Evaluation and research manager jobs

Sensory Services by Sight for Surrey has been established for over 100 years.  We enable and empower people who are Deaf, hard of hearing, blind, partially sighted, and deafblind to overcome barriers and to be as independent as possible.

An exciting opportunity has arisen within our Children and Young People’s Service.  The team enables and empowers children, young people and families to thrive, by providing a variety of vibrant and impactful services, activities and events.

This role would suit someone who enjoys and is skilled at supporting families to overcome barriers they face as a result of having a disabled child, including providing one to one support, practical assistance, and group workshops.  Candidates should have experience of working with children, young people and families in a support role.

Key responsibilities

· Ensure parent carers have someone to work alongside them to help to overcome barriers they are facing as a family as a result of their child/’s sensory impairment.

· Provide practical assistance (such as letter writing and attending meetings with a parent carer) where this is needed.  This will include assisting with the Education & Health Care Plan (EHCP) to ensure it accurately reflects their needs.

· To assess and identify when the needs of the children and their families are not being met and work with parents, other professionals, and organisations as appropriate to address the issues with the aim of ensuring that the children have the opportunities and environments that will enable them to reach their potential and achieve their aspirations.

· Reduce loneliness and social isolation for parent carers by both connecting them with wider parent carer support services, and by organising and facilitating opportunities for them to come together, such as through drop-in events at community café’s and parent led support groups.

· Empower and enable parent carers to have the knowledge, skills, confidence, and support they need to advocate for their child/children through organising group training workshops and development around specific topics, creating and sharing resources that will help, and through our Power to The Parents event.

· To support children and young people through transition from children’s services into adult services, engaging with SEND services and adult services where appropriate.

· To follow all policies, including those focused on confidentiality, equality, and diversity. 

· Keep accurate and up to date records of work completed and support provided.

· Create, share and store two anonymised case studies each month which demonstrate the barriers faced by families, and the impact of the service.

· To attend weekend and school holiday activities and events to meet and support the children, young people, and their families at a time that works for them. 

· Ensure the family support service is needs led and inclusive for all.

· Offers first line emotional support to parents and young people as they come to terms with their vision impairment/ multi-sensory impairment as appropriate and make onward referrals where appropriate for more robust assistance, such as through our counselling service. 

· To encourage parents to become involved in activities available to children & their families and to support older children to engage with the 11UP and Young Adults programme as age appropriate.

· To keep up to date with current legislation, local and national policies, research and services and to share these appropriately.

· To be proactive in safeguarding all children and adults from abuse, and report any suspected incidents of abuse, following our policies and procedures which link with the Surrey County Council Safeguarding framework.

· To undertake all mandatory training, and continuous professional development (CPD) 

· To represent the charity at external forums and as appropriate, attend meetings as a representative.

· To co-operate fully as a member of the staff team and to ensure good communication at all times including attending team meetings, supervision and annual appraisal.

· To complete any other requests, with appropriate training, to support the wider team and charity goals.

Person Specification

Essential

· Significant experience of direct work with families in a support capacity

· Experience of planning and managing own workload within established guidelines

· Experience of working in partnership with outside agencies such as the Local Authority and Education.

· Ability to respond professionally and reflectively in situations where emotions may be running high.

· Ability to problem-solve and respond in a practical way to issues that arise.

· Ability to produce own routine correspondence using/ creating standard letters

· Experience in facilitating groups and workshops.

· Excellent communication skills, with a range of audiences in a range of formats. 

· Advanced influencing skills.

· Ability to understand and react to the needs of vulnerable families.

· Ability to prioritise, and to work under pressure to specific timescales and targets.

· Knowledge, understanding and experience of working with safeguarding processes.

· Knowledge of the Equality Act and other relevant legislation, with the ability to acquire this knowledge pro-actively where it is not already in place.

· Excellent understanding of confidentiality and professional boundaries

· Knowledge and understanding of data sharing protocols

· Experience of working independently, and as part of a team.

· Ability and willingness to travel across the county as required to meet the needs of families (mileage paid at 0.45p per mile)

· An enthusiastic, positive and ‘can do’ attitude.

Desirable

· Experience working with children, and young people who have a vision impairment, multi sensory impairment, those who are hard of hearing or Deaf.

· British Sign Language (BSL) skills

· Instructed advocacy qualification

· Professional qualifications in related discipline

· Experience of setting up and developing services or projects

· Experience of producing case studies and impact reporting

We can offer you:

· A generous annual leave allowance (full time annual leave entitlement is 28 days per annum, plus bank holidays)

· Investment in your development

· Access to an Employee Assistance Programme

· Pension contributions 6% matched with the Pensions Trust

· Annual flu vaccinations and an eye test every two years with a contribution towards work related glasses

· Free parking

· A vibrant and friendly team! 

An Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service will be required, which we can arrange.