Head of Policy and Public Affairs

Employment Type: Full time, 35 hours per week; flexible hours may be considered.

Location: Remote London, UK. The post holder must be easily and quickly commutable to London.

Seniority: Mid-level, Senior

• Closing: 11:30pm, 4th May 2025 BST

Reporting to: Director of Policy and Engagement

Direct reports: 1 x Scotland Policy and Public Affairs Manager and Legislative Lead, 2 x Policy and Public Affairs Officers, 1 x England Policy and Public Affairs Manager

Location of work: Home-based. The post holder must be easily and quickly commutable to London and will require frequent meetings in London. The role may involve some irregular travel throughout England and Scotland to attend events and meetings.

Contract type: Full-time, 35 hours per week; flexible hours may be considered. The role may require occasional evening and weekend work.

The Head of Policy & Public Affairs will review, develop and implement our advocacy strategy and lead a team to influence the devolved legislatures across the UK to address child morning hunger, with a view to the underlying systemic causes of child poverty and hunger, by driving change through policy and legislation. The role operates at our 'Head of level' which is the most senior operational specialist level and provides both operational and strategic leadership.

This role will also provide wider leadership across the charity and input into organisational strategy development and planning as part of the Core Management Group. This role will ensure that the Policy and Public Affairs function is aligned to the wider strategic aims and outcomes of Magic Breakfast as well as the internal operational systems and delivery.

The strategic leadership will ensure an external and long term view, with an outward looking and forward thinking approach that builds thought leadership, relationships and partnerships, with positioning to anticipate and build on new opportunities to end child morning hunger for good.

It will require an experienced Policy and Public Affairs professional, with significant experience of high impact and demonstrable outcomes at a senior level in the field. The postholder will lead the policy and public affairs team to influence the Early Adopters Scheme, the national rollout of primary school breakfast provision in England and breakfast legislation in the Children's Wellbeing Bill (CWB).

They will also develop, guide and lead plans to influence the Scottish government, particularly in the run up to the election in May 2026 and the influencing of manifestos; and will lead Magic Breakfast's upcoming influencing work in Wales.

In the external leadership that the role provides they will build relationships with politicians, political influencers, special advisors and civil servants to establish long-term, sustainable solutions to child morning hunger in the UK.

As a compassionate, people centric and inspiring leader they will work to enable their team to grow and develop in their skills ensuring they can step away from the detail whilst retaining accountability, build effective resource management and progression pathways. This role may manage external consultants where necessary, and work collaboratively with external organisations to amplify our voice and asks and strengthen our position as a thought leader.

Review and define the advocacy strategy for 25/26 in line both with moving political environment and Magic Breakfast's influencing agenda, considering the systemic barriers to ending child morning hunger for good.

Develop and maintain close relationships with the Department for Education and other key departments including Department for Health and Social Care and Treasury, to secure hunger and child focus as key priorities for breakfast provision.

Develop, monitor and evaluate influencing plans for each devolved nation.

Support the development of influencing plans with coalition groups and organisations to influence school breakfast policy, commitments and implementation.

Review policy positions in Wales and Northern Ireland and define our advocacy approach, gaining external insights and analysing available research and data to shape the plan.

Develop a vision for advocacy beyond current demands, considering political appetite and gaining insight from lived experience communities and relevant sectors, to ensure that we are clear on future asks, and can build the foundation towards them.

Work with Impact and Insights team to define future research needs to meet our longer-term advocacy plans.

Enhance and establish internal processes and ensure good internal information dissemination.

Work closely with key internal stakeholders to shape advocacy work and support broader organisational objectives.

Embed learnings and develop a fail fast, learn fast culture in the team.

Coach, support and lead direct reports enabling increased professional development, strategic decision making, proactive project management and robust political influencing.

Contribute to and help shape the work of the Core Management Group to ensure ongoing alignment for in year implementation of the strategic plan and create integrated future year plans which meet organisational goals.

Monitor and review KPIs to monitor and measure both team and cross organisational performance, using the results to guide teams and surface learnings.

Assess areas of risk and escalate where necessary and according to policy.

Develop and monitor annual team budgets.

Knowledge and Experience

Strategy development, demonstrating a deep understanding of how to craft, implement, and evolve strategies that align to operational outcomes for the Policy and Advocacy function as well as enabling our organisation strategy in our aim to end child morning hunger for good.

Stakeholder management and partnership building with extensive experience of engaging, influencing, and collaborating with diverse stakeholders, including senior political figures, policymakers, funders and sector leaders.

Ability to confidently and flexibly deal with volatile political environment, anticipating potential developments and adapting to emerging situations to meet aims.

Highly experienced in developing and shaping policy positions, using insights, research and data sets to inform and guide decision-making.

Understanding and experience of the role of the broader external environment to shape policy asks and political influencing, including the implications of a policy ask in one sector on another.

Experience of influencing key political events such as budgets, national elections and the legislative process.

Significant experience of coaching, supporting and managing the development of a team, with the ability to make difficult decisions and challenge where needed to deliver the organisational strategy.

Experience of education, food insecurity, child poverty or childcare sectors.

Skills and Abilities

• Effective leadership mentality with confidence to step away from the detail and delegate responsibility, enabling others to use judgements, make decisions, learn from failures and continuously improve.

• Analytical and evidence based decision making, with the ability to turn data and analysis into policy and advocacy related recommendations or outcomes for action.

• Effective planning, prioritisation and project management skills. Able to organise self and team to meet planned objectives and strategic direction with the ability to pivot and manage the unexpected.

• Strong, influential and impactful interpersonal and communication skills and to advocate for own specialism, department and Magic Breakfast's mission, effectively conveying the organisation's impact and needs to a wide range of audiences.

• Operational and financial acumen and analysis: understanding and practical application of knowledge as required around funding considerations, budget development and management, risk management, and ensuring systems in place for efficiency by setting and maintaining policy and procedural frameworks.

• An outward looking and forward thinking approach that drives a sense of curiosity, innovation and continuous improvement. Always thinking what can we learn from others, what new developments can be explored and what are the opportunities for the function to improve and grow with others too.

At Magic Breakfast we value our employees and work hard to develop a supportive, respectful culture which enables everyone to bring their whole self to work.

We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately, once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.