External Affairs Support Officer

Age UK is currently recruiting for an exciting fixed term position as External Affairs Support Officer on a 12 month fixed-term basis. In this entry-level role, you will support the delivery of our highly effective campaigns and public affairs activities which change the lives of older people. This is the perfect opportunity to start a career in campaigning or public affairs, offering you varied experience and exposure to public and parliamentary campaigning, as well as supporting our local Age UK partners to campaign locally.

As External Affairs Support Officer, you will provide efficient administrative support to the External Affairs team, assist with logistical planning and event organisation, and keep track of relevant parliamentary activity. You will also work with individuals to tell their stories and influence political decision makers and prepare engaging communications relating to our campaigns and public affairs work for a range of audiences.

With an astute attention to detail, you will be able to prioritise your workload, critically listen and confidently communicate both verbally and in written form; as well as having a sincere interest in politics and/or campaigning for change. This is a hybrid opportunity, a blend of home-based and office working. Our linked office for this role is in London (near Tower Hill) and you would be expected to attend the office at least once a week for meetings and more often if needed to support events or campaign activity. Travel costs to the London office are not covered by the charity.

Must haves:

• Interest in politics and/or campaigning for change.
• An empathetic and sensitive approach to working with people sharing their personal experiences.
• An ability to provide appropriate attention to detail.
• Experience of organising or supporting events.
• Good written and verbal communication skills. You are comfortable writing for a range of audiences and tailoring style and content appropriately.
• Good organisational and planning skills, along with an ability to prioritise workload and competing demands.

Great to haves:

• Experience of using a range of digital tools.
• Understanding of the voluntary sector.
• Broad understanding of the issues facing older people.
• Basic understanding of the political process.

Additional Information:

Requirement to attend team meetings in person at least once a week and to be available to support meetings and events in London when required. There is a requirement to travel and occasionally to stay overnight (e.g. running events in different parts of the country, party conferences or filming storytellers in different parts of the country); some out of hours working (e.g. occasional evening Parliamentary events).

Supporting statements and anonymisation: Candidates are expected to provide a supporting statement that explains how they meet the competencies annotated with an 'A' in the job description, to assess suitability for the position. Age UK acknowledges and accepts that AI may be used to support the application; we do expect candidates to personalise experience, knowledge and skills and failure to do so, may result in your application being rejected. CVs will be anonymised by our recruitment system when you apply for a role. Our system is unable to anonymise supporting statements. Please could you remove any personal information including your name before you upload to support our inclusive recruitment process. All equalities monitoring information is also anonymised and not shared with the hiring panel. Your name and address will only be known to us if invited for interview.

Equal opportunities & Disability Confident Scheme: Age UK is an Equal Opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates, regardless of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital/civil partnership status, or pregnancy and maternity. Age UK is a Disability Confident Scheme employer. Due to high numbers of applications received, Age UK reserves the right to limit the overall number of interviews offered, and therefore, it may not always be practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people that meet the minimum criteria for the job.

Reasonable adjustments: Disabled job seekers can access reasonable adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. All requests for reasonable adjustments are considered on a case-by-case basis, in collaboration with the disabled job seeker to best meet their needs. Disability disclosures will be kept confidential and only shared on a need-to-know basis to support the implementation of adjustments. Disclosures will not be used to inform hiring decisions.

Age UK is committed to safeguarding adults at risk, and children, from abuse and neglect. We expect everyone who works with us to share this commitment. Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert at any time. Age UK politely requests no contact from recruitment agencies or media sales. We do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.