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About us 

The Early Education and Childcare Coalition unites the voices of parents, children, providers, early years professionals and the wider business community, working together for investment and reform of early education and childcare in England. 

We believe that we all benefit from investing in early education and childcare, and we all have a role to play in shaping a system that delivers for children, families and the economy. 

We are backed by some of the most high-profile campaign and research organisations in England. Our members include early years provider membership bodies, parent campaign groups, early childhood experts, trade unions, the business lobby, anti-poverty campaigners and NGOs. Together, we use our collective voice and research to build public and political support for early education and childcare.

And it’s worked. Thanks to the dedication of our members, early years is now one of the top six priorities for the new government’s Plan for Change, but our work isn’t done – we have an ambitious agenda to ‘rescue and reform’ the system, ensuring that: 

• every child can access high-quality education and care that their parents can afford and that will support them to thrive 

• every provider is funded fairly for the places they offer 

• every early years professional is rewarded and recognised for the skilled work they do 

About the role

We are now recruiting a Senior Research and Policy Officer on a fixed-term contract to help drive our aims during this exciting period. 

• Hours: 37.5 hours (5 days per week). Some out-of-hours work may be required for which TOIL will be given. 

• Duration: One-year contract with possible extension subject to funding. 

• Location: Home-working but located in Greater Manchester 

• Salary: £44,755 per annum 

Your time will be split between two key strands of work: 

• Our core research and policy function which responds to emerging early years policy, government consultations and shapes our own original research 

• A ‘test and learn’ pilot on workforce development. 

The former will require you to have a good grasp of mixed research methods, some understanding of the challenges facing early education and childcare, as well as a good understanding of the political and economic climate we’re working in. Naturally, you should be able to produce clear and compelling briefings that can be of use to policymakers and our members. 

The latter is an exciting new project that is a key output in our three-year programme, ‘Building the Early Education Workforce in England’. It will see you partner with combined authorities, think tanks and coalition partners. You will need to be comfortable handling data in this role.

We are a fully remote organisation, but ideally you should be based in Greater Manchester where the ‘test and learn’ pilot is being conducted. This will be important in building relationships with providers and local authorities that are participating in the project. 

We work flexibly and it won’t come as a surprise to you that we understand the challenge of caring commitments. We trust you to manage your time, but as a minimum requirement, we expect you to be available on Thursday mornings for our staff meeting. As a remote team this helps us to stay in touch and connect. 

The Coalition has experienced significant growth over the last two years and with early years firmly on the political agenda, we expect this to continue. Our hope is that this role will evolve and the successful candidate will continue to progress within this growing and impactful organisation. 

For the last two years, the Coalition has been incubated by the Women’s Budget Group, the UK’s leading feminist economic think tank. Our growth means that we are now ready to spin out into a separate and independent legal entity. That means that your employment contract will initially be with WBG on behalf of the Coalition but will then transfer across to the newly constituted organisation. This won’t change your role, your terms or your pay, but we want to tell you now. We are happy to answer questions at interview about that. 

What you can expect to be doing 

• Use detailed knowledge of quantitative and qualitative methodologies to produce policy papers  and reports on topics relevant to the Coalition’s aims 

• Work closely with our Associate Director of Research and Coproduction, to deliver our ‘test and learn’ pilot analysing data from local authorities and early years providers and codesigning the final outputs with stakeholders. 

• Support our response to key fiscal events including the Spending Review 

• Work with Coalition members to promote shared learning of innovative practices and coordinate joint research 

• Maintain awareness and knowledge of research and policy literature related to early education and childcare 

• Support the advocacy and communications team with the dissemination of research and policy 

About you 

You will have experience in a research or policy role where you’ve been responsible for responding to government policy, producing briefings and reports, and shaping future research. Given the nature of coalition-working, experience of working with a broad range of stakeholders would be beneficial, as would any experience of codesigning policy solutions, although this is not essential.

We are looking for someone who is comfortable handling data and using data to make policy recommendations. Experience of working on public service reform would be a bonus. 

Person specification 

Essential 

• Educated to degree level in social sciences and/or demonstrable research experience in public service reform issues 

• Experience of data collation and statistical analysis, working with large datasets and data analysis packages 

• Experience of working in research within an applied setting 

• Knowledge and experience of analysing and summarising quantitative and qualitative research 

• Comfortable with remote-working with the ability to work on own initiative 

• Commitment to the aims of the EECC and our principles. 

• Excellent written and oral communication skills and the ability to write reports for a policy audience 

• Ability to communicate effectively in writing and in person with a range of different audiences 

• Experience of liaising with a wide range of stakeholders in the context of a research and policy project 

Desirable 

• Experience of leading on research projects 

• Experience of working on codesigned projects 

• Some knowledge of the challenges facing the early education and childcare system 

• Experience of stakeholder engagement or engaging research participants

The application process 

Please apply with CV and cover letter by the listed closing date. No agencies please. We are using anonymous recruitment via Charity Jobs so please apply via that process.

The EECC is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion. We use anonymous recruiting during the application process and we use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the disabled or Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic candidate in order to diversify our staff team. 

Please note we can only consider applications from candidates with the right to work in the UK.

We regret that our small team does not have capacity to respond to unsuccessful applicants individually. 

Closing date for applications: 9am, Monday 12th May

Interviews: w/c 19th May 

Start date: ASAP