United Kingdom: Project Support and Internal Communications Officer

We’re looking for a Project Support and Internal Communications Officer to support War Child UK and War Child Holland design a shared platform which would maximise our collaboration and ensure that together we have the biggest possible impact on our mission, helping hundreds of thousands of children each year to cope with the terror and disruption of armed conflict.

The successful role holder will ensure the project is supported to a high standard of quality and is carried out on schedule and in its entirety. The role has a central and coordinating role within the change team and is responsible for developing and implementing the internal communication strategy.

Shared knowledge and understanding of the progress of the change project / exploration phase between all internal stakeholders. Demonstrates high level stakeholder engagement skills in written and oral form to support collaborative working and project progress. 

If you share our values and believe that children’s lives should not be torn apart by war, we want to hear from you.

Team and Department:	CEO department	Contract Type:	Fixed term contract - 6 months from November 2022
Place of Work:	Our office is in Kentish Town (NW5). This role is open to occasional homeworking.	Working Hours:	Full-time is 37.5 hours. This role is open to flexible working including compressed hours, part-time hours, flexi-time
Reports to:	CEO War Child UK	Salary:	Circa £27,000 per annum, full-time equivalent

About us: 

War Child, the specialist charity for children affected by conflict. For more than two decades we’ve delivering high-impact programmes that are rebuilding lives across Afghanistan, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic and Yemen. We understand children’s needs, respect their rights, and put them at the centre of the solution - from reintegrating children formerly associated with armed groups and armed forces (CAAFAG) in the Central African Republic to reuniting children with their families in Afghanistan. We look forward to a world in which the lives of children are no longer torn apart by war. This is a vision that can only be realised through the collective actions of children themselves, communities and their leaders, organisations like War Child, governments and key decision makers.

Our values

Our benefits

• Flexible working - we recognise the considerable benefits that flexible working can bring and are happy to discuss any possible flexible working options with our employees from hiring. For most roles, the following types of flexibility are usually possible: flexible hours, occasional working from home and compressed hours.

• Annual leave – 28 days per year (full-time) rising to 33 days with service, plus bank holidays

• Pension - all eligible employees automatically enrolled into a Group Personal Pension Plan with a 5% employer

  contribution, with minimum employee contribution on a salary sacrifice basis

• Family leave – we offer enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption & shared parental leave

Our values:

1. Bold: We use our passion and creativity to deliver high quality evidence-based work designed to maximise our beneficial impact for children in conflict.
2. Accountable to children: Children can rely on us to respond to their voices and to treat them with respect and dignity.
3. Transparent: We expect to be held to account by our supporters and participants and we respond with openness and honesty.
4. Committed to each other: We support each other to achieve ambitious goals and be the best we can be. We are honest and open, sharing our successes & confronting our challenges.

Our benefits: 

• Flexible working - we recognise the considerable benefits that flexible working can bring and are happy to discuss any possible flexible working options with our employees from hiring. For most roles, the following types of flexibility are usually possible: flexible hours, occasional working from home and compressed hours.

• Annual leave – 28 days per year (full-time) rising to 33 days with service, plus bank holidays

• Pension - all eligible employees automatically enrolled into a Group Personal Pension Plan with a 5% employer

  contribution, with minimum employee contribution on a salary sacrifice basis

• Family leave – we offer enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption & shared parental leave

• Health & wellbeing - employees may take advantage of a healthcare cash plan and a range of wellbeing initiatives and training. In addition, all employees have access to free, confidential one-to-one wellbeing consultations with trained counsellors.

• Learning & development - dedicated to the investment in learning and continuing professional development for all our employees

• Range of flexible benefits such a Cycle to Work scheme and season ticket loans.

How to apply

• Please download the application pack from https://www.warchild.org.uk/who-we-are/jobs

• All applications must be sent to recruitment@warchild.org.uk by 11:59pm on 17th October 2022

• Due to limited resources, we will contact only the shortlisted candidates

• Start date: We are ideally looking for someone who is able to start as soon as possible, although we are prepared to be flexible to ensure that we recruit the most suitable candidate.

If you have any questions about reasonable adjustments before or during your application, we welcome the opportunity to talk about what we can do to fairly adapt our process for you. Please share what you’re comfortable with to help us put the right support in place, by emailing recruitment@warchild.org.uk. Anything you tell us will be kept completely confidential by our HR team.

We are unable to provide sponsorship for this post. In order to apply, you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in the country where this role is based.

Child safeguarding and Adults at Risk: 

Our work with children and at-risk adults to keep them safe is the most important thing we do. We are committed to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults in all areas of our work. We have zero tolerance for any behaviours and practices that puts children and/or vulnerable adults at risk of abuse and/or harm. All candidates selected for interview will be asked relevant child safeguarding question(s) during the selection interview. Successful applicants will be expected to be compliant with and sign up to our Child Safeguarding policy, our Code of Conduct and PSEA: Adults at Risk Policy. You can find the Child Safeguarding and Adults at Risk policy here: https://www.warchild.org.uk/whats- happening/news/our-child-safeguarding-policies-and-procedures

Diversity and Inclusion: 

We value diversity and inclusion and are committed to ensuring that all our people and job applicants are treated fairly, irrespective of where, what or whom they were born, or of other characteristics. We want to offer a safe and inclusive workplace where all our people, especially those who are currently marginalised or underrepresented, can be themselves at work. You can read our Diversity and Inclusion policy on our website, and if you have any questions about our commitment to diversity and inclusion do get in touch: https://www.warchild.org.uk/sites/default/files/Diversity%20%26%20Inclusion%20Policy%20-%20final.pdf

Pre-employment checks: 

Employment with War Child will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

• A satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International/National Criminal Record Check, and a clear vetting and Due Diligence check

• Receipt of three satisfactory references

• Proof of eligibility to work in the UK

Project Support and Internal Communications Officer Background to the Role: 

War Child UK was founded in 1993 to support children affected by the conflict in Bosnia. Shortly afterwards some friends of our founders created War Child Holland. The two organisations have worked alongside each other ever since but did not sign a formal agreement to collaborate until 2017. In the meantime, War Child Holland opened a fundraising office in Germany and Sweden, whilst War Child UK established Children in Conflict as a fundraising office in New York.

In 2019 War Child Holland approved a vision document for creating a network expert organisation with a Shared Platform, for reasons of efficiency, inclusion and anti-colonialisation, but also to achieve more ownership of the organisation by all representatives of the War Child network including country offices, fundraising offices, partners and communities. In 2020, War Child Holland started preparing for the design of such a network expert organisation and Shared Platform and in 2021, the Shared Platform was designed and implementation has started. War Child Sweden, War Child Germany, War Child Netherlands and War Child Holland’s country offices are the “co-owners” of the Shared Platform. Through their representation in the IMT (International Management Team) and other governance bodies of the Shared Platform - the highest level of operational decision making in the organisation - the co-owners jointly co-create, develop, influence, decide on, and execute the operation of the War Child network.

War Child UK and War Child Holland see this process as an opportunity to develop the current design of the Shared Platform collectively further and to explore opportunities for closer collaboration.

Your role: 

The Project Support and Internal Comms Officer provides project management expertise to help prepare and carry out the change project for exploring closer collaboration between WCH and WCUK and the further design of the Shared Platform. The position has a central and coordinating role within the change team and is responsible for developing & implementing the internal communication strategy.

Your responsibilities: 

1. Project management support: Carries out a variety of project management work within the project team to help prepare, carry out and complete the project:

• Supports in preparing, finetuning and updating the project working plan, establishing a budget and preparing updates and reports for the Steering Committee.

• Coordinates projects and sub-projects by monitoring progress, identifying budget overruns and reporting on problems as they arise.

• Advises on, assists with and carries out matters relating to setting up the project’s accounts and records / files.

• Support the governance of the project by taking comprehensive, high-quality minutes and undertaking

  appropriate post-meeting action to ensure accurate recording and implementation of decisions arising from all

  Steering Group meetings

• Reviews projects together with the working group leads and documents suggestions for improvement.

2. Internal communications: Responsible for development and implementation of the internal communication strategy in relation to the change project / exploration phase:

• Works with Change Manager and the Steering Groups to develop and implement internal communication plans as part of the change process / exploration phase, including the development of effective tools and channels to agreed timelines.

• Drafts / edits messages or scripts from senior stakeholders for presentation to staff

• Ensures internal communication messages are consistent across all internal channels as well as with external

  messages

3. Stakeholder Coordination

• Proactively coordinate and monitor stakeholder activities; co-determine issues & bottlenecks and work these through to resolution to ensure project progress is on target.

• Operate as point of liaison between the Steering Group, working groups and senior stakeholders

• Assist stakeholder groups / individuals to build positive working relationships and work collaboratively towards a defined common goal.

• Contribute to creating a culture committed to the safeguarding of children and adults and compliant to WCUK’s Child Safeguarding and Adults at Risk Policies.

These duties provide a framework for the role and should not be regarded as a definitive list. Other reasonable duties may be required consistent with the grade of the role.

You have: 

• Experience of project management, managing your workload to meet deadlines, managing priorities and achieving targets. This includes experience of managing a project budget

• Exceptionally organised with the ability to produce high-quality outputs in a short timeframe

• Understanding of different styles of internal communications and experience of using different forms of communication and reporting.

• Ability to work under pressure, organised to meet deadlines whilst maintaining an eye for detail.

• Significant experience compiling reports from a wide variety of information sources with the ability to clearly articulate and express thoughts and ideas both in writing and in person.

• Willing and able to adjust to multiple demands and shifting priorities

• Enthusiastic and determined to retain momentum and drive a project forward.

• Able to manage the expectations of stakeholders internally and externally whilst building and maintaining long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships, particularly in multi-cultural environments with sensitivity and respect for diversity.

• Able to process and articulate complex issues in a clear and coherent way so that they can be shared with a wider audience.

• Self-motivated approach to work, whilst working accurately and efficiently to deadlines and multiple priorities.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English. 

Contact information: 

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact Chiara Ronzoni, Executive Officer, chiarar@warchild.org.uk

For general information about working for War Child please visit: https://www.warchild.org.uk/who-we-are/careers