Student voice manager jobs
Reporting to: Director of Policy and Engagement
Direct reports: 1 x Scotland Policy and Public Affairs Manager and Legislative Lead, 2 x Policy and Public Affairs Officers, 1 x England Policy and Public Affairs Manager
Location of work: Home-based. The post holder must be easily and quickly commutable to London and will require frequent meetings in London. The role may involve some irregular travel throughout England and Scotland to attend events and meetings.
Contract type: Full-time, 35 hours per week, flexible hours may be considered. The role may require occasional evening and weekend work
Contract Length: Permanent
Salary: £54,500 - £56,500
BACKGROUND
Our work has never been more needed. The latest research suggesting that the number of children and young people at risk of hunger has rocketed to 2.6 million* means that one in five children don't have enough to eat.When a child is too hungry to learn, when they’re aching for something to eat, they can’t concentrate. They can’t absorb information. Big feelings and worries can be impossible to control. They fall behind in their studies.
Magic Breakfast provide a nutritious and filling breakfast to over 300,000 children and young people every school day. We work with schools in areas of high disadvantage, helping staff target the children most in need without barrier or stigma. Magic Breakfast are ambitious to grow our impact to remove hunger as a barrier to learning for all children and young people in the UK.
This is an exciting time to join Magic Breakfast if you wish to make a difference to the lives of children as we work to influence both policy implementation, with the national rollout of primary-aged universal school breakfast, and legislative change, through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. There has also been commitment from the Scottish Government for a national breakfast scheme and we are seeking to expand our advocacy work into Wales. Magic Breakfast’s influence will be instrumental to ensuring school breakfasts are implemented in a way that is hunger-focused and barrier free.
In addition, thousands of secondary school children are at risk of losing their free school breakfasts from September next year. For many of these students, this is their only opportunity to have a nutritious meal before facing a demanding school day, including taking exams. And for the very youngest, we know that the disadvantage gap begins before they even reach reception. With the Government commitment to another 100,000 places in school-based nurseries, early years is also a critical part of our advocacy work.
Being part of the work of Magic Breakfast is your chance, together with parents, teachers and people across the UK, to demonstrate the power of school breakfasts and to shape the way forward to end morning hunger for good.
*Food Foundation Insecurity Tracker Jan 2025
JOB PURPOSE
The Head of Policy & Public Affairs will review, develop and implement our advocacy strategy and lead a team to influence the devolved legislatures across the UK to address child morning hunger, with a view to the underlying systemic causes of child poverty and hunger, by driving change through policy and legislation. The role operates at our ‘Head of level’ which is the most senior operational specialist level and provides both operational and strategic leadership.
This role will also provide wider leadership across the charity and input into organisational strategy development and planning as part of the Core Management Group. This role will ensure that the Policy and Public Affairs function is aligned to the wider strategic aims and outcomes of Magic Breakfast as well as the internal operational systems and delivery.
The strategic leadership will ensure an external and long term view, with an outward looking and forward thinking approach that builds thought leadership, relationships and partnerships, with positioning to anticipate and build on new opportunities to end child morning hunger for good.
It will require an experienced Policy and Public Affairs professional, with significant experience of high impact and demonstrable outcomes at a senior level in the field. The postholder will lead the policy and public affairs team to influence the Early Adopters Scheme, the national rollout of primary school breakfast provision in England and breakfast legislation in the Children’s Wellbeing Bill (CWB).
They will also develop, guide and lead plans to influence the Scottish government, particularly in the run up to the election in May 2026 and the influencing of manifestos; and will lead Magic Breakfast’s upcoming influencing work in Wales.
In the external leadership that the role provides they will build relationships with politicians, political influencers, special advisors and civil servants to establish long-term, sustainable solutions to child morning hunger in the UK.
As a compassionate, people centric and inspiring leader they will work to enable their team to grow and develop in their skills ensuring they can step away from the detail whilst retaining accountability, build effective resource management and progression pathways. This role may manage external consultants where necessary, and work collaboratively with external organisations to amplify our voice and asks and strengthen our position as a thought leader.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
· Review and define the advocacy strategy for 25/26 in line both with moving political environment and Magic Breakfast’s influencing agenda, considering the systemic barriers to ending child morning hunger for good.
· Develop and maintain close relationships with the Department for Education and other key departments including Department for Health and Social Care and Treasury, to secure hunger and child focus as key priorities for breakfast provision.
· Develop, monitor and evaluate influencing plans for each devolved nation
· Support the development of influencing plans with coalition groups and organisations to influence school breakfast policy, commitments and implementation
· Review policy positions in Wales and Northern Ireland and define our advocacy approach, gaining external insights and analysing available research and data to shape the plan
· Develop a vision for advocacy beyond current demands, considering political appetite and gaining insight from lived experience communities and relevant sectors, to ensure that we are clear on future asks, and can build the foundation towards them.
· Work with Impact and Insights team to define future research needs to meet our longer-term advocacy plans
· Enhance and establish internal processes and ensure good internal information dissemination
· Work closely with key internal stakeholders to shape advocacy work and support broader organisational objectives
· Embed learnings and develop a fail fast, learn fast culture in the team
· Coach, support and lead direct reports enabling increased professional development, strategic decision making, proactive project management and robust political influencing
· Contribute to and help shape the work of the Core Management Group to ensure ongoing alignment for in year implementation of the strategic plan and create integrated future year plans which meet organisational goals
· Monitor and review KPIs to monitor and measure both team and cross organisational performance, using the results to guide teams and surface learnings
· Assess areas of risk and escalate where necessary and according to policy
· Develop and monitor annual team budgets
General
• Work collaboratively across the organisation, building good working relations and providing ad-hoc support to other teams and members of staff
• Passion and commitment to Magic Breakfast’s aim of alleviating morning hunger as a barrier to learning for children in the UK.
• Help to maintain a positive working environment; keeping the vision of Magic Breakfast at the heart of everything we do.
• Share Magic Breakfast’s commitment to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
• Establish and ensure existing Ways of Working are adhered to across team
• Adhere to all Magic Breakfast policies and procedures and ensure that all activity is compliant with current legislation, GDPR, data protection and child safeguarding requirements
• Undertake any other duties commensurate with the role
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Knowledge and Experience
Essential
· Strategy development, demonstrating a deep understanding of how to craft, implement, and evolve strategies that align to operational outcomes for the Policy and Advocacy function as well as enabling our organisation strategy in our aim to end child morning for good.
· Stakeholder management and partnership building with extensive experience of engaging, influencing, and collaborating with diverse stakeholders, including senior political figures, policymakers, funders and sector leaders.
· Ability to confidently and flexibly deal with volatile political environment, anticipating potential developments and adapting to emerging situations to meet aims
· Highly experienced in developing and shaping policy positions, using insights, research and data sets to inform and guide decision-making
· Understanding and experience of the role of the broader external environment to shape policy asks and political influencing, including the implications of a policy ask in one sector on another.
· Experience of influencing key political events such as budgets, national elections and the legislative process.
· Significant experience of coaching, supporting and managing the development of a team, with the ability to make difficult decisions and challenge where needed to deliver the organisational strategy.
Desirable
· Experience of education, food insecurity, child poverty or childcare sectors
Skills and Abilities
• Effective leadership mentality with confidence to step away from the detail and delegate responsibility, enabling others to use judgements, make decisions, learn from failures and continuously improve.
• Analytical and evidence based decision making, with the ability to turn data and analysis into policy and advocacy related recommendations or outcomes for action.
• Effective planning, prioritisation and project management skills. Able to organise self and team to meet planned objectives and strategic direction with the ability to pivot and manage the unexpected.
• Strong, influential and impactful interpersonal and communication skills and to advocate for own specialism, department and Magic Breakfast's mission, effectively conveying the organisation's impact and needs to a wide range of audiences.
• Operational and financial acumen and analysis: understanding and practical application of knowledge as required around funding considerations, budget development and management, risk management, and ensuring systems in place for efficiency by setting and maintaining policy and procedural frameworks.
• An outward looking and forward thinking approach that drives a sense of curiosity, innovation and continuous improvement. Always thinking what can we learn from others, what new developments can be explored and what are the opportunities for the function to improve and grow with others too.
WHAT WE OFFER
At Magic Breakfast we value our employees and work hard to develop offer a supportive, respectful culture which enables everyone to bring their whole self to work.
Please find attached our job pack
APPLICATION PROCCESS
Should you wish to discuss the role before applying please email our People and Culture Team, recruitment @ magicbreakfast. com
Shortlisting - w/c 5th May
Interview 1 - 15th and 16th May
Interview 2 - w/c 21st May
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.
If you are right for this role, you will be a committed, motivated, and outgoing individual who wants to support the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of young people living in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, working in a partnership capacity as part of a holistic health and wellbeing programme. Your role will be multi-faceted, and you will therefore be flexible and able to offer a variety of SRH interventions in a broad range of settings, to a broad range of young people.
First, you will provide brief interventions in sexual health in an outreach capacity at schools, colleges, universities, leisure centres, youth organisations, and other venues. Here, your primary focus will be to provide basic information about SRH to young people, whilst also encouraging them to complete a Chlamydia screen and register to the free condom scheme. You will also promote online testing for those aged over 18, and connect young people with other local sexual health services through referral and signposting.
Second, you will deliver SRH and relationships training to groups of young people and professionals, in smaller workshop settings as well as to larger groups. You will be able to deliver accurate information on a variety of topics that are often sensitive and complex. You will have an existing knowledge base that you will be willing to expand and solidify through a combination of supported training and independent learning.
Third, you will facilitate offsite drop-in sexual health sessions and offer 1:1 sexual health support to young people who attend any of the four Young Greenwich youth groups. You and your team will each be responsible for attending the four Young Greenwich hubs once each week during evening hours, working closely with the youth group leader as well as the young people themselves to establish trusted relationships and an engaging programme of activity. You will be proactive and creative at integrating sexual health to other, ongoing activities, and ensure effective safeguarding.
Additionally, you will work closely with the wider SHO team, including supporting the sexual health phone lines processing screening results, and where necessary, signposting to relevant services. Across all aspects of your role, you promote local sexual health and contraception services to young people and adults alike, referring to in-person or online services as appropriate and handholding as much or as little as needed, particularly to those most vulnerable. You will keep accurate monitoring records for all interactions, referrals, Chlamydia screens, and C Card registrations / distributions. You will also contribute to quarterly service review reports.
This role requires flexibility, working unsociable hours in the evenings, and occasional weekends. Schedules may vary from week to week depending on programme need.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Purpose of role
To create engaging content and communications for our charitable services, fundraising and internal communications across all our channels. The role is a critical part of Thrive’s new strategy as we move towards a more digitally focussed and data driven approach to marketing, raising awareness and influencing the sector.
Job Description
Thrive’s vision is that gardening is actively encouraged as part of personal health and wellbeing management and Social & Therapeutic Horticulture (STH) services are available wherever people live.
We are looking for a creative, dynamic and enthusiastic member of the Communications and Marketing Team who can support us in the development and delivery of Thrive’s communication and marketing strategy and boost our awareness and engagement using both online and offline channels.
Broad Outline of Key Responsibilities –
• Creating web pages and managing content and assets such as video, images, case-studies
• Supporting the delivery of internal and external email newsletters; creating content, managing email lists, automations and segmentations
• Translate media stories into compelling content across channels to grow audience understanding of the charity and consideration to support
• Attend external events to network and represent Thrive
• Monitoring channels and producing regular reports on performance from analytics
This a versatile role, encompassing skills and experience across digital marketing, content creation, press and media as well as social media. So you will need to be creative, have a passion for storytelling and identifying and writing engaging content across all our channels.
If you are a confident marketeer and have experience of working in a comms and marketing environment, we can offer you a rewarding challenge.
For the full job description and person specification, please download the information pack
To Apply:
Please send your CV and a covering letter explaining how you meet the person specification, to recruitment by 30th April. Interviews will be held w/c 5th May.
We are operating a rolling programme of recruitment, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
About you
You will be a policy, campaigns and public affairs professional with a passion for change and social justice. You will have good working knowledge of the policy and political landscape. You will have experience of developing policy and research which helps to bring about change. Self-motivation, planning, and ability to respond quickly to a changing external environment, will be at the heart of your approach. You’ll have a strong sense of purpose to bring about change that improves carers’ lives and will be results driven. Collaboration internally and externally will be important to you.
About the role
The Policy and Public Affairs team is responsible for Carers UK’s policy, media, campaigns, research, public affairs and media functions, working with our colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We are a small team carrying out the full range of public affairs activity, from raising awareness of caring through public campaigns and in the media, to influencing Parliament, Government and wider stakeholders through new research, policy expertise and our campaigning work.
This role plays a vital part in delivering the charity’s core aims to make life better for carers by:
- Contributing to Carers UK's policy and campaigns function in the development and dissemination of policy and supporting key projects to maintain and improve the reputation of the organisation.
- Monitoring, highlighting, and analysing key policy developments by the UK Government and other public bodies regarding their potential impact on carers.
- Liaising and building strong working relationships across the organisation to help deliver the policy and public affairs team’s objectives.
- Ensuring that Carers UK effectively communicates its purpose, policy, and campaigns to achieve change, helping to build the carers movement.
- Having responsibility for aspects of the organisations work and being involved in the full range of Carers UK’s policy, public affairs, and campaigns activities.
About us
Carers UK’s vision is to create a society that recognises, values and supports carers. As the leading national charity for unpaid carers, we exist to make life better for carers, however caring affects them. Our support, advice, information and campaigning work are now needed more than ever, as unpaid carers are providing more and more care, adversely impacting on their own health and wellbeing.
Diversity and inclusion
Carers UK is committed to becoming a diverse and truly inclusive organisation. We strive to create a workplace where our colleagues and volunteers can truly be themselves and feel like they belong and constantly seek to ensure all voices are heard.
To embrace this culture of diversity, our employee and volunteer recruitment should reflect our stakeholders and the society that we serve and support, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, physical abilities, disabilities or religious practices. We value individual diversity and are actively building diverse teams here at Carers UK and value our colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds.
As a membership charity for carers, we particularly seek employees and volunteers with a real understanding of the issues faced by carers. Reasonable adjustments can be made to the process and role dependent on the needs of the applicant.
At Carers UK we want our application process to be as accessible as possible. If you need any adjustments to apply please email the recruitment team to discuss.
The closing date for applications is 5pm, Monday 28 April 2025
Carers UK anonymises all applications prior to shortlisting.
Carers UK reserves the right to appoint at any stage, should an outstanding candidate emerge.
Carers UK are actively interviewing as we receive applications.
Carers UK may carry out online and social media checks as well as seek references before a formal offer is made.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.