Senior Education Policy & Advocacy Adviser

Fixed Term Contract – Jan -Dec 2026

Part-time – 21 hours per week / 3 days

Hybrid – Farringdon, London/Home-based

Closing Date: 20 October 2025

Ref 7172

Save the Children UK as an exciting opportunity for a part-time maternity cover role Senior Education Policy & Advocacy Adviser, to join our Global Outcomes Education Team.

About Us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach. 

About the Team

Working as part of the Global Impact team, our Global Outcomes function catalyses positive change for children by driving influencing agendas and bringing knowledge, evidence, analysis and expertise to our partnerships, programmes and advocacy work.   

The Education Team works as part of the Global Save the Children movement and the wider sector to drive long lasting systems changes at the global and country levels. The team's purpose is to drive impact to deliver equitable rights (outcomes) in education for boys and girls through participatory, inclusive and collaborative thought leadership and technical expertise to influence financing, policy and practise.  

About the Role

Working 3 days a week and reporting to the Head of Education, you will work closely across the teams in SCUK and the wider movement in line with our strategy and policies in our global education priorities.

As a Senior Education Policy & Advocacy Advisor, you will provide global leadership within your area of expertise (Education) to shape and drive shared advocacy and impact agendas across Save the Children and the wider sector. You will develop and deliver high-quality policy and influencing strategies, fostering innovation and inclusivity and contributing to systemic change. In this role, you will build strategic relationships with key decision-makers, lead capacity strengthening for colleagues and partners, and champion equality, inclusion and the shifting power agenda.

Key Accountabilities 

In this role, you will be responsible for: 

• Being our key representative in the Send My Friend to School coalition, including being an active member of its Policy and Parliamentary Working Group and potentially its Steering Group  dependent on your experience. This the UK's global education coalition of international development NGOs and teachers' unions, bringing together young people, politicians, teachers, civil society and the media to campaign for quality education for all children across the globe. Its focus is to influence the UK Governments financing and policies related to global education.
• Lead the movements influencing in support of the Global Partnership for Education replenishment campaign which aims to raise $5 billion from donors in 2026, as well as partner government commitments on domestic education financing. You will work closely with colleagues across the movement to influence their governments, as well as lead the work to ensure a significant pledge from the UK Government.
• Provide global leadership in other areas of global education to shape and drive shared advocacy and impact agendas across Save the Children and the wider sector. 

This is an important time to take up this role. The UK Government has stated that it plans to deprioritise its work on global education as part of its significant aid cuts in 2027. The inspiring Send My Friend to School coalition has developed an impactful UK schools campaign, youth campaign champion network and strategic policy and advocacy approach aiming to protect the education aid budget. Similarly a successful replenishment campaign for the Global Partnership for Education is vital for maintaining multi-year, transformative investment into education systems.     

About You 

We are looking for someone with the following experience, competencies, and skills:

• Strong track-record in designing and implementing successful influencing strategies with minimal supervision, drawing on analytical skills to identify political and other barriers to change and prioritise from the range of possible objectives and approaches.
• Very high-level expertise in the global international development and child rights policy landscape and institutions, coupled with deep expertise in Education
• Very strong oral and written communication skills, with the ability to tailor messaging to have resonance with and influence particular audiences.
• Ability to network and represent Save the Children externally, including facilitating and speaking at high level events and meetings and doing media interviews
• Strong track-record in policy analysis and development, with ability to draw on different sources of information and ideas from partners and children to generate relevant policy positions and solutions that will have cut through with target audiences.
• Strategic thinker driven by impact and evidence, curious to keep up to date with new ideas and innovations, and sees the positive potential in change
• Strong interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, and authenticity that enable effective communication with different audiences
• Collaborative team player capable of coaching, motivating and working through others to achieve outstanding results.
• Effective convenor, creating synergy and maximizing collaboration
• Proven ability to build external relationships and partnerships, and to influence decision-makers and policy specialists, including politicians and donors, and other key actors globally.

What we offer you: 

Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance. 

• We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work.
• We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day. 

Closing date: Midnight on 20th October 2025.

Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Location & Ways of Working:

The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but at times you will be required to come to your contracted office (usually between 2–4 days per month, depending on the needs of your role, team, or service). For many roles, this is likely to be the minimum required to deliver impact.

This will be discussed and agreed with your manager / team and we encourage candidates to discuss our ways of working in more detail at interview stage.

Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense.

Flexible Working – We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be "Free to Be Me". We are not looking for just one type of person – we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think.

We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences – of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability – help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here.