19 Media and PR officer volunteer roles

Cats Protection is the UK’s leading feline welfare charity and our vision is a world where every cat is treated with kindness and an understanding of its needs. As a charity we are able to help thousands of cats each year thanks to the generous donations we receive from members of the public.

Our fundraising team leaders have the exciting and varied role of inspiring our fundraising volunteers to plan and deliver local fundraising events. Using their passion and imagination, they oversee a small team of fundraising volunteers who come together to raise the vital funds needed to cover costs such as veterinary bills and food. Our fundraising team leaders support their team of volunteers in all aspects of their roles, making sure our volunteers are happy, confident and supported. Activities include:

· Supporting and encouraging a team of fundraising volunteers

· Planning fundraising events and activities with your team

· Allocating tasks before and during fundraising events

· Keeping financial records from fundraising events

· Encouraging and promoting a professional image of Cats Protection 

· Following policies and guidelines and ensuring licences and permits are obtained for events

You will develop new skills, expand your knowledge and make a significant contribution to improving the lives of cats and kittens by helping raise funds and awareness through organising local events. You will also meet new people, make new friends and be part of a dedicated team of volunteers. You will be supported and guided from our National Cat Centre and through our regional and local volunteer groups and teams. We offer engaging online and face-to-face training, expenses and have policies and processes to help volunteers get the most out of their time with us.

We're looking for someone with the following:

· Great people skills and the ability to bring out the best in others

· Excellent organisational skills

· The ability to prioritise and delegate

· An appreciation of the importance of handling money and charity resources responsibly

· Fine-tuned communication skills and a passion for engaging with people within your local community

· Basic IT skills to use Cats Protection systems - training and support can be provided

· Committee volunteers need to be aged 18+

Our fundraising team leaders usually spend three to four hours per week in this role, which is flexible and can be shared by more than one volunteer if needed.

The wellbeing of our people is important and at Cats Protection we are committed to safeguarding children, adults at risk and all those that we come into contact with as part of our activities.

Join us as a Trustee and contribute to our campaigning journey to help make the food system healthier and fairer. Be part of the creative, agile and growing team behind Bite Back’s exceptional teenage activists from England and Scotland. Work with a vibrant, dynamic and youth-led organisation that is committed to advancing child rights and creating healthy futures for children across the UK and abroad by improving our global, national, and local food systems.

Trustee Role & Responsibilities

As a Trustee, you will share collective statutory responsibility duties for the governance and strategic direction of Bite Back:

● Strategic Oversight: Ensure Bite Back pursues its charitable objectives by approving and monitoring our long-term strategy and organisational goals

● Compliance & Governance: Ensure that compliance with governing documents, charity law, company law, safeguarding standards, and all relevant statutory regulations in England & Wales, and Scotland.

● Financial Stewardship: Protect and manage the charity’s assets, ensuring financial stability, proper investment, and exclusive application of funds toward our charitable mission.

● Risk & Performance Management: Evaluate performance against agreed strategy, monitor organisational risks, and ensure proper internal controls and policies are in place.

● CEO Support & Governance: Provide support, constructive challenge, and oversight to the Chief Executive Officer.

In addition to statutory duties, Trustees act as critical friends and champions for Bite Back. You will draw on your professional skills, networks, and lived experience to advise the Board and Senior Leadership Team, scrutinise board papers, and support key strategic initiatives.

Person specification

Following a recent governance review and skills audit, we are seeking up to three new Trustees to join our Board during an exciting phase of expansion across the UK. Candidates should bring deep expertise in at least one of the following core priority areas:

1. Scottish Youth Charity & Governance Expertise: Senior leadership experience from across Scotland’s charity sector (ideally, but not necessarily, within the children and young people’s sector), with strong professional networks across Scottish government, civil society, and funders to help guide our growing footprint and programmes as a registered Scottish charity (SC055240). In addition to strong Scottish safeguarding and child protection experience, and Scottish charity governance knowledge.

2. Youth Voice / Education Charity Leadership Expertise: Senior leadership experience within the youth sector (youth voice / development / advocacy) or education sector working with young people, or experience scaling high impact social ventures that improve lives of young people, or movement building, or philanthropic and donor networks to support income generation, organisational growth, and governance trajectory. In addition to strong child safeguarding experience.

3. Political Strategy & Campaign Expertise: Expertise in building high-impact strategic campaigns to influence policy, with strong PR/media/political professional networks to support Bite Back’s young campaigners’ efforts to hold Big Food accountable via fresh, innovative, and digital-forward ways.

Core Qualities Required for All Trustees

● A deep commitment to Bite Back’s mission, values, and youth-led ethos, alongside the strategic vision to help steer a dynamic, growing national movement

● Good, independent judgement and thinking, and the willingness to speak your mind candidly while constructively challenging executive leadership

● A clear understanding and acceptance of the statutory duties, responsibilities, and legal liabilities of trusteeship under charity and company law

● An ability to think creatively, embrace fresh perspectives, and navigate complex policy public health, and campaigning landscapes

● An ability to work effectively as an active member of a team, building strong, supportive relationships with fellow Trustees, Youth Activists, and executive leadership

● An openness to leveraging personal and professional networks to support elevating the voices of Bite Back’s young people and their campaigns.

● A genuine willingness to devote the necessary time, energy, and effort to prepare for board meetings, advise on sub-committees, and champion the organisation externally

● A steadfast commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging alongside full alignment with Nolan’s Seven Principles of Public Life (Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty, and Leadership)

Time Commitment & Location

● Board meetings: 4 meetings per year (held virtually or in London, with hybrid access)

● Sub-Committees: Participation in one Board sub-committee where relevant

● Ad-Hoc Support: Occasional strategic guidance, reading time, and attendance at key Bite Back events or youth showcases

Our Organisation & Governance

Bite Back is a registered charity in England & Wales (1180969) and Scotland (SC055240). Bite Back is led by young people - not consulted as an afterthought, but led. Over 70+ core youth activists who sit on our Youth Board directly shape our strategy, campaigns, and communications, supported by thousands of young people engaged across our UK networks.

Our staff team of about 30 people works in partnership with our Youth Board, using their professional networks and expertise to create platforms for young leaders to drive systemic change.

Bite Back is overseen by a dedicated Board of Trustees, led by Chair Dr. Dolly van Tulleken.

The Board is responsible for ensuring the charity fulfills its mission, remains strictly youth-led, and maintains robust financial and operational governance. Our Board currently includes experienced professionals across health, education, finance, campaigns, and youth engagement, alongside Youth Trustees who bring essential lived experience to our governance. Our Board has a Finance Sub-Committee to support specifically with the long-term financial sustainability of the charity.

Everything we do is guided by the core values developed by our Youth Board: Fresh, Resilient, Energetic, Real, and Respectful.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEI-B)

As part of our commitment to making meaningful progress towards a movement where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered, Bite Back’s DEIB vision statement has been co-developed by Bite Back’s young people, staff and trustees:

A fair food system means our working culture and values - Real, Respectful, Resilient, Fresh and Energetic - reflects this vision. We support our staf , ambassadors and trustees to live Bite Back’s values in their work.

At Bite Back, DEIB means that our people are able to join and navigate the workplace, trusting they’ll be supported to thrive, and that we’ll respond with compassion and make change when things fall short. We recognise the systems of oppression which keep marginalised groups from power, and seek to proactively build equity. We are intentional about representation. We actively recruit under-represented voices, ensuring our staf team and youth board are representative of a wide variety of lived experiences.

We push to improve outcomes for those kept furthest from power, celebrate differences and ensure accessibility is built in, not added on. Our aspiration and intention is that Bite Back is an organisation that recognises, shares and acts on its power and responsibility to young people, employees, community and wider society, driving equity and inclusion in every space, and in every decision.

You can read more about how we approach DEI-B on our website.

We are intentional about representation and equity:

● Youth-Led Representation: We ensure our core movement including over 70+ Youth Activists and thousands of young campaigners across England and Scotland reflects the rich diversity of young people most impacted by food insecurity and junk food marketing.

● Proactive Inclusion: We actively recruit under-represented voices to our staff team and Board of Trustees, celebrating difference and embedding accessibility into everything we do by design.

● Continuous Improvement: We continually review and embed inclusive practices across our recruitment, organisational culture, campaign priorities, and board governance.

Help Shape the Future of Children’s Healthcare in Sussex. Join the Board of Trustees at Rockinghorse Children’s Charity.

As a Trustee, you'll work alongside fellow Board members and our Executive Team to:

• Help shape the charity's long-term strategy and future direction.
• Ensure Rockinghorse is well governed, financially sustainable and delivering the greatest possible impact.
• Support and challenge the Executive Team as we deliver our ambitious plans.
• Champion the charity and help build relationships that strengthen our work across Sussex.

This is an opportunity to contribute to decisions that will help thousands of children and families every year.

We're particularly interested in hearing from people with experience in:

• Finance
• Healthcare or allied professions
• Charity governance
• Fundraising
• Business leadership
• Marketing and communications
• Research, data or evaluation
• IT
• Digital
• Business development

We're particularly keen to hear from people with lived experience of children's healthcare and from people whose backgrounds and experiences are currently underrepresented on charity boards.

About Rockinghorse

Rockinghorse was set up in 1967 by Dr Trevor Mann as an appeal to provide the first neonatal incubator outside London.

The appeal not only marked the beginning of our charity, but also the very early days of what later became the Trevor Mann Baby Unit. Dr Mann was intrinsic to paediatric care in Sussex as we know it today.

Roll forward to today, and we are proud to be the official fundraising arm of the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton along with the Trevor Mann Baby Unit.

We also support many other NHS hospital settings throughout Sussex, including Bluefin Ward at Worthing, Chalkhill and the Special Care Baby Unit at Haywards Heath, and Howard Ward at St Richard’s in Chichester.

Working in partnership with these services, we fund projects which focus on improving children’s physical and emotional well-being, while providing additional support services for parents and carers.

The projects we support fall into six key categories: toys, equipment, spaces, research, activities, and people.

Our Vision

Rockinghorse’s vision is a world where children are healthy and happy.  

Our Mission

We fund and deliver transformative projects and services that enhance the care and support given by our incredible colleagues in the NHS.

We invest in state-of-the-art treatments, life-saving equipment, critical mental health support, additional people, ground-breaking research, and inspiring spaces that go above and beyond for children.

We work in partnership with the UHSussex NHS Trust and other charities to ensure every young patient and their family receive the best possible care when they are unwell.

Our Values

We strive to always operate in line with the following guiding values.

We care

We care about children, young people, their families, and all those that look after for them. We always act with kindness and compassion. We care about the NHS and all those who work there. We care about the world and want to make it a better place.

We’re passionate

We are passionate about making life better for children, young people, and their families. If there’s something we can do to make life better for patients and their families, we’ll go above and beyond to do it. We are passionate about our community and all those in it.

We’re honest

We are open and honest about our work, what we fund and how we raise funds. We work hard to ensure money goes to projects that genuinely make a difference. We involve our supporters in our projects and share our learning and experience wherever possible.

We’re supportive

We help wherever and however we can. We support children and their families; we support Health Care Professionals (HCP) and paediatric

services, and we support each other as team members. We work with and support other charities and organisations who are doing great things for children in Sussex.

We’re collaborative

We prioritise working with people and organisations wherever possible. We work with experts and others for the best possible outcome for sick

children and their families. We love a partnership that prioritises impact and avoids duplication.

How to apply

If you’d like to help shape the future of children’s healthcare across Sussex, we’d love to hear from you. Please email a covering letter outlining your skills and experience in relation to the Trustee Job Description to Dr Oli Rahman, our Chair of Trustees, by 30 September 2026.

Interviews will be held in person in Brighton in October (dates/times flexible to shortlisted candidates).
If you have any questions about the role, process or the charity please email our CEO, Donna Holland.

For email addresses and further information, please refer to the attached Application Pack.