Policy Officer – European Social Network (ESN)

ESN is the European network of senior management in public social services, bringing together over 110 national, regional, and local organisations in 34 European countries to promote the development of effective social policy and social care practice through the exchange of knowledge and expertise.

ESN has been supported by the European Commission under the PROGRESS programme (2007-2013). This agreement was renewed for 4 years (2014-17) under the European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI).

As a unique network, ESN contributes to European policy-making in social policy and support its members to improve the quality of social services.

Job description

ESN is recruiting a Policy Officer to join the policy team at their secretariat in Brighton (UK). The right candidate will have enthusiasm, professional experience and be knowledgeable about European Union policy and institutions. S/he should have research skills, sensitivity to and willingness to learn about social work. S/he should have knowledge of health and social policy, ideally long-term care and issues around older people’s services, including healthy and active ageing, prevention and rehabilitation. S/he may have worked for a membership based-organisation, public administration or third sector organisations in Brussels or elsewhere and may have knowledge of ageing and care policies.

As an ESN’s Policy Officer, you would:

• Work with ESN members (senior service managers and social work professionals) in working groups, workshops and seminars to facilitate policy, research and practice exchange; for instance, in the field of ageing and care.
• Provide intelligence to members on aspects of EU policy and current social work and care policy and practice.
• Work with the policy team to formulate and communicate key messages to EU policy-makers.
• Build good working relationships with members and help grow the membership of ESN
• Develop good working relationships with external stakeholders (EU institutions, international organisations, EU-level associations, national governments, researchers).
• Represent ESN at external meetings and conferences on policy areas in your portfolio
• Undertake training commensurate with the post’s responsibilities.
• Support other members of the policy team in their work.

Person Specification

ESN is looking for someone who has:

• Knowledge of EU policy-making and institutions
• Knowledge of social and health policy; including long-term care and ageing and care policies
• Ability to learn quickly, notably about the social work and care sector, ESN members priorities and EU policy, practice and research agenda in the field of social policy
• Sensitivity to the values of social work and care
• A University graduate in European policy, public policy, social policy, health policy or similar
• Excellent analytical skills to identify key messages from exchange and learning with members
• Strong research skills to collate and analyse data and research from across Europe in order to support and build ESN policy messages
• Ability to manage a varied workload of different tasks and projects within deadlines
• Imagination and ideas to contribute to the strategic development of ESN in terms of policy, practice and research priorities, new ways of working and membership growth.
• Ability to build strong working relationships with ESN members and EU stakeholders and sensitive to cultural differences across Europe.
• Strong interpersonal skills for team work and autonomy in driving forward own work
• Excellent written and oral English (ESN’s working language)
• Fluency in at least one other European language

Salary and Conditions: Gross salary would be on a scale starting at £25,000-28,000 (approx. 34,500-38,000€). Salary on appointment would depend on experience and would rise in line with performance. There is a portable stakeholder pension scheme. Holiday allowance is 21 days on a pro-rata basis and would rise with experience. We support staff in their professional development and provide regular performance review with opportunities for further training in line with responsibilities.

Location: Brighton, UK

Application deadline: 7 October 2015

Read more and apply here.