Head of Policy Insights Applicant information pack June 2025

No child's success should be limited by their socioeconomic background.

The Fair Education Alliance (FEA) unites 300 member organisations under a shared vision that no child's success is limited by their socioeconomic background.

Our members (charities and social enterprises, think tanks, businesses and foundations, youth organisations, unions, universities and schools) are working collectively to create an inclusive system.

We exist to close the gap in educational outcomes between children from low-income households and their wealthier peers. Our team has a big impact. You can see our 2023/24 Annual Report here.

This autumn, we're kicking off our next strategic phase, which will take our work from neighbourhood to national, building a movement for systems change towards a fairer future for children and young people.

We achieve change through the following types of activities:

A unified collective mission for vision and action We help our members speak with one voice for the benefit of children and young people from low-income families. We do this through developing joint responses, inputting into government strategy, and uniting our members to produce policy recommendations such as Fair Education in 2024: Priorities for a New Government.

Connectivity and coordination across the ecosystem We bring our members together to coordinate and strengthen everyone's work. We do this through our Collective Action working groups, weekly bulletin, Annual Summit and our Digital Membership Tools (Member Directory and interactive Ecosystem Map which help members to collaborate and target their work. This map also supports policymakers to get a view of current activity and impact, and supports regional collaboration, bringing transparency and connection to those working in the same place.

Diverse leadership of the collective agenda We believe our work must include and reflect the people it seeks to serve. Young people are crucial to this. We work with our Youth Steering Group to influence the system and policy change they want to see, and we build the capacity of the education sector to improve their youth engagement practice.

Systemic and need-based scaling strategies We run two awards to nurture new ideas and scale impactful solutions to address inequality in education. The Awards provide our portfolio of Award Winners with salary and intensive support to develop, test and scale their initiatives to the areas of greatest need.

Why we need you

The gaps in educational outcomes between children from low-income households and their wealthier peers are staggering at every stage of education. This goes on to increase the likelihood that young people from low-income households will be out of employment, education, or training. We take a systems change approach to shifting the conditions that hold these inequities in place. With the next phase of our strategy underway—building a movement from neighbourhood to national—we need someone who can help us influence policy and practice with insight, evidence and urgency.

We aim to bring insights from our diverse and expert membership to policymakers, ensuring that local, regional and national policies best serve children and young people from low-income backgrounds. We support members to organise around themes through our collective action working groups, which have advised Government on topics such as Family Hubs, the Curriculum and Assessment Review, and the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, and will continue to contribute expertise to upcoming policy moments related to SEND, Skills England and Ofsted. We also support youth voice in policymaking through our Youth Steering Group, which has contributed independently to major policy developments, bringing valuable lived experience to decision-making. From September, we'll also support members, young people and government bodies to craft regional policy and practice that benefits children and young people from low-income backgrounds.

Our Digital Membership Tools (Member Directory and interactive Ecosystem Map)have the potential to play a crucial role in our policy work. These tools help members, funders, and policymakers target their work to where it is most needed. There is a wealth of data in these tools: the Ecosystem Map is the only place that marries up publicly available information about pupil demographics and outcomes with information about all 22,000 schools where our members are working. It shows where there is strong or weak provision related to different types of support, at a school, local authority, constituency, MAT or regional level, together with the outcomes pupils are achieving.

We now need someone who can harness these assets to produce compelling insights and engage policymakers—from local authorities and combined authorities to central government and funders. This role will turn data into impact: creating clear, targeted reports that support decision-making, identifying gaps and opportunities, and helping us tell the story of how education can—and must—be fairer.

What we're asking of you

Develop a strategy to influence policy from neighbourhood to national You'll lead our approach to turning insights into influence—connecting our data, member knowledge and youth voice to shape policy that improves outcomes for children and young people. That means designing a strategy that engages decision-makers at all levels, from civil servants and funders to combined authorities and Parliament. You'll identify the right stakeholders and entry points, use our Ecosystem Map and Member Directory to generate targeted insights, and align our regional and national work for maximum impact.

Translate data into insight—and insight into action You'll be responsible for developing reports and briefings that tell powerful stories with data. Working closely with our Data Officer, you'll design templates and processes to produce timely, high-quality outputs that are tailored to different audiences, and that enable the wider team to do so. You'll complement our datasets with wider research and trends, and ensure our insights are used by both internal colleagues and external stakeholders to inform programmes, policy and funding decisions.

Engage senior stakeholders and building meaningful relationships You'll represent the Alliance in meetings, roundtables, and events—sharing evidence and building trusted relationships with policymakers, civil servants, and funders. You'll understand their priorities, and tailor our insights accordingly. This is a two-way relationship: you'll also feed what you learn, ensuring that our influencing work is responsive and grounded in both national priorities and lived experience.

Manage projects and continuously improve our tools You'll oversee the systems and processes that make our insights work possible—ensuring reporting cycles are efficient, quality is consistent, and new datasets are brought into our tools where they add value. You'll help embed insights across the FEA team, supporting colleagues to use data from the Tools in their work and helping to identify emerging opportunities. You will evaluate the impact of your approaches and strategise for the future of the Tools and our influencing work. You'll also work with our funders to report on the impact of the tools and shape their future development.

Commitment to equity and systems change We're looking for someone who cares deeply about improving the lives of children and young people from low-income backgrounds. You'll understand how education intersects with wider social systems—and bring a clear-eyed view of what needs to change. While direct policy or public affairs experience is a bonus, what matters most is that you're motivated by impact, passionate about equity, and excited by the opportunity to work collaboratively to shift the system.

About you

Essential skills and experience • A solid understanding of the UK policy landscape, including the roles and motivations of parliamentarians, local officials, civil servants, and other relevant stakeholders, and how to drive change. • Experience of telling a story with data to capture interest and inspire action; you are comfortable working with raw data and deriving insights. • Experience of working in or alongside the education sector in England, with a good grasp of the factors driving educational equality and how education interacts with other parts of the system. • Strong attention to detail and ability to spot patterns, trends or errors in data. • Strong relationship-building skills and ability to engage senior stakeholders, understand their priorities, and find the intersection between their goals and ours. • Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. You can distil complexity into clarity, whether through a briefing paper, slide deck or conversation.

Desirable skills and experience • Experience working directly with education datasets, particularly from the Department for Education, as well as familiarity with tools for data analysis and visualisation. • Background in policy or public affairs— for example, in a think tank, civil service, or charity—with established relationships across the policymaking community.

Diversity and Inclusion We are committed to recruiting a workforce that reflects the population and will prioritise applications from historically underrepresented people, including from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, those from working class backgrounds, and people who have experienced other forms of exclusion or marginalisation.

We want to cultivate a fair and inclusive environment, where everyone can be themselves and thrive. We have tried to make this recruitment process as accessible as possible but know that there might be more that we can do, particularly if you have experienced exclusion, disadvantage or discrimination, or if you have particular accessibility needs.

We would be happy to provide further support that you may require - please get in touch with us via recruitment@faireducation.org.uk if you would like to discuss with us.

Terms and conditions

Contract Permanent Hours 0.8 FTE (four days a week)

Annual Salary £50,000 FTE, pro rata

Reports to Janeen Hayat, Director of Collective Action

Holidays 38 days per year, including our 3-day winter shut down and eight flexible bank holidays (pro rata).

Location Hybrid, with a focus on London. You'll need to be in London to work from our office (near Victoria) one day a week and have about two other days per week to attend meetings with policy makers and our members. On other days you can work remotely or come into our office. Some nationwide travel and occasional evening working expected for meetings and events.

After passing probation, you'll have up to six weeks 'super remote' working per year, where you can work anywhere in the world as long as you're online for four hours of the UK workday.

Benefits Comprehensive pension scheme with optional salary sacrifice arrangement (up to 6% employer contribution), cash plan healthcare package, and professional development budget for all employees, plus a funded place on Big 8 leadership training.

Right to Work All applicants must have the right to work in the UK.

Use of AI in applications We recognise that artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT can be useful for applicants, for example to shorten an initial draft. We therefore do allow the use of AI in applications; however, we would caution applicants not to rely too much on AI in drafting answers to application questions. We want to hear your authentic voice, and we will be looking for answers that use examples and experiences that are specific to you. You are more likely to be able to produce that kind of content yourself than AI.

Safeguarding The Fair Education Alliance is committed to safeguarding all the children and young people we work and interact with. We take this responsibility seriously, with the focus being on their safety and welfare. As we are a small team, it is likely all our employees will have some interaction with children and young people we work with, whether at an event or through our youth engagement work and therefore all offers of employment are conditional on referencing and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and all employees are required to take part in regular safeguarding training. For more information, please refer to our Safeguarding Policy.

Given the responsibilities of this role the offer of employment will be conditional on a basic DBS check. You are required to declare any criminal convictions ahead of this DBS Check.

How to apply Please send a cover note and CV to recruitment@faireducation.org.uk with the subject line 'Application – Head of Policy Insights'. Your cover note should answer the following questions and be no longer than two A4 pages:

Why do you want to be part of the Fair Education Alliance team?
Give examples of how your skills and experience align with the job requirements.

We kindly ask you to complete our Equal Opportunities Form to make sure we can continue to be as fair and inclusive as possible. All responses are optional and anonymous.

Application deadline: 8am on 16 June

Candidates will be notified by the end of the day on 18 June as to whether they will be progressing to interview.

The recruitment process will take place in two rounds: • First-round interview: 24 or 25 June (online) • Second-round interviews: 2 July (at our office in Victoria, London)

The Fair Education Alliance 8-10 Grosvenor Gardens, London, SW1W 0DH

Fair Education Alliance is a registered charity (1188042) and company (11884952) in England and Wales

This position was originally posted by the Fair Education Alliance and has been curated by PurposePhil Career. To apply, please visit the original listing on the "apply" link below. We are not affiliated with the employer organization of this job ad or consultancy, and provide this curated listing as a service to our users.

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