8 Assessment practitioner jobs in Bristol, City of Bristol

About the role  

As Kent Project Support Coordinator, you will help coordinate and deliver our local perinatal mental health peer support service across Kent. Working closely with our Perinatal Peer Support Service Lead, peer supporters, volunteers, health professionals and community partners, you will help ensure families receive safe, inclusive and accessible support within their local communities. 

Join our passionate team and contribute to the meaningful work that transforms the loves of parents and families. Your role will include:  

Coordinating the day-to-day delivery of local peer support groups, including venues, rotas, local promotion, resources and providing occasional facilitation cover where required. 

Recruiting, coordinating and supporting volunteers and peer supporters, including regular communication and debriefing following sessions to identify safeguarding, signposting or additional support needs. 

Supporting referrals into the service, helping assess individual needs and ensuring parents and families are connected with appropriate peer support, signposting or onward referrals. 

Building and maintaining positive relationships with local health and social care professionals, Family Hubs and community organisations to strengthen referral pathways and increase awareness of the service. 

Supporting monitoring and evaluation through accurate record keeping, data collection, case studies, service feedback and contributions to commissioner reporting and continuous service improvement. 

You will also help promote the service within local communities, particularly among families who may experience additional barriers to accessing support, and contribute to social media content, promotional activities and local events.

About you  

You will be compassionate, organised and confident working with parents, families, volunteers and professionals from a wide range of backgrounds. 

You will have an understanding of the challenges associated with the perinatal mental health period and be comfortable supporting people sensitively and without judgement. 

You will also bring: 

• Excellent organisational skills and the ability to manage your time and priorities effectively. 
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including active listening and the ability to build rapport with people from different backgrounds. 
• Strong relationship-building and stakeholder engagement skills. 
• Confidence working independently while remaining part of a supportive wider team. 
• Good judgement when responding to individual needs, safeguarding concerns and situations requiring signposting or referral. 
• Good IT skills, including Microsoft Office and internet-based systems. 
• A commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and to ensuring services are welcoming and accessible to all families. 

Experience of community engagement, working with vulnerable families or people with complex needs, supporting volunteers, or working successfully with diverse cultural communities would be particularly valuable. 

Knowledge of safeguarding and awareness of emotional and practical support services available within local communities would also be beneficial. 

Training as an NCT Parents in Mind Peer Supporter is desirable. We also welcome applications from candidates who are willing and eligible to undertake this training. 

An Enhanced DBS check and driving licence are required for this role. You will also need to be willing and able to travel across the commissioned area, including at short notice when required.

Our Benefits – What we offer you  

• We value our team and offer fantastic benefits to support your well-being and professional growth:  
• 30 days annual leave pro rata (excluding Bank Holidays)  
• Pension matched up to 5%  
• Flexible working options to suite your lifestyle  
• Employee Assistance Programme, including 24/7 GP access, personalised counselling, legal advice and more  
• Life Assurance for peace of mind  
• Free eye test for all staff, with further discounts  
• Blue Light discount card  

At NCT, we’re committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce. If you need reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process or within your role, please let us know—we’re here to support you. Ready to make a difference? Apply now and be part of something truly special.  

About the role 

As Perinatal Peer Support Service Lead, you will take responsibility for the effective day-to-day delivery of our local perinatal peer support service. Working closely with peer supporters, volunteers, health and social care professionals and community partners, you will help ensure families receive safe, inclusive and high-quality support when they need it. 

Join our passionate team and contribute to the meaningful work that transforms the loves of parents and families. Your role will include: 

• Leading and supporting the local peer support team, providing line management, supervision and operational oversight to ensure a consistent and high-quality service. 

• Overseeing the day-to-day delivery of peer support groups, including volunteer recruitment and support, rotas, venues, resources and training coordination. 

• Managing referrals into the service, assessing individual needs and suitability, providing appropriate signposting and coordinating onward or alternative support where needed. 

• Building strong relationships with health and social care professionals, Family Hubs and other community partners to develop effective referral pathways and increase awareness of the service, particularly within disadvantaged communities. 

• Monitoring the impact and quality of the service through accurate data, service user and volunteer feedback, outcome measures and evaluation, using insights to support continuous improvement. 

Safeguarding and the wellbeing of the families we support are central to this role. You will help maintain robust safeguarding and health and safety practices and ensure concerns are identified and escalated appropriately. 

About you 

You will be an organised, compassionate and confident people leader with a strong understanding of the challenges families may experience during the perinatal period. 

You will have experience supporting vulnerable families or people with complex needs, together with strong judgement when assessing individual needs and identifying appropriate support, referrals or signposting. 

You will also bring: 

• Experience supervising and supporting others, including volunteers. 

• Project management experience and the ability to coordinate multiple areas of service delivery. 

• Excellent organisational skills and the ability to work flexibly while managing competing priorities. 

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including active listening and the ability to build rapport with people from a wide range of backgrounds. 

• Strong relationship-building and stakeholder engagement skills. 

• Experience collecting data and contributing to professional reporting. 

• An understanding of the barriers parents can face when accessing services and the importance of providing inclusive and equitable support. 

• Good judgement when managing workloads, people and safeguarding concerns. 

• Confidence using Microsoft Office and internet-based systems. 

Knowledge of safeguarding, including child and vulnerable adult protection, and awareness of local emotional and practical support services would be beneficial. 

Training as an NCT Parents in Mind Peer Supporter would also be welcomed, although we are happy to consider candidates willing and eligible to undertake this training. 

An Enhanced DBS check and driving licence are required for this role. You will also need to be willing and able to travel across Kent, including providing occasional cover for peer support sessions when required. 

Our Benefits – What we offer you 

We value our team and offer fantastic benefits to support your well-being and professional growth: 

• 30 days annual leave (excluding Bank Holidays) 

• Pension matched up to 5% 

• Flexible working options to suite your lifestyle 

• Employee Assistance Programme, including 24/7 GP access, personalised counselling, legal advice and more 

• Life Assurance for peace of mind 

• Free eye test for all staff, with further discounts

• Blue Light discount card 

At NCT,we’recommitted to fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce. If you need reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process or within your role, please let us know—we’rehere to support you.Ready to make a difference? Apply now and be part of something truly special. 

We are looking for experienced social workers to help take the Weekenders programme into its next chapter. You will join a small, ambitious charity and play a central role in growing a relational, child-focused programme across England.

THE OPPORTUNITY 

• Salary: starting from £40,000, subject to experience

• Hours: full time, 37.5 hours per week

• Location: home-based within England, with regular team co-working and travel

• Contracts: one permanent post and two 18-month fixed-term posts

• Flexibility: occasional evening or weekend delivery, usually around once per month

• Travel: across England, including occasional overnight stays; reasonable expenses are covered

ABOUT NOW FOSTER

Now Foster brings together social work, service design, lived experience and innovation to transform fostering in England. Our vision is to bring many more wonderful people into fostering so that more children and young people can experience stable, meaningful relationships with caring adults.

We are a small team with big ambitions. We value creativity, collaboration, learning and continuous improvement, and we work with partners who share our determination to do better for children and families.

ABOUT WEEKENDERS 

Weekenders is our flagship programme. We recruit and support weekend foster carers – known as Weekenders – who build regular, long-term relationships with children and young people supported by local authorities. It is about showing up, making a difference and becoming an adult a young person can count on.

The programme is entering an exciting period of growth. We are expanding our partnerships with Regional Care Cooperatives, Fostering Hubs and local authorities across England, currently including London, the South West, North West and North East.

THE ROLE – Lead delivery, develop people and stay close to practice

As a Weekenders Programme Manager, you will turn our ambition into consistently excellent delivery. You will lead the day-to-day support of applicants across an agreed portfolio of areas, making sure prospective Weekenders receive a warm, responsive and motivational experience and that our partners can rely on us to deliver what we have agreed.

This is a people-management and delivery role with a strong connection to practice. You will line-manage Journey Guides, manage a network of independent social workers (ISWs), lead our prep group training and undertake some intro chats yourself.

The role does not carry a statutory caseload. It does carry real responsibility for safeguarding, practice quality, operational oversight and relationships across a growing, geographically distributed programme.

Delivery Leadership: Lead programme delivery

• Take day-to-day responsibility for Weekenders delivery across an agreed portfolio of Fostering Hubs and local authority partners.

• Turn partnership agreements and local processes into clear applicant journeys, with roles, handovers and timescales understood by everyone involved.

• Plan capacity across Journey Guides, ISWs, prep group training and your own direct work so that delivery keeps pace with demand.

• Monitor applicant progress, identify delays or risks early and work with colleagues and partners to find practical solutions.

• Maintain a consistent Now Foster experience across regions while adapting thoughtfully to local contexts.

People Management: Manage and develop Journey Guides

• Provide reflective one-to-one and group supervision, clear objectives and timely feedback.

• Allocate work fairly, monitor workloads and create the structure needed for responsive applicant support.

• Coach Journey Guides in relationship-based, strengths-based and motivational conversations, using observation, role play and practice review where helpful.

• Support sound judgement, safe practice and professional boundaries, addressing performance or wellbeing concerns early and constructively.

• Build a connected team culture in which people share learning, ask for help and take ownership.

Practice Oversight: Manage ISWs and assure practice quality

• Build and maintain a reliable pool of qualified, registered ISWs to undertake initial home visits and teach on prep group training days.

• Coordinate ISW recruitment, onboarding, availability, allocation and briefing in line with our safer recruitment and practice arrangements.

• Set clear expectations for the quality, timeliness and tone of home visits, written outputs, training and feedback.

• Review quality, provide constructive feedback and address concerns promptly, while forecasting capacity and arranging cover.

Training: Plan, staff and lead prep group training

• Own the planning and delivery of prep group training across programme areas, including schedules, venues or online delivery, materials, communications and staffing.

• Facilitate and teach on prep groups, modelling inclusive, relational and reflective practice.

• Brief and support ISW co-facilitators so sessions are coherent, well-paced and grounded in the realities of fostering.

• Make sure applicants can reflect meaningfully on children's needs, safer caring, trauma-informed care, cultural matching and working with fostering services.

• Ensure observations and training feedback are recorded sensitively and on time, and use feedback to strengthen future delivery.

Relationships: Stay close to applicants and partners

• Undertake some intro chats, particularly where additional experience, judgement or continuity is needed.

• Step into complex applicant situations or difficult conversations without taking over work appropriately held by Journey Guides.

• Develop trusted operational relationships with Fostering Hubs, Regional Care Cooperatives, local authority fostering teams and other partners.

• Work through differences or blockages constructively, combining persistence with curiosity about other people's pressures and perspectives.

Programme Addurance: Safeguarding, quality and improvement

• Promote a strong safeguarding culture and ensure concerns are recognised, recorded and escalated appropriately.

• Maintain accurate, timely records and use pipeline data, feedback and practice observations to understand performance and improve delivery.

• Contribute to the development of tools, guidance, communications and digital workflows as Weekenders grows.

WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR – Experience, judgement and a strongly relational approach

Essential

You will need a recognised social work qualification and current registration with Social Work England. Beyond that, we are looking for someone who can combine strong practice judgement with people leadership and operational oversight.

You will thrive in this role if you have

• People-management experience – line-managing, supervising or developing staff, including giving feedback and supporting performance and wellbeing.

• Operational leadership – experience leading a service, programme or complex workflow with multiple people, deadlines and handovers.

• Children's services experience – in fostering, children's social care or a closely related setting, with a sound understanding of safeguarding and professional accountability.

• Training confidence – experience planning and delivering engaging adult learning, workshops or group training.

• Partnership skills – experience building productive relationships across organisational boundaries and working through operational challenges.

• A relational approach – able to hold warm, purposeful and appropriately challenging conversations with people from a wide range of backgrounds.

• Strong organisation and judgement – able to prioritise, delegate, manage dependencies and recognise what needs closer oversight or escalation.

• Digital and data confidence – comfortable using CRM and workflow systems, interpreting delivery information and turning insight into action.

The way you work matters

• Children first – you keep children's needs, relationships and long-term outcomes at the centre of decisions.

• Warm and reflective – you build genuine relationships, remain curious about your own impact and welcome feedback.

• Courageous and accountable – you name concerns, make decisions, follow through and own mistakes.

• Collaborative – you share learning generously while maintaining clear accountability.

• Adaptable – you are comfortable in a small, ambitious organisation where roles and systems continue to evolve.

Bonus points for

• Lived experience of the care system.

• Training or experience in motivational interviewing, systemic practice, coaching or another relational approach.

• Experience of foster carer recruitment, initial visits, assessment, prep groups, panel or post-approval support.

• Experience commissioning, coordinating or quality-assuring ISWs, associates or other independent practitioners.

• A practice educator, adult-teaching or training qualification, or substantial equivalent experience.

• Experience scaling a service across regions or working with a dispersed team and multiple delivery partners.

• Project, budget, contract, risk or resource-management experience.

• Experience of co-production, service design or continuous improvement.

WHAT IS IN IT FOR YOU

Joining Now Foster means being part of something different. We are small, ambitious and innovative, and you will have genuine influence over how Weekenders grows. You will stay close to practice and impact without carrying a statutory caseload.

You will join a supportive, collaborative team that cares about doing excellent work in a sustainable and humane way. We work a 37.5-hour week and trust people to manage their time with balance. The programme sometimes requires evening work, weekend training days or travel, and we flex working time around those commitments.

• Salary from £40,000.

• 28 days of annual leave plus bank holidays.

• Home-based working with regular co-working and team days.

• Travel and reasonable work expenses covered in line with Now Foster policy.

• The tools and technology you need to work effectively.

• Workplace pension scheme

• The opportunity to help build a bold, lasting and more relational approach to fostering.
   

We know strong candidates do not always meet every desirable criterion. If the purpose of the role excites you and your experience gives you a strong foundation for the essentials, we encourage you to apply.

RECRUITMENT PROCESS – Key dates and how to apply

• Applications close – Sunday 20 September 2026 at 23:30
• First-round interviews – Online planned for Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 September 2026
• Role play – For candidates progressing to the second round, before the second interview. 30 mins, completed online with one of our Weekenders.
• Second-round interviews– In person planned for Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 October 2026 (reasonable travel expenses covered)

Early application is encouraged. We may close the advert before 20 September if we receive a sufficient number of strong applications.

HOW TO APPLY

Please apply through the Charity Jobs listing by the closing date. Candidates invited to interview will receive further information about the format and preparation in advance.

You must have the right to work in the UK. Appointment is subject to current registration with Social Work England, a satisfactory Enhanced DBS check and our other safer recruitment requirements.

We recognise that candidates may use generative AI tools to support their application. This is acceptable, but your application must remain an authentic reflection of your own experience and motivation. Please tell us if and how you used AI as part of preparing it.

As a small charity unfortunately we do not have capacity to respond to unsuccessful candidates or offer feedback at the application stage. Please assume you have been unsuccessful on this occasion if you do not hear from us before the interview dates.

OUR COMMITMENT TO EQUALITY 

Now Foster is committed to being an equal opportunities employer. We celebrate diversity and actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, identities and experiences. Recruitment decisions are made using fair, objective and transparent criteria, and we will make reasonable adjustments so the process is accessible.

If you want to help grow a pioneering programme, develop a thoughtful team and create more lasting relationships for children and young people, we would love to hear from you.

The purpose of this role is to lead the design and delivery of learning programmes that help social entrepreneurs create lasting impact. You’ll take direct responsibility for facilitating cohorts as well as leading 1-2-1 coaching and diagnostics, and delivering Action Learning Sets, SSE’s long-standing peer-coaching method (training provided). You’ll hold accountability for the quality of programmes allocated to you. You’ll work alongside our learning facilitators and our learning and enterprise development managers to ensure every programme stays true to our action learning approach.

As SSE deepens its focus on commercial acumen and scale-up support, you’ll help make sure that direction reaches every cohort you work with — keeping your programmes as sharp, practical and impactful as everything else we do. You’ll bring your own commercial awareness to how you facilitate, and build relationships with contributors, speakers and specialists who can bring real-world commercial expertise into the room for your cohorts.

You’ll succeed in this role if you believe in what social entrepreneurship can achieve and want to support social ventures to grow and create more impact in their communities and beyond.

Who we are

IPSEA (Independent Provider of Special Education Advice) is a national charity working to ensure that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the educational support they are legally entitled to. Since we were formed in 1983, we have helped to improve the education experience of thousands of children and young people across England. We do this by providing free and independent legal advice and casework support for families, undertaking policy work and delivering training on the SEND legal framework.

What you’ll do

Reports to: Chief Executive

Location: Home-based or Hybrid (with frequent travel for events and meeting with parliamentarians and other stakeholders) 

We are seeking a Policy Manager to lead IPSEA's policy and influencing work to achieve positive change for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families. Working closely with the Chief Executive, Head of Legal and Training, trustees and colleagues across the organisation, you will set strategic policy priorities and develop evidence-based influencing plans that support IPSEA's mission and long-term objectives.

Drawing on insights from our advice and tribunal services, legal expertise and the experiences of families, you will identify systemic issues within the SEND system and develop policy solutions that improve children and young people's access to the support and education to which they are entitled. You will ensure that IPSEA's policy positions are credible, legally robust and informed by the lived experiences of those we support.

You will lead IPSEA's engagement with government, Parliament and other key decision-makers, identifying opportunities to influence legislation, policy and practice at both national and local level. This includes overseeing responses to consultations, parliamentary inquiries and calls for evidence, as well as preparing briefings and strategic advice to support senior-level engagement and advocacy.

Working collaboratively with colleagues across legal, communications, fundraising and training teams, you will ensure IPSEA's policy, campaigning and public affairs activities are aligned and maximise the organisation's impact. You will also monitor developments across the political, legal and policy landscape, helping IPSEA respond proactively to emerging opportunities and challenges affecting the rights of children and young people with SEND.

This role offers the opportunity to make a real difference as part of a small, friendly, and dedicated team. If you are passionate about helping children and young people with SEND and have the skills and experience needed, we would love to hear from you.

Who are we looking for?

You will have significant experience in a senior policy and campaigning/public affairs role and have good knowledge of local and national government structure including the legislative process.

You the ability to build and maintain relationships with a range of stakeholders including MPs, civil servants, campaigners and parents. You exhibit tact and diplomacy and can be impactful with people of varying levels and experience.

Your research and critical thinking skills enable you to analyse policy and data to produce relevant reports and position papers. You have experience of drafting organisation responses to government consultations and parliamentary calls for evidence.

IPSEA should also reflect the communities we support. We would particularly like to hear from candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds, LGBTQIA+ people, under-served communities and disabled people, as well as those with lived experience of the SEND system, either as a child or as a parent/carer.

What we can offer you

• 5% employer pension contributions
• Healthcare cash plan
• Flexible working arrangements
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays plus an additional day off for your birthday (pro-rata if part-time).

To apply

Visit our website to download a recruitment pack and application form.

Deadline for applications: 9am on 7 September 2026.

First-round interviews: on 15 September 2026 in our offices in Takeley, Essex, with second-round interviews (online) on 18 September 2026.

NO AGENCIES PLEASE.

The young people, children and families that we support are at the heart of everything we do at Mermaids.  The work that we do has significantly expanded and we now need a highly effective and experienced Youth Advocacy Manager to join the organisation.  The Youth Advocacy Manager plays a crucial role in empowering trans youth, advocating for their rights and fostering inclusive  and supportive communities where they can thrive.  This role is a core part of our management team and will drive the organization to ensure that youth voice is centred across all of our work.

Mermaids is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications from those with lived experiences (directly or indirectly) and/or close ties to the LGBTQ+ community. We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences to join us and shape what we do. We are particularly keen to receive applications from BPOC (black and people of colour) and/or disabled and trans candidates.

The young people, children and families that we support are at the heart of everything we do at Mermaids.  The work that we do has significantly expanded and we now need a highly effective and experienced Support Line Manager to join the organisation. The role is a core part of the our management team and will lead and manage our support line services.

Mermaids is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications from those with lived experiences (directly or indirectly) and/or close ties to the LGBTQ+ community. We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences to join us and shape what we do. We are particularly keen to receive applications from BPOC (black and people of colour) and/or disabled and trans candidates.