Community Engagement Officer

Save the Children UK has an exciting opportunity for a collaborative and organised individual with extensive relationship building experience to join us as our Community Engagement Officer for Margate where you will work with the Margate Early Learning Community to help children and families experiencing poverty 

Please note: you will need to be based in/around Margate for this role as there is direct work within those communities. 

This is a 12 month FTC and can be performed as a full time or part time role. These options can be discussed at interview. 

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 work 

The Margate Early Learning Community (MELC) is part of the Early Learning Communities programme, which began in 2018 in a partnership between Save the Children and local partners across the UK. The programme aims to make a sustainable difference to the lives of children experiencing poverty in communities across the UK, by taking a whole-system and evidence-based approach to improving early learning outcomes.  

 

About the role 

As a Community Engagement Officer, you will be involved in working closely with local families including developing and delivering community engagement activities. This role would be a great opportunity for someone who is confident and experienced in working with children, parents and families. Being able to listen to different groups and communicate with various audiences is key in this role, as well as a knowledge of Margate/Thanet area, where you will be based working. There will also be the opportunity to learn and develop within this role with the support and knowledge of SCUK colleagues and our partners in Margate.  

In this role, you will:   

• Design, organise and facilitate regular opportunities for families to share insights with the MELC team, planning these to maximise engagement and accessibility   
• Support MELC partners to work with families to co-design new initiatives/services  

 

Recruit and support families to contribute to co-design and participation activities with MELC and our partners 

Build positive relationships based on trust with all stakeholders: children, families, statutory services, community partners and other professionals 

Support families to engage with wider elements of Save the Children’s work, e.g. Learning Network events and policy influencing/media opportunities 

Carry out the responsibilities of the role in a way which reflects Save the Children’s commitment to safeguarding children in accordance with the Child Safeguarding Policy 

About you 

To be successful, it is important that you have:  

• Understanding of the impact of poverty on children, families and neighbourhoods and the barriers that communities face in seeking to bring about positive changes  
• Experience of building and sustaining trusting relationships with children and families 
• Experience of safeguarding and inclusive practices when working with children and families 
• Strong interpersonal, communication skills with an ability to establish and maintain excellent and effective working relationships with people at all levels, both within the organisation and externally 
• Ability to work in Margate at least 2 days per week  
• Commitment to Save the Children’s vision, mission and values. 

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. You can read more about our benefits here. 

 

To learn more about the position, please review the Job Description in the attached Documents. 

Closing date: Monday 11th March 

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.

 

Ways of Working:

The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but there are likely to be times when you will be required to come to your contracted office (up to 2-4 days per month or 6-8 days per quarter).  This will be agreed with your Line Manager and team and is intended to be time spent on collaborating with colleagues and relationship building.

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.

To see our full statement please visit this link: https://jobs.savethechildren.org.uk/our-policies/diversity/

 

Salary Structure: 

Save the Children is committed to paying staff in a fair and equitable way and will benchmark all salary offers in line with the pay of existing staff. To see our full offer please visit this link: https://jobs.savethechildren.org.uk/what-we-offer/

 

Interview Expenses: 

Candidates should note that unfortunately it is not our policy to reimburse expenses accrued when attending interviews at Save the Children UK unless you are requested to attend an interview in an alternative location to where the role is based.

 

Pre-employment Checks:

Any Employment with Save the Children UK 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 Criminal Record Check (If applicable)
• receipt of satisfactory references
• proof of eligibility to work in the national location for this role

 

If you have any questions, we have an FAQ section here. For anything else you can email us on: [email protected]