Senior communication officer jobs in beeston, west yorkshire

About Leeds Baby Bank

At Leeds Baby Bank our mission is to ensure no child goes without. We support families in Leeds, with children aged 0-5 years, who are experiencing poverty. We provide families with all the essentials and equipment they need for their babies and young children. This includes bed bundles, nappies and toiletries, baby baths, potties, highchairs, prams and buggies, clothes and shoes, toys and books.

Families are referred to Leeds Baby Bank by our professional referral partners. This includes midwives, health visitors and social workers. This ensures we’re helping families who are in the most need. We also run an Outreach project, where we support families in the community at four different community centres across Leeds. Here we provide signposting and advice as well as essential items for young families.

About the role

The Head of Charity will work with the board of trustees to lead the day to day running and management of Leeds Baby Bank. You will be self-motivated and enthusiastic with demonstrable leadership experience and a strategic mindset. The Head of Charity will lead a dedicated staff and volunteer team to achieve the ongoing strategic aims of Leeds Baby Bank, whilst also having the skills to support the charity through a period of ongoing change.

You will be able to think creatively, be a problem-solver, seize opportunities and create a sustainable future Leeds Baby Bank. You will have excellent communication skills, a flexible approach to managing the demands of the role, and the skills to build strong relationships with a wide variety of people including service users, staff, volunteers and supporters.

Why work for Leeds Baby Bank
With more and more families in Leeds struggling to afford the essentials for their children, the need for our charity has grown significantly. Leeds Baby Bank has been operating for over eight years and is about to take a big step in its journey. The charity is about to move into its own standalone premises, which will bring new opportunities for the charity and our beneficiaries and enable us to support even more families.

We are a friendly and dedicated team of six paid staff, over thirty volunteers and a supportive board of trustees. Together we work hard to deliver for families, in partnership with our network of referral partners. This is an exciting time to join the charity, and this role of Head of Charity provides an opportunity to make a real difference to families in need in Leeds.

We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join us.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Manage the implementation of Leeds Baby Bank’s strategic plan.
• Develop and present an annual business plan and income and expenditure budget to deliver the strategic plan.
• Manage all operational activity of the charity in line with the business plan and budget, ensuring they are the central drivers of the charity’s work.
• Develop and maintain systems which monitor progress against the business plan and budget and provide regular reports to the Board of Trustees on progress against those plans.
• Create the annual Social Impact Report and share with key stakeholders and partners.
• Support the creation of the annual accounts reporting via QuickBooks.
• Ensure that the legal requirements of the Registered Charity are met and that all trustees, staff and volunteers are kept abreast of changes in relevant legislation and policy as appropriate.
• Responsible for the charity’s policies and procedures, leading on their implementation in the charity’s work and ensuring trustees, staff and volunteers are aware of their responsibilities.
• Review policies and procedures proactively and reactively as required, in line with the charity’s review procedures.
• Responsible for the charity’s day to day risk management procedures, this includes updating risk assessments, ensuring that ongoing risks are reported on and highlighting new risks to the Board of Trustees.
• Provide strong leadership, direction and management in all aspects of the charity’s work and represent the charity with stakeholders and publicly.
• Facilitate the continual development of the charity’s services by introducing new ideas, identifying new opportunities and increasing income. 

Who are Guts UK Charity?

Guts UK Charity is committed to a world where digestive conditions are better understood, better treated and everyone who lives with one gets the support they need. Too many people are suffering or dying in silence or alone. They don’t know where to turn for information or support, diagnosis takes too long for many, and treatment can often come too late.​

We are the only UK charity funding research into the digestive system. We raise vital awareness of digestive conditions, fund life-saving research, and provide patients and loved ones with expert information and support – we are informed by evidence and expertise, our community, and the patient voice.​ 

Our mission is simple: to improve the lives of millions of people affected by digestive conditions 

The role of Helpline Advisor

For several years, Guts UK have provided information, support and guidance to our community over the phone and by email. This year, we’re formalising that service into a professional Helpline and are looking for someone to join our small, talented support team.

During the initial 6-month trial period, the Helpline phone lines will be open Monday to Friday, 10am to 2pm, but this may expand or change later in the year. Queries could be received via phone, email or web-query form.

​As a member of the Helpline team, you will offer on demand information, support, guidance and signposting primarily to enquirers living with, or caring for those with, digestive conditions and symptoms. The support offered will include receiving calls, emails and web form queries from people who are looking for more information about their digestive condition, need to know where they can turn to for support, or are waiting on a diagnosis and need help navigating how to get there. You will provide appropriate information, guidance and signposting to our own information and other external support organisations. As a charity, Guts UK covers all digestive symptoms and conditions, across the whole of the UK, and so no two days will be the same and queries will be diverse and interesting.

The role holder will man the Helpline (alongside others from the team) from 10am to 2pm (with a 30-minute lunch break) and during that time will receive, respond to and appropriately log phone calls, web-queries and emails.

Who we’re looking for?

· Do you want to make a difference every day?

· Do you have resilience & adaptability and thrive in a small, close knit team?

· Are you passionate about customer service and care?

· Do you want to empower people to understand and improve their own health management?

Ideally, we are looking for someone who has already spent time working on a helpline service (even better if it’s a charity helpline service) but we will consider applications from candidates if they have demonstrable customer service, and telephone experience.

Location

The Helpline team have a secure office space in our Huddersfield based office in which they can handle confidential calls and information. This is supported by hybrid working, with team members able to work from home as well.

Please see the attached detail job pack for further information and how to apply. 

Make a Change 

Make a Change is a community-wide, early response approach to people using abusive behaviours (or who are concerned that they might be) towards a current or ex-partner. The model has been developed by Respect in partnership with Women’s Aid Federation England, drawing inspiration from their Change that Lasts approach. It includes three strands: expert support programme for perpetrators with parallel support for survivors, workforce development and community outreach.

Improving the safety, freedom and wellbeing of adult and child survivors of domestic abuse is a key outcome for our work with perpetrators.  The Make a Change model is a multi-partner project offering local areas a framework for delivering perpetrator work. Where feasible, we aim to establish partnerships with local survivor domestic abuse service to deliver parallel support for survivors (referred to as Integrated Support Service) as part the expert support strand.

This is a new and exciting role within the Make a Change team. This exciting new role offers a unique opportunity to join our team at a pivotal moment.  As the first person to fill this position, you'll play a key role in shaping its development and collaborating with the team to define its future direction.  This is a fantastic time to join us as we grow, and you'll be an integral part of establishing this important function and contributing to our collective and continued success 

We are seeking a Make a Change Development Lead to drive the development and innovation plans for the model for 2025-28. This pivotal role will focus on enhancing the three core strands of Make a Change: Expert Support, Workforce Development, and Community Outreach.

This role requires innovation, leadership and collaboration with a range of stakeholders, ensuring these strands work seamlessly together to achieve meaningful, measurable outcomes for individuals and communities.

You will need to think long-term and understand how different components of the programme fit together. Strong leadership skills are necessary to guide teams, inspire collaboration, and make decisions that will influence both the direction of the programme and its day-to-day operations. You will have a passion for innovation and continuous improvement to develop and test new strategies, tools, and methodologies, ensuring that the programme remains dynamic and responsive to changing needs.

This is an exciting opportunity within a creative and proactive team, where members are encouraged to seek out and share learning. The role focuses on continuously developing our work with perpetrators, contributing to the growing evidence base on effective behaviour change and strategies to keep survivors safe.