About us

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is the regulator of equality and human rights for Great Britain. We are Great Britain’s national equality body and a United Nations accredited National Human Rights Institution. We were established by the Equality Act 2006 and our job is to protect and promote equality and human rights across England, Scotland and Wales. We do this by safeguarding and enforcing the laws that protect people’s rights to fairness, dignity and respect.

Britain has a strong reputation as a global leader in equality and human rights and we are committed to ensuring this continues into the future. We are ambitious to achieve maximum impact with the powers and levers available to us to bring about change in society and make a difference to individual’s lives.

As a statutory non-departmental public body, we are funded by HM Treasury via the Cabinet Office, but we operate independently of governments.

We pride ourselves on being a flexible and inclusive employer. We celebrate difference, embrace diversity and support all our people to thrive at work. If this sounds interesting - apply to join us!

Our Vacancy

We are currently seeking applications from exceptional people to join our Policy team. We currently have one vacancy, but are seeking to build a pipeline of successful candidates so that if roles arise in the future, we can come straight to you. Read more about this in the Reserve List section of the candidate pack.

The Policy team drives high-impact engagement with the UK Government and Parliament across our strategic priorities. We provide expert advice to Government and Parliament on the equality and human rights implications of laws and proposed laws and policy. This includes engaging with Government consultations and parliamentary processes, preparing briefings for debates and providing evidence to select committees. The Policy team works closely with the Commission’s Stakeholder Engagement and Communications teams to ensure our external profile is coherent and effective, and supports engagement with Government to maximise the impact of our Compliance, Human Rights Monitoring, and Enforcement work.

Key Responsibilities

Senior Associates support the development of strategies to achieve our aims, deliver key projects, engage our stakeholders including in Government and Parliament, and prepare high quality advice and briefings for Government and Parliament. The current roles will be working on our strategic aim to protect the rights of people in detention and other institutional settings. We are currently in the final year of our 2019-22 Strategic Plan and the successful candidate would move to a different policy area from April 2022 under our forthcoming plan for 2022-25. While our policy team is asked to work on a range of policy matters of relevance to our strategic plan and we welcome applicants of all policy backgrounds, the current vacant post is likely to focus on upholding rights and equality in health and social care.

You will focus on:

• Developing and maintaining expert knowledge of a number of policy areas to inform the work of the Commission

• Developing and agreeing policy positions and preparing submissions to advise Government and Parliament and achieve progress in line with our strategic aims.

• Working with colleagues across the Commission and engaging our external stakeholders to develop our plans and achieve our strategic aims

*Please note - this an overview of the role and is not exhaustive list of the all the great things you will be involved in.

What we are looking for

You will be assessed against our core skills of leadership, stakeholder engagement, and delivery management, and the knowledge, skills and experience required for the role. Please provide evidence and examples from your work history or other aspects of your life to demonstrate how you meet the criteria required - as outlined in the Knowledge Skills and Experience and Grade Profile at the bottom of the advert.

At application, we will ask you 5 core skills questions and these questions only will be used to help us decide whether to invite you to the next stage of the process. Please note that if there is a high volume of applicants, an initial sift may take place on the core skills of leadership and professional experience. If this takes place this means the recruiting panel will only screen the outlined core skill questions and you may not receive full feedback on your application.

Important Information

We are trialling hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their EHRC office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for this role or for yourself, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.

Benefits

In addition to a competitive salary, we offer a range of benefits including flexible working patterns, 30 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays (full time FTE), access to the Civil Service Pension Scheme and partnership pension schemes, and enhanced parental leave benefits. More information can be found in the candidate pack.

How to apply

If this sounds like the role for you, please review the attached Candidate Pack for more information and submit your application today!

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an accredited Disability Confident Leader and operates a Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS) for candidates with a disability.

Should you wish to apply under our Guaranteed Interview Scheme or request a reasonable adjustment, please indicate this in your application.  

If you require an alternative accessible version of the application form or wish to discuss your application or reasonable adjustment  – please contact us by email at recruitment@equalityhumanrights.com or by telephone on 0161 829 8100.

Diversity in our workforce

At the Commission, we are proud of our inclusive workplace where we celebrate difference, value everyone’s contribution and where people of all backgrounds can thrive.  We do not accept discrimination or harassment, and all our recruitment decisions are based on fair and open competition, with appointment on merit. We are committed to further growing our workplace by making sure that the talent pipelines for our most senior roles are as diverse and inclusive as they can be. We welcome applications from everyone and encourage disabled people and people from an ethnic minority background to apply. This is to ensure we are taking positive action in order to achieve our legitimate aim of a balanced representation in our workforce at senior grades.