Senior Policy Research Officer (Northern Ireland)

Job Description Job Title: Senior Policy Research Officer (Northern Ireland) Directorate: Strategy and Knowledge Team/Department (if specific):Policy and Public Affairs Salary range: £38,040 to £42,267 Location:Belfast (hybrid working, with at least one day in the office). The post holder will occasionally be expected to travel to locations across the UK. Working hours:35 hours (flexible working may be considered) Date Written/ Amended: June 2024 Context and Background The NSPCCs vision is that together, we can stop child abuse and neglect. Through the collective power of our staff, volunteers, supporters, partners, and over 100 years of experience we will move closer to achieving that vision. We launched our ten-year strategy in 2021, which is centred around three impact goals. This is the difference we want to make by 2031: Everyone plays their part to prevent child abuse: well work together to make it easier for everyone to play their part and create a social safety net that prevents child abuse and neglect. Every child is safe online: together, well transform the online world, so its safe for every child to go online. Children feel safe, listened to and supported: more children will be able to speak out, so they feel safe, listened to and understood and abuse doesnt shape their future. The Policy and Public Affairs (PAPA) team is part of the Strategy and Knowledge Directorate at the NSPCC. The Directorate exists to help shape the world around us and what the NSPCC does so that it reflects what we have learned and can help keep children safe from abuse. The PAPA team works across the four nations of the UK to influence legislation, policy and practice to ensure they are as effective as possible in keeping children safe. We focus on policy priorities through our five core workstreams: the child protection system and childrens social care; early years and health; child sexual abuse; online safety; and young victims and witnesses. We are recruiting a Senior Policy Research Officer in based with our team in Northern Ireland. This is a great opportunity to drive policy work in in Northern Ireland by building a strong evidence base and contributing to effective influencing strategies. The role will focus on policy research but involves a variety of responsibilities including policy development and public affairs. Job purpose The Senior Policy Research Officer (NI) will be responsible for undertaking policy research to achieve the NSPCCs strategic goals in Northern Ireland, using their skills and experience to strengthen the NSPCCs impact on public policy relating to children. In doing so, they will make a significant contribution to protecting the youngest children from abuse and neglect. Key relationships - Internal Reports to Policy and Public Affairs Manager in Northern Ireland Colleagues in the wider Policy and Public Affairs team across the UK Colleagues in the Media and Campaigns teams Colleagues in the Research and Evidence team Colleagues in the Services directorate (to ensure policy development is informed by experiences and learning from our frontline professionals/ volunteers) Colleagues in the Participation Unit (to ensure the involvement of young people in policy and influencing work) Key relationships - External Key civil servants and policy advisers in NI Executive Departments Members of the Legislative Assembly Colleagues in relevant voluntary and statutory agencies Practitioner bodies Key academics, researchers and research networks Main duties and responsibilities Develop and maintain a high level of expertise on relevant priority policy areas Work with teams across NSPCC, assess policy and evidence needs for Northern Ireland, then design and undertake impactful research projects to address these. Design and manage high-quality policy research projects on key child protection issues affecting children in NI, conducted both in-house and/or commissioned to external agencies, ensuring policy research projects are delivered on time, are high quality, methodologically robust and ethically sound. Analyse a wide range of primary and secondary sources of evidence (such as official data sets and statistics, policy documents, academic literature, economic analyses, FOIs and survey data) to develop innovative and evidence-based policy solutions to complex problems. Prepare high-quality policy outputs such as briefings, summaries, consultation responses, papers and presentations for internal and external audiences. Develop and maintain a network of key contacts across the Assembly, Executive Departments, academia and civil society, using this network to amplify the NSPCCs voice and take advantage of opportunities to influence policy making. Represent the NSPCC on relevant internal and external advisory groups, meetings, and stakeholder events. Act as media spokesperson for the NSPCC on relevant subject areas, including live and pre-recorded interviews as well as background discussions with journalists . Responsibilities for all Staff within the Strategy and Knowledge Directorate There is a set of responsibilities for all staff within each directorate. A commitment to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people To carry out the responsibilities of the post in a manner consistent with promoting equality and diversity, and which demonstrates respect for childrens rights. To participate actively in regular department and team meetings, contributing to strategy, discussions and decisions. To maintain an awareness of own and others health and safety and comply with the NSPCCs Health and Safety policy and procedures. A willingness to take a flexible approach to work. Person specification Strong support for the NSPCCs mission and values. Good understanding of child protection, early years, health or related public policy areas combined with knowledge of the wider legal, political and media context in Northern Ireland. Proven ability to undertake research (qualitative and/ or quantitative), analyse findings with anability to design methodologically robust and ethically sound research that is delivered to a high standard and agreed timescales. Excellent policy development skills, with the ability to develop and refine policy solutions to complex problems. Experience of successfully presenting research accurately to make a clear and compelling case for policy and legislative change. Good public affairs skills, with excellent knowledge of parliamentary processes in Northern Ireland, sound political judgement, and experience of contributing to the delivery of influencing strategies to secure support from decision makers in parliament and beyond. Ability to work on own initiative with strong organisational and project management skills, including demonstrable experience of project managing small research projects, working at speed and under pressure when required, while successfully managing project progress, risks and quality. Excellent communication skills including a clear and concise writing style, combined with good oral presentation skills, that can be tailored to a variety of audiences. Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build constructive working relationships with external stakeholders, as well as to work effectively as part of an internal, cross-departmental team. Safer Recruitment As an organisation, we are committed to creating and fostering a culture that promotes safeguarding and the welfare of all children and adults at risk. Our safer recruitment practices support this by ensuring that there is a consistent and thorough process of obtaining, collating, analysing and evaluating information from and about candidates to ensure that all persons appointed are suitable to work with our children and adults. The recruitment and selection of our people will be conducted in a professional, timely and responsive manner and in compliance with current employment legislation, and relevant safeguarding legislation and statutory guidance. Our principles: Always seek to recruit the best candidate for the role based on merit including their skills, experience, motivation and competencies. Our robust recruitment and selection process should ensure the identification of the person best suited to the role and the organisation. Committed to diversity and equality of opportunity and will interview all applicants (internal and external) who self-declare at application as having a disability and who meet the minimum requirements in the person specification of the vacancy they are applying for. We will make reasonable adjustments at all stages of the recruitment process in order to enable successful candidates who declare disabilities to start working or volunteering their time with us. Any current member of staff or volunteer who wishes to apply for vacancies and is suitably qualified will be considered and addressed fairly and objectively based on their merit. As an organisation committed to safeguarding, we will ensure all under 18s joining the organisation will have ongoing risk assessments to ensure their role and activities are safe and appropriate. All documentation relating to candidates will be treated confidentially in accordance with the GDPR legislation.