Senior press and communications officer jobs in prittlewell, southend on sea

The Belay Foundation is a small charity with big ambitions to improve the lives of adoptive, special guardian and kinship care families. We deliver innovative trauma-responsive services that families value and we are looking for an experienced charity leader to take us through growth into the next chapter of our story.

Relationships are at the heart of everything we do and we use DDP principles (Dyadic Developmental Practice) to train our staff and to inform how we deliver our services. 

• Job title: Chief Executive Officer - Interim
• Pay: £350 per day
• Location: Remote but quarterly in-person staff meetings in Bath/Wiltshire and annual trustee in-person meeting
• Hours: 2 days per week
• Length of contract: 1 year
• Start date: September 2025, negotiable
• Reporting to: Co-Chairs of Trustees
• Responsible for: Operational team of 3
• Recruitment closing date: 5pm Monday 23rd June

Responsibilities:

• Leadership of the organisation and management of staff
• Holding the safeguarding of our children and their families at the heart of all we do
• Eliciting feedback from families and the wider beneficiary community to develop services
• Fundraising and income development
• Ensuring the financial management of the charity works towards greater sustainability
• Developing the organisational structure, its processes, and methods of service delivery
• Delivery of accreditation as required e.g., DDP (Dyadic Development Practice) and CPD (Continuing Professional Development)
• Protecting the reputation of the organisation, constantly improving processes and procedures
• Improving service efficiency and maintaining compliance e.g. GDPR
• Overseeing public relations activity
• Developing all of the above with an eye to environmental sustainability
• Other responsibilities as designated by the Trustees

Who we are looking for:

We are looking for an experienced charity leader to hit the ground running with some knowledge or awareness of the families that we support and the issues that they face. Most importantly we are looking for experience of financial management, fundraising, staff management and strategic development to help our organisation grow and thrive into the next 5 years and beyond.

Essential experience:

• Knowledge or awareness of children in permanence who have been in the care
• system for example in adoption, special guardianship or kinship care families
• Leadership within a growing organisation
• Leadership and management of staff and volunteers
• Fundraising and diversifying income
• Financial management
• IT literacy

Desirable experience:

• Familiarity with Dyadic Developmental Practice
• Development of systems that enable good processes and communication across the
• organisation
• Partnership working with other organisations e.g. charities and local authorities
• Attributes and skills:
• High levels of empathy for different experiences
• Ability to prioritise
• Ability to engage and motivate a team
• Professionalism
• Communication to different audiences from families to press statements
• Ability to ask for help and understand own limitations
• Capacity for self-reflection
• Able to work flexibly in terms of hours
• Commitment to our values of empathy, respect, professionalism, learning, partnership, innovation