Public Affairs Officer

Public Affairs Officer
Reporting to Head of Policy Campaigns and Impact
Permanent
London/Hybrid with 2 days in office in London (London Bridge/SE1 3GN
)
Full time, 35 hours per week with flexible working hours
£35,708.40 + £6000 London Weighting
Benefits include: 25 days AL + Bank Holidays, a Salary Sacrifice Scheme for Pensions where the organisation puts in 6% with a 3%+ minimum from the employee, cycle to work, employee assistance programme, gym discounts, eye-care vouchers, a health cash plan, and season ticket loans. You can also buy and sell a week of leave.Charity People are proud to be partnering with an independent social change organisation to recruit a Public Affairs Officer.

The organisation is working to support and speed up the transition to a more equitable and just future, free from poverty, where people and planet can flourish.

The Public Affairs Officer will work closely with the wider Campaigns and Public Affairs Team which is responsible for the organisation's policy influencing and cross organisational influencing strategies. The role will also involve close work with colleagues in Policy, Research, and Communications and Public engagement.

You will help to identify new relationships with key MPs, Peers, and Staffers, assisting with regular political monitoring and horizon scanning, and ensuring that planning and content management systems are regularly updated. It will also help to ensure that the organisation is connecting the dots across all areas they influence on including social security, work, housing, family and care, housing, and energy.

This role requires experience within policy, public affairs, or politics, as well as a clear understanding of UK parliamentary and government procedure. The successful candidate will need to hit the ground running and therefore this is not seen as an entry-level role and does require experience.
The first six months would focus on relationship building, getting to grips with the organisation's processes, laying the groundwork for regular reporting updates
. This would include:

Work across broader teams to offer support to the different 'Stretch Policy Groups' on mapping potential MPs to influence. Taking ownership of the system for tracking impact and measuring progress against our organisational influencing objectives. Looking for potential opportunities in parliament to make use of the organisation's policy proposals. Work closely with the Senior Public Affairs Officer to ensure we are co-ordinating political engagement effectively.

Key responsibilities
Public affairs support
:
Assist in the delivery of policy and advocacy activities, including parliamentary events, building our presence at party or sectoral conferences, written briefings and MP engagement.
Horizon scanning
:
With a focus on the Westminster parliament, UK government departments and the main city regions (England), keep a running watch for suitable opportunities for the organisation to advance its arguments with key audiences and ensure that relevant colleagues are alerted well in advance to be able to respond.
Stakeholder mapping: Identify parliamentarians who may be interested in working with us, build detailed profiles of the issues that matter to them, and maintain a core list of public affairs stakeholders.
Stakeholder engagement: Support colleagues (by gathering information through desk top research or other methods) to prepare for their interactions with high value targets and record top level details of any contact between them and the organisation.
Network building: Build an effective network of contacts among the support staff in political offices and/or opposite numbers in other organisations with a view to identifying opportunities for collaboration between the organisation and their employers.
Representation and insight gathering: Observe speeches, conferences, and select committee hearings and report any noteworthy points. The successful candidate will need to demonstrate the following knowledge and experience:

Experience of working (either in a paid or voluntary capacity) in a public affairs/policy/political team and demonstrating initiative and flexibility to…