Policy and Public Affairs Manager - Adolescent Risk and Vulnerability

Policy and Public Affairs Manager (Adolescent Risk and Vulnerability)Permanent 35 hours per week£51,666.06 per annum (London) or £48,714.18 (if based outside London) The Children's Society has been helping children and young people in this country for over 140 years. We run local services that support children when they are at their most vulnerable and in desperate need of help. We're there for children, every step of the way.

The Children's Society (TCS) is at an exciting stage of its journey with a clear organisational goal and renewed commitment to reverse the damaging decline in children's wellbeing. This is no ordinary job, with the scale of the crisis needing strong policy and public affairs advocates. As we move towards addressing the strategic goal of reversing the decline in children's wellbeing, we need to create innovative policies that seek to address the drivers of low wellbeing and the structural inequalities young people experience, including the risks they young people are facing on a daily basis. The Policy and Public Affairs Manager (Adolescent Risk and Vulnerability) is a high-profile role, both internally and externally. This critical role is part of our newly established Policy, Advocacy and Influencing knowledge group, which brings together colleagues across policy, public affairs and campaigning to work together to ensure effective strategic influencing in our three policy areas ( adolescent risk and vulnerability, mental health, poverty). The role sits within our Youth Impact domain, which brings together teams directly supporting young people across the country in practice and our national programmes. What connects us is our desire to be grounded in youth voice and to change the systems that surround young people for the better to ultimately lead to improved outcomes for young people. ROLEWe are looking for a talented and ambitious manager to develop and deliver an ambitious new policy and influencing programme for our risk portfolio. The ideal candidate will have an in-depth understanding of the issues facing children and young people most at risk, as well as prior experience in influencing local and national government to bring about tangible change across systems, services and support. With a new government, there is a renewed momentum and opportunities for change, and we are looking for someone to mobilise and leverage this to deliver real impact for young people most at risk across the UK. A key part of this role will be your ability to understand and react to the current political environment, and to work both internally and externally to ensure that our policy and public affairs engagement is grounded in the insights and experiences from our practitioners and young people we work with. KEY SKILLS AND COMPETENCIESThe required skills and competencies for this role are:

-Knowledge of social policy issues affecting the most at risk children across the UK: ambitious and optimistic for change in children and young people's lives - with an interest and experience in driving policy change at a strategic/governmental level. Specific knowledge in one or more of the areas within adolescent risk and vulnerability.

-Experience and understanding of UK politics and policy making, including legislative processes (nationally and locally): experience of navigating local and national politics, with a view to influencing the political agenda through policy and campaigning, for the benefit of children and young people.

-Youth voice and influence: a commitment to amplifying young people's voices and the ongoing development of lived experience influencing your work and that of your teams.

-Safeguarding knowledge and experience: experience of working in an environment where the safety and safeguarding of children and young people is an organisational priority; and the ability to apply safeguarding principles and application of safeguarding policies to the work of your teams.

-People management and leadership (leading multi-disciplinary teams): a brilliant people and resource manager - able to work with colleagues in multi disciplinary teams to ensure they prioritise and deliver, as well as work strategically to join people, services, projects, and initiatives together to achieve our organisational objectives.

-Networking and relationship building: ability to work across the organisation, collaborating internally, and within external networks and partnerships to benefit our work, and achieve our goal.

-Critical thinking and data literacy: curious approach - applying critical thinking, able to produce, interpret and report high quality data to showcase your team's impact and performance, and the impact of the organisation. Experience working with practice colleagues/frontline staff to translate evidence to strategic policy is an added value

-Strategic policy skills: Proven ability to strategically influence government policy through targeted policy projects, and through external partnerships with strategic partners.

-Anti-discriminatory practice: A commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion to progress the Youth Impact domains commitments to anti-racism, adopting an intersectional lens to our work.

-Excellent communication skills: Ability to synthesize and communicate complex policy and systemic issues to a rage of audiences. Excellent written and verbal/presentation skills. Media training and experience preferred. Ability to communicate complex topics, simply - internally and externally.

INFO ABOUT THE CHILDREN'S SOCIETY

The Children's Society runs over 100 local services that help thousands of young people who desperately need our support, and we campaign to get laws and policies changed to make children's lives happier and safer.Every day we're changing the lives of children in this country for the better - and with your help, tomorrow we can be there for even more.

The Children's Society is committed to safeguarding and protecting the children and young people that we work with. As such, all posts are subject to a safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks. We ensure that we have a range of policies and procedures in place which promote safeguarding and safer working practices across our services.

Therefore, candidates applying for work in our Youth Impact Domain will be required to complete full employment history as part of the application process.

The closing date for applications is 11.59pm on Sunday 13th October.First-round assessment/interviews will be held virtually on Monday 28th October.Final interviews will be held in London on Tuesday 12th November.