Head of Influencing, Policy and Research

Location: Hybrid: Office base is in London with expectation for a minimum of one day per week in the office (The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, Vauxhall, London, SE11 5RR).

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 35 hours per week (1.0FTE)

Salary: £50,000

Annual Leave: 22 days per annum plus 3 discretionary days

About the role

CUF s new strategy has a vision of ending poverty together. Over the next three years we will be developing our relationships with our networks, partnerships, Dioceses and churches to respond, primarily, to relational poverty, recognising its place within the web of poverty. Our work will be mission and community resilience focussed, in the framework of asset based community development.

Through our work we will see more impactful, confident and mission focussed churches who are empowered to serve their local communities. We will witness greater cohesion across Dioceses, schools, Christian denominations and Christian charities as a national movement to love and serve our neighbour, and challenge unjust structures of society. We will also work more strategically with communities of different faiths

in our resilience work, facing the challenges of relational and identity poverty. We will work closely with the Church of England who have highlighted ministry in low income communities as a priority for resourcing.

We will be more confident in speaking out the truth about poverty, through a renewed influencing, policy and research team, who will take our grassroots and collaborative work to highlight unjust structures on poverty, and shape an ecclesial, political and sociological response.

In this newly created role you will develop our work on influencing and telling the truth about poverty, this is one of two objectives for the charity. You will help build relationships of influence within the Church of England, Government and other decision makers to use our stories and impact to show the difference churches and faith groups can make in ending material and relational poverty. You will develop policy positions on areas of CUF s work in relation to poverty that will give a firm basis for our work, and that we will be able to speak out on with confidence and knowledge based on connection to grassroots churches and organisations. You will develop a robust mechanism for reporting on impact, which goes beyond just evaluating our work but demonstrates the difference that faith based social action can make on ending poverty together.

This role will report to the CEO, but work across all of CUF s teams and departments and will be responsible for the line management of the Listening and Learning Officer.