Senior Public Affairs Lead

Barnardo's are seeking a Senior Public Affairs Lead Westminster. The postholder will be responsible for developing and implementing Barnardo's public affairs activity across the seven policy areas of our strategy, using intelligence and feedback to plan and deliver influencing activity that drives transformational change for children. This includes leading our work to influence legislation; managing our programme of Parliamentary events, including our high profile summer reception, and our party conference programme; and strengthening our relationships with Parliamentarians from both Houses as well as their advisors.

The role offers the opportunity to play a critical role in delivering Barnardo's strategy, making childhoods safer, healthier, happier, and more hopeful across the UK. You will work closely with our policy advisors, frontline services, communications team, and our voice and influence team to bring the voices of children and young people to decision makers in Westminster.  Barnardo's has built a strong reputation for putting the voices of children at the heart of our influencing strategy – we are looking for someone who can continue this work and deliver innovative and engaging opportunities for our children, and young people, including though our events programme. You will also be responsible for building our capacity across the charity for influencing; advising on Select Committee evidence sessions, and using intelligence to identify opportunities for building new relationships across all parties.

You will be part of a large, energetic and expert policy and public affairs team at Barnardo's, which spans the four nations. We value joint working, sharing knowledge, staff wellbeing and diversity. We welcome applications from underrepresented groups, especially those with lived experience of the issues that we campaign on.

We are looking for a colleague with strong interpersonal skills, who is strategic, and who is proactive at finding new opportunities for us to influence. We would like someone who knows Westminster well, who will be able to regularly attend in person events and briefings (including out of hours – for which you would accrue Time of in Lieu), and who will be constantly thinking about how we can maximise our influence, learn from others, and be more than the sum of our parts.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people. 

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay. 

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application. 

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.  

Our basis and values