Head of Public Affairs

Do you have experience of developing and delivering public affairs, government relations or political influencing strategies? Could you identify and act on political opportunities to help generate greater urgency and political prioritisation for dementia?

We are currently recruiting for a Head of Public Affairs, to join on a permanent contract, working full-time, 35 hours per week. This is a remote, home-based role, which may require you to travel to London on a monthly basis for conferences, events and in-person stakeholder or team meetings.

As the Head of Public Affairs, you will play a key role in Alzheimer’s Society’s political engagement across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Your aim will be to secure greater urgency, ambition and sustained political prioritisation for dementia, ensuring our evidence, policy positions and the experiences of people affected by dementia lead to decisions that improve diagnosis, treatment, care and support.

This is a senior, outward-facing leadership role operating in fast-moving and often uncertain political environments. Therefore, you will need to anticipate change, identify the moments when progress is possible and rapidly adapt strategy, messages and resources.

You will work collaboratively with other senior colleagues to set the public affairs strategy, establish clear political outcomes and lead a high-performing team to deliver them. You will judge where power and influence sit, build trusted relationships with senior political and system leaders, convene coalitions and use parliamentary, governmental, media and campaigning routes to accelerate change.

Your work will ensure our influencing is grounded in robust evidence and lived experience, politically astute, responsive to external change and focused on impact rather than activity.

Interviews for this role have been provisionally scheduled to take place via MS Teams on Friday 30^th October.

About you

Joining us you’ll have substantial senior-level experience of developing and delivering public affairs, government relations or political influencing strategies. You’ll be able to build credibility and influence senior stakeholders, including politicians, advisers, civil servants, health and care leaders, and sector partners.

To be successful in this role you’ll have a good track record of translating evidence, policy priorities and lived experience into compelling influencing strategies, political propositions and engagement plans. You’ll also be able use good political judgement and strategic prioritisation to identify a political opportunity or emerging trend and adapt strategy effectively.

Crucially, you’ll be an effective leader, with the ability to drive delivery and develop and motivate high-performing teams. You’ll be a good communicator with the ability to build positive, collaborative relationships with teams and stakeholders across the organisation.

What you’ll focus on:

• Leading and developing a team of managers, officers and assistants, fostering a culture of high support, high challenge, pace, sound judgement and continuous learning.
• Delivering an ambitious public affairs strategy across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with clear political objectives, choices, audiences and measures of impact.
• Driving greater urgency and political prioritisation for dementia, making the case for dementia as a health and care priority and securing visible, sustained commitment from decision-makers.
• Identifying and acting on political opportunities across the three nations, tailoring approaches to their different institutions, policy landscapes, parliamentary processes and political cultures.
• Ensuring the organisation is prepared for elections, changes of government or leadership, fiscal events, legislative programmes, consultations and other significant political moments across all three nations.
• Positioning Alzheimer’s Society as a leading, authoritative and solutions-focused voice on dementia, using evidence, lived experience and policy expertise to shape political debate.
• Representing our priorities through speeches, events, professional networks and media activity, and support senior spokespeople to engage effectively with political audiences.

Dementia is the UK's biggest killer. One in three people born in the UK today will develop dementia in their lifetime.

At Alzheimer's Society, we're the UK's leading dementia charity and the only one to tackle all aspects of dementia by giving help and hope to people living with dementia today and in the future. We give vital support to people facing the most frightening times of their lives, while also funding groundbreaking research and campaigning to make dementia the priority it should be.

Together with our supporters, we're working towards a world where dementia no longer devastates lives.

Our values make sure that our focus is clear for the challenges and opportunities ahead and remind us of what we all stand for.

Our commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging

We need to ensure the voices around our table better reflect and understand the communities we exist to serve. We strongly encourage individuals to apply who have a disability, impairment or health condition or individuals who identify as Black, Asian or from another minority ethnic background, as these groups are currently under-represented at Alzheimer's Society.  

We want everyone we work with, as a colleague, volunteer, supporter, or someone we support, to feel included and that they belong at Alzheimer's Society. 

Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy here along with our internal employee forum and Employee Lived Experience network groups help us promote inclusion and belonging, becoming an engaged and inclusive organisation for all our people. 

Our hiring process

During your recruitment process we want to make sure that you bring your whole self and can be at your best. We are working hard to ensure our recruitment process is as inclusive as possible, so please do inform us of your experience and anything you think we could do better by completing our candidate survey when you apply.  Please also contact Alzheimer's Society Talent Acquisition Team via [email protected] for application support or any adjustments you might need.

To ensure fairness and consistency to select the best candidate for this role, all our applications are anonymised up until an interview has been confirmed. We recognise the benefits of AI, but if you're considering using it to submit your application, we encourage you to reflect on the value it truly adds. AI tools often lack the personal touch and authenticity that set candidates apart. We want to hear your unique perspective, experiences, and skills, so we encourage you to showcase them in your own voice.

We try to avoid closing roles early where possible, however if we receive a high volume of applications, we may close earlier than the advertised closing date. Should this occur, we will aim to provide you with at least 48 hours' notice.

We are committed to safer recruitment and ensuring the welfare of those we work with, due to the nature of some of our roles, we might need to carry out a Criminal Record Check at the relevant level. You can read more information via our Website.

Giving back to you

Our employees work hard every day to make a true difference in people's lives. We are proud to support them with a range of benefits, recognition and many options for working agilely, all contributing to a strong work life balance. We also have various learning programmes to support you in your development and help you grow to realise your potential and shape a career with Alzheimer's Society. 

You can also visit our Working for Us pages, which give you more information about what it's like to be an employee at the Society.

INDAZ