Sector Engagement Officer, HEO, FTC 12 Months. London

The Charity Commission regulates around 180,000 charities across England and Wales ensuring that they work within a legal framework thus building public confidence that the 30bn generously donated each year is put to good use.

Our ambition is to be an expert regulator that is fair, balanced, and independent so that charity can thrive.

The Communications & Policy Directorate is at the centre of delivering the Commissions purpose and strategy. The directorate leads the organisations efforts to engage with charity trustees, the public and stakeholders to support those running charities, to help the sector deliver positive outcomes and build public trust in charity.

Job purpose:

Our Sector Engagement Officer will help us have direct dialogue with a wider range of charities, so that the Commission can use its convening power to help galvanise positive change that enables charities to thrive.

This is a new post, with the core responsibility of designing and establishing a brand-new set of sub-sector engagement panels. Our aim is for these panels to meet routinely to share insights on challenges and opportunities facing the sector to help inform the Commissions own policy development and feed into engagement with other parts of the sector and of UK Government.

You will propose and support ad-hoc roundtables and other meetings on topical issues, and contribute to delivering a proactive programme of stakeholder engagement, including meetings and visits. Because of this, you will sometimes need to travel to the Commissions offices, and other venues, in England and Wales

You will need to be comfortable briefing senior officials directly, both in writing and verbally, and in rapidly analysing policy topics to understand the relevance to the Commissions role and remit.

Key responsibilities:

1. Designing, establishing and running a set of sub-sector engagement panels. Devising fair and open methods for recruiting representative members from across sub-sectors, liaising with representatives, organising and administering effective meetings.
2. Researching and analysing policy issues discussed at engagement panels or other meetings we convene, producing concise and accurate briefing materials for senior colleagues and sector representatives.
3. Advising upon and taking forward relevant actions raised by the engagement panels, which may include liaising with Commission colleagues on regulatory processes and working with Policy team colleagues to engage externally on relevant matters.
4. Providing secretariat support to engagement meetings with sector umbrella body, which currently take place quarterly.
5. Researching and organising ad-hoc roundtables and other meetings on topical issues, sometimes at short notice in response to external events, where the Commissions convening function can help build sector resilience by developing shared solutions.
6. Drafting meeting and visit briefings for senior colleagues, including the Chair and the Chief Executive Officer, and sometimes accompanying them for such events, including to Wales.
7. Developing systems for mapping key individuals and organisations across the charity sector, building connections that can be drawn upon in support of the work above.
8. Supporting senior colleagues with responsibility for managing relationships with our key stakeholder groups, in particular with monitoring and recording engagement activity.

Key skills and experience and knowledge you will need are:

Person Specification

Ability:

• Excellent written and oral communications skills, including an ability to communicate confidently with senior colleagues and external stakeholders
• Demonstrate attention to detail and maintain a high-quality of work output
• Research and analytical skills, with ability to evaluate competing ideas to present workable policy proposals for senior managers
• A demonstrable ability to work flexibly and effectively under pressure and manage multiple deadlines
• Evidence of building effective relationships with senior staff and with key external stakeholders

Experience:

• Good understanding of the current strategic and policy context facing the charity sector
• Policy development, preferably within a public or charity sector environment, with demonstrable experience of consulting a range of stakeholders on proposals and building consensus on way forward
• Synergising and testing complex information to formulate advice for senior managers, including demonstrable experience of weighing up the impact of different options on the organisation and wider operating environment

Technical:

• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office Applications
• Practical event management knowledge, including good working understanding of approaches to event planning, procurement, systems and accessibility.