Senior public affair officer jobs in Belfast

This role will join an ambitious programme developing the capacity of the Libraries Connected public library networks. We want to help them evolve as strategic partnerships able to deliver social impacts at scale and to secure resources and investment from national, regional and sub-regional government. Be key to the development of libraries as essential social infrastructure, and help them secure the resources they need to make an impact. 

The role is part of a small team of two Regional Managers, supported by an Administrator. 

By developing our existing regional networks into formal, resourced structures we can enable the regions to: 

• Secure investment for the service and for the libraries from regional and devolved / combined authority funds.
• Create unique regional offers to meet specific needs across and within the regional areas.
• Deliver at scale. For example, the Yorkshire & Humber regional network has 15 library services, and 348 library buildings. 
• Create opportunities for cost saving – through joint procurement and shared / collaborative services. 
• Share good practice and experience on a formal and integrated basis. 

We have 9 regional networks in England, covering all library services and ranging in size from 9 to 33 services. Within each region they provide hundreds of library branches, thousands of staff, and serve millions of service users.  They have a long tradition of working together as peer support networks and to deliver activities such as festivals, marketing, and staff training. 

Please see the attached job description for a full description of the role, including person specification. 

Frequent travel within the UK may be required for the role.

About Libraries Connected 

We are an independent charity that supports, promotes and represents public libraries. Our work is driven and led by our membership, which includes almost every library service in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man).  

Across the areas we serve there are 176 individual library services with around 3,000 library branches serving over 61 million people. 

Our unique approach is to bring these services together to share experience, expertise and evidence – driving innovation and impact across the public library sector.

While senior library leaders sit on our board and committees, we work with library staff at all levels.

As well as providing practical support, training and advice to libraries, we represent them to government and raise their profile in the media. We also develop and lead national library projects with cultural, academic and corporate partners.  

We work to a strategic plan that runs until 2027, organised around four themes: drive, grow, connect and engage.  

We generate income from membership subscriptions, commissioned services, events and grants. As an Arts Council Investment Principle Support Organisation, part of our core funding in England comes from the Arts Council to help embed their Investment Principles across the library network.   

Our values 

• We are supportive. We respond to the varied, emerging needs of our members and their communities to enable libraries to learn from each other, and other sector leaders, so that they can safeguard and improve their services.  

• We are inclusive. We work with our members and partners to design and deliver our work and to determine our strategic priorities because we are committed to representing the diverse communities and libraries which we serve.  

• We are open. We are in constant communication with our members and partners on all levels to learn from their experiences, reflect on our practice and develop our services. We welcome challenge and new directions for our work.  

• We are ambitious. We believe that libraries are an essential part of the solution to a range of society’s needs. We promote innovation and collaboration to ensure that libraries are recognised locally and nationally.  

Working at Libraries Connected 

We are a friendly, collaborative team of around 20 staff based all around England and Wales. 

We value diversity and are committed to promoting an inclusive working environment. We strongly believe that inclusive and diverse organisations are not only better places to work, they are more innovative, make better decisions and are more successful. We value people who bring unique perspectives and knowledge to our team. 

We want to make our recruitment process as fair as possible. To reduce bias, we shortlist candidates based on their responses to up to six application questions. These are designed to tell us about your values, experience, attitudes to work, and transferable skills. We do not ask for a separate cover letter or supporting statement. 

We offer flexible working as standard, helping work fit around family and caring responsibilities. Many of our staff work their hours in different ways, including flexi time and compressed hours. We are open to discussing what would work for you and be possible for the role. 

All roles are remote and are open to applicants who live anywhere in the UK. We provide staff with a home office set-up including laptop, monitor and phone. There is the option to work from our central London office or use a co-working space if it is not possible to work from home. 

We welcome requests for adjustments to our standard recruitment processes for anyone who needs them.