Senior UK Policy Adviser (Early Education)

Senior UK Policy Adviser (Early Education)

Circa £48,000 per annum

Fixed term - circa 9 months (Parental Leave Cover)

Part home/Part office (London) based

UNICEF ensures more of the world’s children are vaccinated, educated and protected than any other organisation. We have done more to influence laws and policies to help protect children than anyone else. We get things done. And we’re not going to stop until the world is a safe place for all our children.

This is a great opportunity to join the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) as our Senior UK Policy Adviser (Early Education).

As a member of the UK Policy and Advocacy team, this role will be responsible for leading our policy work focusing on early childhood education, with a particular focus on the home learning environment and developing primary research engaging with very young children. Working closely with colleagues across the Advocacy and Programmes Departments, the role will be expected to develop and deliver an effective influencing strategy, based on robust evidence and persuasive policy asks that help protect and promote the physical and mental health and wellbeing of babies and young children living in the UK. You’ll be joining at an exciting time for our team as we adapt our Early Moments Matter Campaign to the context of influencing and engaging with a new Government.

To succeed in this role, you’ll need to have an in-depth understanding of policy-making processes and how to develop effective influencing strategies, excellent research and writing skills and a good understanding of the policy context of early childhood health and/or other UK child wellbeing topic area.

Act now and visit our UNICEF UK website to apply online.

Closing date: 9am, Monday 4 November 2024

Interview date: Tuesday 19 November 2024 via video conferencing (MS Teams)

In return, we offer:

• excellent pay and benefits (including flexible working, generous annual leave and pension, big brand discounts and wellbeing tools)
• outstanding training and learning opportunities and the support to flourish in your role
• impressive open plan office space and facilities on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
• an open culture and workplace with colleagues who share our values, enjoy their work and are motivated to do their utmost for children.
• the opportunity to work in a leading children’s organisation making a difference to children around the world

Our application process: We use a system called "Applied" that anonymises your responses and focuses on your actual skills that are relevant to this role. This benefits you by giving you a greater chance of expressing your skills in this objective selection process.

We anticipate most colleagues will work one or two days a week in the office on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, East London and the rest of the time from home. We will happily discuss other flexible options to suit your circumstances.

We particularly welcome applications from black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates, disabled candidates, and from men, because we would like to increase the representation of these groups at this level at UNICEF UK. We want to do this because we know greater diversity will lead to even greater results for children.

UNICEF UK promotes equality, diversity and inclusion in our workplace. We make employment decisions by matching business needs with skills and experience of candidates, irrespective of age, disability (including hidden disabilities), gender, gender identity or gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation.

We welcome a conversation about your flexible working requirements, personal growth, and promoting a workplace where you can be yourself and achieve success based only on your merit.

The successful candidate will be required to apply for a criminal records check. A criminal record will not necessarily bar you from working with us. This will depend on the nature of the role and the circumstances of your offences.

We only accept online applications as this saves us money, making more funds available for us to help ensure children’s rights.

If you require support in completing the online form or an application form in an alternative format, please contact our Supporter Care team during office hours.

If you do not hear from us within 14 days of the closing date, please assume your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion. Please note that we only provide feedback to shortlisted candidates.

Registered Charity Nos. 1072612 (England and Wales) SC043677 (Scotland)