Befriending volunteer coordinator jobs in Battersea, greater london

Job Title: Independent Visitor Co-ordinator

Service: Children’s Rights Services, London and the South East

Reporting to: London Lead IV Coordinator  

Salary: £16,200-£16,605 per annum (£27,000-£27,675 FTE)

Location: Hybrid, Coram Campus with homeworking and work in the community

Hours: 21 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Job Introduction

· Are you passionate about supporting and developing volunteers?

· Are you looking for an opportunity to help make positive differences to the lives of children and young people who are looked after or care leavers of the local authority?

· Do you want to work with a leading national independent children’s charity?

Then come join us here at Coram Voice. We have an exciting opportunity for you to become a co-ordinator of our independent visiting service in London.

We are seeking candidates who are committed to our objectives for children and young people and equally committed to the organisation and the development of our services. We recognise we are a predominantly white workforce and are genuinely committed to encouraging candidates from diverse communities in order to improve the services to the children and young people we help.

Our work

Coram Voice is a national independent children’s charity established in 1975 and has grown to become one of the leading organisations for children and young people in the UK.

Coram Voice is a leading children’s rights organisation. We champion the rights of children. We get young voices heard in decisions that matter to them and work to improve the lives of children in care, care leavers and others who depend upon the help of the state.

We provide:

· Advocacy services direct to children and young people in care, in need, in custody and to care leavers and children and young people with severe and complex mental health problems. Advocates around the country support children and young people to get their voice heard in decisions about their lives.  This may be through the telephone helpline or through an advocate working directly with a child, for instance, to support them at a review meeting or to help them make a complaint about their care. Coram Voice provides visiting advocacy services to most of the secure units nationally, to Secure Training Centres, Juvenile Young Offender Institutions, psychiatric hospitals, residential special schools and children’s homes.

· A National Helpline to provide access for children and young people to advocacy and advice, with access to legal advice and links with other national services.

· Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) to advocate for young people as qualifying patients under the Mental Health Act, in order to fully support them to get their views heard in matters relating to their mental health.

· Independent Visitor services offers a child or young person in care an adult volunteer who provides independent, one-to-one visiting, advice and befriending support. Our independent visitors can become the only long-term, consistent source of support throughout a young person's time in care.

· Independent services provide independent person services for complaints by children and for reviewing whether children should be locked up in secure units on welfare grounds.

· Policy and campaigning to create a better system for all children and young people looked after by the state, for their care to be more child-centred and to give young people a greater say in decisions about their lives. 

· Participation services to ensure children and young people have a voice in the development and delivery of services and campaigns, and through the process, provide the opportunity to develop relevant skills which will be of benefit to them in their future lives.

· Training, development and information for young people, advocates and child care workers, offering courses in advocacy, children’s rights and child-centred practice across a range of areas including the National Advocacy Qualification.

About the Role

You will co-ordinate and deliver a statutory independent visitor service to children and young people in care or care leavers of London.

You will recruit, assess and train volunteers to become independent visitors, who are volunteer befrienders to children and young people looked after or care leavers. You will manage a cash flow to fund suitable activities for independent visitors to enjoy with the young person. You will manage data and reporting for this statutory service so that service leads and other stakeholders can understand the activity in the service.

We are a child led service, you will not act outside of the young person’s instructions (except in matters of child protection and safety.)  You will build strong relationships with the child or young person, independent visitors and other significant adults, you will support Independent Visitors to develop long term, meaningful friendships with the young person.

You will work in partnership with other parts of the service, organisation and external agencies and professionals. This is to ensure there are pathways to attract and retain Independent Visitors in the area and sometimes out of area.

What you will receive

We wish to reward and recognise the valuable contributions our staff make to the organisation and offer an attractive benefits package to do so. Coram Voice benefits package includes a competitive salary, a matched pension scheme up to 5% of salary, generous leave entitlements of 28 days’ annual leave per year, with increases linked to years worked at Coram Voice. A supportive work environment fostering a good work/home life balance and a suite of family friendly policies, which promote employee wellbeing.

You will get a genuine opportunity to make a difference every day.

Recruitment process

Shortlisting will be undertaken by Grace Maher, Children’s Rights Services Manager and Jade Joseph, London Lead IV Coordinator. Successful candidates will then be invited for interview. The interview process comprises of a written exercise and a panel interview. Successful candidates will have a further one to one interview in accordance within Warner recommendations. Internal candidates will need to notify HR of their interest in the post and they will provide further information on the internal application process.

Returning your application:

· We cannot accept general CVs. When completing your application form, address each point of the person specification and demonstrate how you meet it.

· Applications must be fully completed.

The deadline for applications to be returned is 11.59pm on Sunday 1st February 2026.

Interviews will be arranged for Thursday 12th and Friday 13th February 2026.

About The Connection at St Martin’s

We believe that no one should have to sleep rough on London’s streets, and that everyone should get the support they need to find a place to call home. We get to know every person we work with, understanding what they need to recover, helping them build on their strengths, and supporting them to find their own way home. Help us make London a city where no one sleeps rough on our streets.

London’s diversity is its biggest asset and we strive to ensure our workforce reflects London’s diversity at all levels. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability.

We particularly encourage applications from candidates with lived experience of homelessness who we believe are an essential asset in our sector.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and welcome the opportunity to consider flexible working arrangements.

About the Role

We know that solving rough sleeping and homelessness can only be achieved when the whole community woks together. Volunteers are central to our ability to broaden our reach and access the resources we need.  We are looking for a proactive volunteering professional with extensive experience of volunteer development to build our impact, recruiting and supporting a range of volunteers across our organisation.

Salary: £38,753 - £43,471 (Scale points 23 – 27)
Closing Date: Monday 26th January
Interview Date: Wednesday 4th or Thursday 5th February

This is a 2 year FTC.

Our Benefits

· 30 days holiday plus bank holidays

· Generous training budget, plus an annual personal training budget

· Enhanced Sick Pay Policy

· Enhanced family friendly policies

· Day off for moving house

· Hybrid working (depending on role requirements)

· Pension – 5% Employer, 3% Employee

· Cycle to Work Scheme

· Season Ticket Loan

· Employee Assistance Programme

· Reward Gateway (access to discount vouchers and cashback at the UK’s favourite retailers)

We are a London Living Wage employer

Senior Personal Safety Assessor

Salary £31,489 (FTE) £25,191.20pro rata - Part Time 28 hours per week 

Tuesday – Friday 9am – 5pm 

Age UK Croydon’s very successful Personal Safety Project (Falls Prevention) for older people in Croydon is recruiting a new Senior Personal Safety Assessor. If you are an enthusiastic, passionate and organised individual, this could be the role for you.

Our Personal Safety Project (PSP) is a free service which aims to help older people who have fallen or are at risk of falling at home. The service is available to anyone aged 50 and over who lives in the borough of Croydon.

Our trained assessors carry out a comprehensive risk assessment to identify potential causes of falls and hazards in the home and can arrange for stair rails, grab handles and other necessary aids and adaptations to be supplied and/or fitted, free of charge. The project can provide ongoing telephone support for up to six weeks to monitor the risk of further falls post engagement.

If you are passionate about supporting older people to remain safe and independent at home and want to contribute to an organisation which is continuously striving to improve, then we would love to hear from you.

We are committed to providing a flexible and productive working environment for all employees. Evolving technology and communication platforms enable employees to work in new and different ways, where we can meet our stakeholder needs and continue to deliver against our charitable objectives. We recognise the importance of supporting employees to have greater personal choice and maintain a healthier work/life balance.

Full training will be provided; the important qualities we are looking for are:

• · Excellent communication and listening skills
• · Organised with ability to manage a caseload
• · Ability to accurately record and store information
• · A cheerful, friendly and outgoing personality

Closing date for applications: 9am, Wednesday 4th February 2026

Interview Dates: Wednesday 11th February 2026