Executive Director - Asylum Aid

HELEN BAMBER FOUNDATION; London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

The Helen Bamber Foundation seeks an Executive Director to lead Asylum Aid, ensuring effective legal representation for asylum seekers. This vital role involves strategic oversight, team management, and enhancing partnerships within the sector, directing systemic change in the asylum process.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in leadership within the charity or NGO sector.
• Strong understanding of asylum, human rights, and trafficking processes.
• Proven ability to manage teams and support professional development.

Responsibilities

• Deliver strategic direction and oversee legal representation for asylum seekers.
• Manage and support casework teams, ensuring high-quality legal advice.
• Act as spokesperson and advocate for Asylum Aid's mission.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Stakeholder engagement

Education

Relevant legal qualification

Job description

For almost thirty-five years, Asylum Aid has been providing legal representation to some of the most vulnerable people seeking asylum. We have built an expert service, delivering vital and life-saving services in some of the most complex legal cases, with a particular speciality working with Survivors of trafficking, torture or other forms of human cruelty, unaccompanied minors and stateless people.

We work towards our vision through three main strands of work:

• the provision of specialist legal representation through the asylum, trafficking and statelessness determination procedures, alongside a generalist advice service working with people with refugee and migrant backgrounds in Westminster;
• the establishment of partnerships to build capacity and increase expertise in the immigration advice sector, such as our innovative remote training and supervision partnership with the Justice Together initiative;
• drawing on our experience and expertise built up through our casework to engage in policy advocacy and strategic legal work to make the asylum system fair and dignified, and to improve access to effective and quality legal advice for those seeking protection.

Asylum Aid is regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) at Level 3 in asylum and protection and immigration. Our casework service is provided by IAA registered advisers and solicitors regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. All caseworkers are accredited under the Law Society’s Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme and we hold the Lexcel quality mark and Legal Aid Agency contracts in immigration & asylum and public law.

Since August 2020, Asylum Aid has been part of the Helen Bamber Foundation Group. The Helen Bamber Foundation is a pioneering Human Rights charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers who are the survivors of trafficking and torture, including gender-based and ‘honour-based’ violence.

Asylum Aid is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Helen Bamber Foundation which operates as an independent charity, led by the Executive Director who is line managed and supported by the Group CEO as part of the group structure, and is ambitious about growing its impact and reach in the future to ensure protection from persecution for those who need it. We work closely with Helen Bamber Foundation Group colleagues on policy, training, capacity building, research and survivor engagement, share an office at the Helen Bamber Foundation and Asylum Aid Trauma Centre, and share finance, fundraising, human resources and operations functions.

Asylum Aid was joined in July 2023 by the Migrants’ Law Project (MLP), previously hosted at Islington Law Centre. As a legal and public legal educational project, it works to enforce, advance and defend the legal rights of people seeking asylum and others with insecure legal status through securing substantive changes in policy and practice.

Asylum Aid is governed by a highly skilled and dedicated Board of Trustees which provides strategic oversight.

The charity operates with robust committee structures (shared with Helen Bamber Foundation):

• Finance and Fundraising Committee, meeting quarterly
• People & Governance Committee, meeting quarterly

EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Our commitment to principles of equity, diversity and inclusion is an integral part of our approach to our clients, our volunteers and our staff, and we are an equal opportunities and Living Wage employer.

We are committed to attracting and recruiting diverse candidates because we are keen to make sure that our staff, trustees, volunteers and ambassadors reflect the communities we serve and the wider community we work in.

We genuinely welcome and encourage applications from candidates from a range of backgrounds, especially people of colour, people with disabilities, people from low socio-economic backgrounds, refugees, stateless people and others with lived experience of forced migration or trauma and of the housing and welfare system, who are under-represented in our organisation.

We recognise and value the role of lived experience in meeting the needs of our clients and acknowledge the under-representation of people with lived experience of forced migration and statelessness in the advice sector. We value experience gained overseas as well as in the UK.

We are also proud to be a member of the Experts by Experience Employment Network which aims to increase representation of people with lived experience in the charitable sector.

If you are an expert by experience (a refugee or a migrant with direct, first-hand experience of issues and challenges of the UK asylum or immigration system), you can ask for an independent and confidential support for your job application from the Experts by Experience Employment Network and access other information and resources athttps://www.ebeemployment.org.uk/ebewhich may help in preparing your job application.

Please complete the form on their website to request support and they will confirm if they can match you with a mentor to support your application.

Role description

This is an exciting opportunity to steer Asylum Aid at an important time in its 30-year existence. As Executive Director you will be responsible for delivering on our strategy for impact. You will oversee our work to increase access to expert, trauma-informed legal representation to those in the asylum, trafficking and statelessness systems and lead our policy and strategic legal work to achieve systemic change that contributes towards our vision.

You will line manage the Director of Legal Casework to oversee the provision of supportive and enabling leadership to Asylum Aid caseworkers so that they can continue to deliver high quality expert advice in complex cases, while being supported in their professional development and wellbeing. You will also manage and develop the work of our welfare advice team within the Westminster Advice Services Partnership and beyond, and work collaboratively with colleagues in the sector to build capacity and increase our impact.

The ideal candidate, who may be legally qualified, will have experience of leadership in the charity/NGO sector and a sound understanding of the asylum, human rights and trafficking processes in the UK and the legal frameworks which govern the protection of refugees, survivors of trafficking and stateless people, and of the role of law in achieving system change.

We are looking for someone who is strategically minded and passionate about providing supportive and inclusive leadership to our expert team. You will be committed to our objectives and to the role which expert legal representation plays in enabling people in need of protection in the UK to obtain it.

As is the nature of this sector, the role may be exposed to a high volume of traumatic and distressing material and, whilstthey will be supported by the Helen Bamber Foundation Group CEO and surrounding team, the candidate should also be able to demonstrate knowledge of good self-care principles in an intense work environment and dissemination of those principles to junior members of the team.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership and strategy:

• Be responsible, with the support of the Helen Bamber Foundation Group CEO, for the development, implementation and monitoring of Asylum Aid’s organisational strategy
• Provide leadership and strategic direction at Asylum Aid in accordance with its aims and objectives, with the support of the Director of Legal Casework
• Act as external spokesperson for Asylum Aid, maintaining and strengthening Asylum Aid’s position as a leader in the refugee rights, statelessness and legal aid sectors;
• Work collaboratively with others in the sector to promote and strengthen Asylum Aid’s work, identify and establish potential partnerships, with the support of the Director of Legal Casework;
• Work collaboratively with the Helen Bamber Foundation Group CEO and Executive Leadership team to drive the implementation of the Group strategic framework;
• Ensure that all reporting and monitoring requirements are met to support fundraising, contract compliance and monitoring strategic impact;
• Support the cross collaboration of the Asylum Aid team with the Helen Bamber Foundation team and play an active part in the management of the Helen Bamber Foundation Group.

Governance:

• Act as the Data Protection Supervisor with responsibility for data protection and cyber security within Asylum Aid
• Together with the Helen Bamber Foundation Group CEO and designated safeguarding leads, be responsible for child and adult safeguarding within Asylum Aid
• In collaboration with the Director of Legal Casework, ensure compliance by Asylum Aid with all legal and regulatory obligations, including the Legal Aid Agency contract, the Immigration Advice Authority and Solicitors Regulation Authority;
• Lead on the preparation and presentation of quarterly reports on Asylum Aid’s activities, strategy and risks to the Asylum Aid Board, the Finance and Fundraising Committee and the People and Governance Committee;
• Lead on the preparation of the Trustees’ annual report and ensure that monitoring and evaluation systems are adequate to enable reporting on Asylum Aid’s activities and impact.

Management and Supervision:

• Responsible for line management of the Director of Legal Casework and Welfare Advice service coordinator, and other team supervisors as required;
• Together with the Group Director of People, responsible for Human Resources and implementation of the People Strategy within Asylum Aid, including development and implementation of HR policies and procedures;
• Together with the Director of Legal Casework and team supervisors, drive the effective management and supervision of the Asylum Aid team and ensure that they comply with relevant professional standards and accreditation;
• Foster a supportive and inclusive team culture at Asylum Aid in which each member feels valued and supported to develop professionally and to perform to the best of their ability;
• Ensure the team’s well-being and that self-care practices are established and work in tandem with the Director of Legal Casework and supervisors to ensure trauma-informed ways of working.

Policy & Strategic Legal Work:

• Together with the Group Director of Policy, identify policy priorities and coordinate the preparation of evidence and briefings drawing on Asylum Aid’s experience and expertise to influence system change;
• Build and maintain relationships and partnerships with sector colleagues to support joint strategic engagement including policy advocacy and strategic legal work;
• Work closely with the Director of Legal Casework and team supervisors to drive changes in the UK asylum, trafficking and statelessness systems through strategic legal work.

Finance & Fundraising:

• Work closely with the CEO and the Helen Bamber Foundation Group Finance Team to set and manage budget(s) and general financial matters for Asylum Aid
• Together with the Director of Legal Casework and the Group Finance Team, establish systems for monitoring legal aid Work In Progress and billing, and securing casework income including legal aid, and inter partes income from judicial review cases;
• Work closely with the Helen Bamber Foundation Group Fundraising and Communications Team to secure funding for Asylum Aid from a range of sources including trusts and foundations, corporate philanthropy and major donors;
• Ensure that Legal Aid and other income is maximised, and targets are achieved.

Other duties:

• Manage the recruitment and supervision of volunteers where necessary in collaboration with the Helen Bamber Foundation Group Volunteers Coordinator;
• Support the Helen Bamber Foundation Group Facilities team to ensure the smooth running of the office and that the facilities meet the needs of Asylum Aid;
• Work outside normal office hours as required and travel in order to carry out the responsibilities of the post.
• To undertake any task that may be requested from time to time that may be consistent with the nature and scope of this post.

How to apply

The first stage is to complete on our online application form on our website by 9am on 23 June 2025.

The website form will ask you to:

1. Upload a short covering letter. Please tell us why the position appeals to you, and how your relevant skills and experience, including any voluntary experience and lived experience, matches the listed responsibilities and person specification. Please also state in your covering letter when you would be available to start the role.
2. Upload your current CV
3. Complete an online Equal Opportunities monitoring form – completion of this form will help us ensure that our recruitment procedures operate in such a way as to provide genuine equality of opportunity. The questions are entirely optional, and this information will not be available to members of the selection panel.

For an informal conversation about the post before applying, please contact Alison Pickup, the current Executive Director, at [e-mail]

Selection Process

We anticipate that we will invite candidates to an initial online interview on Wednesday 3rd July 2025, followed by shortlisted candidates attending in-person interviews at our office in Old Street on Wednesday 9 July 2025.

We regret that we can only respond to applicants who make it to the interview stage.

We offer a guaranteed initial interview for refugees, stateless people and others with lived experience of forced migration, provided that they meet at least 50% of the essential criteria.

Eligibility

Please note that the successful candidate must have the right to work in the UK (as a small charity we do not have the capacity to sponsor work visas).

Successful candidates will also be subject to a basic DBS check. If appointed, you will also be required to give your consent to the charity to receive regular updates on your criminal records status throughout your employment and to disclose any relevant convictions incurred during your time with us.

Adjustments

We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we’ll always endeavour to be as accommodating as possible. If you require a different format of the application form, such as large print or Word format, or if you would like to discuss any specific requirements, please get in touch with us.