Policy and Public Affairs Manager

Safe Passage International; London; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 55,000

Job description

Working pattern: 1.0 FTE (37.5 hours per week), or 0.9 or 0.8 FTE. Flexible working requests will be considered.

Contract: Permanent with a 6 month probationary period

Team: Campaigns Team

Location: This role can be hybrid or office based. At a minimum, candidates will be required to work from the London office at least 2 days a week, as well as be able to attend ad hoc events and away days in person.

Reporting to: Head of Campaigns and Communications

Safe Passage International (SPI) is recruiting a Policy and Public Affairs Manager to lead a core area of our campaigns work, by building on the organisation’s strong record of creating diverse coalitions of public support and delivering systems change for our beneficiaries. This will support the continuing and sustainable growth in our ground-breaking work to ensure that safe routes to sanctuary exist for all people seeking asylum, and that the young people and families we work with have dignity and safety on arrival.

As a vital member of the Campaigns and Communications team, the Policy and Public Affairs Manager will work closely with press, digital, grassroots campaigns and youth advocacy colleagues to campaign for change. Key priorities for the role will include developing policy positions and recommendations in this fast-moving area of policy which will underpin all our campaigns and communications and developing and delivering a political engagement strategy to influence the new UK Government and parliamentarians.

The successful candidate will be passionate about ensuring that those with lived experience of seeking sanctuary and/or directly affected by the issues we campaign on, lead, and shape our policy positions and political campaigning.

This is a challenging and rewarding role for candidates with a good understanding of the challenges young people and refugees face on arrival to the UK.

We are looking for candidates with strong policy and public affairs skills, as detailed in the Person Specification. Experience in a similar role would be welcome, but this position will have a dedicated training budget, and you will be supported to grow and develop within your role.

We value equity and diversity in our organisation and are striving to build a workforce reflective of the communities we work with. We encourage applications from people of all ethnicities, working ages, genders, sexual orientations, faiths (or none), marital statuses (or none) and pregnancy status. We also have full flexible working policies to support people with disabilities and caring responsibilities. People with refugee or asylum-seeking backgrounds are experts by experience and are particularly encouraged to apply.

As a refugee charity, we offer a guaranteed interview for people with direct lived experience of seeking asylum who meet most of the essential criteria outlined in the Person Specification. If you have first-hand experience of applying for asylum in any country, please let us know in your application.

We respect that people’s identities are not defined by their past experiences and do not expect candidates to describe their lived experience during the interview process unless they wish to.

If you are excited by this role and working at Safe Passage International but do not have all the experience you think is needed, we would encourage you to apply anyway and reach out for an informal chat beforehand to discuss why you would like to apply for the role and what skills or experiences you think are relevant.

If you would like an informal discussion about the role, please email Gunes, Head of Campaigns and Communications, at [e-mail]

Closing date: Sunday 30th March 2025 at 11.59 pm