Policy Adviser - Impact Economy Team
| Posting date: | 15 May 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | Not specified |
| Additional salary information: | Competitive |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 14 June 2025 |
| Location: | Manchester, M2 3AW |
| Company: | inploi |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 75702479 |
Summary
About the role - Social Impact Investing Policy and Programmes (2 year contract)
This is an exciting role, offering the opportunity to work on a growing area of interest to this government. Social impact investing considers the impact on people and the planet alongside financial returns, and is a vital source of investment for social enterprises and other businesses addressing social and environmental challenges. The UK is recognised as a world leader for social impact investing, with the government playing a critical role in catalysing and supporting the growth of the market.
The Impact Economy Team’s Programme and Policy team leads on this policy area across HMG with three key objectives: (1) facilitating access to investment finance for charities and social enterprises; (2) encouraging more mainstream (institutional) investors to engage with social impact investment; and (3) working across government to identify where social impact investment can address key policy priorities.
Key responsibilities for this post holder will likely include:
- Building and managing strong, effective relationships in and out of government, including with social impact investment leaders.
- Drafting timely responses to cross-government commissions, writing briefings and submissions for ministers on wide-ranging topic areas, and contributing to ministerial visits and speeches.
- Conducting independent policy research on social impact investment capital into the UK market and developing policy proposals to improve the efficiency and scale of the market.
- Working closely with partners, such as Big Society Capital and the Access Foundation, to increase external capital flows into socially impactful organisations.
- Overseeing and managing research to increase the amount of robust data and evidence available to support VCSEs to drive impact.
We expect the successful candidate to show flexibility depending on any changing priorities in the team. The post holder will need to be confident working in ambiguous and changing environments.
About the role - Philanthropy (12 month contract to cover maternity leave)
This is a stretching and exciting role, offering the opportunity to lead some of the team’s work to connect, unlock and partner with philanthropic investment in the UK. You will work on a high profile programme of work with exposure to Ministers, Senior Officials and Special Advisers. This role is expected to start in August/September 2025.
You will be working closely with colleagues across DCMS, officials in other government departments and external stakeholders to develop a set of policies to deliver on the government’s ambitions in this area. This will require leadership in your work area, a proven history of strong stakeholder engagement skills, and the ability to work on multiple work streams at pace.
Key responsibilities will likely include:
- Leading on the design and delivery of one or more of the philanthropy initiatives agreed with Ministers. You will be expected to take leadership on work areas which may include Secretary of State’s place based philanthropy strategy and corporate giving.
- Drafting multiple briefings and speeches for a range of audiences (including ministers and senior officials), keeping core lines and other team information sources up to date, and responding to Parliamentary Questions & correspondence.
- Leading key relationships, where you’ll be looked upon to engage and influence stakeholders including through organising cross-DCMS and Whitehall working group meetings.
- Independent policy research on philanthropy to strengthen our evidence base and develop new policies and programmes.
- Managing a communications plan in close consultation with comms colleagues and sector stakeholders to maximise exposure and celebrate philanthropy across the country.
We expect the successful candidate to show flexibility depending on any changing priorities in the team. The post holder will need to be confident working in ambiguous and changing environments.
Person specificationThe ideal candidate would have the following key skills and experiences:
Essential Criteria:
- Experience working in partnership with internal and external stakeholders to deliver shared objectives;
- Excellent written and oral presentation skills with strong interpersonal skills;
- Ability to make effective decisions using evidence;
- Ability to work at pace and with flexibility.
Desirable skills:
- Experience of working with or on the Impact Economy (eg philanthropy, impact investment, social investment)
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Delivering at Pace
We are running an information session where prospective applicants can find out more about the role. This will be hosted by Alison Jeffrey and Katherine Palmer, and will take place on:
- Thursday 22nd May, [12.30pm]
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 by Wednesday 21st May at 12pm and you will be sent an invitation.
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 recruitment.team@dcms.gov.uk
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