Policy and Public Affairs Manager (England)

Policy and Public Affairs Manager (England)

Reporting to: Head of Policy and Public Affairs

Line Management: 1 Policy and Public Affairs Officer England

Location of work: London. Must be commutable for meetings at Westminster.

The role may involve some infrequent travel throughout England and Scotland.

Contract type: Ideally full-time, 35 hours per week, although 4 days a week/flexible hours will be considered. The role will require occasional evening and weekend work.

Contract Length: Permanent

Salary: £42,000

BACKGROUND

The latest research suggesting that the number of children and young people at risk of hunger has rocketed to 2.7 million* means that one in five children don't have enough to eat. When a child is too hungry to learn, when they’re aching for something to eat, they can’t concentrate. They can’t absorb information. Big feelings and worries can be impossible to control. They fall behind in their studies.

Magic Breakfast provide a nutritious and filling breakfast to over 200,000 children and young people every school day. We work with schools in areas of high disadvantage, helping staff target the children most in need without barrier or stigma. Magic Breakfast are ambitious to grow our impact to remove hunger as a barrier to learning for all children and young people in the UK.

The new UK government’s Children’s Wellbeing Bill outlined in the King’s Speech, includes a requirement for free school breakfast clubs in every English primary school. This is a fantastic start towards ending child morning hunger. Magic Breakfast’s influence will be instrumental to ensuring school breakfasts are introduced in a way that is hunger-focused and barrier free. In 2021, the Scottish Government, pledged a not yet enacted promise to provide breakfast to primary children.

Thousands of secondary school children are at risk of losing their free school breakfasts from September next year. For many of these students, this is their only opportunity to have a nutritious meal before facing a demanding school day, including taking exams.

Solutions across all UK nations are currently either not yet actioned or are severely underserving the current need. Being part of the work of Magic Breakfast is your chance, together with parents, teachers and people across the UK, to demonstrate the power of school breakfasts and to shape the way forward to end morning hunger for good.

*Food Foundation Insecurity Tracker Jan 2024

JOB PURPOSE

Magic Breakfast’s mission is to end child morning hunger in the UK now and for good. The role of the Policy and Public Affairs Manager is to support us to deliver on this mission through influencing governments to address child morning hunger and the underlying systemic causes, in order to give every child the opportunity to reach their full potential.

The Policy and Public Affairs Manager will play a pivotal role in shaping policy initiatives and influencing decision makers across Westminster and Whitehall. Specifically, you will help ensure the new Early Adopters Programme – the government’s pilot breakfast scheme in England – is hunger-focused and puts children and young people at its centre. This in turn, will inform the national rollout of primary school breakfast provision across England from September 2026 – a policy which you will also work to influence. In tandem, you will be responsible for informing and shaping how breakfast is included and positioned in the Children’s Wellbeing Bill.

More widely, you will keep abreast of political developments relevant to Magic Breakfast, identifying opportunities to respond, influence and shape the debate. You will be able to put complex policy ideas across in simple and effective terms both in person and through reports and briefings.

The post holder will play a lead role in engaging external stakeholders such as coalition partners and third sector relationships. We are looking for someone who can act with initiative, manage their own workload and has a passion for driving systemic change. You will also be line managing the Public Affairs Officer and developing their skills and experience through coaching and mentoring.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop and lead Magic Breakfast’s influencing strategy to shape and inform school breakfasts within the Children’s Wellbeing Bill
• Engage thoroughly in the legislative process to shape how breakfast is positioned, to ensure the law protects and supports children and young people at risk of hunger
• Influence and shape the scope of the Early Adopter’s Programme to inform long-term school breakfast policy across England
• Work with ministers, politicians, civil servants and advisors to help shape the national rollout of school breakfasts across England
• Identify and produce high-quality evidence-based responses to new policy developments, sector reports and consultations from Government, advisory bodies, other political parties and membership organisations
• Proactively monitor and track policy developments, and ensure internal understanding and alignment on issues and opportunities
• Lead the dissemination of Magic Breakfast policy briefings and research reports to key political stakeholders
• Organise and lead key influencing events to influence and inform decision-makers
• Deliver on our policy objectives through building relationships with key stakeholders in national government, key national organisations and coalitions, including garnering intel and ensuring that our opportunities to influence policy making are maximised
• Ensure organisational buy-in, coordination and collaboration to support our advocacy strategy
• Develop and deliver political stakeholder engagement plans; track progress against plans and deliverables; with regular reporting on targets and outcomes, timely evaluation and shared learnings across internal teams
• Work closely with the Policy and Public Affairs Manager Scotland, to share expertise and intelligence
• Be flexible in work focus and responsibilities when required e.g. support with Scottish election/campaign work and advocacy in Wales
• Work closely with Campaigns colleagues to inform and shape campaign activities and respond proactively to live developments through the life of the campaign
• Proactively recommend and establish systems, tools and procedures to ensure effective delivery of objectives across the Policy and Public Affairs team
• Provide management and coaching for the Public Affairs Officer, agreeing a career development plan in line with required expertise

PERSON SPECIFICATION

• Experience of policy development and influencing
• Sound understanding of the legislative process (experience in this process is highly desirable)

Good working knowledge of the UK political system (national and regional) and previous experience in a UK public affairs/advocacy/or policy role.

• Ability to prepare high quality, evidence-based internal and external briefing material, and messaging under time pressure
• Experience of line management
• Ability to develop and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders
• Demonstrated experience in developing integrated, public affairs campaigns
• Strong interpersonal skills and experience building effective working relationships with a range of stakeholders including civil servants and sector peers
• Demonstrated experience of developing influencing plans and working with sector peers and in coalition to achieve change
• A collaborative team player, able to proactively engage colleagues to share knowledge and expertise
• Outstanding time management and organisational skills with the ability to prioritise within your work, managing multiple tasks simultaneously and working to tight deadlines
• Understanding of the education, child poverty and/or health sectors – desirable
• Excellent attention to detail

GENERAL

• Passion and commitment to Magic Breakfast’s mission
• Contribute to team meetings, sharing best practice and supporting team members where necessary.
• Help to maintain a positive working environment; keeping the vision of Magic Breakfast at the heart of everything we do.
• Uphold a culture that encourages curiosity, continuous improvement, optimism, and a steadfast commitment to social impact.
• Work collaboratively across the organisation more widely to build good working relations across the organisation and provide ad-hoc support to other teams and members of staff.
• Adhere to all Magic Breakfast policies and procedures.
• Ensure that all activity is compliant with current legislation, GDPR and child safeguarding requirements.
• Participate in occasional work-related events at external venues and perform support related activities as required be willing to undertake occasional work outside of regular office hours and UK travel.
• Undertake any other duties commensurate with the role.