External Affairs Officer

Acorns Children's Hospice is now seeking an External Affairs Officer to champion our work at national and regional levels, using powerful storytelling to demonstrate the impact of hospice care and helping to shape the national debate on hospice care funding and palliative care provision.

Champion the future of children’s palliative care as an External Affairs Officer at the UK’s largest children’s hospice

Are you driven by the power of advocacy and the potential to create lasting change? Acorns Children’s Hospice is seeking a passionate and experienced External Affairs Officer to grow our position as the leading voice for children’s hospice care and palliative care provision. Join us in shaping policy, influencing decision-makers, and ensuring fair and sustainable funding for all children’s hospices. 

At Acorns, we are dedicated to transforming lives by ensuring seriously ill children and their families receive the highly specialist care they need when they need it most. 

As the UK’s largest children’s hospice, we have a responsibility to influence policies and shape solutions that meet the unique needs of the children and families we support.

Your work will not only shine a light on the life-changing care we provide but also advance national conversations about children’s hospice and palliative care. Collaborating with sector partners, you’ll help drive solutions that address critical gaps, ensuring services are available and sustainably funded for generations to come.

If you’re ready to make an impact and help shape the future of children’s hospice care, we’d love to hear from you.

About the Role

Acorns is the UK’s largest children’s hospice charity, in terms of both the number of children and families supported and annual expenditure on our care work.  We need to raise more than £13 million each year to run hospices and provide our care and support services, relying on fundraising and donations by our local community for two-thirds of this amount. 

As External Relations Affairs Officer, you will:

• Develop a strong understanding of health policy and politics and use this to identify ways Acorns can lend its voice to and shape the national debate on children’s palliative care and hospice care funding
• Identify opportunities to work in partnership with Hospice UK and Together for Short Lives and contribute to the planning and delivery of political campaigns that build pressure on decision-makers using parliamentary, public and media support
• Play a vital role in making a difference at a local level by building trusted relationships with key stakeholders, including politicians, ICBs, civil servants and decision-makers across the West Midlands and Gloucestershire
• Manage a database of MPs, councillors and other key decision-makers who support our cause and ensure it is kept up to date

About You

• Minimum of 2 years’ experience in an External Affairs, PR or Communications role
• Experience of working with MPs, Ministers and MEPs
• Experience of planning and delivering end-to-end external relations and parliamentary affairs strategies
• Lobbying and networking with a wide range of relevant stakeholders

What We Offer

• £30,000 to £37,000 per annum
• 37 hours per week
• Hybrid role with office and home working
• Employee discounts from leading retailers
• Employee gym discount scheme
• Bike-to-Work scheme
• Generous contribution to group personal pension plan or continuation of current NHS pension scheme
• NHS pension scheme life assurance or Acorns group life assurance scheme

Interviews are scheduled to be held week commencing 13th January, 2025

You need to be eligible to work in the UK to be considered for this role. We are committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and therefore any successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS check for children and will be asked to provide two satisfactory references.

As a UNICEF Gold Rights Respecting organisation, we are committed to ensuring that the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child is embedded into both culture and practice within the organisation. As an employee you will be a Duty Bearer for Children’s Rights and support all children to be Rights Holders.

If you have any questions, please contact us at recruitment@acorns.org.uk

Find out about our culture, career development, benefits and more here: Why Work for Acorns?