Policy Manager - Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation Expert

Please note that this role will close at 00:01 on Monday 20th January and therefore we advise getting your application in no late than midnight on Sunday 19th January.

About Ofcom

Ofcom is the regulator for the communications services that we use and rely on each day. We make sure people get the best from their broadband, home phone and mobile services, as well as keeping an eye on TV and radio.

Our culture is clear – we live by our values: Empowerment; Excellence; Collaboration; Agility and Respect. These define how we work to deliver our purpose, now and in the future. The behaviours which support these values set the path for a fully inclusive and innovative culture at Ofcom.

We focus not only on what we do, but how we do it. We pride ourselves on being an organisation of people who genuinely care about helping others.

About the Team

The Online Safety Group’s purpose is to ensure UK citizens have a safer life online by implementing and overseeing the requirements under the Online Safety Act 2023. The Group is responsible for delivering online safety policy, supervising online services, and building technical expertise to meet the regime’s aims.

This Senior Policy Advisor role is a policy development role, sitting within the Protection of Children Directorate, in the Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSEA) Policy Team. The role of the child sexual abuse and exploitation team is to create bold and innovative policy that protects the public from encountering child sexual abuse and exploitation online and prevents children becoming victim to child sexual abuse and exploitation online.

Purpose of the Role

One of Ofcom’s key strategic priorities for online safety is to ensure that offenders cannot share child sexual abuse content and that children do not face unsafe contact online.

Our Senior Policy Advisors in the Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSEA) Policy Team are subject matter experts that are responsible for leading key areas of policy development with the purpose of achieving this aim.  They use their own expertise in this specialism to lead thinking, development, and delivery of new policy to prevent the spread of this content online and protect children from harm. They will also be responsible for challenging existing thinking and influencing change as an expert and trusted advisor on CSEA to our supervision teams.

Applicants should be aware that whilst the nature of this role does not involve direct exposure to illegal content, it does require the successful applicant to work with distressing content, materials, and themes. Appropriate wellbeing processes are in place to support colleagues, but if you have concerns about this, please let us know during the application process.

This role is a fixed-term contract for a period of 12 months.

Content information and safeguarding:

Applicants should be aware that whilst these roles should not involve direct exposure to illegal content, however, given the nature of child sexual abuse and exploitation, this role has automatically been assessed as a one which does require the individual to work with distressing content, material, and themes. Ofcom is committed to safeguarding our colleagues who undertake this type of work and offers a range of tailored support options including training, annual psychological assessments and 24-hour access to counselling services.

Your key responsibilities

• To lead on developing specific measures and policies to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation online.
• Identify, research, and gather information and analysis about the latest trends and developments of how online child sexual abuse manifests online.
• To stay abreast of changes in technological developments and how these impact the fight against the spread of child sexual abuse material online.
• Build and maintain effective relationships with teams across Ofcom, particularly with supervision colleagues and cross functional teams (legal, tech, economists).
• Build and maintain effective working relationships with key external stakeholders in the charitable sector and with relevant Government Departments.
• Own and prioritise workload to ensure we are delivering upon our strategic priorities.
• Ensure the delivery of clear, concise, and focussed documents for internal consideration and external publication.

The skills, knowledge and experience you will need for success

Technical Knowledge and Experience:

• Building Solutions- The ability to analyse and interpret data, come to evidence-based conclusions and recommend solutions.
• Executing plans- The ability to manage multiple projects and plans simultaneously and plan your workload to maximise efficiency.
• Articulating ideas- The ability to produce accurate, succinct, and well-presented written reports and to verbally communicate information accurately.
• Channelling influence- The ability to explain ideas persuasively. 

Behavioural Attributes:

• Is respectful, agile, focusses on excellence and collaborates with others.
• Embraces empowerment.
• Understands (and uses) own and others’ strengths to achieve success to achieve strategic priorities.
• Shares own views respectfully to provide diversity of thought.

Desirable:

• Keen interest or practical knowledge of the Online Safety Act and other regulatory frameworks around the world
• Experience in law enforcement, charitable sector or Government related to child online safety, safeguarding, or tackling child sexual abuse and exploitation.
• Experience in a complex regulatory, policy, legal or compliance-based environment.
• Educated to degree-level or equivalent professional experience.
• Experience developing and drafting complex policy documents.

Government National Vetting Requirements:

This role requires the successful candidate to undergo National Security Vetting to the level of Security Clearance (SC).

At Ofcom we prioritise inclusive and diverse recruitment in order to truly reflect the society we represent.

Where positions are listed as full time, we remain open to reduced hours, part-time arrangements, job shares and other flexible working options from day one of employment.  We warmly welcome applications from candidate returning to work after a break – for whatever reason.

As a disability confident employer, we offer interviews to any disabled applicant who meet essential criteria for advertised roles.  Learn more about the scheme here.

If you need information in an alternative format or have specific preferences, please contact our recruitment team.