Senior Policy Advisor

Posting date:	08 September 2025
Salary:	£54,582 to £67,940 per year
Additional salary information:	London: £59,234 - £67,940 National: £54,582 - £61,584+ benefits.
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	18 September 2025
Location:	M2 3AW
Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Job type:	Temporary
Job reference:	426470/1

Summary

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 social challenges and build stronger communities. We are the Government leads for civil society responsible for a dynamic set of policy areas relating to young people, volunteers, charities and social enterprises, with over 100 staff based across the UK.

The Youth team is a high profile and friendly unit within this directorate with a vision to ensure that DCMS delivers the greatest impact for young people and their communities. In November 2024, the Secretary of State announced the launch of the co-production of a National Youth Strategy, which will be developed together with young people and the youth sector and aims to better coordinate youth services across England. This is a busy and exciting time for the Youth team as this ambitious strategy is developed, alongside continuing to deliver funding that creates opportunities/activities for young people to engage in, and driving greater improvement in local youth services delivery.

We're seeking a policy and engagement lead to work to improve local youth services and deliver a major cross government programme - Young Futures Hubs. You'll need a strong track record in stakeholder engagement, policy development and capable of navigating complex issues within a cross-government programme.

This role suits a collaborative and innovative individual with experience of engaging external stakeholders, including young people in co-design processes.

We are a newly formed team and key responsibilities are still being defined, however, we anticipate key elements of this role would include, but are not limited too:

• Responsible for managing external engagement with key stakeholders, which could include young people, local authorities, VCSE, health partners (e.g. NHS Services) and crime (e.g. Violence Reduction Units; policing)
• Responsible for developing and maintaining stakeholder engagement plans, and leading on media/comms for the programme
• Policy development on key aspects of the programme, including considering evidence, consultation/engagement responses and drafting advice for ministers.
• Lead on parliamentary business, including parliamentary questions, debates and speeches
• Responsible for line management of at least 1 member of staff.

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