Do you have a passion for using research to achieve transformational change for children, young people and families? Barnardo's is looking for a research officer committed to working with us and putting care experienced children and young people at the heart of our work.

Barnardo's has made a 5 year commitment to invest in improving outcomes of care experienced children and young people through their Care Pathways programme. Care Pathways refers to our influencing work and the development of the very best joined up and integrated services for children in care, at risk of care and leaving care. Residential care is the initial priority for Care Pathways programme given current and rising scale of demand, unmet needs, and operational risks.

Barnardo's aim is to be a trusted innovative and visionary partner working collaboratively within the care system and delivering the highest quality child/young person-centred services.

• To work collaboratively with key internal stakeholders in the application of research to effect change in practice, services, commissioning and to influence external policy and public opinion for the benefit of children, young people and their families in line Care Pathways and Policy and Public Affairs (PPA) priorities.
• To provide research support to Care Pathways service development, service design, bids and policy and influencing working closely with business/market development colleagues, service designers, Research and Evaluation and PPA.
• To maintain links with Barnardo's colleagues in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to keep Care Pathways team up to date with policy and practice issues and to optimise the value of Barnardo's UK wide perspective, drawing learning and comparisons between the 4 nations
• To build a network of links across our services and operations to enable Care Pathways to identify best practice, draw on and/or further develop Barnardo's evidence base and support our services to evaluate their existing work.
• To work with relevant colleagues across the charity, including our Voice and Influence Team, Children's Services, Care Journeys, Policy and Public Affairs and Innovation Lab, to proactively ensure the voices and lived experiences of care experienced children, young people and adults are captured in our research, evaluation and policy activities. Also that they are used to inform, shape and influence service design and business development for Care Pathways.
• Also developing Care Pathways Theory of Change with research and evidence.

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document (if applicable). This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.

Barnardo's offers a hybrid working model covered under our `Work from Anywhere' Framework, therefore vacancies advertised with this as an opportunity are open for applicants to either work from home or any location within the UK, including Barnardo's Hub/Office that is a reasonable distance from your home address.

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.