Refuge is the UK’s largest provider of specialist services for victims of all forms of gender-based violence (domestic, sexual, so called ‘honour’ violence, modern slavery and human trafficking, prostitution, forced marriage, stalking and FGM). Every day we support over 6,000 women and children in our national network of services.  These include Independent Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence Advocacy services (IDVAs/ISVAs and IGVAs), community outreach, specialist refuge accommodation, sanctuary services, culturally-specific services and the Freephone 24 Hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline. We advise Government and lobby hard to keep violence against women and girls high on the public agenda. We run award-winning prevention and public education campaigns, manage a busy press office and website, and we are an accredited training provider. We give a voice to the voiceless.

This role requires an exceptional individual who wants to make a difference. As a Refuge Worker, you will be responsible for providing high quality practical and emotional support to survivors of domestic violence and their children living in our refuges.

You will ensure the smooth running of the refuge, including the admission of survivors of domestic violence to the refuge. You will also assess and advise on their entitlement to welfare and housing benefits and housing management. You will develop support plans for each resident and aid them to obtain permanent accommodation.

The successful candidate will have evidence of strong casework management skills, good written and verbal communication, and an understanding of the importance of maintaining professional boundaries. You will be required to bring safeguarding children or vulnerable adults to the immediate attention of the service manager, or if unavailable another manager. Direct experience of providing support to women is essential as is a current understanding of legislation relating to domestic violence including civil/criminal legislation and welfare rights. The ability to work as part of an on-call rota is essential and occasional evening work in emergency situations.

All candidates must demonstrate a commitment to the feminist values of empowerment and equality which underpin all of our work. Successful applicants will be expected to work within Refuge’s Values and Behaviour Framework and demonstrate these in their everyday work.

Competitive salary offering annual progression within points of the salary grade, 28 days annual leave increasing to 30 days, pension scheme with People’s pension that includes a 6% Employer contribution, comprehensive EAP.

Refuge is proud to be a leader in its field and an employer of choice with leading edge systems for supervision, quality management and development. We offer the first Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) accredited qualification for our profession. 

Please visit Refuge’s website for further details and other opportunities.

Closing Date: 21st July 2020

This is a permanant and part time role with 33.75 hours per week.

An enhanced Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) certificate will be required for this role.

Refuge is committed to quality, equality and diversity and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. This post however is restricted to women due to the nature of the role. The Occupational Requirement under Schedule 9 (part 1) of the Equality Act 2010 applies.

No agencies please - as a charity we work hard to keep our costs down.

Part-time working and job sharing considered
Fixed term contract till March 2021

Closing date: Sunday 19th July 2020 at 11.30pm. 
Interviews: Tuesday 28th July 2020

Do you have lived experience of mental health issues and offending? Would you like to use that experience to help others turn their lives around? This is a great opportunity for you to gain experience working with a leading provider of homelessness and housing advice and support. Join us as a Peer Mentor and be part of this exciting new service. 
A home is a fundamental human need, as essential as education or healthcare. Yet millions of people across Britain struggle on a daily basis with homelessness, bad housing conditions, soaring rents, discrimination and the threat of eviction. So, we are striving for change, with individuals, in communities, across society, and leading the way to a safe home. We need ambitious, best-in-class individuals who are passionate about our cause to join us at this exciting time. This is your chance to play a part in the fundamental change we are striving to achieve.

Funded by the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust, the Liaison and Diversion Service provides early intervention to people in contact with the criminal justice system who are identified as having complex needs. Our aim is to address health and social inequalities to reduce re-offending behaviours.

About the role

As a Peer Mentor you'll participate in an induction programme and receive formal training in key areas such as homelessness and housing, substance misuse, offending and mental health issues. You'll participate in activities across Shelter and the Liaison and Diversion Service, visiting external agencies with whom we work and attending regular support sessions, supervision and performance reviews. In this role, you'll focus specifically on supporting individuals with multiple and complex needs who are going through the criminal justice system. Your challenge will be to build a relationship of trust with clients and help them to achieve their personalized support outcomes.

About you

You'll need lived experience of mental health concerns and offending - along with experience of accessing support services. Lived experience of substance misuse and homelessness would also be desirable. Evidence of achieving personal goals and a level of stability is also important as is an interest in a career working to support vulnerable adults with multiple and complex needs. Good communication, customer service and basic computer skills are also required, along with a desire to develop and learn new ones.

Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including 30 days of annual leave (pro rata), enhanced family friendly policies, childcare vouchers, pension and interest free travel loans. Our employees also have access to a tenancy deposit loan, cycle to work scheme and an employee assistance programme.

Shelter helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness through our advice, support and legal services. And we campaign to make sure that, one day, no one will have to turn to us for help. We're here so no one has to fight bad housing or homelessness on their own.
Apply to be part of an exciting new initiative and be the change you want to see in society.

Safeguarding is everyone's business. Shelter is committed to protecting the health, wellbeing and human rights of those we support, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. All our staff will be expected to observe professional standards of behaviour and conduct their work in line with our Safeguarding Policies.

At Shelter, we welcome and encourage applications from everyone regardless of age, disability, gender, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. We also encourage applications from people, who have been homeless or have been at risk of homelessness. We are facing diverse problems, so need diverse people to tackle them. In addition to this, we encourage an approach to involving people with personal insight of housing issues and homelessness in our recruitment processes.

Shelter does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, interviews will take place via Zoom. If you do not have access to this, interviews can take place by telephone.

£19,847 - £23,350 p/a  (please note successful candidates should expect to be appointed at the starting point of the salary scale and consideration may be given to a higher salary depending on the experience of the individual)

Full-Time (35 hrs p/w) - Fixed Term Contract till 31 March 2021 

West Midlands with a base in Coventry, with frequent travel locally and further afield

Ref code: CMW-201

Are you a driven, proactive and compassionate individual looking to make a significant difference to the lives of vulnerable children and young people? Have you had personal experience of the Criminal Justice System or a proven track record of engaging positively with young offenders or other vulnerable groups? 

If so, St Giles is looking for a Caseworker to join their County Lines team, where you will play a pivotal role on our pioneering project.

About St Giles Trust

An ambitious, well-established charity that helps people facing adversity to find jobs, homes and the right support they need. Central to our ethos is our belief that people with first-hand experience of successfully overcoming issues such as an offending background, homelessness, addictions and gang involvement, hold the key to positive change in others. 

County Lines is a phenomenon in which criminal drug dealing operations are expanding their operations outside of the larger cities, taking over drug markets in smaller towns. Gangs target vulnerable children and young people and coerce them to transport and distribute mainly Class A drugs into areas where there is less police presence, less competition and high demand for their product. 

About this exciting opportunity

This pivotal role will see you referring clients, with reference to St Giles Trust/Rescue and Response assessment practices. You will also need to produce support plans and risk management and planning process, and to include appropriate agencies in the delivery of the service.

You will also deliver a holistic support service, working independently or with colleagues, which will include providing social and housing support, education, training and employment options, benefits work, debt advice, and appearing in court. Developing and maintaining strong relationships with regional agencies including police and social services is a key aspect of the role.

What we are looking for:

• Personal experience of the criminal justice system, lived experience of the issues facing this client group and/or experience of working with ‘high risk’, vulnerable children, young people and/or families

• Experience of engaging successfully with ‘challenging’ young people 

• Substantial experience of providing support, advice and advocacy and communicating effectively, the needs of clients to other professionals

• Strong IT skills, particularly MS Office, and the ability to work with a case database

• The ability to use and develop monitoring systems to record all aspects of the project

In return, you can expect a competitive salary, generous leave allowance, staff pension, flexible working, a mentoring programme, an advice and counselling service, access to clinical supervision, season ticket loan and much more.

For further information and to apply please visit our website.

Closing date: 11pm, 26th July 2020. Interviews: 3rd August 2020 (Interviews may be held via video)

Job Title: DFN-MoveForward Progression Coach 
Reporting To: DFN-MoveForward Project Lead
Location: Sandwell
Contract Type:  Permanent
Hours: Part Time (15 – 22.5 hours a week)
Salary: £31,555 (pro rata)
Start Date: Early September

Overview of ThinkForward:  

ThinkForward is a breakthrough coaching programme that ensures young people who are disengaged from or underperforming at school receive support to transition into sustained employment. Young people are identified for the programme aged 13 based on risk factors known to increase their chances of future unemployment. They are offered one-to-one support from a progression coach who builds a trusted and long-term relationship over five years, helping them to overcome challenges in and out of school and linking them to ready for work activities provided by a community of businesses. By the end of the programme young people develop the aspirations, skills and mindsets needed to thrive and sustain employment. MoveForward is our programme designed specifically to work with young people who have mild to moderate learning disabilities and/or autism.

Purpose of the Role:  

To support fifteen 14-19-year-olds with moderate cognitive and/or communication difficulties in a special school in Sandwell, to gain the skills and experiences necessary to transition to paid employment, and ensuring the quality and impact of the programme is delivered.

Key Responsibilities: 

With young people – To build and maintain relationships with young people and ensure that the DFN-MoveForward programme has impact

• Work with school staff to ensure participants are engaged in the MoveForward programme
• Assess the needs of the young people, using data to design tailored action plans
• Provide one-to-one coaching for young people as well as group coaching sessions, both around building work readiness
• Support young people to engage with opportunities provided by third parties including employers and partner charities
• Ensure that young people meet the required outcomes and make a sustained transition to further education, employment or vocational training, continually driving their work readiness
• Adhere to all relevant policies (safeguarding, health and safety, etc) when delivering activities with young people
• Collaborate with the school to safeguard young people
• Document and evidence all work and use data to provide the most effective support with young people

With special school – Accountable for day-to-day relationship management of the partnership

• Liaise with senior staff in the special school to establish and manage the relationship between the school and MoveForward
• Represent MoveForward at the senior leadership team and governor meetings
• Train and support school staff in a variety of activities and methodologies to support young people with additional needs into employment 
• Build an extensive knowledge of the support available to the cohort of young people
• Establish a coordinated platform which enables the school to share learning, contacts and volunteering/placement/work exposure opportunities for young people
• Work with data managers for regular access to required data
• Produce and communicate termly reports to demonstrate impact
• Review quality and impact on a termly basis

With partners

• Collaborate with DFN-MoveForward’s Business Partnership Manager to broker new business partnerships for the school and build on existing business partnerships
• Support with the training and supervision of business volunteers in mentoring, work exposure and work placements for young people with additional needs
• Plan and lead session content and communicate with the business in advance of sessions
• Conduct review with the business during and after the activities
• Collaborate with school Job Coaches, the supported internship lead at the school and local Sandwell networks to support recruitment, retention and positive job outcomes.

With parents of young people

• Together with the school, actively engage with parents, carers, guardians etc of the young people, in the journey the young person is taking into employment and help them to build their aspirations and support for their child, regarding employment. 

With colleagues - Share knowledge and experience with colleagues to improve effectiveness of the programme

• Help to establish the curriculum, tools and methodologies of the programme
• Feed into the design and evaluation of the programme
• Report risks to relevant members of staff
• Participate in peer quality assurance processes

Programme quality & standards – To ensure that delivery of the DFN-MoveForward programme meets the required standards

• Perform a termly review and plan of the MoveForward programme
• Ensure that the programme specification is met i.e. group work, action planning, ready for work activities
• Activities are planned according to need and in line with budget
• Ensure that all interventions are logged on database
• Work in adherence to organisational policies
• Actively participate in QA process linked to quality and standards

Person Specification:

ThinkForward’s staff competency framework informs our recruitment and performance management of staff. The following behaviours for each competency define the expectations for this position:

Communication

• Ability to communicate with staff at all levels from a variety of different stakeholders
• Approachable, open and transparent with young people, stakeholders and colleagues
• Ability to deliver messages in an interesting and stimulating style, appropriate to each audience

Planning and organising

• Self-motivated, able to work independently and proactively
• Very strong organisational and project management skills, including use of appropriate tools and systems
• Excellent computer literacy

Teamwork

• Working in a team ideally in a fast pace environment, working collaboratively to achieve goals
• Building lasting relationships with different stakeholders for example schools, colleges, other charities, alternative education providers and employers

Impact and quality focused

• Comfortable working to targeted outcomes/goals for young people within the boundaries of a programme
• Ability to keep young people at the heart of what you do while working at targeted outcomes
• Knowledge of how to support young people with learning disabilities to become more job ready
• Driven by excellent standards and high quality
• Use of data to inform delivery and improve provision

Professional expertise

• Three years direct experience of working with vulnerable young people, ideally in school and with learning disabilities
• An understanding of the complex barriers that young people with learning disabilities face and the services available for them
• Understanding and/or experience of supported internship programmes
• Ability to support young people in both a one-to-one setting and by running group work
• Knowledge of careers and employment IAG and the importance of tailored progression planning for vulnerable young people
• Persistence, patience and empathy in working with a young person’s mindset and behaviour
• A professional qualification related to work with young people, or relevant experience

Interested applicants are invited to apply by the 19th of July, with their CV and a cover letter that outlines your suitability for the role. Interviews will be held during the weeks commencing the 27th of July or 3rd of August

We do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies. Unfortunately, due to the high volume of applications we receive, we will only be able to contact successful applicants.

ThinkForward is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and post holders to share this commitment. 

ThinkForward are committed to equality of opportunity for all staff and applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships. 

As a registered Disability Confident employer, ThinkForward has an accessible recruitment process. We offer interviews to all applicants who meet the job requirements and who declare themselves as having a disability. If you need support, such as materials in larger print, dyslexic-friendly fonts or adjustments for the interview, please contact us and we will do our best to accommodate you. 

Principal Practice Tutors (PPT) hold key responsibility for teaching and developing participants at the five-week summer institute, regional recall days and in the participant units within local authorities. PPTs play a critical role as the practice experts within Frontline, a core to this role is modelling and supporting practice tutors as well as working directly with a  participant units, based within statutory children’s social care services. Each unit comprises four (in some cases 5) participants and is led by a Consultant Social Worker (CSW). Applicants will need to have  previous experience in Higher Education – ideally having led an academic teaching unit, holding programme lead responsibilities and  taken a leadership role in teaching or research.

Applicants need an excellent understanding of the social work role and an ability to make links across both adults’ and children’s services. Core to the PPT role is the ability to provide general support, challenge and guidance to participants, CSWs and practice tutors in order to ensure that participants practice learning experience is of excellent quality. PPTs also support CSWs to develop and  provide excellence guidance and management to participants on the programme.  To apply you will need to have advanced social work practice skill, experience of developing others and a commitment to educating a new generation of social workers. This role provides the opportunity to genuinely align practice and theory and instill the same strong commitment in CSWs and participants. In doing so you will need a commitment to evidence informed practice models and an appetite to exploring different and innovative approaches to teaching these models.

This role is part time, 0.5 FTE.

This is an opportunity to be involved in the Kids in Need of Defense UK (KIND UK) programme at the Central England Law Centre (West Midlands). KIND UK is a partnership which provides free, specialist immigration advice and representation for children and young people, and their families. It is a collaboration between Kids in Need of Defense (a US charity), Central England Law Centre, Coram Children’s Legal Centre, MiCLU at Islington Law Centre, Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit and Just Right Scotland. The UK agencies each employ Supervising solicitor(s)/lawyer(s) to provide training, guidance and support to commercial lawyers, who in turn provide the advice service on a pro bono basis.

We are looking for a dynamic and enthusiastic solicitor or senior casework supervisor with expertise in immigration and nationality law to supervise commercial lawyers in providing free legal advice and representation to children, young people and families with out-of-scope immigration and nationality cases.

Candidates must be accredited to Level 2 IAAS and should have recent experience of making immigration, asylum and nationality applications and some experience of litigation. You must also have commitment to upholding the human rights of asylum seekers, migrants, and refugees and a commitment to working with migrant children and young people within families so that their voices are heard and so that they can inform the development of this project.

The closing date is 12:00PM Wednesday 15 July 2020, with interviews to be held (via Zoom) week commencing 20th July 2020.

Assistant IT Manager

This is a role where you can make your mark. With your experience of leading or managing a technical team coupled with your operational experience of IT infrastructures and networks, you will have the opportunity to be part of shaping technological solutions that manage their service provision today and provide solutions that support our growth in the future.

Assistant IT Manager Responsibilities:

As their Deputy Technology Manager, you will be responsible for managing and developing a small team and report into the Technology Manager. You will manage the day-to-day service delivery in a mixed Windows and Mac environment.

Responsibilities will include; overseeing IT infrastructure and ensure it is fit for purspose, identifying potential issues and possible opportunities. Ensure Help desk runs smoothly and jobs are prioritised to business needs. Responsible for 3rd line trouble shooting. Have the ability to interpret and produce relevant KPIs.
Key systems are VN Ware, CISCO, LAN, WAN, DNS and DHCP

There may be the occasional need to be On Call over weekends and evenings.

Assistant IT Manager Requirements:

So that you can make your mark as quickly as possible, we will need you to be a true team player, have a proactive and collaborative style and an infectious drive to embed a service and results focused culture throughout your team, as well as a genuine desire to develop your team to release their full potential.
Strong knowledge of VN Ware, Cisco, Lan, Wan, DNS and DHCP is esstiential. Previous experience of Managing a team. The ability to priorites workload and identify security issues. You will ideally be a member of chartered insititute of BCS although this is not essential. Have a minimum of 2 years Managment experience.

About the company:

Their mission, simply put, is to change the lives of disabled children and their families. They provide access to the vital equipment they rely on, offer information and support through their team of dedicated healthcare professionals, sponsor pioneering medical research into the causes of birth defects and offer families a voice through our campaigns for change.

They are not like any other charity. All of the stock in their  stores is new, donated by retailers, allowing them to create a heaven for bargain hunters and savvy fashionista shoppers who want high street products at discount prices.

What they do and how they do it is unique and being part of the family is very special. Their team members are passionate about what they do and the contribution they make in helping the families they work with.

This is a truly great opportunity to make your mark and be part of creating something amazing!

Location: Cannock, WS11 7GF (with occasional travel)

Job type: Full Time, Permanent, 37.5 hours per week

Salary: up to £36,000 per annum depending on experience

Benefits: they can offer you the flexibility you need to help you strike the right balance between home and work. In addition to a competitive salary, you will also receive 31 days holiday (including Bank Holidays), health cash plan membership, team member store discount, company sick pay and pension scheme membership…. and of course the satisfaction of knowing that what you do is making a difference!

You may have experience of the following: IT Manager, Technical Support Manager, IT Support Manager, Infrastructure Manager, Network Manager, Helpdesk Manager, Technical Support Engineer, IT Support Engineer, IT Support Technician, Senior IT Support Engineer, Assistant IT Manager, Assistant Support Manager, etc.

Ref: 93282