About the job

Job summary

CCW is the passionate independent voice, representing water consumers in England & Wales. We support thousands of people each year, providing free advice and support helping people to resolve their complaints with their water company in an easy, caring way. We champion everyone’s needs and interests, completing and showcasing research that influences water companies, government, and the regulator to make change happen.

Our values:

We expect and support all CCW colleagues to embody and celebrate CCW’s values through Positive Energy, Respect for all, Innovative spirit, Delivery of our promises and being Engaged as one (PRIDE).

What you’ll be doing

Reporting into the Head of Company Engagement you will be assigned water companies to be the first point of contact for as your primary focus. You'll be the go-to person within our organisation for these companies, leading the day-to-day engagement. You will be responsible for identifying risks and opportunities for consumer support and advocacy, delivering our mission of ensuring people are well-informed, treated fairly and have confidence in their water services.

You will lead on an area of policy, becoming our expert on a particular subject. You’ll keep your colleagues up to date on developments in your area, as well as looking for opportunities to make changes that benefit all consumers in England and Wales. In terms of influencing the agenda, you'll collaborate with partner organisations on shared policy projects, contribute to consultation responses, and offer insights into key decision-making processes.

You will use your insight to support, develop, and deliver our work programmes and campaigns. Campaigning forms another significant responsibility where you will be expected to propose and contribute to the development of new campaigns, utilising evidence, and expertise to spearhead impactful initiatives.

Communication plays a vital role, necessitating regular engagement with internal stakeholders, including senior leadership and broader teams. Additionally, external engagement with entities such as water companies and consumer bodies are crucial for effective collaboration and advocacy.

Job description

Key Duties & Accountabilities:

Leading company engagement

Policy managers will have a company / companies assigned to them. They will be the first point of contact within CCW for the company / companies on a day-to-day basis. They will be expected to:

• Confidently deal with company staff at all levels, through building constructive working relationships.
• Lead regular company interactions. Be the main liaison point for information exchange (formal and informal) between CCW and companies.
• Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of company policies, operations, and performance.
• Provide challenge to company performance, policies, and practices to influence and secure positive change for consumers.
• Escalate and document company issues following the agreed processes and timescales.
• Have excellent relationships with their company counterpart in Consumer Relations Team and ensure both sides are up to date with relevant information.
• Influence the price review throughout the development of company business plans, providing robust analysis of Ofwat’s determination for their allocated companies.

 

 

 

Policy Development and Implementation

The post holder will lead on at least one policy area. The post holder will understand the current policy landscape for their area(s) and ensure that CCW has policies that are up-to-date and promote consumers’ best interests. In addition, they will:

• Support the development and delivery of CCW’s Forward Work Programme commitments.
• Use evidence gathered from companies, and CCW research to input into CCW’s policy development to ensure our positions reflect current challenges.
• Provide leadership and strategic input in all matters relating to their lead policy area(s), and positively contribute to wider policy development.
• Provide relevant policy input into the price review in order to influence company business plans and provide robust analysis of Ofwat’s determinations relating to their lead policy areas.
• Ensure that the Policy Handbook is kept up to date on a continuous basis, and both the Work Progress Report and the Policy Managers notes are updated to a high standard on a monthly basis.

Influencing the agenda

• Work with partner organisations on policy projects of mutual benefit.
• Deliver consultation responses from allocated water companies and related to policy areas of responsibility.
• Write relevant Executive Team / Board papers on areas of responsibility, where key decisions require sign off.
• Identify and share best practice both externally and internally.
• Respond to requests for expert briefing and information from senior internal and external stakeholders (e.g. Executive or Defra) as required.
• Contribute to messages for all media activity for lead areas of work, speaking at conferences and to the media on relevant policy or company issues.
• Be an active and effective member of the Policy and Research Team, contributing to all discussions/decisions; taking the lead in matters relating to their company and policy area.

Campaigning

• Proposing and helping to develop new campaigns through applying evidence from water companies, policy knowledge and the experience of companies and water consumers.
• Contributing to the delivery phase of campaigns, taking the lead in relevant areas.

 

External Stakeholders

• Establish and maintain productive working relationships, developing partnerships and joint working as necessary.
• Represent CCW in meetings, on panels and at conferences.

Actively promote and embed Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work. Support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies, and procedures on EDI.

Carry out other duties within the scope of the role as required by the Head of Company Engagement/ Head of Business Customers/Head of Policy Delivery.

Management of Resources:

Financial Resources (budgets for which the jobholder is responsible)

• This post would have no direct research or consultancy budget.

Human Resources (staff for whom the jobholder is directly responsible)

• This post would have no formal line management responsibilities.

Equipment

• Laptop/tablet
• Mobile phone

Contacts and Communication:

(indicate significant others, both internal and external, giving reason for the contact)

1. Internal

• Daily contact with Head of Company Engagement / Head of Business Customers/ Head of Policy Delivery
• Frequent contact with wider Senior Policy Leaders
• Frequent contact with the Director of Policy, Research and Campaigning
• Frequent contact with wider Policy and Research team
• Some contact with wider Executive team members and their teams
• Regular contact with wider staff especially Consumer Relations staff

1. External

• Regular contact with water companies
• Regular contact with other consumer bodies and NGOs.
• Appearances at conferences and on national / local media

Person specification

As a Policy Manager, you will be able to demonstrate:

• • Policy development skills

  • Leadership and Strategic Input on lead policy areas

  • Price review input to influence company business plans.

  • Influencing agenda

  • Stakeholder engagement

  • Collaboration with partner organizations on mutually beneficial policy projects

• Campaign management.

• Experience and knowledge of regulated environments

• Ability to represent CCW effectively with external stakeholders.

• Willingness to travel around England and Wales

• Flexibility to work occasionally outside normal office hours.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,250, Consumer Council for Water contributes £9,517 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This recruitment is being managed by our recruitment partners, Greenbean. For full details of how to apply please go to 

Policy Manager · greenbean (greenbeanrpo.com)

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.