Youth collective senior manager jobs in Birmingham, west midlands
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Policy and Public Affairs Manager
Location: Remote, with some travel to Cannock, London and other locations as required
Reports to: Charity Director
Team: Charitable Service
At Newlife, we’re entering an exciting new chapter - we’re on a mission to empower disabled children and their families, to live life to the fullest and champion the joy of childhood.
So we’re investing in our people and building the team we need to deliver our new strategic ambitions.
Newlife is looking for an experienced and values-driven Policy and Public Affairs Manager to lead our policy, influencing, public affairs and campaigning work. This is an exciting opportunity to shape national conversations and drive meaningful change for disabled children and their families across education, health and social care systems.
In this role, you will ensure that lived experience is at the heart of Newlife’s influencing work, developing evidence-based policy positions, building strategic relationships and delivering campaigns that challenge barriers, raise awareness and improve outcomes for families.
About the role
As Policy and Public Affairs Manager, you will provide strategic and operational leadership across Newlife’s policy, campaigns, public affairs and lived experience activity. You will identify opportunities to influence policy and practice, develop compelling cases for change, and represent Newlife with decision-makers, sector partners and external stakeholders.
You will also oversee the delivery and development of the APPG for Access to Disability Equipment, working with parliamentarians, government departments and sector organisations to increase awareness of the issues affecting disabled children and families.
Key responsibilities
o Lead the development and delivery of Newlife’s policy, public affairs, campaigning and influencing strategy.
o Develop evidence-based policy positions informed by research, service insight and lived experience.
o Ensure the voices of disabled children and families shape Newlife’s policy, campaigning and influencing work.
o Oversee the APPG for Access to Disability Equipment and build relationships with parliamentarians, policymakers and sector partners.
o Lead campaigns and influencing activity that raise awareness, challenge barriers and support policy change.
o Build strategic partnerships and coalitions to strengthen Newlife’s influence and collective impact.
o Represent Newlife externally at parliamentary events, conferences, roundtables and sector forums.
o Provide effective leadership for policy, campaigns and lived experience activity, including line management of the Lived Experience Coordinator.
o Contribute to organisational strategy, planning and growth as a member of the Charity Leadership Team.
About you
We are looking for someone with significant experience in policy development, public affairs, campaigning or influencing, ideally within the charity, public or not-for-profit sector. You will bring strong knowledge of policy and influencing processes, excellent communication skills and the ability to build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and decision-makers.
You will be confident developing policy briefings, consultation responses, reports and position papers, and able to use evidence, research and lived experience to influence change. You will also be a collaborative leader with a strong commitment to inclusion, equity and the rights of disabled children and their families.
Essential experience and skills
o Experience of developing and delivering policy and influencing strategies.
o Experience of building relationships with parliamentarians, policymakers, government departments or national stakeholders.
o Experience of managing campaigns, consultations or public affairs activity.
o Experience of partnership and coalition working.
o Experience of using research, evidence and lived experience to influence change.
o Strong understanding of education, health, social care and disability policy.
o Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
o Strong leadership, people management, strategic thinking and analytical skills.
o Degree-level qualification or equivalent professional experience.
For the full person specification, please refer to the attachement below
Why join Newlife?
This is a unique opportunity to play a leading role in strengthening Newlife’s voice and influence, helping to create systemic change for disabled children and their families. You will work with passionate colleagues, families, professionals and partners to shape policy, improve practice and ensure lived experience drives meaningful action.
If you are a strategic, compassionate and influential leader who wants to make a lasting difference, we would love to hear from you.
Benefits
In return, you will receive 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays, a generous in-store discount, a cash health plan, discounts on restaurants, travel and insurance, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme through Retail Trust.
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The UK’s largest charitable provider of specialist equipment for disabled children.


The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Job role:
In this exciting and varied role, within our growing Mass Engagement department you will be part of the core team responsible for delivering the charities challenge events portfolio to maximise support and increase income.
You’ll manage a range of events from marathons and treks to bespoke fundraising challenges, ensuring participants feel valued, motivated, and connected to the cause.
You will be organised and a strong project manager, confident in solving problems, securing financial targets and take a creative and collaborative approach to deliver outstanding events.
Key responsibilities:
- Develop and deliver mass fundraising events, with end-to-end coordination of various in person and virtual events, ensuring supporters are at the heart of all activity, including budgeting, planning, supplier co-ordination, risk management and on the day delivery.
- Help to identify new event opportunities in collaboration with the Mass Participation Event Manager.
- Meet Income & KPI targets along with maintaining costs within agreed budgets.
- Build collaborative relationships with the wider Mass Engagement, Service Delivery & Marcomms Teams to ensure successful marketing, recruitment, and development of the stewardship journey for our supporters.
- Lead on marketing plans for challenge events to ensure maximum return in collaboration with the Marketing, Brand & Comms team.
- Use data and insight to evaluate event performance, inform decision making and continuously improve participant experience.
- Post-event management including follow up, debrief, results analysis and thanking of participants.
- Event attendance and taking the lead to co-ordinate on the day with support from additional members of staff.
- Manage and record income & expenditure accurately contributing to management reports, data analysis and future planning of the events programme.
- Develop effective relationships with third party event providers to build our profile and identify suitable events to meet our income, event and donor development plans.
- Identify optimisations that will help to streamline and improve our processes for events and supporters.
- Keep abreast of income and data trends across the sector to help inform future activities and events fundraising in line with fundraising regulation.
- Develop and deliver opportunities for corporate engagement and sponsorship.
Skills & Experience:
Essential
- A strong understanding of event fundraising and delivery
- Experience managing multiple projects with multiple stakeholders, stretching KPIs and competing priorities
- Able to use data, insight and market trends to make recommendations
- Collaborative, able to work effectively across functions and support our collective success
- Proven experience of budgeting and project planning, setting up and leading project teams where necessary to meet deadlines.
- Ability to manage a busy workload and meet deadlines whilst maintaining high standards and attention to detail
- Understanding of effective stewardship tactics to maximise income and deepen engagement with participants
- Experience of working across functions with a wide range of people managing both internal and external stakeholders at all levels
Desirable
- Experience of working with and managing volunteers
- Proven ability to assess and manage risk in both marketing/financial terms and reputational risk.
- Understanding of relevant marketing tactics and channels, particularly digital
- Knowledge of health and safety and risk management in event delivery & fundraising compliance.
- Familiarity with digital fundraising platforms and MS Dynamics
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.


