The Health Foundation
Policy Manager
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Policy Manager
Policy Manager (Maternity Cover)
Date posted: Thursday 2 June 2026 Salary: £60,697 per annum plus excellent benefits Contract type: 12 months, full-time Hours: 37.5 hours per week (minimum two days in person per week, hybrid policy applies) Abundant availability for work beyond standard hours
About The Health Foundation
Health is humanity’s most precious asset. It unlocks happy, fulfilling lives, drives prosperity and strengthens society. Yet, good health remains inaccessible for too many people in the UK. Our mission is to create a healthier United Kingdom through:
- High-quality research and analysis
- Practical solutions to challenges in health and care
- Strategic coalitions to shape understanding and action
- Long-term growth of capabilities transforming health and care
We operate across four core values: impact, evidence, integrity, and collaboration. A dynamic strategy guides these priorities while a strong EDI commitment ensures our organisation reflects the communities we serve.
The Role
The Health and Inequalities Directorate focuses on embedding health and inequality analysis into decision-making. By 2030, we aim for three transformative outcomes:
- Systemic cross-sector action and policy change: Secure a unified government approach to health
- Improved prevention strategies: Aligned at national, regional, and local levels
- Enhanced preventative measures: Embedded to build healthier working-age populations and economic security
The Supporting the Delivery System Unit is central to these aspirations. It builds capability in regional/local systems to enact meaningful health improvements while generating actionable learnings for wider Foundation work.
As Policy Manager, you will work at a critical juncture for regional leadership in England. Strategic Authorities are seizing fresh powers, including a mandatory health duty, creating unparalleled opportunities to advance public health. The Foundation is collaborating with regionally minded leaders to intensify their health efforts through strategic programmes, toolkits, and cross-sectoral integration. Key areas of focus include prevention, neighbourhood health approaches, and place-based leadership.
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Your role bridges policy, practical evidence, and systemic implementation—crafting sustainable practical support for local systems while advancing the Foundation's policy ambitions.
Core Responsibilities
- Content Leadership: Produce targeted blogs, reports, and concise briefings that embody the Foundation’s expert views into actionable frameworks for regional and local teams.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Cultivate enduring partnerships with local authorities, strategic colleagues, central stakeholders, community groups, and policymakers, ensuring collaboration maximises influence.
- Funding & Programme Design: Develop, oversee, and evaluate funding initiatives that build capability and widen learnings, ensuring they meet critical needs while deliverable in real-world settings.
- Learning & Influence Dissemination: Share programme insights across the Foundation’s network, spurring new initiatives and influencing national policymaking.
- External Advocacy & Events: Organise and co-host webinars, newsletters, workshops, and advisory groups to disseminate research and foster knowledge exchange.
- Policy Opportunity Scouting: Actively anticipate new evidence-informed allocations and propose programmes that deepen prevention efforts, neighbourhood-centric models, and devolution strategies.
- Devolution & Authority Support: Contribute to the Foundation’s evolving role within government devolution reforms.
- Policy Development & Advocacy: Contribute to key publications, consultations, and broader influencing strategies with a focus on health prevention and inequities.
- Monitoring Strategy Shifts: Track and react to changes in local government devolution, prevention agendas, and inequality policies at every governance level.
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Selection Criteria: Key Questions
Answer briefly on the following:
- Motivation: Why does this opportunity resonate with your skills, and how might your experience directly influence the Foundation’s objectives of improving regional/local health delivery and reducing systemic disparities?
- Evidence-to-Practice: Share an example where you streamlined complex research, data, or policy insights into accessible tools or guidelines for a defined audience. How did you prioritise core messaging, refine the communication route, and measure tangible outcomes?
- Stakeholder Relations: Outline a moment when you built unanimous stakeholders behind a shared vision. How did you establish trust among diverse partners and synergise their priorities to achieve real progress?
- Project Management: Describe a multi-threaded initiative or programme you led. How did you integrate timelines and stakeholder needs while addressing challenges? What were the definitive results?
Our Commitment to Equality, Inclusion & Diversity
We seek to attract the most outstanding talent from all backgrounds while proactively reducing gaps represented in health leadership. To maximise diversity and innovation, we especially welcome applicants who identify as:
- Women in senior management
- Black and ethnic minority groups
- Individuals with disabilities
This position is aligned with our overarching goal to better reflect the demographics of the individuals and communities we serve.
Application deadline: Wednesday 15 July 2026, 23:59 BST
Interviews: Wednesday 22 July 2026
Contact for inclusion/support inquiries: [insert contact details]
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