Over the past 20 years The Diana Award has delivered services to thousands of young people across the UK and beyond, honing our expertise and skills to produce exceptional, high-quality interventions that create long lasting change.
As we embark on the next phase of our strategy, we are looking for a dynamic and driven Policy Manager (Maternity Cover) to continue our work in this space, and help us realise our ambition to increase our policy influence and impact.
The Policy Manager will play a key role in helping the organisation to identify priorities and influencing opportunities, as well as ensure that our approach to policy engagement is youth-led and evidence-driven.
This role is a 12 month maternity cover, and sits within the Impact and Influence team. It's primary focus is on developing a set of evidence-based core policy positions and priorities for The Diana Award to deliver on. The team comprises of an Impact and Evaluation Manager, an Impact and Evaluation Coordinator alongside our Youth Voice and Participation Manager.
Job Description
DELIVERY OF POLICY INITIATIVES
- Coordinate the development of policy submissions, consultation responses and other policy outputs for external audiences, as appropriate;
- Ensure staff and key stakeholders within The Diana Award are kept informed about external policy developments affecting young people, both in the UK and internationally;
- Lead an internal Policy Working Group for senior internal stakeholders, to forecast, plan and deliver the organisation’s policy aims;
- Work alongside our Marketing and Communications staff to deliver a policy campaign in line with the strategic policy aims and ensure that the project objectives are met;
- Work with the Marketing and Communications team to ensure The Diana Award's policy messages and outputs are communicated across the organisation's core channels;
- Consult with the Programme Management Team and other key stakeholders across the organisation (including the Youth Board, Award recipients, alumni, and mentees) to deliver key policy initiatives for 2023/24.
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING & PARTNERSHIP LIAISON
- Lead The Diana Award's relationships with parliamentarians, elected representatives and other high-profile influencers;
- Identify, develop and maintain relationships with key policy networks and forums within the sector, both in the UK and internationally, seeking opportunities for collaboration and coordination where appropriate;
- Coordinate The Diana Award’s representation and engagement with relevant sector networks and forums, providing direct representation, where appropriate;
- Monitor and identify opportunities for external policy engagement and influencing, working with the Programmes Management Team to develop and take forward plans;
- Prepare briefing materials as appropriate for staff and other key stakeholders to represent The Diana Award's policy agenda externally;
- Act as The Diana Award’s key contact for the secretariat of the APPG on Mentoring and collaborate with our Mentoring team to organise and plan regular activities and meetings.
OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES
- Identify learning and development opportunities for staff and stakeholders (including ambassadors, youth board, award recipients, alumni, and mentees) in the area of policy and influencing;
- Ensure appropriate M&E frameworks are in place to showcase the impact of our policy work, also contributing to ongoing monitoring and reporting;
- Contribute to the development of projects and funding proposals in support of the organisation's policy work;
- Manages and supports interns and/or volunteers to achieve outcomes and optimise workforce effectiveness;
- Contribute to other organisational initiatives as appropriate.
Person Specification
- Experience of working within a team contributing to policy change, influencing work and campaigning;
- Project management: Experience of executing and project managing public-facing policy campaigns, ideally in the areas of racial inequality, youth affairs and education;
- Clear understanding of current developments and policies affecting young people;
- Writing skills: ability to write for different audiences and translate complex ideas into compelling content;
- Analytical skills: ability to interrogate ideas and work with both qualitative and quantitative data;
- Communications: ability to engage and inspire diverse audiences, experts and non-experts alike;
- Internal stakeholder management: Experience and willingness to engage with internal teams (Marketing & Communications, Senior Leadership Team, young people and Impact & Influence) to ensure cohesive delivery of campaigns;
- Commissioning research and analysis that informs the policy development process and working with external consultancies to produce clear recommendations that The Diana Award use for our influencing activities;
- Relationship management: experience of building and managing relationships with external stakeholders;
- Personal management: ability to work under own initiative, managing time and resources effectively towards agreed objectives and priorities;
- Safeguarding: knowledge and understanding of safeguarding issues as they apply to children and young people, particularly within the context of policy, advocacy and research;
- Demonstrable commitment to the mission and values of The Diana Award;
- Commitment to self-development;
- Ability to work well under pressure;
- Driven to achieve impressive results.
This role will be London based, however the successful applicant will be able to work from home up to four days per week. The successful candidate must have the right to work in the UK.