The job of a Save the Children’s UK Policy and Advocacy Adviser contributes to making a real difference to the lives of children.
Do you have experience maintaining in-depth policy knowledge on a topic, ideally UK poverty, children’s issues or social policy?
Do you have excellent writing skills, including the ability to communicate coherent arguments and complex policy analysis in a compelling way to external audiences?
Are you experienced of developing effective advocacy strategies which are capable of influencing policy change
Do you have experience of using evidence from a range of sources to analyse policy challenges and develop creative, credible solutions?
If the answers to these questions are yes, we would love to hear from you!
Please note that whilst this is an 11 month Fixed Term Contract, there is potential for this to be extended.
Note:
To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.
About Us
Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children’s unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.
Job Purpose
This role reports directly to the Head of Child Poverty in the UK Impact department, where we work to reduce the level of child poverty and its impact on children’s early learning and development. You work closely with the communities we aim to support. Recognising their diversity and strengths as well as the challenges they face, and we aim to reflect their diversity and experiences in our UK staff team.
Our child poverty work is currently focused on social security, childcare and employment policy. You will take a lead in one or more of these areas, hold expert knowledge on child poverty, and use this knowledge to create powerful advocacy strategies capable of reducing child poverty in the UK.
As a rights-based organisation, we are committed to anti-racism and actively opposed systemic oppression of any form. You will support our commitment to celebrate diversity, challenge inequality, and build an inclusive environment for every one of our employees so we can better represent the children we protect.
Main Accountabilities
The Policy and Advocacy Adviser’s key duties will be to:
To build and maintain expert knowledge on poverty and its impact on children’s outcomes
To ensure that this expert knowledge is at the heart of our change strategies by working collaboratively in multi-disciplinary teams (we work in an Agile set up at Save the Children)
To analysis government policy, simplifying complex ideas and explaining the implications for children clearly to non-specialists
To develop ambitious and credible policy proposals to tackle child poverty in the UK
To represent the organisation at external meetings with officials, charities, think tanks, politicians and decision makers, and, with training and support, in the media
To write impactful reports and briefing papers for external audiences
To carry out simple statistical analysis to contribute to the team’s understanding of Government data releases, official figures, and other data that may be relevant to the team’s work
To work in partnership with parents and children experiencing poverty, and be part of team of colleagues who support parents to become powerful advocates
To carry out basic research and analysis yourself, and contribute to the development of engaging research projects we commission others to carry out on our behalf
To build and maintain excellent external relationships in the policy community, in order to gather intelligence and influence policy change
The post-holder must carry out the responsibilities of the role in a way which reflects:
Save the Children’s commitment to safeguarding children in accordance with the Child Safeguarding Policy;
A commitment to Save the Children’s vision, mission, values and approach
A commitment to effective management of risk, by operating within the Charity’s code of conduct, policies, procedures and controls and by carrying out the risk management and assurance responsibilities of the role as set out in the Risk Policy and Procedures.
Person Profile
Technical Skills:
Experience maintaining in-depth policy knowledge on a topic, ideally UK poverty, children’s issues or social policy
Experience of developing effective advocacy strategies which are capable of influencing policy change
Experience of working with parents, children or people with lived experience of an issue, to develop research plans, policy proposals or advocacy strategies, or a clear interest in making this part of your practice
Experience of using evidence from a range of sources to analyse policy challenges and develop creative, credible solutions
Personal Skills:
A strong team player with an empowering and collaborative working style and excellent interpersonal skills
Solutions-focused with a creative, problem-solving approach
Strong verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex policy ideas to non-specialists
Excellent writing skills, including the ability to communicate coherent arguments and complex policy analysis in a compelling way to external audiences
Strong listening skills, and comfortable synthesising insights from parents with lived experience of poverty
Able to manage multiple activities at once and to resolve conflicting priorities
A flexible approach that enable you to both lead projects and deliver activities for projects led by others
Positive, resilient and committed to improving the lives of children and families
Ability to travel within the UK (travel is expected to be up to 1-2 times per year)
Save the Children UK is committed to diversity and equality of opportunity in all aspects of our work both external and internal. We strive to be an inclusive employer and particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups such as returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people who are LGBT+, from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, with a disability, impairment, learning difference or long-term condition, with caring responsibilities, from different nations and regions, and from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.
