Policy advisor - Resilience and Volunteering

The Civil Society and Youth (CSY) directorate aims to build a fairer society, in which government, civil society, and businesses are able to work together to tackle societal challenges and foster stronger communities. We are the Government leads for civil society responsible for a dynamic set of policy areas relating to voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations, young people, and the impact economy, with over 100 staff based across the UK.

The Civil Society Policy Team is a highly driven, friendly unit that covers a broad remit, including implementation of the Civil Society Covenant at a local level. The team leads governments work to support the health and resilience of civil society, through local partnerships, volunteering and integrating civil societys capabilities into national resilience.

We are firmly committed to supporting our people to thrive and have a strong learning and development offer. We strive to create an open, inclusive working environment, where each person can flourish, feel comfortable being themselves at work, develop their skills and move their career forward.

This role will primarily work to support the development of volunteering policy, as well as working to integrate the voluntary sector in government emergency planning and response. Candidates should be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with changeable priorities.

Responsibilities include:

• Supporting the implementation of the Civil Society Response Protocol; a new approach to working with the voluntary sector during emergencies
• Participating in planning scenarios and simulations to test and improve organizational emergency response plans
• Supporting the development of volunteering policy
• Drafting clear, accurate responses for official enquiries, briefs, and senior stakeholders
• Writing briefings, speeches and other support for ministers
• Developing stakeholder engagement plans

Essential requirements:

• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing, tailoring messages appropriately for different audiences.
• Ability to build positive, collaborative working relationships with a range of internal and external partners
• Strong communicating and influencing skills to achieve positive outcomes and feedback from stakeholders.
• Flexibility to adapt to changing priorities and manage competing demands in a fast-paced environment.
• Capability to gather and analyse information from varied sources to draw sound conclusions and support evidence-based decisions

Desirable skills:

• An interest in or understanding of how voluntary, community, or social enterprise sectors operate.
• Experience of drafting policy papers, submissions, and briefings.

We are running an information session where prospective applicants can find out more about the role. This will be hosted by Patrick McKenna, and will take place on: Thursday 1st October at 13:30

The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.

Please register your interest by filling out this Registration form and you will be sent an invitation. Invites will only be sent after this deadline has passed.

Please note that the session will not be recorded and will not focus on the DCMS recruitment process - please direct any queries that you have on this topic (timelines, reasonable adjustments, onboarding etc) to [email protected]

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Delivering at Pace