Role description
Director of Policy, Influencing & Change
Salary: £82,000-£90,000 plus benefits
Location: London
Reporting to: Executive Director – Impact on Urban Health (IoUH)
Purpose of the role
The Director of Policy, Influencing and Change will lead efforts to shape policy, influence practice, and channel resources towards effective approaches to advancing health equity, including spreading and scaling proven projects and ensuring their work has a wider impact.
Key responsibilities
Policy, influencing and change
Strategic leadership of IoUH Policy and Influencing: Delivering and evolving Policy & Influencing strategy that embeds policy, influencing into all IoUH’s programmes and work, overseeing effective execution of the strategy by the Policy & Influencing Team.
Strategic leadership of IoUH Change function: Responsible for a strategic approach to partnerships focussed on scaling and sustaining what we know works. Overseeing delivery of a select portfolio of projects that are operating at scale and being replicated, particularly with a view to influencing local and national policy making and co-funding partnerships.
Impact delivery: Overseeing the development and delivery of Policy and Influencing and Change strategies to support IoUH to achieve strategic aims and stated impact goals, including influencing decision making, policy debate and the policy and practice of key stakeholders.
Stakeholder engagement and thought leadership: Working with the Director of Comms to manage IoUH’s external presence. Coordinating Policy, Influencing & Change stakeholder relations ensuring that IoUH has strong relationships with key stakeholders that support scaling of effective approaches and enables wider policy and practice changes, with priority given to Government, Parliament, Lambeth and Southwark Councils, the Greater London Authority, other funders and policy influencing organisations. Supporting the IoUH Director Team to embed good stakeholder management practices within the work of their own teams.
Thought leadership: Acting as a thought leader and supporting IoUH to be the go-to experts on urban health and health equity, representing IoUH and the Foundation externally
IoUH Leadership
Champion inclusive leadership and be an effective member of IoUH’s Director’s Team
Line management responsibility for national and international Partnership Manager, Head of Policy & Influencing and dotted line to Portfolio Managers holding day-to-day responsibility for scaled/to be scaled programmes
Other responsibilities that can reasonably be expected to help ensure the successful delivery of your role
Corporate responsibilities
Take strategic responsibility for ensuring consistency and identifying synergies in policy and influencing work across the Foundation, identifying opportunities to use insights from our work to influence policy and key audiences.
Satisfy governance and accountability requirements including monitoring, evaluating and reporting on the impact of our policy, influencing and change activities
Person specification
Skills, abilities, and attributes
Excellent communication skills, including ability to communicate complex information simply
Excellent stakeholder management skills
Excellent project management skills
Outstanding leadership and organisational skills, including the ability to lead leaders
Excellent budget and risk management skills
Excellent problem-solving abilities
You will be personally and professionally committed to our mission and share our values of being enterprising, collaborative, delivery-minded and inclusive
You will have the inclusive leadership skills to operate comfortably with colleagues at all levels, lead leaders and relate to a wide range of partners, and community members
You will have determination and willingness to drive progress
You seek clarity and actively ensure roles and responsibilities are clear
Knowledge, experience, and qualifications
A strong track record of influencing decision-makers and shaping public policy at both local and national levels, with demonstrable experience driving change through engagement with a broad range of stakeholders
Deep understanding of UK political environment and the operation of government
Experience of overseeing complex large-scale programmes and handling significant (multi-million pound) budgets
Experience of securing large funding partnerships or financial commitments
Experience leading and developing teams and managing multiple project demands
Experience in consistently embedding DEI into ways of working and create a feeling of inclusion for others, a presence to manage and lead others
You are experienced and comfortable in handling uncertainty and navigating complexity
