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About Kinship
We are Kinship. The leading kinship care charity in England and Wales. We’re here for kinship carers – friends or family who step up to raise a child when their parents aren’t able to.
Together, let’s commit to change for kinship families.
About the role
The Senior Advice Worker – SEND will be the specialist and subject expert in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and kinship care. You’ll provide 1:1 advice directly to kinship carers on all issues that impact on their caring role.
You will often be supporting kinship carers in high crisis. It will be part of your job to calm a situation quickly and support people to communicate what they need so you can provide personalised in-depth advice.
You’ll provide advice by phone, video calls and email, but you’ll also need to be able to respond to text, WhatsApp and online chat and other channels as we develop the service.
You’ll specialise in providing advice and information to enable kinship carers to support children with SEND needs, including speech, language and communication difficulties, social, emotional and mental health challenges, specific learning difficulties, and autism.
This will include advice and casework to support kinship carers to navigate the education system, understand Education, Health and Care Plan processes and access support from schools, children’s services and CAMHS.
As subject expert, you’ll provide expert input to the development of written information and resources and the development and delivery of specialist training for kinship carers.
Key responsibilities include:
- Respond to enquiries through a range of incoming channels. This includes taking calls on our advice line, as well as responding to enquiries submitted through our website, via internal referral or other channels.
- Provide high quality advice and information to kinship carers on their rights, entitlements and responsibilities in relation to welfare benefits, local authority allowances, support from children’s services, relevant legal orders, sources of educational, parenting and legal support and other issues that may be required.
- Assess vulnerability and risk to prioritise and respond to kinship carers’ issues in a timely manner.
- Research individual cases and identify possible courses of action.
- Address all safeguarding concerns in line with policy.
- Facilitate access to our advice service for people with diverse needs, e.g. by using appropriate translation services or assistive technology.
- Adapt communication style to respond appropriately to differing needs.
- Provide advice in a format that is manageable and understandable for the individual kinship carer.
- Apply agreed Kinship models of practice as appropriate, e.g. taking a trauma-informed approach.
- Provide specialist advice and casework on SEND-related issues. This may involve:
- providing additional advice or support to enable a client to take action
- undertaking follow-up action on behalf of the client to move the case on, e.g. negotiating with third parties
- taking on complex casework to pursue significant outcomes for the client or strategic impact for all kinship carers
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Proactively update colleagues across Kinship on relevant updates in the SEND landscape, providing guidance to teams.
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Work closely with training colleagues to develop, create and occasionally lead training sessions to support kinship carers to navigate the SEND system.
Essential requirements include:
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Minimum of 2 years’ recent experience of delivering in-depth advice work on complex social welfare legal issues (e.g. benefits, housing, education or social care) to members of the public.
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Experience of giving both telephone and written advice.
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Either significant knowledge of and expertise in the SEND system and SEND-related issues, with the ability to develop expertise in kinship care advice; or, Significant knowledge of and expertise in kinship care advice, with substantial knowledge of SEND-related advice issues and the ability to become an expert in SEND advice for kinship carers.
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A demonstrable knowledge of relevant sources of advice and information.
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Knowledge and evidence of good understanding of safeguarding issues and good practice.
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Proven understanding of the importance of confidentiality and a non-judgmental approach.
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Experience and confidence in development of resources
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Experience of effective management and supervision of staff, projects and/or services.
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Experience using Case Management Systems and/or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms.
What we offer you:
- Flexible working - we understand how important it is to balance family and work life.
- 30 days annual leave, plus bank holidays (1 April to 31 March) pro rata (3 to be taken at Christmas shutdown)
- Employee Assistance Programme (24/7 confidential advice line and counselling)
- Charity Worker Discounts.
Key dates:
- Application deadline: Monday 20 April 2026, 12pm
- First interview: w/c 4 May 2026 (online)
- Second interview: w/c 11 May 2026 (if required)
How to apply:
Please apply for the role of Senior Advice Worker - SEND by sending a CV and answering the questions below. The deadline is 12pm on Monday 20 April 2026. Any applications arriving after the closing date will not be considered for shortlisting unless there are exceptional reasons. Please ensure you have read the application timelines.
Please provide a cover letter answering the following 4 questions (up to 250 words per answer):
- Give an overview of how your experience, qualifications and training equip you for the role of Senior Advice Worker - SEND.
- Explain why you want to work for Kinship.
- What are the key skills and personal attributes that you would bring to the role?
- What do you see as the most significant advice issues confronting kinship families navigating the SEND system?
Kinship is committed to championing equality, diversity and inclusion. We believe our work is greatly enhanced by the varied backgrounds, experiences and views represented within our teams. We aim to create inclusive teams, celebrate differences and encourage everyone to join us and be their true self at work. We therefore encourage applications from anyone who fits our values, whatever their religion or belief, sex, gender identity, race, age, sexuality or disability and are actively seeking candidates that can bring real innovation and commitment to us.
Some tips for your application:
• Make sure you’ve read the job description and the essential requirements – make sure your application reflects those points in the requirements very clearly.
• Tell us why you want to work for Kinship. We’re interested in working with people who share our values. You can read about our values in the job pack.
• Keep your response clear – use bullets points and short paragraphs if that helps. It will help the recruitment team to focus on your knowledge, skills and experience.
• Don’t go over 2 pages on your covering letter and ensure you answer all the questions
• Please do not use AI tools like ChatGPT to produce your answers. We use software to check, and your application will be rejected if you do.
Registered Charity
21 - 50
We support kinship carers in their homes and communities, giving advice and helping them work through problems to find the best way forward.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Responsible to: Operations Manager
Role purpose: To supports people in the local community through the provision of holistic Money, Debt and Budgeting Advice
Salary Scale:2.1 – 2.4. £27,495 - £29,400 FTE. P/T hours will be considered
Key work areas and tasks
Provision of advice and casework
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Provide money advice and casework covering the full range of debt advice topics including priority and non-priority debt and money advice issues
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Identify urgent situations and ensure any possible action is taken immediately
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Assist clients with related issues integral to their debt case such as welfare benefits advice, housing, other financial matters and income maximisation (incorporates applications for grants and other welfare schemes)
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Work with the client to draw up an agreed financial statement incorporating the Standard Financial Statement
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Enable clients to identify and explore various options they may have in addressing their situation explaining the consequences and limitations of each option
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Assist clients in the calculation of offers to priority and non-priority creditors with reference to their Financial Statement.
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Where appropriate undertake negotiations with clients’ creditors and other relevant bodies and/or act for the client by drafting or writing letters and telephoning and negotiating with third parties as necessary
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Prepare and present cases to the appropriate statutory bodies and courts as required including DRO, Breathing Space and bankruptcy applications
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Maintain timely, accurate and detailed case records and adhere to administration systems
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Maintain statistical information and other required documents and undertake client feedback surveys and facilitate client evaluation
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Manage an agreed caseload of debt and money advice cases
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Ensure all work casework conforms to Operational Policy including meeting the requirements of the Advice Quality Standard, FCA and MAPS
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Provide basic welfare benefits advice to clients, to include assessing eligibility for benefits, better-off calculations and other income maximisation advice
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Assist clients with other problems, referring to other advisers and/or agencies as appropriate
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Provide representation for clients at county or magistrates courts when appropriate
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Provide support, guidance and supervision to the money advice trainee caseworker/caseworker’s assistant and other less experienced staff and volunteers
Research and Campaigns (social policy work)
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Assist with social policy work by providing information about clients' circumstances through the appropriate channel.
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Research and campaigns, monitoring and relationship building.
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Assist with the development and implementation, in conjunction with the Operations Manager and in consultation with other charity workers, the Charity’s Research and Campaigns Plan.
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Assist with research and campaigns work by providing information about clients' circumstances through the appropriate channel.
Administration
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Maintain and monitor effective and efficient administrative systems.
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Monitor health and safety policy with regard to staff, equipment and premises within statutory requirements.
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Ensure complaints are brought to the Manager’s attention as soon as is practicable.
Training and Development
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Identify and implement own training and development needs (in consultation with the Operations Manager).
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Identify the training needs of charity workers through support and supervision and contribute towards the charity’s training and development plans.
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Contribute to organising training activities in conjunction, as appropriate, with the Operations Manager.
Other Duties and Responsibilities
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Abide by health and safety guidelines and share responsibility for own safety and that of colleagues.
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Abide by data security and information assurance guidelines.
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Ensure that work undertaken reflects and supports the Citizens Advice service’s equality and diversity strategy
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Any other relevant tasks or duties required to ensure the effective running of the charity and our services.
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To contribute to the induction and on-going training of charity workers within the team.
Person specification
Essential criteria
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Qualified and competent money advice and debt caseworker holding the relevant accredited quality standard and other competencies set down by Advice Quality Standard, Money and Pension Service, FCA and/or Institute of Money Advisers
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Demonstrable and thorough understanding of the application of the debt process in a busy advice organisation and of doing so in a client- centred and efficient way including through working on a Money Advice Service or MAPS funded programme
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A positive approach to quality of advice audit (including peer review and external audit) and a commitment to constructive feedback as part of the quality assurance and learning process (as a recipient and
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as a supervisor)
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The ability to sift through large amounts of information and gather essential details during a client interview
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Excellent negotiation skills with experience of conducting negotiations with a range of agencies and creditors
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Proven ability to plan and prioritise your workload, meet deadlines and work calmly and with focus within a busy and fast paced environment
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Experience of using a casework recording and quality assurance system and IT platforms
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Experience of providing effective guidance and support to peers and junior colleagues and the ability to plan and co-ordinate the workload of others
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Experience of working effectively within a team including paid and volunteer staff
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Excellent communication skills (spoken and written) and the ability to develop and maintain positive, professional, working relationships with clients, funders, stakeholders, colleagues, volunteers, creditors and other agencies
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Proven IT skills including very confident and competent use of Word, Excel, databases, cloud-based systems etc to maintain effective records, administrative and reporting systems
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A commitment to travelling to various locations as required
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Understanding of the issues affecting society and their implications for clients and service provision
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Understanding of and commitment to the aims and principles of the CA service and its equal opportunities policies
Desirable criteria
- Hold a current registration as a DRO intermediary
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Experience of working within a Citizens Advice charity
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Experience of working with the public in an advisory capacity
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.