About People's Economy
What is People's Economy?
People's Economy is a UK charity (No. 1166046) building people-power to challenge economic injustice. Mission verbatim from the homepage: "We are building people power to change the economy. We work with communities in the UK facing economic injustice to reimagine, rebalance, and transform the economy." Four pillars of work: delivering economic education; shaping participatory approaches to economic decision-making; modelling a new approach to public-interest economic news; and developing place-based approaches to achieve bottom-up and top-down local economic change.
History (verbatim from /about-us/our-history/): "People's Economy was founded in 2016 (under our original name 'Economy') as an offshoot of Rethinking Economics. Rethinking Economics is an international network of students, academics and professionals which campaigns for improvements to how economics is taught in classrooms and society at large. In 2015, Rethinking Economics appeared in Boom Bust Boom, an economic documentary directed by the late Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame). That led to the producers — Cardano Insights — agreeing to provide the seed funding for a new charitable venture with a mission to provide accessible economics on a larger scale. That venture became Economy."
In 2023, the organisation launched a five-year strategy and rebranded from Economy to People's Economy: "At the start of 2023 we launched our strategy for the next five years which reiterates our focus on building power among communities experiencing economic injustice."
Scale today (verbatim): "We now have eight staff, over fifty trained volunteer facilitators, hundreds of graduates from our courses and workshops, 25,000 monthly readers of ecnmy.org, and many partners across community development, media, policymaking, the new economy movement and academia."
Writer and environmental campaigner George Monbiot (verbatim endorsement): "By working to improve economic literacy, [People's Economy] helps people to call this profession to account, and make sense of a crucial aspect of our lives, that is currently largely opaque to us. It's a brilliant and necessary initiative."
Where will I work?
Place-based programmes in Birmingham/West Midlands, Wales (Cymru), Hartlepool, and London. The current open Senior Programme & Network Lead JD specifies: "Based in Birmingham with regular travel to at least one of our other place-based programmes (Wales, Hartlepool, London) and regular in-person team days across the UK every six weeks and other potential required UK travel."
What is the People's Economy team like?
A team of nine named core staff (per /about-us/our-team/) plus 50+ trained volunteer facilitators. Key team members verbatim: Amira Elwakil (Senior Programme Manager – National), Carrie Magee (Co-Executive Director – Development & Impact), Fatima Iftikhar (Co-Executive Director – Programmes & Strategy), Georgina Evans (Head of People and Operations), Jess Silvester (Senior Programme Manager – Wales | Rheolwr Rhaglen Cymru), Jo Hiley (Head of Community), Jonah Earle (Co-Executive Director — co-author of "The Econocracy: on the perils of leaving economics to the experts"), Marion Sharples (Head of Training — Clore Social Fellow), Michael Pitchford (Senior Movement Collaboration Lead — 30+ years in community/campaign work, decade with Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust). Board chair: Meena Bharadwa.
The team brings deep grassroots-to-policy experience: migrant justice, community development in Marchog, polar ocean climate research (Jess Silvester's prior PhD), Aziz Foundation scholarship, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust governance, and frontline experience in Gypsy and Traveller community organising (Michael Pitchford).
Work-Life Balance
The current Senior Programme & Network Lead JD discloses the structural employment offer verbatim: "Hours: 0.8 – 1 FTE (30-37.5 hours per week). Contract: Permanent." The DB schedule_type is 4_day_week_pro_rata (32 hours/week) — the JD's 30-37.5 hour range at 0.8-1 FTE is compatible with this. Salary disclosed: £47,195 FTE with progression points available after probation.
Perks and Benefits
Verbatim from the current JD ("Benefits"): "7% pension contribution, 30 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays (pro rata), personal training and development budget, flexible working, subsidised counselling offer, Union recognition, enhanced sick leave, enhanced parental leave."
The diversity-and-anti-oppression commitment is explicit: "We are particularly keen to receive applications from members of communities experiencing economic injustice, and people working for change as part of these communities. We also strongly encourage applications from people who are: women and non-binary people, from Black and Asian backgrounds or are other people of colour, or members of other marginalised groups."