Policy Researcher

Flexible within England & Wales

Job reference: 000823

Location: Flexible within England & Wales

Closing date: 16/11/2020

Salary: £28,967 plus £3,520 London Allowance (if applicable)

Employment type: Permanent

Department: Policy Team

Hours per week: 36.25

Interview date: Not specified

Contract Duration: Not specified

Citizens Advice offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in-person, for free. Through our national network of charities, we give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward whoever they are, and whatever their problem.

Were an organisation with a relentless focus on making society fairer. Each year we help millions of people to solve their problems across Great Britain. We have a unique insight into emerging trends and issues affecting those we help, and we use it to influence government, regulators, and industry to improve people's lives. Citizens Advice offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in-person, for free. Through our national network of charities, we give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward whoever they are, and whatever their problem. 

We particularly welcome applications from disabled and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME and disabled people are currently under-represented throughout Citizens Advice. We are a member of the race equality campaign at Business in the Community, the Princes responsible business network and are committed to improving employment opportunities for ethnic minorities across the UK. We also welcome applications from, LGB and Trans and non-binary candidates.

We have made a positive commitment to employing disabled people and guarantee to interview all disabled candidates who meet the minimum essential criteria for the role as set out in role profiles.

Where the role will be placed

The roles youre applying for are in the Advocacy and Advice directorate and in the Post and Telecoms, Energy and Families, Welfare and Work policy teams. 

The Post and Telecoms team is the statutory advocate for postal consumers. Our mission is to ensure that all consumers have access to secure, accessible and reliable postal services. We work to persuade the government, regulators and industry to take action where the market is failing to live up to these standards. A few topics weve worked on include providing safe and secure access to post for 7 million people, including homeless people and survivors of domestic abuse, improving treatment of disabled people getting deliveries and making the case for a telecoms advocate to give consumers a voice equal to industry.

The Energy team is the statutory advocate for consumers and microbusiness customers in the energy market. We carry out research and follow market trends and policy developments to identify issues that are affecting consumers. Based on this evidence, we advocate for the best possible consumer outcomes to the government, the energy regulator and energy companies. A few topics weve worked on include improving customer service and consumer support in essential services such as energy, lessons for net zero from energy efficiency schemes, improving engagement for microbusiness consumers, and producing tools to help consumers engage with the energy market.

The Families, Welfare and Work team works across a range of issues, including things such as the design and administration of Universal Credit, assessments for disability benefits, and rights and protections for people in work. We have seen a number of changes to improve peoples lives through our policy research, such as a reduction in the waiting time for somebodys first Universal Credit payment, and a commitment from all major parties to form a single enforcement body for workers rights. The Policy Research role within this team will also work on research projects to improve the delivery of our Help to Claim service.   

Youll use a wide range of research methods and create outputs including blogs, reports, presentations, and events. The data and insight we gather helping millions of people across the UK and our strong brand will give you unique opportunities to engage with those who have the power to make a change. You will feed into our work influencing parliamentarians, the civil service, regulators and industry and you will work closely with our world-class news, campaigns, public affairs, and data teams. 

We are looking for exceptional individuals with strong research, analytical and communication skills who have the curiosity and ambition to achieve real change on behalf of our clients and consumers. Our Policy Researchers will already be able to demonstrate experience of achieving an impact in a policy and/or research environment. 

Heres how you can find out more about us:  

Read some of our latest publications here 

Post policy research 

Energy policy research

Welfare policy research

Read our blogs

Beyond the job pack, 4 colleagues describe what its like to work at Citizens Advice

Whats it like to work on the policy research team at Citizens Advice? 

Want to write an amazing job application for Citizens Advice? Here are 5 tips for making your application stand out

We are always happy to consider flexible working, which may include arrangements such as part-time working, formalised flexitime, fixed (non-standard) working hours, working from home and job-sharing. Please leave this in as it relates to our flexible working policy.  All staff are currently working from home in response to the COVID pandemic.

When assessing applications, we make decisions based on the quality and relevance of the examples and evidence you provide for how you meet the person specification. You can read more guidance on how to complete our application form. You may wish to use the S.T.A.R. method when outlining how you meet our requirements:

Specific give a specific example

Task briefly describe the task/objective/problem

Action tell us what you did

Results describe what results were achieved

The national Citizens Advice operates from offices in England and Wales, with 5 regional offices based in Cardiff, London, Birmingham, Leeds, and Liverpool, therefore all successful applicants must be based within England or Wales.

Please note, in the event of a high number of applications we reserve the right to close the application early.