and uploading content to digital platforms.
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Understanding of youth social action and extracurricular programmes.
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Interest in campaigning, social justice, food, and child health.
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Experience with design tools like Canva.
Please read the full application pack before applying. We are asking you to answer 4 questions. If your application does not include these answers we cannot consider it for the role.
OUR MISSION IS TO CHANGE THE WAY UNHEALTHY FOOD IS MADE, MARKETED AND SOLD, ESPECIALLY TO CHILDREN.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Salary: £60,000 - £80,000 FTE (£48,000 - £64,000 Pro rata for part-time), commensurate with experience
Contract: Permanent | Part-Time (0.8 FTE) | Year-round (Flexible working patterns considered)
Reporting to: The Head
St Catherine’s is seeking a visionary Director of Strategic Partnerships & Development to join our Senior Leadership Team. In this pivotal executive role, you will lead the strategy for our fundraising, external relations, corporate partnerships, and business development initiatives—shaping the future financial resilience and educational ambition of the School.
You will be responsible for securing philanthropic support, cultivating major donors, developing strategic partnerships and generating sustainable income opportunities. Whether your background is in corporate partnerships, high-value fundraising, commercial growth, hospitality, or professional services, this is an extraordinary opportunity to leverage your relationship-building expertise to make a lasting impact. Prior experience in the education sector is not required.
The Opportunity
As a senior ambassador for St Catherine’s, you will shape and execute an ambitious strategy to diversify income, engage key stakeholders, and maximize the value of the School’s brand and physical assets.
Reporting directly to the Head, you will oversee our Development and Alumnae Relations functions while collaborating closely with Admissions, Marketing, and Finance.
Key Priorities:
- Philanthropy & Major Gifts: Build and steward a pipeline of prospective donors, leading capital campaigns, grant applications, and major gift initiatives across alumnae, parents, and benefactors.
- Strategic Partnerships & Commercial Growth: Identify and secure mutually beneficial collaborations across business, technology, arts, sport, and the wider community.
- Alumnae & Community Engagement: Deliver an exceptional engagement strategy that turns network affinity into meaningful advocacy, mentorship, and support.
- Asset Optimization: Partner with executive colleagues to identify commercial opportunities within the School’s Site Masterplan and facilities.
- Data-Driven Strategy: Champion CRM systems and performance insights to track growth, evaluate potential initiatives, and guide executive decision-making.
About you:
- Senior Commercial Leadership: Proven success in a brand-led, growth-focused, or customer-centric organization.
- Relationship Mastery: Outstanding networking, negotiation, and influence skills with high-net-worth individuals, foundations, or executive stakeholders.
- Strategic Vision & Execution: The ability to translate big-picture strategy into clear, measurable execution frameworks.
- Data Literacy: Comfortable utilizing data insights, CRM systems, and performance dashboards to track pipeline conversion and guide choices.
- Ethos & Integrity: Alignment with St Catherine’s values, a commitment to holistic education, and an uncompromising dedication to child safeguarding.
Why Join Us?
At St Catherine’s, we offer a collaborative environment and a competitive benefits package, including:
- Flexible Working: Part-time (0.8 FTE) with flexible working patterns considered.
- Pension Scheme: Generous employer pension contributions (up to 12% employer).
- Holiday Allowance: 25 days plus Bank Holidays (pro-rata), available to book year-round.
- Fee Remission: Discounted school fees for daughters attending St Catherine’s.
- Health & Wellbeing: Comprehensive Health Cash Plan, complimentary lunches during term time, and a Cycle to Work scheme.
- Convenience: Free ample on-site parking.
How to Apply
Please submit your application online via My New Term by 10:00 AM on Tuesday 1st September 2026.
Please note: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and interviews may be scheduled prior to the closing date. Early application is strongly recommended.
St Catherine’s is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is subject to child protection screening, including checks with past employers and an Enhanced DBS with Barred List check. St Catherine’s is an equal opportunities employer.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Keeping Young People Safe:
We are committed to keeping young people safe. All successful applicants will undergo an enhanced DBS (England & Wales) / PVG (Scotland) check and receive ongoing safeguarding training.
At Young Enterprise, safeguarding is at the core of everything we do. We are committed to promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults. All successful applicants will receive ongoing safeguarding training throughout their employment and be expected to uphold excellent safeguarding practice at all times.
Are you passionate about helping young people build brighter futures?
Do you love building relationships and making things happen in education? If so, we’ve got a brilliant opportunity for you to join our team as an Educational Partnerships Manager at Young Enterprise.
Who We Are
We’re Young Enterprise - a national charity with a bold mission: to give every young person the skills, confidence, and mindset to thrive in the changing world of work.
For over 60 years, we’ve empowered more than 7 million young people through hands-on enterprise and financial education programmes. Whether it’s launching a student business or learning how to manage money, we help young people develop key life skills-teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, and resilience.
We’re a passionate, down-to-earth team of 90+ staff and 2,000+ volunteers who believe that every young person, regardless of background, deserves a fair start in life.
Why Join Us?
We think Young Enterprise is a great place to work and we’re proud of our people-first culture. Here’s what you can expect:
- A friendly and supportive team where your voice is heard
- A strong commitment to diversity and inclusion—we want everyone to feel they belong
- Generous holiday allowance and flexible working
- Cycle-to-work scheme, life assurance, and NHS top-up plan
- Ongoing learning and mentoring opportunities
- A chance to directly impact the lives of young people every single day
About the Role
This is a role where you’ll really see the difference you make.
As Educational Partnerships Manager, you’ll work across Hull, East Riding, North Lincolnshire, and North East Lincolnshire, building partnerships with schools, colleges, youth organisations and community groups-particularly in areas where opportunities are hardest to come by.
You’ll be right in the mix: planning events, delivering programmes, supporting volunteers and connecting with school staff to make sure young people have access to our inspiring enterprise and financial education experiences.
You’ll be a key driver of our Inspiring Futures programme-helping young people break down barriers and imagine bigger futures.
It’s a varied, people-focused role with loads of room for creativity, independence and collaboration. Whether you’re visiting a school, chatting with a funder, or supporting a trade fair, you’ll be helping young people build skills that will last a lifetime.
You’ll love this job if you are…
- A brilliant relationship-builder, confident working with teachers, volunteers, and community leaders.
- Passionate about education, social mobility, and giving every young person a chance to shine.
- A natural communicator-whether leading a session in a classroom or inspiring a room of volunteers.
- Organised and able to juggle multiple projects (with a great sense of humour!).
- Self-motivated, adaptable, and happy working remotely but never alone-you’ll be part of a close-knit regional team.
- Excited by the idea of doing a job that combines delivery, relationship-building, fundraising and volunteering.
Key Responsibilities
- Build and grow relationships with schools, colleges, youth clubs and local communities.
- Focus on expanding our reach in areas of multiple deprivation and underrepresentation.
- Deliver and support the rollout of YE programmes in schools and other settings.
- Recruit, train and support volunteers-making sure they feel valued and inspired.
- Work with your regional team to meet shared goals and celebrate local impact.
- Help secure local funding by supporting fundraising efforts and managing project deliverables.
- Support the planning of events, trade fairs and celebrations for young people.
- Keep accurate records, track impact, and make sure safeguarding is front and centre.
A few practical things:
- This is a hands-on role-you’ll sometimes be lifting resources, setting up venues and travelling regularly (a car and full driving licence are essential).
- You’ll need to be happy occasionally working evenings or weekends during peak delivery times.
- Expect to be on your feet during some events or sessions-it’s all part of the fun!
How to Apply
If you’re ready to help shape the futures of young people across Hull, East Riding, North Lincolnshire, and North East Lincolnshire, we want to hear from you!
Please send your CV and a cover letter (max 2 pages) telling us why you’re the right person for this role. Applications must be submitted by 23:30 on 16 September 2026. Please note that applications without a cover letter will not be considered.
Interviews will be held in person and may take place before the closing date. Please note, we are only able to respond to shortlisted candidates.
Full details can be found in the Job Description.
At YE we are passionate and committed to keeping your data safe and secure. Full details can be found in the YE People’s Privacy Notice.
Join us – and help us give every young person the chance to thrive.
We empower young people to discover, develop and celebrate their skills and potential.


The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
ABOUT CHEFS IN SCHOOLS
Chefs in Schools exists to improve children’s health and futures through better school food and meaningful food education.
We work alongside schools and catering teams to transform what children eat every day, particularly in communities facing the greatest barriers to good health. We combine practical support, training, operational expertise and sector influence to help schools serve fresh, nutritious food that children want to eat.
We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and are ambitious about both impact and scale. We want every child to have access to excellent school food and a real food education, regardless of background.
We are a values-led organisation - bold, honest, collaborative, innovative and focused on solutions.
WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS
You will lead the delivery of Chefs in Schools External Affairs function, ultimately ensuring there is widespread recognition that poor quality school food is unacceptable. Through integrated media, digital and advocacy work, you’ll ensure quality school food is viewed as a vital tool for healthy development and food literacy.
You will turn strategic direction into coordinated delivery, leading a multidisciplinary team that increases our influence, strengthens our reputation and helps achieve meaningful improvements in school food.
Working closely with External Affairs colleagues and Chief Executive, you will ensure our public profile, policy influence and media work reinforce one another, while creating the management capacity required for a growing organisation. This builds on the new functional structure where media and content, policy and campaigns, and the School Food Review programme all sit within External Affairs.
We want Chefs in Schools to become the most trusted and recognisable voice in the conversation around school food and food literacy. This role will play a central part in building that influence and recognition.
We are looking for somebody who understands that influence is built through consistency, credibility, creativity and cultural relevance as much as through formal communications activity alone.
WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR
Leadership
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Lead the day-to-day operation of the External Affairs team.
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Translate organisational strategy into clear plans and objectives.
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Ensure media, content creation, campaigns, policy and coalition activity reinforce one another.
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Set priorities and allocate resources across competing work.
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Develop team capability through coaching, support and performance management.
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Contribute to organisational strategy and annual planning.
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Advise on reputational opportunities and risks.
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Ensure innovation is embedded at the heart of our work and approach.
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Deputise at SLT level where appropriate.
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Represent the organisation externally.
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Build a collaborative, ambitious, solutions-focused culture.
Operational planning
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Develop and oversee the annual External Affairs plan in line with strategy.
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Coordinate campaign calendars, policy priorities, publications and media moments.
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Ensure external activity supports fundraising, programmes and partnerships.
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Monitor delivery against KPIs and adjust plans where required.
Campaigns and public engagement
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Provide strategic oversight of policy development and campaigning.
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Challenge and refine policy recommendations before publication.
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Ensure campaigns are evidence-led and aligned with organisational strategy.
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Support relationships with government, sector leaders and coalition partners.
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Build strong relationships with media, MPs, councillors and key stakeholders.
Media & communications
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Oversee media strategy and organisational messaging.
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Ensure consistency across press, social media, website, publications and events.
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Identify media moments and hard hitting stories that will hit the headlines.
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Sign off major messaging and communications.
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Lead communications planning around major announcements or crises.
School Food Review
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Provide strategic oversight of the School Food Review programme.
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Ensure coalition work complements Chefs in Schools wider influencing strategy.
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Support senior relationships with coalition partners and funders.
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Remove barriers to delivery for the Programme Manager.
Budget & governance
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Manage the External Affairs budget.
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Ensure safeguarding, risk management and governance requirements are met.
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Oversee procurement of agencies and consultants.
ABOUT YOU
Essential experience and skills
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Significant senior leadership experience across media relations, campaigns, policy or public affairs.
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Experience managing multidisciplinary teams.
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Strong operational planning skills.
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Excellent political judgement.
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Experience influencing senior stakeholders.
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Outstanding written and verbal communication.
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Strong project and budget management.
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Comfortable balancing long-term strategy with fast-paced reactive work.
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Strong understanding of the UK media landscape and digital channels.
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Excellent communication skills – written, verbal and visual.
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Experience of working with MPs and other key stakeholders.
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Strong alignment with the mission and values of Chefs in Schools.
Desirable
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Education, food systems or public health experience.
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Coalition leadership.
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Charity senior management.
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Experience working with ministers, journalists and on national campaigns.
OUR COMMITMENT TO INCLUSION
We know that strong candidates may not meet every single requirement listed in this job description.
If this role excites you and you believe you could make a strong contribution to our mission, we would encourage you to apply.
We are committed to building a diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation where people from different backgrounds, experiences and communities can thrive.
We’re on a mission to transform kids’ health through food – plate by plate, class by class, school by school.



Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
The Kids Network is a London based children’s charity connecting young people with trained volunteer mentors.
We’re looking for a highly organised, relationship focused School Experience Officer to support our school partnerships strategy and ensure every school has a brilliant experience of our programme.
- Location: London-based (Hybrid - Remote, Office and Field based)
- Contract: Permanent, full time (35 hours)
- Salary: £28,000 p/a
- Reporting to Schools and Partnerships Lead
We will be holding first round calls on Thursday 10th September, with the second round interviews taking place Wednesday 16th September.
Ideal start date: 4-6 weeks
ABOUT THE ROLE
We’re looking for a highly organised, relationship focused School Experience Officer to join our Programme Delivery team and support our Schools and Partnerships Leader. This role is central to ensuring that every school we work with receives a consistent, high quality experience of our mentoring programme.
You’ll manage the day‑to‑day administration of school referrals, support schools to contribute financially to the programme, and help nurture strong, positive relationships with both new and existing school partners. If you’re proactive, detail‑driven and passionate about improving outcomes for children in London, this could be the perfect role for you.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
- Manage school referrals from enquiry to mentor match
- Provide excellent day‑to‑day support to school partners
- Maintain accurate records on Salesforce
- Support income generation through proposals, invoices and partner stewardship
- Coordinate school communications and gather feedback
- Assist with outreach and partnership development
BENEFITS
- Flexible working arrangements (mostly working from home, with 1-2 days a week in the office)
- 25 days annual leave entitlement, plus additional day awarded each year (up to five years)
- Option to swap bank holidays for other religious holidays
- Birthdays off
- Two Mental Health “Me Days”
- Volunteering time to mentor with The Kids Network
- Personal development budget
- Team socials
- Working in a value-led organisation, where we share the impact we have on children every day
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
SCHOOL REFERRALS & ADMINISTRATION
- Manage the day-to-day administration of the referral process, from initial enquiry to a child being matched with a mentor
- Apply a ‘schools first’, customer service approach by supporting schools to complete referrals accurately and in a timely way, following up proactively to keep pipelines moving
- Maintain accurate, up-to-date records of all referrals and school interactions on our CRM (Salesforce), flagging any issues to the Schools & Partnerships Leader
- Responsibility for securing a minimum number of referrals from schools
- Income Generation Support
- Support the Schools & Partnerships Leader to secure financial contributions from school partners, including preparing proposals, invoices and contribution agreements
- Follow the financial procedures for contributions from referral partners and maintain accurate records
- Help to identify and follow up on income opportunities with existing and prospective school partners
- Encourage schools to run simple fundraising activities within their communities
SCHOOL RELATIONSHIPS & EXPEREINCE
- Act as a first point of contact for schools on day-to-day queries, providing a warm, professional and responsive service
- Coordinate communications with schools throughout the programme cycle, including onboarding, quality assurance check ins and end of programme impact collection from schools
- Support the delivery team with the smooth handover of referrals, ensuring school partners feel informed and well-supported
- Gather school feedback and share insights with the Schools & Partnerships Leader to support continuous improvement
- Building and maintaining internal and external relationships, attending events or actively stewarding our offer with stakeholders
PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT
- Assist the Schools & Partnerships Leader in identifying and approaching prospective school partners
- Help to prepare materials for school outreach, including presentations, information packs and email communications
- Maintain an up-to-date record of prospective and active school partners, supporting the management of the partnership pipeline
- Identify what’s working well across schools and share best practice
GENERAL & ADMINISTRATIVE
- Support the Schools & Partnerships Leader with administrative tasks related to school engagement and partnership work
- Contribute to team meetings and planning processes as required
- Act in compliance with all organisational policies and procedures, including data protection and GDPR
ABOUT YOU
PERSONAL SPECIFICATION
- Strong administrative and organisational skills, with excellent attention to detail
- A natural relationship builder, confident working with schools and communities
- Clear and confident written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines in a busy environment
- A proactive, can-do approach with the ability to work both independently and as part of a team
- Comfort working with data and digital systems, including CRM or database tools and communication tools like Slack, Teams and Zoom.
- Knowledge of the primary school landscape
- A genuine commitment to The Kids Network's mission and values, and a passion for supporting children and young people
DESIRABLE
- Experience in an administrative, coordination or customer-facing role
- Experience of delivering or arranging programmes in either an educational or safeguarding setting
- Experience of, or a strong interest in, the charity, education or public sector
- Familiarity with Salesforce or a similar CRM system
- Some exposure to income generation, sales support or fundraising administration
To apply please send your CV and a cover letter, no more than two pages about why you are right for this role and why you want to join The Kids Network. Due to the size of the team, we are unfortunately unable to respond to every application.
SAFEGUARDING COMMITMENT
The Kids Network is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful applicant will be required to go through our safer recruitment processes, including an enhanced DBS check.
EQUITY COMMITMENT
The Kids Network values diversity and inclusion and we have worked to create an application process that is as accessible as possible, however we recognise that there is more we can do especially for applicants who are minoritised in society, have specific accessibility needs and/or experience discrimination. If this is the case we are both happy to discuss better ways to support your candidacy and make this application process as equitable as possible for you.
We are a diverse organisation and welcome everyone, but it is important to note that the intersections of your identity will not increase or affect the amount of labour you are asked to do. If you wish to draw on your own lived experiences that will be both encouraged and supported but it is not nor ever will be a prerequisite of this role. Find out more about our commitment to anti-oppression on our website.
The Kids Network is a community of children and volunteer mentors who connect through fun, curiosity and friendship for positive social change.



The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
This is an exciting opportunity for an excellent communicator with experience in collaboration and partnership working who is keen to make good quality income maximisation advice and support accessible to families across Scotland.
As Development Officer (Income Maximisation in Schools) you will play a lead role in looking at the actions needed at different levels to sustainably embed advice in schools across Scotland. You’ll be involving and engaging schools, advice services and other partners to develop practical recommendations which can be used to improve provision nationally. You will also be helping to develop resources and professional learning to increase awareness and confidence in schools around financial entitlements and pathways to income maximisation support.
You will be based within the Cost of the School Day team at CPAG in Scotland and will work closely with Welfare Rights, Digital and Policy colleagues.
We welcome applications from individuals with the skills and experience outlined and we can be flexible about working arrangements. We operate a hybrid working system and would be happy to discuss any flexibilities required. CPAG is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion which you can read more about in the job pack.
For more information about this post and to apply, download the Development Officer (Income Maximisation in Schools) job pack and application form.
If you have questions or need specific arrangements or reasonable adjustments to take part in the selection process please contact us at.
Closing date for applications: 11.59pm 16 August 2026
Interviews will be held at our Glasgow office in person on: 25 August 2026
Child Poverty Action Group works to prevent and end child poverty – for good.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Are you an experienced campaign coordinator? Are you passionate about helping children and young people reach their full potential? Seeking a new challenge? Join us!
The School Library Association is preparing for a landmark 90th anniversary campaign in 2027, celebrating the vital role of school libraries in education. We are seeking a highly organised, proactive Campaign Coordinator to help deliver this national campaign across research, advocacy, fundraising, events and communications. This is an exciting opportunity to play a central role in a high-profile campaign that will raise awareness, strengthen the evidence base for school libraries, influence policy, and directly support schools through resources and funding.
As Campaign Coordinator, you will ensure the smooth coordination and delivery of the campaign’s key milestones throughout the year. You will manage timelines, coordinate campaign activity, and liaise with and report to stakeholders as needed. Integrating into the team at pace, you will take the lead on key milestones, working closely with internal and external partners to deliver the campaign on time, on budget and to a high standard. A creative thinker, you will contribute to all aspects of campaign development, coordination and delivery, helping to build and maintain a strong narrative throughout.
The salary for this position is £23,648.65 per year for 30 hours per week. Find out more about this role and how to apply by downloading the job specification pack. We are actively interviewing for this role and may close recruitment early if a suitable candidate is identified.
The SLA is a UK-wide organisation, working mostly remotely. We welcome applicants from all over the UK. We strongly encourage candidates of all different backgrounds and identities to apply. Each new role provides us with an opportunity for us to bring in a different perspective, and we are always eager to diversify our team. The SLA is committed to building an inclusive, supportive place, where you can do brilliant and rewarding work.
Application deadline: Thursday 10th September, 5pm
Interviews will take place in person on Tuesday 15th September 2026 (London TBC).
Applications without a covering letter will not be considered. No agencies please. Use of supporting digital tools (such as AI) is understood, but all documents submitted must accurately reflect your experience and skills. Due to the volume of applications we cannot provide individual feedback. We really appreciate your interest. If you haven’t heard from us within four weeks of the deadline, it means we’ve moved forward with other candidates on this occasion. We encourage you to apply again in the future.
Applications without a one page covering letter will not be considered. Please read the job description carefully.
Helping schools develop vibrant reading and learning communities


The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Job Title: Project Officer (Nourish Secondaries)
Salary: £31,500 FTE
Position Type: Paid/Full time
Contract: Fixed term for two years (until September 2028)
Reports to: Head of Nourish
Based at: School Food Matters, Blackfriars Settlement, 9 Rushworth Street, London. SE1 0RB with travel to schools across London
Working Hours: 5 days a week, 9am-5pm (some flexibility required to attend breakfast clubs)
Holiday: 31 days including bank holidays that fall on working days. Holidays must be taken during school holidays
Pension: School Food Matters pays pension contributions at 7% of pensionable earnings
Background to School Food Matters
At School Food Matters we believe that school food can unlock a happier, healthier, more sustainable future for every child. We want a school food system that delivers for all children, so they can enjoy nutritious, delicious and sustainable school food and leave school with an informed and positive relationship with food. To achieve this, we campaign for a better school food system, bringing the voices of children, parents, and teachers to government policy, and deliver fully funded food education programmes in schools across the country.
Background to Nourish
Our Nourish programme supports schools to create a food environment that puts children and young people's nutrition first. The evidence-based, multi-component programme helps schools to develop action plans and policies to cover the food served across the whole school day. Nourish uses a collaborative whole school approach to food involving everyone across the school community to create lasting positive change.
Job Purpose
· To promote, develop and deliver the Nourish programme in secondary schools across London
Key Tasks include:
· Recruit schools to take part in Nourish
· Complete in person food audits in schools looking across the whole school day
· Support schools to create and deliver a food improvement plan (action plan)
· Develop and deliver workshops in schools to staff, parents and students based on their action plan (incl. assemblies, consultation/feedback sessions, cooking sessions, school food standards training)
· Support schools to write a school food policy[AB1] using our policy template
· Build relationships and work closely with teachers, teaching assistants, cooks, kitchen teams and senior leaders in schools to improve the food they offer their students
- Work with local authorities [AB2] involved with Nourish to pursue shared school food goals
- Support Head of Nourish with written and verbal reports for LA and funders
- Share the project's learnings with the Nourish team and wider SFM team
- Work with other Nourish Project Officers to plan, design, and develop resources and training packages for schools
· Collect data and maintain accurate records relating to the programme in Airtable
- Work closely with our evaluation team to complete all monitoring and evaluation
· Gather content for our comms team (website and social media platforms)
- Keep the Line Manager fully updated on progress
· Keep up to date with safeguarding requirements and reporting procedures
- Contribute to the smooth running of SFM at this time of growth
- Maintaining the ethos of the charity and positively promoting our work at all times
- You will also be expected to undertake any other tasks relevant to the affairs of SFM that may arise from time to time. Therefore, being flexible and approaching the job with an open and positive mindset is essential.
Person specification
Essential
· Registered nutritionist or advanced understanding of nutritional guidelines and health promotion
· Good interpersonal skills, with experience of building relationships
· Confident engaging with a variety of audiences (students, headteachers, school staff and parents), including communications via email, virtual and face to face meetings with the ability to deliver workshops & presentations
· Excellent administrative and organisational skills with great attention to detail
· Excellent IT skills including excel, word and email
· Self-motivated and optimistic with a can-do attitude
· Ability to work in a team and seek help when needed
Desirable
· Experience of working for a charity or not for profit organisation
· Experience of engaging and working with secondary schools
· Knowledge in food education and children’s health
We campaign for a better school food system. We support schools, local authorities and MATs to improve food in schools.



The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Who we are
Chefs in Schools is an ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids' health, through improving school food & food education. We focus our efforts in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, where more than a third of children are entitled to free school meals, and diet-related disease is driving further inequality.
We support and train school kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share learning and resources, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.
We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.
About you and the role
This role comes at a pivotal time for Chefs in School and will be key to supporting our vision and ambitions for the next four year strategic period.
You will have significant experience in monitoring and evaluating programmes in a charity, non-profit, or social enterprise setting. As this is a standalone role with no direct reports, we are looking for a unique professional who is highly strategic but equally happy to roll up their sleeves and be hands-on. You will lead on high-level impact strategy, and you will also be the person designing surveys, managing databases, and directly analyzing the data.
To thrive in this role, you should be:
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An Analytical Thinker & Practical Doer: You can confidently clean, manage, and analyze quantitative and qualitative data yourself, translating complex numbers into highly visual, easy-to-digest reports for our team and funders.
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An Empathetic & Pragmatic Collaborator: You understand that school kitchens and delivery teams are incredibly busy. You excel at designing evaluation tools that are low-burden for our partners but high-yield for our learning.
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Curious & Improvement-Driven: You don't just collect data to check a box for funders; you are passionate about building a "learning culture" where findings are actively used to iterate and improve our programmes.
As we work with children and young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy.
Key responsibilities:
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Leading on developing and implementing Chefs in Schools’ evaluation and learning strategy, in line with our Theory of Change.
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Owning and overseeing the impact dashboard
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Ownership for embedding a learning culture, ensuring that timely and actionable insights are generated and fed back into design and delivery to support continuous improvement.
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Using internal data and external research to identify what works, ensuring these insights are shared internally and across the sector in line with our strategic objectives.
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Support delivery teams to collect quantitative and qualitative data using the evaluation toolkit. Ensuring data collection is proportionate and meaningful with high completion rates.
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Support delivery teams to understand how impact data can help to improve and develop programme effectiveness, whilst maintaining quality.
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Lead on the dissemination of findings across the organisation, including presenting at internal meetings and events
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Translating data into clear, evidence-based recommendations to guide decision-making
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Work across the organisation to ensure our impact is effectively communicated with external audiences.
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Identify future research, evaluation and learning priorities that could strengthen Chefs in Schools’ programmes and contribute to wider sector understanding of effective approaches to improving school food.
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Work with external academics and researchers to commission external evaluations to develop our evidence base and contribute to national and international studies .
Essential Skills and Experience
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MEL Experience: Proven experience in a monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) or impact measurement role within a charity, non-profit, or social enterprise setting.
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Evaluation Design: Confidence designing and implementing practical evaluation frameworks, data collection tools, logic models, or Theories of Change.
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Hands-on Data Skills: Strong analytical skills with the ability to independently collect, clean, and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data. You must be highly proficient in Excel/Google Sheets and comfortable managing data platforms.
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Translation of Evidence: A track record of critically appraising evidence and translating findings into actionable, practical recommendations for delivery teams.
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Communication & Reporting: Ability to produce high-quality, highly visual, and engaging reports and presentations tailored to different audiences (e.g., trustees, funders, operational staff).
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Relationship Building: Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence and support busy operational teams to value and embed data collection.
Desirable Skills and Experience
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Sector Knowledge: Knowledge of food systems, school environments, or children and young people’s health and wellbeing.
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External Evaluations: Experience commissioning, managing, or collaborating with external academics and research partners to evaluate programmes.
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Tech & Systems: Familiarity with specific data visualization tools (e.g., PowerBI, Tableau) or CRM databases (ours is Beacon) to streamline data capture and reporting.
Benefits
You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who work hard, but believe in a healthy work / life balance. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to, and draw on, a variety of projects and strategic insights.
We offer 33 days (pro-rata for part time positions) of holiday per year, including bank holidays, a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues, enhanced parental leave. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.
We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the AIG Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.
Application process
In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we invite candidates to answer a series of questions related to the role. Please follow this link to answer the questions and submit your application along with your CV.
We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you’re ready to ensure you don’t lose your work if interrupted.
Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. A long list of candidates will then additionally have their CVs reviewed. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30 mins online interview. Successful candidates will be invited to attend a second, in-person interview and complete a task at our office in Brixton, London.
Expected duration of this application process: 4 weeks
1st Round interview will take place the w/c 7th September
We’re on a mission to transform kids’ health through food – plate by plate, class by class, school by school.



About the role
This role will provide cross team support to both the School Partnerships and the Teaching and Learning functions of the charity. Within the School Partnerships team, they will play a key role in supporting effective engagement of school and MAT partners by ensuring the smooth running of both day-to-day operations and longer-term projects. This element of the role is central to developing and maintaining relationships with schools and MATs, while also managing essential administrative processes, communications, reporting and systems. Within the Teaching and Learning function, they will support the delivery of the training, curriculum design and quality assurance of tutors working across The Brilliant Club’s Access Programmes and Projects. The role leads on several administrative processes, including course design, tutor training and programme team liaison, engaging with stakeholders both internally and externally to ensure that tutors and curriculum documents are of the highest quality when they arrive in schools. It’s a varied and dynamic position that helps keep our teams connected, organised and working efficiently.
About you
The role will best suit someone who:
- Has excellent organisational skills, including the ability to balance complex and competing needs;
- Is a collaborative and strong team player, including supporting those in other teams during peak periods;
- Has a good working knowledge of Microsoft Office, is enthusiastic about working with data and records, and can produce high quality documents with excellent attention to detail;
- Takes initiative to complete and improve administrative processes;
- Adheres to information security policies included in the charity’s ISO 27001 manual and completes information security training;
- Has a demonstrable passion for furthering The Brilliant Club’s mission.
We support less advantaged students to access the most competitive universities and succeed when they get there.



The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
7.5 hours per week (term-time only) / £34,475 per annum, pro rata / permanent /working day is currently Tuesday 0830 - 1630 (with unpaid 30-minute break), other days can be considered and discussed at interview
YMCA DownsLink Group is the leading charity for children and young people across Sussex and Surrey. We offer safe homes, mental health support and trusted advice.
We believe that every child and young person has the right to be safe, heard and to shape their own future. We work alongside them to make that happen.
We are here for children and young people, many of whom face multiple challenges and need our support.
Our Values - we do what’s right, we work with heart, and we build real connections – guide us in all our actions.
YMCA Dialogue is a BACP Accredited service, providing counselling services in schools since 1994. Dialogue has built an excellent reputation with schools, colleges, professionals and commissioners and the service has developed and expanded over the years, now operating across Brighton & Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex.
We are recruiting for qualified counsellor or therapist to join our team and deliver our service at Felpham Community College in Felpham, Bognor Regis. You will be working with a range of clients within the Dialogue Thresholds and working to a 6-8 session model. You will be working alongside another experienced Dialogue School Counsellor and working closely with the Student Services Pastoral team at the college.
We are seeking candidates who are passionate about making a difference to lives of the children they work with. You will provide an ethical, professional counselling service at Felpham Community College and will establish good professional working relationships with key school staff.
This will include discussion of referrals, managing a session timetable within the school day and agreeing a process for students coming to and from sessions.
You will be required to undertake assessments with parents/carers and counselling sessions with children, complete all associated admin and attend regular clinical supervision and line management meetings.
Key responsibilities
- Run a suitable appointment system flexible to the needs of the school, offering students appropriate assessments and counselling appointments.
- Manage the tight time boundaries of the role and the often complex and varied workload.
- Liaise with school staff over referrals, waiting lists and appointments.
- Carry out initial clinical and risk assessments and establish appropriate referral pathways with other services where appropriate. Continually assess risk throughout each student’s counselling.
- Follow YMCA Dialogue safeguarding procedures; to know who the School’s Designated Safeguarding Officer/s is and how to contact them when a safeguarding concern arises.
- Work at all times within the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions.
- Maintain individual membership of the BACP and to become a Registered Member (or other professional body such as HCPC).
- You will establish good professional working relationships with key school staff.
Qualifications, knowledge, and experience
You will have a genuine interest in working with children and young people of primary and secondary school age, together with experience of building effective therapeutic relationships. You will bring a professional, flexible approach, excellent interpersonal and time management skills, and ideally have experience of counselling children and young people using creative therapeutic approaches. Experience of working within a school setting would be advantageous.
Essential:
- Counselling or psychotherapy qualification at Level 4 minimum; Level 6 or above is desirable – along with two years’ or 450+ hours post qualifying experience in face-to-face individual counselling or therapy with young people (preferred), including experience of working with risk-related issues as a qualified counsellor.
- You will already have a sound understanding of child protection and vulnerable adult safeguarding issues, policies, and procedures.
- You will already have proven experience in safeguarding children and young people, responding to, managing, and referring safeguarding issues.
- You will already have a BACP Membership; BACP Registered or Accredited. Or other professional body e.g. HCPC.
CLOSING DATE: Sunday 13 September 2026 at midnight. Please note - If we find the right candidate sooner than expected, we may close the advert early - so early applications are strongly encouraged.
Please note that we are unable to offer a work permit or visa sponsorship for this role; applicants must already have the right to live and work in the UK independently.
An inclusive workplace We are committed to policies and practices of equity, diversity, and inclusion and to supporting our people to make sure our culture is consistent with this commitment.
Accessibility If you require assistance or have questions regarding the application process, please do contact us.
YMCA DLG requires all staff and volunteers to be committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and to respond proactively to safeguarding concerns.
Successful applicants will undergo a thorough background screening process, conducted by an accredited third-party provider. This includes an Enhanced DBS check (with Children’s and Adults’ Barred Lists) as well as comprehensive reference and activity check.
Our mission is to help children and young people have a fair chance to be who they want to be.

Could you help transform the way schools and education providers identify and support young carers? There are over 10,000 children and young people with caring responsibilities in Essex alone.
We have an exciting opportunity for an Education Engagement Lead to join our Young Carers Team, in a new role leading our engagement with schools and colleges across Essex. This is a rewarding and varied role, working in partnership with schools, further education providers and key stakeholders to improve the identification, recognition and support of young carers.
You will have experience of partnership working, project coordination and delivering training within education, children's services or the voluntary sector. You'll be passionate about improving outcomes for children and young people and helping education settings embed sustainable support for young carers.
Action for Family Carers is a thriving charity which for over 35 years has been providing support for Adult Carers and Young Carers – people with unpaid caring responsibilities for others. We are a Carers Trust Network Partner and hold the Excellence for Carers quality mark. We provide support including, information, coaching, counselling, peer support, respite care and Young Carer clubs across Essex, working within schools, GP practices and a variety of community settings.
Responsibilities will include:
Building effective partnerships with schools and colleges to improve young carer identification and support.
Delivering training and guidance to education professionals.
Supporting schools to achieve the Young Carers in Schools Award.
Developing resources and promoting good practice with young carer team members and across education settings.
Coordinating participation opportunities that enable young carers to influence service development.
You will need to be:
Experienced in partnership working within education, children's services or the voluntary sector.
Confident delivering training, workshops or presentations.
An excellent communicator with the ability to build positive relationships.
Organised and confident managing projects and competing priorities.
IT literate and comfortable using Microsoft Office and databases.
Passionate about improving outcomes for children and young people.
A driver with access to a vehicle.
We offer:
Full induction and relevant training
Contributory pension scheme
24-hour Confidential Staff Helpline
An opportunity to help vulnerable families in the local community
A chance to be part of a supportive and friendly team
Who we are
Chefs in Schools is a young, ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids' health, through improving school food & food education.
We focus our efforts in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, where more than a third of children are entitled to free school meals, and diet-related disease is driving further inequality.
We support and train school kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share learning and resources, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.
We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.
About you and the role
As our Digital Manager, you will be the strategic anchor, quality guardian, and operational driving force behind our online presence. You will fully own the performance of our two primary websites: the main Chefs in Schools (CIS) platform and the complex, public-facing School Food Project (SFP) national resource and coalition hub. You will be directly accountable for driving traffic, mastering SEO, maintaining exceptional content quality, and ensuring a seamless, highly secure user experience against clear, measurable targets.
This is a leadership role that bridges technical execution and creative strategy. You will act as the crucial, confident link between our external technical agencies (who build and maintain the infrastructure of the sites) and our internal content creators and programme teams. Crucially, you will be an empowering manager, leading a dedicated digital sub-team of 1-2 direct reports, supporting them to manage day-to-day content workflows, e-learning administration, and community moderation.
We are looking for someone solutions-focused, collaborative, and deeply analytical who takes pride in helping a high-profile, mission-driven organization run at its absolute best.
Key responsibilities:
1. Website Ownership & Performance Management
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Own the overarching strategy and performance of our two flagship websites (CIS and SFP), optimizing UX and UI for user journeys, design, and maximum accessibility standards across both sites.
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Own and maintain a forward-looking, prioritized digital platform roadmap, striking a strategic balance between long-term feature development and agile, day-to-day reactive requests
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Ensure both platforms—particularly the highly visible, national School Food Project website—maintain the highest standards of data security, uptime, quality assurance, and accessibility, proactively managing risks associated with public scrutiny.
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Take end-to-end ownership of web analytics and data integrity—from configuring custom event tracking to reporting on performance—utilizing Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for quantitative metrics and Microsoft Clarity for behavioral insights.
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Set, monitor, and report against clear performance targets spanning web traffic, user engagement, resource downloads, and search rankings.
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Lead content and platform feature reviews through a risk mitigation lens—ensuring strict compliance with safeguarding, privacy, and coalition guidelines—while running targeted A/B tests to optimize user experience.
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Lead on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy to maximize organic reach and connect school leaders, chefs, and partners to our resources.
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Establish and manage digital incident response protocols, defining clear workflows for first responders, triage steps, and escalation pathways in the event of site outages, technical bugs, or security breaches.
2. Agency & Supplier Management
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Act as the primary, confident technical interface with our external web development agencies and tech suppliers, holding them accountable to high-quality delivery.
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Translate internal program, comms, and membership goals into clear technical design briefs, managing timelines and tracking project budgets.
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Coordinate rigorous testing of new features, bug logging, and site maintenance to guarantee absolute platform stability before public deployments.
3. Team Leadership & Collaboration
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Line manage, mentor, and support 1-2 direct reports (including roles focused on systems, community moderation, and resource uploads).
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Work closely with the Communications team, External Relations team and Programme Leads to align digital development with broader organization campaigns and resource rollouts.
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Oversee the content calendar and governance for both sites, ensuring all published assets strictly adhere to brand tone of voice and quality standards, working closely with the senior social media officer, engagement team to ensure cross org planning .
4. Data, CRM & Systems Integration
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Oversee the data integrity and smooth technical flow between our website frontends, e-learning platform (LMS), and internal CRM systems.
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Ensure all digital systems, data tracking, user permissions, and marketing platforms comply fully with GDPR and organizational data protection policies.
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Construct and present scannable dashboards and reports (using Google Analytics and CRM data) for the Senior Leadership Team and stakeholders to demonstrate impact.
Essential Skills and Experience
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Digital Product & Platform Leadership: Proven experience managing digital products, websites, or online platforms—ideally at a Manager level within a charity, agency, or fast-paced setting.
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Complex Systems Integration: Strong confidence managing (or partnering with a technical agency to manage) integrated digital environments where the CMS, CRM, and LMS operate as a unified platform. You must be comfortable understanding and troubleshooting multi-layered user access permissions (e.g., tailored journeys for different school types and member tiers).
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Foundational literacy in HTML and CSS to troubleshoot layout issues, understand site structure, and effectively translate technical requirements to developers.
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Agency & Project Management: Confident experience collaborating with, briefing, and managing external technical partners, developers, or freelance technical staff to deliver complex features on time and on budget.
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People Management: Demonstrable experience managing, mentoring, and developing direct reports, fostering a supportive and high-performing team environment.
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Data Fluency & Quality Control: Ability to analyze, clean, and visualize data (using Google Analytics, CRM reporting, or spreadsheets) to monitor site performance, ensure data integrity across system integrations, and drive user experience improvements.
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Communication & Collaboration: Outstanding written and verbal communication skills; able to translate complex "technical speak" for non-expert internal staff, write brand-aligned content, and build strong cross-team relationships.
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Mission Alignment: A deep personal commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, alongside a genuine interest in our mission to transform child health through school food.
Desirable Skills and Experience
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Familiarity with online community/forum moderation and user engagement strategies.
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Prior experience working within the wider charity sector.
Benefits
You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who works hard but believe in a healthy work/life balance. We were voted one of CODE Hospitality’s happiest places to work in 2024. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to and draw on various projects and strategic insights.
We offer 33 days of holiday per year including bank holidays, 3 additional office closure days over the Christmas period as well as wellbeing days over the summer school holidays. We also have a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, enhanced parental leave, and free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.
We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the Aviva Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.
Application process
In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we invite candidates to answer a series of questions related to their day-to-day job. Please follow this link to answer the questions and submit your application along with your CV.
We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you’re ready to ensure you don’t lose your work if interrupted.
Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. A long list of candidates will then additionally have their CVs reviewed. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30 mins online interview. Successful candidates will be invited to attend a second, in-person interview at our office in Brixton, London.
Expected duration of this application process: 4-6 weeks
In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we will invite candidates to interview based on their answers to a series of questions related to their day-to-day job.
First Interview will take place the w/c 14th September
We’re on a mission to transform kids’ health through food – plate by plate, class by class, school by school.



Who we are
Chefs in Schools is a young, ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids' health, through improving school food & food education. Working in areas of high deprivation, we support and train schools and their kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share our learning and resources freely, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.
We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.
About you and the role
This is a pivotal role, at a pivotal moment for us. We are entering a critical growth phase, which includes rapidly expanding our own operations and managing significant external partnership. As Head of Finance & Systems, you will be accountable for ensuring we have the right systems and structures in place to grow at pace without detriment to good governance.
The purpose of this role is to lead on our finance strategy, and ensure all of our systems, reporting and processes are helping to drive forward the charity and deliver on our objectives at scale. You will work closely with the Chief Executive and Directors to ensure that financial planning is effective and supported by accurate data analysis. You will report directly to Trustees as required and ensure that the highest standards of transparency and probity are maintained.
You will be joining the team during a period of growth in the size and complexity of our delivery. We currently have 24 employees and anticipate growing significantly in the next twelve months. You will have a crucial role in shaping our systems and processes to ensure we can scale effectively, both our existing programmes and a new membership-based programme that is in development. We’re looking for an experienced finance professional with an interest in effectively using technology and systems to drive efficiency, without compromising on accuracy or compliance.
You will oversee all financial administration, ensuring this is carried out proficiently and in line with all legal and regulatory requirements, including ultimate responsibility for ensuring that all statutory filings are made accurately and on time. Your role will also encompass ensuring that we operate within legal & regulatory frameworks and stay up to date with changes in relevant legislation.
The responsibilities, skills and experience listed below are intended to give you an idea of what we need for this role. If you don’t meet every requirement, but feel as though you would be able to work with us to deliver the majority of them, we would urge you to apply anyway. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and for us the most important ‘experience’ is passion for our mission. You may be just the right candidate for this, or other roles.
We want to get to know you at the interview and understand we can do this best if you’re at ease. We’re an inclusive employer and work hard to create a welcoming working environment for everyone, including appointing a neurodiversity champion to help us identify how we can make our work environment work for everyone. If you need adjustments to the interview process please let us know.
As we work with children & young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy.
Key responsibilities:
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Developing a comprehensive financial strategy that supports the delivery of the charity’s objectives and activities.
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Have ultimate oversight of the external audit and production of the statutory accounts, supported in delivery of this by the book-keeper.
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Produce the monthly management accounts and bespoke financial reports—including accurate forecasting, restricted fund tracking, and variance analysis—ensuring decision-makers have clear, actionable data.
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Forecasting cash flow and managing the treasury position.
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Manage the contract and performance of the bookkeeper and outsourced payroll providers; setting strict monthly closing deadlines, enforcing data accuracy, and ensuring they deliver a clean trial balance for management accounting.
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Oversee sound financial administration, management and governance across the organisation, ensuring robust financial controls in place and operating effectively.
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Provide leadership and guidance to all things finance related, providing mentoring and support to the team, and coaching on financial awareness.
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Accountability for monitoring that the organisation’s services are, and will, run to budget, supporting budget holders and reporting promptly on risks
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Support the Partnerships & Impact team and Programme Managers with financial inputs to funding proposals and ensure restricted funds are used in compliance with grant conditions.
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Developing our systems strategy, including reviewing suitability of our current systems (Quickbooks for accountancy, Beacon CRM, PLEO for expenses management, Survey Monkey for data collection etc. ) and ensuring optimal use of systems, maximising automation, and using AI where appropriate.
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Constantly seeking to develop and improve the organisation’s financial systems, policies and procedures to promote dynamic, best practice and up-to-date application of tools, systems and approaches
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Supporting the organisation’s data governance by ensuring financial systems (e.g., Quickbooks, payroll, expenses) are secure, compliant, and integrated in line with data protection principles.
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Leading an effective risk management process.
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Ensuring the organisation’s compliance with charity law, in accordance with the Charity Commission in England & Wales and all financial reporting requirements.
Essential Skills & experience:
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Charity Finance Experience: Practical, senior-level experience working within a UK non-profit finance function, including a strong working knowledge of the Charities SORP and accounting for restricted vs. unrestricted funds.
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Hands-on Management Accounting:Proven experience independently producing monthly management accounts, cash flow forecasting, and variance analysis from scratch.
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End-to-End Audit Management: Experience preparing year-end audit files, reconciling balance sheet control accounts, and acts as the primary point of contact for external auditors.
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Accountancy Qualification: Full or partial qualification through an accredited body (ACCA, CIMA, ACA, CIPFA).
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Tech Literacy & Data Reconciliation: Comfortable troubleshooting and navigating modern finance tech stacks (e.g., Xero, Pleo) and pulling financial data/reports from a CRM system (e.g., Beacon).
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Vendor & Staff Management:Experience supervising junior staff (or office managers) and actively managing the performance, timelines, and accuracy of outsourced providers (e.g., bookkeeping and payroll).
Desirable skills & experience
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Systems Implementation: Past experience project-managing a software migration or building native integrations/automations between a CRM system and accounting software.
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Broader Operations/HR Exposure: Basic familiarity with HR administration, GDPR workflows, or managing organizational risk registers in a small team environment.
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Sector Passion: A demonstrable interest in food education, children’s health, or food systems.
Benefits
You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who works hard but believe in a healthy work/life balance. We were voted one of CODE Hospitality’s happiest places to work in 2024. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to and draw on various projects and strategic insights.
We offer 33 days of holiday per year including bank holidays, 3 additional office closure days over the Christmas period as well as wellbeing days over the summer school holidays. We also have a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, enhanced parental leave, and free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.
We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the Aviva Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.
Application process
In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we invite candidates to answer a series of questions related to their day-to-day job.
We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you’re ready to ensure you don’t lose your work if interrupted.
Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. A long list of candidates will then additionally have their CVs reviewed. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30 mins online interview. Successful candidates will be invited to attend a second, in-person interview at our office in Brixton, London.
Expected duration of this application process: 7 weeks
First interviews will be held 1st -4th September
We’re on a mission to transform kids’ health through food – plate by plate, class by class, school by school.


