External Affairs and Influencing Manager
Contract: Full time, permanent role
Salary: £48,000 per annum
Location: Hybrid role between home and London office, with two days per week in the Denmark Hill office
Closing date: 9am on Tuesday 28th July
Charity People is delighted to be partnering once again with Maudsley Charity to recruit an External Affairs and Influencing Manager. A hugely exciting new role within the Communications team at the charity, the postholder will work across media, external affairs and influencing to engage with key stakeholders, boost the charity’s profile, and promote learning and adoption of the solutions the organisation funds. You will be responsible for sharing evidence and learning in order to influence the people who fund, adopt and commission mental health care and services, and will work closely with the CEO to increase engagement with policy work which the Maudsley Charity undertakes through its work in coalitions.
About Maudsley Charity
Maudsley Charity funds and supports clinical, academic, and community partners to ensure that everyone experiencing mental illness can access the right care, while using insights from their work to drive wider improvements across the UK.
Recognising the profound impact of mental illness and the inequalities in access, experience, and outcomes – particularly those linked to social deprivation and racism – the organisation focusses on addressing gaps in care.
With an approach that combines evidence, lived experience, and a commitment to equity, the organisation backs impactful, evidence-based solutions, ensuring services are shaped by real-world insight, and prioritising support for those most underserved to drive improvements that benefit all.
Responsibilities
- Develop and deliver influencing plans to promote adoption of effective mental health care initiatives being funded by the charity
- Develop productive relationships with key stakeholders (journalists, NHS trust leaders, ICBs, ICs, VCSE organisations) to gather intelligence and shape strategy to inform the charity’s positioning
- Lead the charity’s thought leadership development providing strategic advice to senior leadership on political, NHS and mental health policy developments
- Strengthen the charity’s role in mental health policy and advocacy coalitions, by contributing to collaborative advocacy, media and communications outputs
- Lead the charity’s response to government mental health care consultations and calls for evidence
- Monitor funder sector trends and conversations, and actively seek out opportunities for the charity to strategically engage and influence by sharing learning from its grant making practice
Media Management
- Develop and implement integrated external affairs campaigns that support the charity’s influencing work
- Create persuasive materials, including press releases, op-eds, spokespeople briefings, comment pieces, and digital content and pitch to relevant outlets
- Maintain and grow relationships with journalists, broadcasters and sector media to secure relevant high-quality coverage of the charity’s activities, grant holders and their projects
- Act as first point of contact for media enquiries, managing proactive and reactive press activity
Skills and Experience
- Demonstrable track record of developing and implementing successful influencing strategies in the mental health sector
- Experience of stakeholder management within mental health care, including NHS Trust leaders, Integrated Care Boards, commissioners and senior clinicians, and with academics and researchers
- Strong experience in media relations, including briefing senior spokespeople, drafting press releases, media handling, and securing media coverage with a good understanding of the needs and expectations of different outlets and publications
- Keen understanding of the NHS, mental health policy landscape, and the related environment, key stakeholders and sector drivers
- Understanding of the key components and considerations of successful external affairs media and influencing
- Understanding of the sensitivities around mental illness, including working in an empathetic manner with people with lived experience
- Understanding of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion principles and a commitment to apply them in your work and as an organisation
- Influencing skills including confidence and credibility in working with stakeholders
- Communication skills and the ability to produce clear and effective communications and the ability to confidently and accurately represent the organisation externally
- Written and editorial skills including the ability to craft narratives for different external audiences and communicate the charity’s work in press releases, articles, policy briefs
How to apply
Please send your CV to alice@charitypeople.co.uk in the first instance.
Equal Opportunities
Maudsley Charity is an equal opportunities employer, and makes no discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and sex. Specifically, we will also oppose unfair discrimination of those with mental health issues.
Charity People is a forward thinking, inclusive organisation that actively and deliberately promotes equity, diversity and inclusion. We know organisations thrive when inclusion is at the forefront. We evidence our commitment by matching charity needs with the skills and experience of candidates irrespective of background e.g. age, disability (including hidden disabilities), gender, gender identity or gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. We do this because we believe that greater diversity leads to greater results for the charities we work with.
