Policy and Public Affairs Officer (Wales)

at  Barnardos

Are you passionate about making a real difference in children’s lives through impactful policy and public affairs engagement? Are eager to develop your skills working with Welsh Government, Members of the Senedd, or other key decision-makers in Wales? If so, we want to hear from you.
Barnardo’s Cymru is looking for a Policy & Public Affairs Officer (Wales) to help shape our influencing work and strengthen our presence in the world of Welsh policy-making. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone eager to build on their existing knowledge and experience with policy influencers in Wales while playing a pivotal role in creating positive, lasting change for children, young people, and families.

In this role, you’ll work closely with our Senior Policy and Public Affairs Lead (Wales) to implement our influencing plan. You’ll help raise Barnardo’s Cymru’s profile among key stakeholders, including Welsh Government officials, Senedd Members, and other policy influencers. You’ll be involved in:

• Monitoring key developments within the Welsh policy landscape
• Managing relationships and liaising with stakeholders at all levels
• Conducting research and producing reports to support our policy objectives
• Supporting reactive policy work to respond to emerging issues
• Organising events to showcase Barnardo’s vital work and engage decision-makers

Your efforts will ensure that the voices of children, young people, families, and our services are central to our influencing activities in Wales.
This role will be home-based but will require travel to Cardiff and/or other parts of Wales for in-person meetings as required. The position is offered on a 0.6 FTE basis (21.75 hours per week).
Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.
Pay & Reward Framework
We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo’s values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.
For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo’s and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.
Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo’s pay framework can be found upon application.
Benefits
Workplace Offer: What it means for you

The world of work has changed. We are understanding of what works best for our colleagues both current and future as we look to embrace this new way of working. Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or any combination of these.

• Barnardo’s believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• 26 days annual leave plus bank holidays, increasing after 5 years service
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo’s. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo’s stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo’s Learning and Development offer
• T&C’s apply based on contract

About Barnardo’s
We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

• Monitoring key developments within the Welsh policy landscape
• Managing relationships and liaising with stakeholders at all levels
• Conducting research and producing reports to support our policy objectives
• Supporting reactive policy work to respond to emerging issues
• Organising events to showcase Barnardo’s vital work and engage decision-maker