A day in the life of an RSPB Policy Officer (archived)

Becoming a Senior Policy Officer for the RSPB

Jess Chappell has dedicated her career so far to the protection of birds and other wildlife. She has worked with a range of bird protection organisations, including BirdLife Malta and the Societatea Ornitologica Romana – but she’s spent most of her working life in various roles with the RSPB, where she is now a Senior Policy Officer in the England Policy and Advocacy team.

Jess started at the RSPB as a Nature Policy Officer working alongside the UK government’s statutory bodies on the legal aspects of species protection. Her next position as a Senior Advocate involved working with the Welsh government to influence public policy and legislation, ensuring the best possible outcomes for nature and wildlife. In her first Senior Policy Officer role in 2018, Jess worked closely with the UK government at Westminster, focusing on DEFRA’s 25 Year Environment Plan to help bring the plan’s wildlife-friendly goals into reality.

The bulk of my role is working with combined and local authorities to help them understand what their responsibility is and what they can do.

In her current job, her focus has shifted to liaising with local government, to ensure that local policies reflect the RSPB’s mission to make space for, and protect, wildlife. As Jess tells us, “the bulk of my role is working with combined and local authorities to help them understand what their responsibility is and what they can do”.

We caught up with Jess to find out more about being a Policy Officer at the RSPB, including how she spends her days, her favourite aspects of the job, and what she thinks everyone should know about making a career in policy and advocacy work in the environmental sector!

Jess’s Daily Routine

Getting up to speed

My job is predominantly desk-based, and post-COVID, I tend to work from home – although I try and get into the office regularly to meet with my colleagues. The first thing I do most days is make sure I’m up to date with announcements, relevant news, and mailing lists. I go through my inbox to see if anything of interest has come up, and check Twitter for emerging news stories or new research that might inform our policy positions.

This allows me to monitor external policy developments at a local level. For example, a local authority might have announced that there’s some action they want to take for nature, or that they have some funding available. Sometimes, there might be more negative news – a possible threat to wildlife, for example. I share these developments with my colleagues, and we consider whether or not we need to respond to whatever’s happening. This might be a consultation response, or a response through public comms if we want to draw attention to a relevant issue or event.

Collaborative thinking

I'm responsible for developing our thoughts on what local government can (and should) be doing to tackle the nature and climate emergency, so the next part of my day is usually dedicated to working out how we engage with local leaders to help them deliver on that.

What this actually means might look different on any given day! A fair bit of my work is reactive, so I might respond to requests from local government for advice, or there might be a consultation on a draft of the new environment strategy for a local authority. To do this, I’ll go around gathering views from colleagues across the organisation, and pull them together into a response.

Communicating the important stuff

Next, I might work on something more proactive, such as a letter or report that the RSPB can use to inform and influence decision-makers. There are quite a lot of internal meetings and communications that have to happen throughout the day, to facilitate the work I do with external partners. This includes consulting with colleagues to make sure we’re saying the right things – we then work out an advocacy plan for how we're going to deliver that report, or whatever the product is, to decision-makers and our supporters. So the job involves a lot of written work, which is mostly based on communicating our views on various policies.

Building partnerships

My job also involves a lot of collaborative planning with our partner organisations, so a big part of my day is often spent working with other environmental NGOs and stakeholders to work out where we overlap in our positions, and where we can work together.

We’ve got a network of 200 nature reserves, so often if there's someone in particular that I’m hoping to influence, I invite them to their local reserve and meet with them there!

This isn't only done through emails and written communication, though – I also organise regular relationship-building meetings with partner organisations, and key decision-makers that I'm trying to influence. These in-person meetings are vital! Most of the time, I don't meet with the mayor or the head of the council, but with their environment teams – sometimes on a one-to-one basis, and sometimes within wider stakeholder forums that are held by a combined authority.

Even though most of my meetings are now online, we recognise the value of getting decision-makers out and about on-site – if you're trying to influence someone to encourage them to protect nature, it's quite good to have that discussion actually in nature. We’ve got a network of 200 nature reserves, so if there's someone in particular that I’m hoping to influence, I will invite them to their local reserve and meet with them there!

Thinking about becoming a Policy Officer?

Although the job can vary from one organisation to another, the core skills that underpin most Policy Officer jobs remain similar. You’ll need excellent oral and written communication skills, because the ability to influence, persuade, and negotiate is absolutely key to success in this job. Good research skills are also essential: being fully informed about different perspectives on an issue will help you to form powerful arguments and advocate effectively for your cause. Having a solid knowledge of the scientific evidence underpinning those arguments is equally important.

Jess’ favourite aspect of the job is collaborating with her colleagues to produce innovative work: she says that “the conversations we have in meetings are just fascinating!” Although it can sometimes be difficult to measure success in a nature-focused policy role – results aren’t always as tangible as they may be in other jobs – celebrating wins with her team is always a great experience.

📢 If you could see yourself as a Policy Officer advocating for the environment, start your job search here!