- Excellent ability to build and maintain a strong stakeholder network
- Ability to contribute to the development of an influential policy research programme, under a broad work theme, in which equality and diversity is appropriately integrated.
- Strong understanding of what really makes senior decision makers change policy and practice, using both formal and informal routes.
Senior Policy and Engagement Officer - Wales, United Kingdom - Citizens Advice
Description
Location: Blended between office and home (England and Wales). Time in office negotiable
Citizens Advice offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. Through our national network of charities, we give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward whoever they are, and whatever their problem.
Citizens Advice is here to give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward - whoever they are, and whatever their problem. We do this by offering free and specialist advice in person, over the phone and online in partnership with our network of charities across England and Wales.
Sadly, we've never been more needed. With millions of people affected by the rising cost of living, we're seeing unprecedented demand for our services from people in crisis.
We are recruiting a Senior Policy and Engagement Officer for the Heat Networks sub-team of our Energy Policy Team. This is an exciting opportunity to work on one of the biggest issues facing people across the UK today.
Citizens Advice is the statutory advocate for energy consumers. We use research and evidence from the people who contact our advice service every day to understand the problems facing energy consumers in Great Britain. We help solve these problems by engaging with industry, changing policy and supporting consumers to navigate the market.
From 2025 our role as the statutory consumer advocate for energy consumers is expanding to include heat networks (sometimes known as district or communal heating) for the first time. This role is a rare and exciting opportunity to be part of building a new team from the ground up, within a dynamic organisation with a relentless focus on fixing the underlying causes of people's problems.
In the year ahead you'll play a vital role in helping us to develop and deliver a targeted and influential stakeholder engagement strategy.
You'll influence the industry and other stakeholders directly to deliver better outcomes for consumers of heat networks- using our unique frontline data and research to understand the problems consumers are experiencing, identifying workable solutions and examples of best practice and pushing for these solutions to be implemented.
You'll also act as a bridge between the heat networks industry and the Energy Policy and wider organisation, including our frontline advice services. This will include contributing to consultation responses, feeding into the planning and delivery of policy research and influencing projects and, where necessary, helping our advisors to escalate individual consumer problems with heat networks.
You'll use a wide range of research methods and create outputs including blogs, reports, presentations and events to influence policymakers and stakeholders. The data and insight we gather helping millions of people across the UK and our strong brand will give you unique opportunities to engage with those who have the power to make change.
You'll also feed into our work influencing parliamentarians, the civil service, regulators and industry and you will work closely with our world-class news, campaigns, public affairs, and data teams.
We welcome applicants from a wide-range of career backgrounds, not just those with policy experience. We are looking for exceptional individuals with strong research, analytical and communication skills who have the curiosity and ambition to achieve real change on behalf of our clients and consumers.
If you would like to apply for the role please demonstrate the following criteria in your cv and covering letter:
Do you want to work for an organisation that makes a difference, every single day, to people from all walks of life? The people that turn to Citizens Advice need help overcoming an obstacle in their lives from debt to evictions to trouble at work and you can be key to them getting the support they need in the quickest, easiest, and most effective way.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is of strategic importance within the organisation and recognised as integral to all we do as a service.
Central to pursuing our EDI mission is building diverse and inclusive teams in which everyone has a sense of belonging. We believe inclusion is a social justice issue - a principle that underpins our all EDI work. To that end, we particularly welcome applications from people we would like to see better represented in our organisation and sector - people of colour, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people. We follow the social model of disability. We will offer an interview to disabled candidates who indicate they wish their application to be considered under our Disability Confident Interview Commitment where they meet our selection criteria in their application. Some of our roles attract a high volume of applications and in some circumstances where it is not practicable or appropriate, we may limit the number of interviews offered to disabled and non-disabled candidates. We will provide reasonable adjustments as needed.
We're a flexible employer, so this role may suit anyone who'd prefer a flexible arrangement to help their work/life balance, many of our colleagues spend most of their time working remotely. Whilst we prefer a blended approach between a local office, if one is near you, and home we're open to being flexible on location, occasionally a role may require you to be based in a certain location if that's the case it will be detailed in the advert or job description. This can be discussed in more detail during your interview.
The National Citizens Advice operates from offices in England and Wales, with 4 regional offices based in Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Leeds, therefore all successful applicants must be based within England or Wales.
Our commitment to colleague wellbeing is reflected in us being awarded Gold in the Health & Wellbeing category, as well as Overall Winners, at the Employee Experience Awards 2022.
Please be aware that Citizens Advice is not a sponsoring organisation. Therefore the successful applicant must already possess the right to work in the UK or be able to secure the right to work in the UK independently.
Citizens Advice seeks to redeploy internal staff who are at risk or under notice of redundancy and will prioritise them in the recruitment process where necessary. If you have been confirmed as at risk or under notice of redundancy please ensure you indicate this in the at-risk box in your application.
In the event of a high number of applications, we reserve the right to close the application early.
This vacancy closes at 23.59 on the closing date.
For more information about the organisation, our values and benefits please see the following link - Information, values and benefits
Need help with your application, see our useful how to guides on the following page - Guidance notes for applicants