Casework Coordinator Jobs in Manchester
A fantastic opportunity has arisen for a Regional Casework Coordinator to join the Northwest Region at SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity.
You will be part of the regional office team who are the first point of contact to all beneficiaries into the Regional Office. You will be assisting with sometimes complex problems from individuals who may be distressed, identifying the presenting and potential underlining needs to determine the best way to support the beneficiary, either by beginning a casework referral, referring to another service within SSAFA or making an external referral to organisations better able to offer support. You will also have ownership of cases from beginning to end, coordinating the casework process in a timely manner and ensure that the beneficiary journey is at the centre of the Service. At all times you will adhere to the safeguarding, confidentiality, and data-protection policies, including escalation to emergency services for clients where there are immediate areas of concern.
To help you establish yourself in this new post you will receive excellent training and induction to SSAFA and will influence the processes and procedures within the office, working closely with the Regional Casework Manager and Regional Operations Manager.
The post is home-based, but you may have to travel occasionally around the Northwest Region of England.
About the team
In this new role you will be working closely with volunteers from the six SSAFA branches in the Northwest, supporting them to administer casework for SSAFA beneficiaries. The successful candidate will work as part of a larger support team which will include a Casework Manager and a Regional Operational Manager.
About you
To carry out this role successfully you will have a track record of providing welfare advice in key areas such as, housing benefits, debt, disability, mobility or immigration issues. You will have knowledge of safeguarding and GDPR, along with experience in dealing with sensitive information and people in vulnerable situations. You will be able to provide excellent customer service by telephone, e-mail and face to face. You will have used Microsoft Office 365 to a high standard. It is important that you have experience of planning and managing your own workload, with minimal supervision.
It would be advantageous if you have an understanding of the way of life for today’s Armed Forces, veterans and their families, along with supporting volunteers. An understanding of the voluntary sector and preferably the military charity sector landscape across the North West.
About SSAFA
SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity is a trusted source of support for serving personnel, veterans and their families in their time of need. In 2022 our trained teams of volunteers and employees helped more than 59,000 people, including veterans, serving personnel (regulars and reserves) and their families.
SSAFA understands that behind every uniform is a person. And we are here for that person and their family, any time they need us and in any way, they need us.
Diversity and Inclusion at SSAFA
SSAFA exists to support a diverse range of beneficiaries within the armed forces community, and we believe diversity within our teams is key to ensuring we can deliver our services effectively. We thrive on differences and believe it is critical to our success as a worldwide charity. SSAFA is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace that seeks to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We therefore encourage applications from all genders, races, religions, ages and sexual orientations, as well as parents, veterans, people living with disabilities, and any other groups that could bring diverse perspectives to our business.
SSAFA is committed to using the Disclosure & Barring Service to ensure we, as an employer, safeguard those we serve.
Further information about the role
No agencies please. Any unsolicited submissions from agencies will be accepted as a direct application from the candidate and no fees will be payable.
Closing date: Midnight on 6 May 2024. SSAFA reserves the right to close the vacancy early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications.
Interviews: 13 May 2024
Salary: £32,076 starting salary (salary range will increase to a max £34,834 via the length of service) Plus £4,087.65 Inner London Weighting if based in London per annum pro rata.
Contract: part-time fixed term basis until 31st December 2024.
Part-Time: 21 hours per week (excluding lunch breaks)
Location: Any Refugee Action office – London, Manchester, Bradford, or Birmingham. We will consider UK-based hybrid working options.
About Refugee Action
Refugee Action exists to work with refugees and people seeking asylum who’ve survived some of the world’s worst regimes. We are a national charity with more than 40 years’ experience of empowering people who’ve survived some of the world’s worst regimes to secure the protection and support that they need to live with dignity and respect and build a new life in the UK. We do this by providing expert advice and casework, building the capacity of partner organisations and campaigning on the policies that affect them.
Our vision is that refugees and asylum seekers will be welcome in the UK. They will get justice, live free of poverty and be able to successfully rebuild their lives.
To succeed in the role you will need to demonstrate:
- Commitment to removing barriers to power for people with lived experience, and commitment to anti-racist practices.
- Understanding of how the UK’s hostile refugee protection and asylum system impacts those affected by it.
- Experience of development work that is empowering, preventative and / or asset-based; enabling communities of people or organisations to gain confidence, skills and resilience.
- Excellent networking, facilitation and partnership-building skills, with the ability to initiate and maintain effective networks.
- Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, develop positive relationships and maintain flexibility and open-mindedness.
- Excellent team working skills, with the ability to collaborate and enable others to thrive.
- Ability to use your own initiative to work through challenges or problems or to see an opportunity and take steps to improve something.
- Ability to reflect on your own work and role, ask for help, identify strengths and challenges, be open to giving and receiving feedback and work towards professional development.
- Insight and experience or interest in developing skills in: research, Human Centred Design / service design, coproduction, programme management, monitoring evaluation and learning
- Excellent project management skills and ability to plan and manage your own workload.
- Experience or ability to issue and monitor expenses and project agreements ensuring that they comply with the terms and conditions of grant funding.
We want to make sure that we reach to as many potential candidates as possible and that we make the process accessible so we will be running an information session where interested people can come and find out more about the role, the work of the GPP team and the application process.
For the online Information Session via Zoom, please register via the link below:
Monday 22nd April – 3:00 – 4:00 pm
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwrc-mhrz0uG9Hd5dCbFCjI_aV9Mf2UbcbC
For further details, and to apply, please visit our website.
Those with lived experience as a refugee are particularly encouraged to apply.
Closing date: 23:59 Sunday 5th May 2024
Interviews: Thursday 23rd May 2024 – online via Zoom
Refugee Action only operates in the UK, so all roles are UK-based, and you must have the right to work in the UK.
This role is not on the Shortage Occupation List. If you have permission to work that is restricted to the Shortage Occupation List, we will be unable to appoint you to this role.
You can find out which roles are on the shortage occupation list via these two links:
- Skilled Worker visa: shortage occupations
- Skilled Worker visa: shortage occupations for healthcare and education
We are currently campaigning for people seeking asylum to have the right to work in the UK, see our Lift the Ban campaign here.
Salary: £32,076 starting salary (salary range will increase due to max £34,834 via the length of service) per annum (pro rata where applicable).
Contract: Full-time, fixed-term basis until 30 April 2025, with the possibility of further funding.
Hours: Full-Time 35 hours per week (excluding lunch breaks), although there may be some flexibility around this for the ideal candidate.
Location: The post holder will be based in the Refugee Action Manchester office with regular travel across Greater Manchester. Flexible home working will be considered on non-client facing days.
About Refugee Action
Refugee Action exists to work with refugees and people seeking asylum who’ve survived some of the world’s worst regimes. We are a national charity with more than 40 years’ experience of empowering people who’ve survived some of the world’s worst regimes to secure the protection and support that they need to live with dignity and respect and build a new life in the UK. We do this by providing expert advice and casework, building the capacity of partner organisations and campaigning on the policies that affect them.
To succeed in the role you will need to demonstrate:
- Commitment to removing barriers to power for people with lived experience, and commitment to anti-racist practices.
- Understanding of how the UK’s hostile refugee protection and asylum system impacts those affected by it.
- Experience and understanding of cultural diversity and the ability to work with people from a range of different cultures.
- Understanding and experience of working with and supervising volunteers.
- Experience and understanding of how to provide high quality face-to-face group information sessions with the ability to collate information and present in different ways in order to reach different target groups.
- Excellent liaison and networking skills and the ability to work in partnership with external agencies.
- Knowledge of the asylum process and the barriers faced by people going through this process.
- Understanding of and commitment to key advice principles such as confidentiality, impartiality and non-directive approaches and a commitment to equality of opportunity.
- Excellent written communication skills and experience in presenting clear and accurate written documents to present evidence and advocate.
- Understanding of the impact of working with people in a situation of transition and uncertainty, and of appropriate ways of handling that impact at work.
- Ability to plan and manage workload within tight timeframes including the ability to record the data for monitoring purpose.
- Understanding of Safeguarding policy and good practice and experience of working with clients with complex needs according to these policies.
- Ability and commitment to reflect on your practice and a commitment to continual professional development and learning.
- Ability to plan and carry out monitoring and evaluation processes on an ongoing basis and to present the findings in a clear way.
- OISC accreditation is desirable but the post-holder will be supported to qualify at OISC 2 if not already accredited.
Those with lived experience as a refugee are particularly encouraged to apply
Closing date: 23:59 on 28 April 2024
Interviews: 8 May 2024 (on Zoom)
Refugee Action only operates in the UK, so all roles are UK-based, and you must have the right to work in the UK.
This role is not on the Shortage Occupation List. If you have permission to work that is restricted to the Shortage Occupation List, we will be unable to appoint you to this role.
You can find out which roles are on the shortage occupation list via these two links:
- Skilled Worker visa: shortage occupations
- Skilled Worker visa: shortage occupations for healthcare and education
We are currently campaigning for people seeking asylum to have the right to work in the UK, see our Lift the Ban campaign here.