Public Affairs & Statutory Partnerships Manager

About Bloomsbury Football Foundation In 2018, Bloomsbury Football Foundation started with four kids and a bag of footballs on a housing estate in Camden. Today, we reach over 7,000 children and young people every week across London and we're just getting started.
We exist because not every child grows up with the same opportunities to play, belong, and progress. Too many young people are locked out of the game by cost, circumstance, or geography. We're changing that and using football, the world's most popular sport, as a powerful vehicle for health, wellbeing, and social change. It's not about producing stars. It's about shaping better futures.

In just a few years, our income has grown from £1m to over £5m. We're now expanding beyond London into areas of deprivation across the country, with ambitions to reach over 40,000 young people every week by 2031. No other sport-for-good charity in the UK has achieved scale at this level. We intend to be the first.

To get there, we need people who believe what we believe that football has the unique power to change lives. Forward, together.

Our commitment to inclusion At Bloomsbury, belonging isn't just something we create for the young people we serve it's something we live as an organisation and is embedded into core values. We are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we work in, and we actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and identities.

We particularly welcome applications from women and people from underrepresented groups, who remain underrepresented in both the sport and charity sectors. We know that the best idea wins regardless of who it comes from, and we are proud to be building an organisation where everyone has a place to play, belong, and progress.

About the role We are creating a public affairs function at Bloomsbury Football Foundation, and we are looking for the person to build and lead it. You will own our relationship with government and the wider statutory world at the moment it matters most: as we scale from a London charity into a national one, growing towards 40,000 young people a week across five cities by 2030.

The rationale is straightforward. Government is the largest single institutional funder of charities in the UK, and that funding concentrates overwhelmingly in larger organisations, the £10m-plus band Bloomsbury is heading towards. It flows through many channels: open grant rounds, but also commissioned contracts and tenders run by councils, the NHS and national programmes, and the funds of regulatory and quasi-governmental bodies. And the challenges we address, from inactivity and poor mental health to youth violence and social mobility, are among the biggest this country faces, which is why what we do commands serious political attention. Your job is to convert that into income: to build the relationships, shape the propositions, and win the funding that takes our work national.

This is a commercial target as much as a political one. By 2030, at national scale, we want statutory sources to make up 25-30% of our revenue, in the region of £6-7m a year. You would own that goal.

Crucially, you would not do it from a proposition we wait to be asked for. Much of this role is proactive: creating compelling, fundable propositions and taking them to ministers, officials and commissioners, not only being front of mind when an application window opens. It also runs well beyond the point of award: you would own many of our statutory funder relationships for the long term, through reporting and stewardship, roundtables and events, and bringing officials and ministers to see our delivery on the ground.

One of the things that makes this role rare is the platform behind it. Bloomsbury has strong links into 10 Downing Street and some of the most senior people in government, access very few charities of our size can offer. You would be building on existing relationships, not starting cold.

The role sits within our fundraising team, led by our Director of Fundraising, alongside colleagues in trusts and foundations, corporate partnerships, philanthropy, events and fundraising operations. It is not a silo. The same people and institutions move between these worlds: major philanthropists back political parties and attend the same roundtables; large institutional grant-makers increasingly co-fund with government or take a funder-plus approach that includes political engagement. So this role both feeds and benefits from the wider pipeline. You would work particularly closely with our Senior Trusts Lead, who is already involved in our public affairs work and will remain a key collaborator, and with our fundraising operations colleagues to build a systematised sales funnel across statutory and institutional income.

About you — what we're looking for
You are a serious operator in the political world, with the network, the judgement and the instinct for opportunity that only real experience brings. But you are more than a skilled political operator: you are commercially minded, a first-rate relationship-builder and closer who is energised by the pursuit of significant income and holds yourself accountable for the numbers. You are equally comfortable holding a conversation with a minister and writing a winning seven-figure bid. You are also a warm and popular presence inside a team, not only outside it, the kind of colleague others want to work with and bring into the room. You are ambitious, for your own career and for what Bloomsbury can become, and you are excited by the rare chance to build a function that will be critical to the charity's growth and, ultimately, the life chances of tens of thousands of young people.

Key Responsibilities

RELATIONSHIPS AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT
- Build and maintain Bloomsbury's relationships across the statutory ecosystem: government departments, ministers and their offices, Parliament, the civil service, local authorities, and the regulatory and quasi-governmental bodies that fund and shape our work, so we are known and trusted where decisions are made.
- Engage across the political spectrum on a strictly cross-party, apolitical basis, working with whoever is in government and building relationships that outlast any single administration.
- Network relentlessly on Bloomsbury's behalf, representing the charity with credibility and warmth to the most senior political and official audiences.
- Track the policy landscape across youth, sport, community, education and social mobility, spotting opportunities and risks early and briefing leadership on what matters and why.
- Represent Bloomsbury at political events, party conferences, roundtables and sector forums, and create opportunities for our CEO and leadership to do the same.
WINNING STATUTORY INCOME
- Own our pipeline of government and statutory funding, from horizon-scanning to award, across grants, commissioned contracts and competitive tenders.
- Create proactive, fundable propositions to take to ministers, officials and commissioners, rather than waiting for open application rounds.
- Lead the writing of bids and tenders to an exceptional standard: evidence-led, commercially sharp, and competitive with the best in the sector.
- Develop and contribute to consortia and partnership bids, working with councils, other charities and local partners, as this is increasingly the route to the largest funds.
- Oversee relationships and grants with quasi-governmental and regulatory funders such as the Youth Endowment Fund, Sport England and FIFA.
- Work closely with the programmes and finance teams to ensure every bid is deliverable as well as fundable, and that Bloomsbury is bid-ready when major rounds open.
STEWARDSHIP, PROFILE AND LEADERSHIP
- Own statutory funder relationships after the award: reporting, stewardship, roundtables, events, and bringing officials and ministers to see delivery on the ground.
- Work with our marketing and communications team to build Bloomsbury's political profile, securing the right PR, coverage and presence to support our funding and influence goals.
- Work with fundraising operations colleagues to build a systematised sales funnel across statutory and institutional income.
- Turn our impact evidence into a compelling political narrative that lands with policymakers and funders.
- Lead Bloomsbury's public affairs function from the outset, shaping its strategy and priorities, and building a team beneath you as we scale.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA
- Significant experience in the political world: a minimum of five years across government, Parliament, a political party, public affairs, policy or a closely related field
- A strong, active network across the statutory ecosystem, and a proven ability to build new relationships at senior level
- A track record of securing statutory, political or institutional income, through grants, commissioned contracts or competitive tenders, or of writing high-quality, winning bids
- A commercial, target-driven mindset, with the drive and appetite to bring in significant income
- Excellent written communication, with the ability to turn evidence into a persuasive political and funding narrative
- Sound political judgement and discretion, with the maturity to represent the organisation credibly at the most senior levels, and the ability to work on a strictly cross-party, apolitical basis
- A proactive, ownership mindset: you build things, take initiative, and follow through without being chased
- The ability to stay sharp and effective across many priorities in a fast-paced, growing organisation
- Strong alignment with BFF's values and a genuine belief in football as a tool for social impact
- Eligibility to live and work in the UK

DESIRABLE CRITERIA
- Direct experience of the youth, sport, education or social mobility policy landscape
- Experience of government commissioning, contracts and tenders, from either side of the table
- Experience developing or leading consortia and partnership bids
- Experience building or leading a public affairs or policy function, rather than only operating within one
- An existing network within relevant government departments, select committees, arms-length bodies or funders such as the Youth Endowment Fund
- Experience line-managing or growing a team

Benefits

- Modern office at Camden Market with free gym membership and local market discounts
- Opportunities to attend Premier League, WSL, FA Cup, League Cup, and Champions League matches
- Cycle to work scheme
- Salary sacrifice workplace pension scheme
- 24 days holiday, rising by one day per year after two years
- Funded training and five days of fully paid study leave
- Cycle to work scheme and workplace pension
- Regular staff socials & monthly 'Team Talk' with pop-up catering
- The chance to grow within a mission-driven organisation doing work that genuinely matters