Policy Officer

Social Work England is the specialist body that regulates social workers in their vital role. Every day, social workers support millions of people to improve their chances in life. We believe in the power of collaboration and share a common goal with those we regulate – to protect the public, enable positive change, and ultimately improve people’s lives.

Working to one of the policy managers for reform, you will support the policy priorities around key reform agendas. In collaboration with colleagues from other teams, you will engage with key sector stakeholders to gather intelligence to make evidence-based recommendations. You will also liaise with relevant internal colleagues to arrive at reasoned and well-evidenced regulatory positions and provide specialist advice and guidance to senior members of the organisation, and often the executive leadership, and policy committee.

What you will do

• Support the policy manager to develop the organisation’s approach to proposals associated with the national social care reform agenda, working with colleagues to improve our collective thinking, problem-solve, and share best practice from our work to protect the public.
• Work well in a collaborative project team, bringing an awareness of regulation systems designed for public protection, particularly in health and social care, to ensure that policy is led by engagement, evidence, and research, and flexing to business need.
• With the policy manager and senior policy manager, consult with internal and external stakeholders and find best practice examples and benchmarks to underpin policy proposals.
• Alongside the policy manager, develop a systematic means of developing and managing stakeholder relationships, increasing our integration into relevant sector communities, and raising our work and profile.
• Monitor and identify relevant policy developments and, where needed, prepare written briefings summarising consultation proposals, gather feedback and prepare responses.
• Design and deliver workshops or other engagement events with relevant stakeholders, attend external events, and support with practical and logistical support where necessary.
• Provide high quality advice on relevant policy issues, developing and contributing your expertise within the team and as part of our wider role of providing policy advice across the organisation.
• Bring an innovative approach to how we develop policy that effectively identifies and addresses disproportionate impacts of our work and seeks to protect the public modelling inclusivity and fairness.

Your skills, knowledge and experience

• Education, experience of, or demonstrable interest in, public policy with a firm understanding of the role of a policy team in a national public body.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to write clearly, accurately and succinctly in a variety of formats, for a range of audiences.
• Experience of, and/or a keen interest in, staying up to date with developments in legislation, policy, politics, and ideally experience of this in support of an organisation. An understanding of health and social care, or regulation would be a distinct advantage.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills with the ability and commitment to deliver high quality, accurate work to agreed deadlines.
• Knowledge of and/or experience of researching issues, analysing policy and legislation, or a willingness to develop these skills.
• Experience with providing business support to a team, including organisation of records and documents, arranging meetings, taking minutes, and working flexibly to support the successful delivery of the team’s objectives.
• Experience of supporting collaborative projects across teams and evidence of an ability to demonstrate initiative, respond to change flexibly, and take direction from others.
• Strong IT skills with good knowledge of Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, Forms and SharePoint, with a disciplined and rigorous approach to file management and version control.
• A track record of respectful open and honest behaviour including a demonstrable commitment to equality, inclusion and diversity.

Details

• Job type: Fixed-term contract until 31st March 2026
• Working pattern: Full-time. We offer flexible working subject to business need.
• Salary: £29,063 per year, rising to £30,205 per year after successful completion of a 6-month probationary period.
• Benefits: flexible working, contributory pension, life insurance and benefits portal.

Application

During the application process, you'll be asked to provide answers to three questions from the job description. These answers will be what your application is scored on, please answer in as much detail as possible using examples where necessary.

Job Types: Full-time, Fixed term contract
Contract length: 9 months

Pay: £29,063.00-£30,205.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Free flu jabs
• Life insurance
• Work from home

Schedule:

• Day shift
• Monday to Friday
• No weekends

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Sheffield, S3 8JY