The coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on the lives of disabled people across the UK, exacerbating existing barriers and making life harder. At this extraordinary time, it is vital for Scope to have a strong programme of political influencing in Westminster.
We are looking for a bright and confident individual with a very good understanding of British politics to join its busy team as a Lead Political Advisor. We need someone who understands how to influence government and political stakeholders. The right candidate will play a key role securing policy changes that will make a genuine difference to the UK’s 14 million disabled people.
The Lead Political Advisor position would be suitable for someone with experience working in public affairs, in either an in-house or agency setting, and/or with parliamentary experience. The right candidate will be motivated by the opportunity to use their political expertise to make society fairer for disabled people.
Full job description
About the role
As the Lead Political Advisor, you will be responsible helping to develop and deliver political influencing strategies across a number of Scope’s policy areas to ensure the voice of disabled people is heard by political decision makers.
You will work closely with colleagues in the policy and campaigns teams to identify opportunities for influencing, as well as delivering timely and accurate responses to political consultations and inquiries and providing input to policy documents. You will also provide political insight and briefings to internal stakeholders, highlighting the political opportunities and risks for Scope.
As an effective communicator, you will brief and accompany colleagues at meetings with political contacts and strategic partners. You will also be responsible for ensuring Scope maintains positive relationships with our external political stakeholders.
About you
You’ll need to have a strong understanding of UK politics and have a solid grounding in parliamentary procedure and a demonstrable interest in political news. We are looking for someone with experience at developing and implementing political influencing strategies, with a knowledge of various influencing tactics.
Representing Scope externally is an important part of the role, and you will need to be personally persuasive and adept at explaining complex policy issues to political audiences.
Disabled candidates
Equality and inclusion are at the heart of our mission and we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace.
We particularly welcome applications from disabled people, and guarantee interviews to disabled applicants who meet the minimum job criteria. Please let us know in your application if you are applying under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme.
If you would prefer an application form or need any of the job information in a different format such as large print or braille. Please email recruitment@scope.org.uk.