Jobs

Child Poverty Action Group works on behalf of the more than one in four children in the UK growing up in poverty. It doesn’t have to be like this. We use our understanding of what causes poverty and the impact it has on children’s lives to campaign for policies that will prevent and solve poverty – for good.

We’re looking for motivated people with expert knowledge, experience and talent dedicated to helping us make our mission a reality; to prevent and end child poverty in the UK. 

Our working culture

CPAG have been an accredited Living Wage employer since 2012. The real Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to the costs of living. It provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that wish to ensure their staff earn a wage they can live on, not just the government minimum. Since 2011 the Living Wage movement has delivered a pay rise to over 460,000 people and put £3 billion extra into the pockets of low paid workers.

We understand that people have different needs and aim to support our team so that they are able to manage work and home responsibilities effectively. Enabling our team to balance work and their personal life in ways that benefit everyone is in line with our values and enables people to contribute to their best ability. We regard flexible working as important and we try to accommodate flexible working practices where possible and practical. Many of our staff work flexibly in many different ways, including part-time and requests can be made from day one. This means we would be happy to discuss alternative working hours, days and patterns, and any additional needs or requirements.

Our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion

Everyone has the right to be treated with fairness, dignity and respect and to live free from discrimination. We recognise there is an organisational responsibility to tackle inequality and encourage diversity in respect of both the work we undertake and the people we employ and also that every employee of the organisation has personal responsibility to abide by and promote the policy.

CPAG recognises that discrimination can occur and will promote anti-discriminatory practices for people who may be discriminated against on grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, belief, gender, class, HIV & AIDS, age, disability, marital status, pregnancy, people who are gay, lesbian or transgender, people who have dependents or people who are using mental health services. 

We are proud to be an organisation that is not afraid to point out injustice and inequality and have policies in place that recognise the importance of equality and diversity. However, we know as an organisation that there is always room for improvement. We acknowledge the problem with racial diversity within the charity sector and we are committed to taking action to change this. In trying to achieve social change, greater fairness and equality, we must also hold ourselves to account. We want to build a diverse group of talented people working towards our shared vision. 

To this end we have set up an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) group to advise on and help lead this work. Championed by our Board and leadership, we aim for EDI to be embedded throughout our organisation and strategy. We are committed to making change where it is needed and look forward to being part of a sector that prioritises diversity and equality.

We are prepared to invest resource, to where possible recruit for potential rather than seek perfection and recognise the need for a better understanding of racial and other biases in order to reflect the communities we work in. We continue to value the insights brought to the organisation through lived experience. CPAG needs to be a safe place to work, to challenge and feel safe to have uncomfortable conversations.

Fair Work First statement of commitment

Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) welcomes the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First commitment. Ensuring access to high quality fair work, especially for parents and carers, is critical to our goal of ending child poverty. Much of CPAG policy and practice already aligns with Fair Work First. There is a recognised trade union that staff are encouraged to join. All staff have a personal development plan agreed with their manager, and the organisation budgets to support training and development needs. There is no inappropriate use of zero hours contracts and all staff are paid above the real Living Wage.

CPAG has an organisational responsibility to tackle inequality and encourage diversity in both the work it undertakes and the people it employs. We have undertaken an audit to support our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and are implementing an action plan which includes provision of staff training. We have an internal EDI group in place to support this work which works closely with staff and union representatives.

We offer flexible and family friendly working practices for all staff from day one of their employment including a ‘core hours’ and flexi/TOIL (Time Off In Lieu) working hours policy, shared parental leave, additional unpaid parental leave and paid leave for staff members who have to care for a dependant. Staff may also work from home on a hybrid basis provided there is a working from home agreement in place.
We oppose the use of fire and rehire practice.

CPAG is committed to ensuring our policies and practice align with Fair Work First principles. This statement of commitment has been developed in agreement with the workforce through the trade union representative.

Application form

Please ensure you complete the whole application form so you can demonstrate the skills and competencies needed for the role, the job description gives you more information about these. When completing the personal statement, please be sure to address all of the points in the person specification, clearly and concisely. You may find it useful to use each point as a heading to make it clear to the shortlisters which point you are addressing. 

When you have completed the application form, we would be grateful if you complete our recruitment monitoring form to allow us to monitor our recruitment procedures. The form will not be used as part of the selection process. 

Interviews

Hiring managers will shortlist applicants for the role once the closing date has passed. We will email to let you know whether or not we’d like to invite you for an interview shortly after the closing date. We’re sorry, but due to the volume of applications we receive, we can’t give individual feedback to candidates not invited to interview.

If you’re invited to interview we will send you details of the location and anything you might need to prepare for. Interviews are held by a panel, and you may be asked to prepare a short presentation or take part in a work related task. Interviews will be held face to face in our London or Glasgow office (depending on the location of the role) and will try to offer video interviews if you are unable to attend in person. We can also make arrangements for reasonable adjustments to be made so that you can take part in the interview process. 

Job offers

If we offer you a job, we will check your:

• proof of eligibility to work in the UK (we don’t support sponsorship requests)
• references

Some roles are also subject to:

• a criminal records check
• verification of your registration with relevant professional bodies

Please note that carrying out these checks may take some time, but we cannot offer you a start date until they are complete.