The Children’s Society is clear on the impact it wants to create for young people -directly through our services for young people and through our systems change and influencing work at all levels in society. The Director of Policy, Advocacy and Influencing is part of the Senior Leadership Team at The Children’s Society, a Senior Leader within the Youth Impact domain. The Youth Impact domain is where all of our service delivery for young people and a lot of systems change activity takes place.

The Director will lead our Policy, Advocacy and Influencing Knowledge Group – a team of people who work hard to influence government policy for the benefit of young people through astute public affairs and campaigning. Our charity has been campaigning for change for young people for years, we have an excellent track record, and have had a number of policy successes, reaching young people way beyond the boundaries of our charity. We work well in collaboration with other charities, especially children’s charities – the role holder will lead our strategic partnerships and external coalitions to build our external presence and collaboration opportunities. The recently published impact report of the Children’s Charities coalition is an excellent example of this. Maintaining a relentless focus on the external environment to ensure that the charity responds to sector developments and remains a strategic leader in the field will be an essential part of the role. Your ability to cultivate a rapid response culture to opportunities to achieve impact will be vital.

Our collaborative culture at The Children’s Society means that this role holder will work very closely with colleagues who lead research, evaluation and impact activities. Our developing Impact Measurement Framework will form part of the work of the Director of Policy, Advocacy and Influencing – ensuring the impact of the team, and reach of The Children’s Society is effectively captured and reported.