Research and Policy Officer

Collaborative, open, inclusive and fair - we work with and through partners to ensure Londoners can shape healthy, empowered and productive lives.

Communities and Skills is led by Executive Director, Tunde Olayinka and is comprised of the following units:
Civil Society & Sport, Communities & Social Policy, Group Public Health Unit, Skills and Employment and Health, Children and Young Londoners.

The GLA Community Engagement (CE) team connects City Hall to London’s exciting mix of communities. Everything we do is geared towards giving London’s communities a platform to be seen, heard and resourced to bring about change, and to be more actively engaged in the City’s decision making. The CE team also leads the GLA’s civil society policy, which is focused on recognising, supporting and building strong partnerships with London’s Voluntary sector.

The Research and Information Officer will support the team to engage effectively with London’s diverse communities by championing and implementing ways to strengthen the use of internal data for evaluation and learning purposes. The role will provide monitoring, evaluation and learning support to CE team’s programme work streams, ensuring that priorities are identified, and consistent monitoring, analysis and evaluation of activities takes place.

The role will also support the CE team’s communications strategy programme by leading on communicating the community engagement team’s work through a range of channels including Mayor’s Community Newsletter, internal reports, blogs and website updates

• Working closely with community engagement officers to identify and plan the team’s evaluation and communication needs. Current focus will be on Loved and Wanted Fund.
• Supporting the team to research relevant policy updates related to Civil Society portfolio of our work.
• Supporting team on any faith engagement events, and act as lead/co-lead for a faith community.
• Capturing and communicating the community engagement team’s work via the newsletter, contributing to the Mayor’s monthly report, internal reports, blogs, website updates.
• Responding appropriately to correspondence and act as an initial point of contact for Londoners and London’s communities and feed these into relevant policy teams.

To be considered for the role you must meet the following essential criteria:

• Ability to produce a very high standard of written and verbal communication for a wide range of audiences.
• Experience producing reports and proposals based on primary and secondary research in a social policy environment.
• Proven track record of working collaboratively and an understanding of communications.
• Experience of delivering monitoring and evaluation of project implementation and demonstration of outputs
• Strong understanding of/ experience working in community engagement or in the voluntary and community sector.

… is presenting information and arguments clearly and convincingly so that others see us as credible and articulate, and engage with us.

… is thinking ahead, managing time, priorities and risk, and developing structured and efficient approaches to deliver work on time and to a high standard.

… is being flexible and adapting positively, to sustain performance when the situation changes, workload increases, tensions rise or priorities shift.

• Maintains a focus on key priorities and deliverables, staying resilient in the face of pressure
• Anticipates and adapts flexibly to changing requirements
• Uses challenges as an opportunity to learn and improve
• Participates fully and encourages others to engage in change initiatives
• Manages team’s well-being, supporting them to cope with pressure and change

The GLA Competency Framework Guidelines further detailing each competency and the different level indicators can be found here:

GLA Competency Framework

If you would like to apply for the role you…