Head of Influencing (Maternity Cover)

Independent Age is the national charity focused on ending financial hardship in later life. We want every older person to be able to afford to live well.

We stand with older people in financial hardship, offering urgent help today and shaping a fairer, more secure tomorrow. Our Helpline and expert advisers offer free, practical support to older people without enough money to live on. Through our grants programme, we support hundreds of local organisations working with older people across the UK. And we use the knowledge and insight gained from our services and partnerships to highlight the issues experienced by older people in poverty and campaign for change.

We would love to find individuals from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds to join us on this journey.

Responsibilities and Person Specification:

The Head of Influencing (maternity cover) will lead a powerful influencing programme across Westminster and Holyrood. They will ensure that our work is centred around the experiences of older people in poverty, and that we undertake strategic and sustained influencing activity to persuade key decision makers and persuaders to support and act on our policy recommendations across the nations. Alongside providing cross organisational media communications and internal communications support. The Head of Influencing will provide effective, inspirational, transparent and compassionate leadership to a large department within the charity.

This is a full-time, fixed-term maternity cover position, working 35 hours per week. You may choose to work these hours over five days or across a 9-day fortnight.

For full details on the role and requirements, please review the job description and person specification. If your experience doesn't align perfectly with all of the criteria in the person specification but you do meet most of them and are excited about the role, we encourage you to apply anyway.

What it's like to work at Independent Age:

We celebrate diversity at Independent Age and champion the differences that make each of us unique. We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We aim to attract and retain a wide range of talent and create an environment where everyone can feel safe, protected, welcome and included.

We offer great benefits including 28 days annual leave plus public holidays, a generous pension scheme with life assurance, and fantastic learning and development opportunities. We also offer a number of enhanced leave provisions and benefits.

We know that a good work life balance helps us perform at our best and supports wellbeing. Flexible working hours and hybrid working is standard for all (those contracted to work in the office are required to attend the office a minimum of 4 days per month). But if you need a different form of flexibility, we are always happy to talk flexible working.

With an employee engagement score of 98%, colleagues say Independent Age is a great place to work. You can find out more about what it's like to work for us here .

Application Process:

To apply, please visit our website to submit a CV and a Supporting Statement, detailing how your skills and experience meet each criteria listed on the Person Specification.

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you require any specific arrangements or adjustments to enable you to fully participate in the recruitment process, such as having the job description in a larger text format or to apply in an alternative format, please get in touch with us via the email address on the 'Contact Us' page on our jobs site.

To support our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion our hiring managers use anonymous shortlisting. Please don't include your name, photo, or any information that could indicate your gender or age in your CV and supporting statement, and don't include your name in the title of any documents that you upload. However, please do include all dates of employment.

Independent Age is committed to safeguarding and follows Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding those we work with. We therefore ask that you supply your full work history with explanations for any gaps in the application documents you submit and, if offered the post, we will require two employment references including your current or most recent employer.

A Basic Level DBS check will be carried out for the successful candidate.

Closing Date: Sunday 11th October, 11:59pm