Senior Policy Research Officer

Context and Background

We are recruiting a Senior Policy Research Officer to develop and deliver our early years and health policy work to deliver real change and reform in the best interests of children.

The post holder will work in the UK/England part of the Policy and Public Affairs Team, focussed on influencing the Westminster Government. The role involves a variety of responsibilities including policy research, policy development and public affairs. This is a great opportunity to drive policy work in an exciting policy area, by building a strong evidence base and contributing to effective influencing strategies.

Job purpose

The Senior Policy Research Officer will be responsible for undertaking policy research to achieve the NSPCC's strategic goals, using their skills and experience to strengthen the NSPCC's impact on public policy relating to early years and health. In doing so, they will make a significant contribution to protecting the youngest children from abuse and neglect.

Key relationships - Internal

• Reports to Policy and Public Affairs Manager
• Colleagues in the wider Policy and Public Affairs team across the UK
• Colleagues in the Research and Evidence team
• Colleagues in the Media and Campaigns teams
• Colleagues in the Services directorate (to ensure policy development takes into account experiences of frontline professionals)
• Colleagues in the Participation Unit (to ensure the involvement of young people in policy and influencing work)

Key relationships - External

• Key civil servants and policy advisers in the UK Government
• MPs and Peers in the UK Parliament
• Colleagues in relevant voluntary and statutory agencies
• Practitioner bodies
• Key academics, researchers and research networks

Main duties and responsibilities

Policy development:

• Develop and maintain a high level of expertise on policy priority areas, with lead responsibility for early years and health policy.
• Scope, develop and refine NSPCC policies on priority policy issues, putting forward the economic case for change where possible.

Policy research:

• Contribute to the delivery of our research activity, working with teams across the NSPCC to assess policy andevidence needs, then design and undertake impactful research projects to address these.
• Manage policy research projects from development and commissioning stage through to completion, providing direction and supervision to ensure the highest standards of delivery.
• Analyse a wide range of primary and secondary sources of evidence (such as official data sets and statistics, policy documents, academic literature, economic analyses, FOls and survey data) to develop innovative and evidence-based policy solutions to complex problems.

Public affairs:

• Prepare high-quality briefings, summaries and consultation responses for both external and internal audiences.
• Develop and maintain a network of key contacts across parliament, the civil service and civil society, using this network to amplify the NSPCC's voice and take advantage of opportunities to influence policy making.
• Represent the NSPCC at relevant internal and external advisory groups, meetings and stakeholder events.

Responsibilities within the Strategy and Knowledge Directorate

• A commitment to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people
• To maintain anoverview of child protection policy and practice
• To maintain an awareness of own and other's health and safety and comply with NSPCC's Health andSafety procedures
• An active commitment to promoting EDI, safeguarding and trauma informed practice
• An agile approach to work
• To maintain and develop competence in the use of IT systems

Person specification

1. Strong support for the NSPCC's mission and values, combined with a good understanding of public policy relating to child protection issues, and knowledge of the wider legal, government and media context.

2. Excellent policy development skills, with the ability to research, develop and refine innovative policy solutions to complex problems.

3. Proven ability to undertake research (qualitative and/or quantitative) and analyse the findings, with an ability to design methodologically robust and ethically sound research that is delivered to a high standard and agreed timescales.

4. Experience of successfully presenting research accurately to make a clear and compelling case for policy and legislative change.

5. Excellent communication skills including the ability to write concisely and persuasively in a variety of formats for a variety of audiences, and to deliver engaging oral presentations.

6. Good public affairs skills, with strong knowledge of parliamentary processes, sound political judgement, and experience of contributing to the delivery of influencing strategies to secure support from decision makers in parliament and beyond.

7. Ability to work on own initiative with strong organisational and project management skills, including demonstratabl eexperience of project managing small research projects, working at speed and under pressure when required, whilesuccessfully managing project progress, risks, and quality.

8. Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build constructive working relationships with external stakeholders, aswell as to work effectively as part of an internal, cross-departmental team.