Housing support jobs

Are you looking for a dynamic and rewarding role working for an organisation with the feminist agenda at the core of its ethos? Then Advance Charity could be the career choice for you!

We are looking for a Triage Community Keyworker

Salary: £23,000 - £27,000

Location: Maidstone

Hours: 35 Hours per week

Contract: Fixed Term Contract – until 2027

This post is open to female applicants only as being female is deemed to be a genuine occupational requirement under Schedule 9, Paragraph 1 of the Equality Act 2010.

Please note: Any offer of employment will be made subject to references, confirmation of the right to work in the UK, and satisfactory enhanced DBS check. This role is also subject to Police Vetting.

About us

Advance is an award-winning and innovative women-only organisation, established in 1998, providing emotional and practical support to women and girls survivors of domestic abuse and supporting women with short-term sentences to reduce offending. We believe in empowering women and girls to lead safe, non-violent, equal lives so that they can flourish and contribute to the community.

We are a community-based organisation who lead in best practice approaches to supporting women in their local community. We achieve this by being available to meet and support women in local settings and at our women’s centres, and by working in close partnership with other agencies.

Our values are to listen and support, to empower and respect, collaboration, innovation, and accountability.

About the role:

You will be working in a team of Community Keyworkers in your region. You will be undertaking all initial triage assessments and processing these on the database and allocating these to each Keyworker. The Keyworkers will provide one to one community support to women with a variety of needs simultaneously and will be co-located with partner organisations in their region. You will be expected to travel to Advance’s Head office in London for any organisational meetings and training, as and when required.

About You:

Are you an excellent relationship builder who can work with women and a diverse range of delivery partners to ensure that she meets her potential and successfully progresses through and beyond her probation supervision? Can you meet a women wherever she is at in her journey and work with her to create an individualised support package that gives her the best chance of breaking the cycle of offending?

Are you looking for a dynamic and rewarding role working for a feminist organisation who understand that supporting women in the criminal justice system requires a specialist and gendered approach? Do you believe in our values; to listen and support, to empower and respect, collaborate, innovate, and take accountability?

How to apply:

Please submit your up-to-date CV with a supporting statement. Please note that only applications made via the job advert on the Advance careers page, and those that include a cover letter will be considered. 

Closing Date for Applications: Sunday 14th September 2025 @23:59

Interviews will take place on a rolling basis

*Advance reserves the right to close the advert early, or on the appointment of a candidate.

What we can offer you - Employee Benefits:

§ A 35-hour working week

§ An exceptional 30 days of paid holiday per year (pro rata for part time), PLUS public holidays on top (that's nearly 40 days paid holiday per year!)

§ Additional days off to celebrate International Women’s Day, and for religious observance and moving home

§ Perkbox - an employee discount platform where you can receive free rewards as well as take advantage of savings on clothes, groceries, travel, leisure and more

§ Pension scheme

§ Enhanced maternity/adoption provision

§ Access to our Employee Assistance Programme

§ Employee eye-care scheme

§ Clinical supervision for front line staff and first line management roles

§ Refer a Friend Scheme - £250 for each referral who passes probation

§ Organisation wide away days

§ Thorough induction and training

§ Career development pathways

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Under the Equality Act 2010, we are required to make any reasonable adjustments. If you have a disability as defined under this act and/or have special needs, please email the Talent Acquisition Team via the Advance website and will aim to make the necessary arrangements to accommodate your needs.

Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunities

We are committed to providing equality of opportunity and actively seek to recruit people from groups underrepresented in our current team. We have policies and processes in place to ensure that all employees are offered an equal opportunity in recruitment and selection, promotion, training, pay and benefits.

Safeguarding

Advance is committed to safeguarding and creating a culture of zero-tolerance of harm and expects all staff, including volunteers to share this commitment. We believe all individuals have the right to live their life free from violence and abuse and the right to feel and be safe. We have a suite of safeguarding policies, procedures and practice guidance, accessible to all staff, which promotes safeguarding and safer working practices across all our services and activities. When we recruit staff, we follow rigorous safer recruitment practices, this involves carrying out pre-employment checks including references, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, and identity checks. We ensure all staff undertake mandatory safeguarding training relevant to their role and responsibilities, to empower them to be competent and feel confident in recognising and responding appropriately to safeguarding issues and promote wellbeing.

We are seeking an experienced fundraiser who can work with us on a part time, freelance basis (Sept/Oct 2025 - January 2026) for a fee of £16Kto produce and undertake the following specialist services:

• Research and produce a bespoke 18-month Fundraising Plan for the Trust, with a particular focus on Museums, collections, community engagement, conservation and organisational resilience. 
• To start the delivery of the plan by undertaking specialist fundraising activities to trusts and foundations and to apply for opportunities that will help generate new incomes for the Trust and boost our ability to delivery our Business plan and Museum Developments. This will include a refreshed donations plan for our sites to come into action before Christmas.
• To advise and produce a business case for a long-term fundraising resource for the Trust.

We Are Survivors have multiple job roles available in our ever growing Community Services team. 

The organisation has an ambitious strategy to ensure that #NoMaleSurvivorsIsLeftBehind and is looking for new members of staff to help us achieve this. We are recruiting for the below positions:

•          1 x Full-time Community Development Co-Ordinator (Starting Salary: £25,750).
•          1 x Full-time Community Development Co-Ordinator (Starting Salary: £25,750) – Fixed-term Contract to           31.03.27.

You’ll play a key role in delivering our community support activities to male survivors of sexual harms, working directly alongside our other services (including, therapy, ISVA, OUT Side OUT Spoken, OUT Spoken) to ensure that our clients receive quality assured care for their needs. You will also support our volunteer workforce and the provision of various advocacy requirements to survivors and their supporters.

Resurrection Trading (known as Resurrection Furniture) is a vibrant friendly charity shop in Alton High Street specialising in recycled second hand furniture and home goods. We need an efficient organiser to lead our team of volunteers, manage the office and bring a creative flair to display and sales.

About us
We opened in Alton in 2017 and in 2022 moved to larger premises at 21b High Street. The charity is linked to the Parish of the Resurrection. All profits from the shop go to good causes in Alton, especially to support youth related projects, people in need, heritage buildings and the community.

The shop is a busy, friendly place supported by a skilled team of repairers in the workshop and a lively band of drivers and lifters on the van. In total we have more than 50 volunteers and the charity is led by a team of Trustees. The shop is open 10 to 4pm Monday to Saturday.

Job Summary
The Manager’s role is typical for a retail high street shop except that there is no head office or back up staff - the manager and volunteers between them carry out all functions. These include:
Daily office administration - communications especially daily emails, Facebook messages and phone calls re furniture donations and sales, discussions with volunteers.
Coordination of volunteers including induction training, support and leadership,
Organising donations – selection, collection, pricing, display and delivery.
Shop organisation, administration and reporting to Trustees including publicity
 

Key Responsibilities:

Office Administration
• Deal promptly with shop communications via telephone, emails, Facebook and in person each day relating to donations, sales, and messages from volunteers
• Maintain data including personnel and customer information, finance and other record keeping.
• Manage the system of agreeing furniture donations, arranging collections from and deliveries to homes around Alton and booking slots on the van.
• Order shop supplies and maintain health and safety systems
• Manage gift aid documentation and other notices.
• Liaise with the workshop team, the van team, the Parish monthly market and Trustees

Volunteer Coordination
• Manage the volunteer rota ensuring that the shop is staffed by two to three volunteers including a lead volunteer per shift six days per week.
• Support the Trustee who manages the van rota currently four mornings per week depending on demand.
• Identify and recruit new volunteers as necessary, organise induction and regular training especially relating to health and safety, cash management and shop and van routine.
• Frequently communicate with volunteers in person, via the notice board, email and newsletter on shop organisation, sales new personnel and events.
• Liaise with lead volunteers regularly on organisation and volunteer issues.

Managing donations and sales
• In conjunction with volunteers decide on items to be accepted based on quality, saleability, existing stock from photos and other information.
• Value items not already priced by volunteers using the RF pricing guide and on-line apps.
• Ensure the shop is full of a wide range of items with back up stock kept in the store offsite.
• Promote donations via estate agents, care homes, general publicity and regular house clearances

Shop organisation
• Arrange for regular updating of shop and window displays
• Keep the shop and workshop clean and a safe environment
• Ensure that volunteers follow RF policies and procedures
• Ensure good customer relations including dealing with complaints
• Publicity including a newsletter and Facebook and website pages

We offer

• £15 per hour or £15,600 - £19500 (depending on hours worked)

· Between 20 and 25 hours per week spread across four or five days

• Saturday working required approximately quarterly with time off in lieu.
• Flexible working during school holidays by negotiation
• Five weeks holiday each year and bank holidays

• Workplace Pension
• Training and regular performance review

Location: 21b High Street Alton GU341AW

The post will be subject to a four - month probationary period, A permanent contract will be offered following satisfactory assessment.

This job description is subject to change from time to time.

Person Specification

Essential

• Education at least to A Level, HNC or equivalent. Assessment of relevant experience may be used instead of formal qualifications. GCSE English and Maths
• Proven computer and office- based systems including Word, Excel, Power point and project management
• Full driving license
• Experience of retail management of a business or other enterprise
• Practical and able to solve problems
• Strong interpersonal skills. Excellent team building, influencing and negotiating abilities.
• Good time management

Desirable

• Experience with advertising and skill in the display of
  goods
• Experience of the second-hand market or furniture or
  charity sales

Background to Role

Age UK Croydon is passionate about achieving our mission to reach, involve, support and connect people so they can age well in Croydon. The Healthier Lifestyle Service at Age UK Croydon offers a range of inclusive and accessible activities and events across the borough of Croydon combining, exercise, health checks, health talks and social engagement in a variety of local settings. 

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic Service Manager to lead our Healthier Lifestyle team which includes a team of 3 part time Project Officers,  2 x Dementia Project officer 1 x Dementia Carers Group Support Adviser and a great team of volunteers.

Addressing health inequalities and fulfilling our mission means that the Healthier Lifestyles service has opportunity to grow and expand.  We want to reach younger older people to encourage “Act Now Age Well” . An important element of this role will be looking for opportunities to develop existing services and introduce a new services including some paid services.  The Healthier Lifestyles Manager is a member of the Integrated Leadership team to support our One Organisation One team ethos for integrated working and holistic support for the older residents of Croydon.

Some duties will include (but are not limited to) –

1. Monitor and manage workload, organise schedules, ensuring that work is purposeful, targets are clear and support staff to reach their potential and feel valued.
2. Support staff with regular supervision using the Age UK Croydon Empowerment Striving for Excellence, Innovation process
3. Recruit and manage staff in line with Age UK Croydon's policies and guarantee that efficient and effective procedures are in place.
4. Oversee recruitment and support for volunteers across the service.
5. Carry out regular supervision and appraisals and provide encouragement and support for staff including encouraging skills development and progression
6. This list is not exhaustive.

Closing date for applications: 12pm, 18th September 2025

Interview Dates: 24th September 2025

This post is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check

CV’s will not be accepted

Our client is a well-established trade union based in Central London who are seeking a proactive and personable Administrator to join their Support Team. You will be the first point of contact for staff and visitors, helping ensure the smooth running of the building. This is a varied role and involves supporting day-to-day office operations, managing conference and meeting spaces, and providing front-of-house reception duties. Please note this is a fully office-based role, ideal for someone who enjoys interacting with a wide range of people in a dynamic environment.
Rate: £17 per hour (plus holiday pay)Location: London, Office-Based 5 days a weekOrganisation: Charity/Membership Body

Key Responsibilities:
Reception & Office Operations:

• Provide reception cover and maintain a welcoming, professional front-of-house to visitors and staff
• Act as the first point of contact for queries on building-related issues, including those from tenants
• Resolve/escalate basic IT issues to ensure hot-desk areas are functioning
• Handle general enquiries and answer incoming calls
• Maintain stock levels of refreshments in the reception area
• Manage all incoming and outgoing post and courier arrangements
• Provide support to the Office Manager in maintaining a pleasant and efficient working environment

Conference Suite Management:

• Set up flexible meeting spaces
• Provide basic AV and IT support for meetings and events
• Ensure refreshments and supplies are available and well-presented for meetings
• Coordinate catering orders and assist with layout and presentation
• Reset meeting and event rooms between bookings
• Liaise with internal and external users to confirm event details and requirements

Administrative Support:

• Assist with diary management, meeting arrangements and travel bookings
• Provide ad-hoc support to other teams as required

Personal Specification:

• Proactive and resourceful when problem-solving
• Professional demeanour and appearance
• Enjoys resolving practical issues and working with people
• Comfortable with IT systems and able to relay basic functions to others
• Working knowledge of Microsoft 365
• Flexible and collaborative when working within a team
• Ability to manage competing priorities under pressure
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Physically able to support room setup and other manual tasks

What you need to do now
If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV.

Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited acts as an employment agency for permanent recruitment and employment business for the supply of temporary workers. By applying for this job you accept the T&C's, Privacy Policy and Disclaimers which can be found at hays.co.uk

We’re looking for a well organised, commercially orientated, strategic leader to join us as our Head of Centres & Events

Location: The Southville Centre, Beauley Road, Bristol.

Contract Type: Permanent.

Hours: 37.5 hours per week.

Salary: £38,987.69 per annum.

Holidays: 31 days including Bank Holidays, plus additional long-service leave (capped).

Benefits: Pension scheme, subsidised under-fives childcare, employee assistance programme, training and development opportunities.

Closing Date: Monday 29th September.

Interviews: First interviews week commencing 6th October (probably Thursday 9th October), second stage task-based interview w/c 13th October (probably Thursday 16th October).

This is a rewarding opportunity to lead the development of this new department which is focused on providing excellent experiences and opportunities within our Community Centres for local people, in ways that generate income, and helps support the financial sustainability of the charity. You will shape and grow our Community Centre offers, focusing on what local people value and would like to have available within our centres, whilst upholding the charity’s values and long-term vision.

Reporting to the CEO, this position is responsible for leading our Centres & Events Team, which includes the Facilities Team (who maintain and develop our buildings), the Front of House Team (who welcome people and provide information, along with managing room hire), our community Events Manager, our Catering & Café Teams, plus Design & Communications Team.

As part of our Senior Management Team, you will also help shape the wider strategy and culture of the organisation, working cross-departmentally and contributing to the development of our annual budgets.

Who we are

We are a well-established charity and community anchor organisation, based across two sites in Southville and Bedminster. Through our centres, café, nursery, and community programmes, we work to improve the wellbeing, health, happiness, and sense of belonging of people living in the BS3 postcode area.

We’re passionate about helping our staff grow, whether that’s through professional development or creating space to thrive in their roles.

Who you are

You are a systems and process-orientated leader, able to bring teams together to create a cohesive, efficient and effective whole. You bring:

• Strong leadership, organisational, commercial and communication skills.
• Experience in organising diverse areas of operation and developing efficient systems and processes.
• An ability to empower others to lead and make decisions.
• Creativity and confidence to develop new offers in response to local needs.
• A desire to support the financial sustainability of the charity.

Your ability to develop efficient, effective and integrated systems and processes with your teams, as well as to identify offers that local people will engage with, value and pay for within our Community Centres, will be essential to your success in this role.

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging

At BS3 Community Development, we are committed to ensuring Equality of opportunity and access, celebrating Diversity, and promoting Inclusion and Belonging. This commitment is vital, not only for our service users, but for our staff and the community we serve.

Birmingham and Solihull Women’s aid have for over 40 years supported women and children with services around domestic violence and abuse. Could you be a part of our team as we continue our mission to end domestic violence and abuse? 

The region’s leading charity in tackling violence against women and girls, BSWA offers a helpline, webchat, drop in and and community support as well as emergency accommodation in six refuges across the area.  

Projects supports women in the criminal justice system, in healthcare settings, and throughout the community, offering support to women and children experiencing domestic violence. Alongside this, we also have colleagues offering training and consultancy to businesses and health and social care professionals alike, raising awareness on gender based violence issues.  

We seek like-minded women to join our enthusiastic team of workers, all of us passionate about the vital and valuable work we do to support women and children who have experienced domestic abuse, and tackling the wider issues of violence against women and girls. 

  This role will assist the refuge manager in the day-to-day running of the refuge, developing and delivering a front line service offering support, advice and guidance to women and their children living in the refuge.

 

BSWA is a Disability Confident Employer. We want everyone to have equal chance at being considered for our jobs. Should you be unable to submit your application online and would prefer an alternative method, or you are experiencing another barrier to completing your application, please contact our recruitment team.  

These posts are covered by a Genuine Occupational Requirement (Schedule 9; Equality Act 2010) and women only need apply.  

The closing date for receipt of completed applications is at 12 noon on Monday 8th September. Interviews will take place in the weeks commencing 22nd and 29th September.  

Students’ Union UCL is an organisation that exists to make more happen. We are the representative body for University College London’s (UCL) students, one of the most diverse student communities in the world. UCL students have the potential to do anything, and the Union plays an essential role in helping them to achieve things they may have never thought possible. As a charity we employ over 130 career staff and over 250 part-time student staff, and deliver a wide range of services and representative functions for students. We work in partnership with UCL towards a fantastic experience for all of our 48,000 students and to ensure that university life enables them to develop the skills, experience and confidence to become the leaders of the future.

Our vision is of an outstanding experience for all UCL students and to be one of the best students’ unions in the UK and the world.

It's an exciting time to join our growing organisation as we lead the delivery of UCL’s ground-breaking Student Life Strategy. This is enabling us to build more programmes to improve students’ mental and physical wellbeing, promote genuine equity for all, build students’ skills and confidence, develop their international connections and intercultural skills, and make a real contribution to our local community.

We support hybrid working. Excellent benefits including defined benefit pension scheme and generous holiday entitlement. We are proud of high levels of staff engagement and pride ourselves on being a great place to work.

This is a part time (0.4 FTE) and 1 year contract job opportunity. This role is based at our Bloomsbury campus with work across various football facilities across London. We will consider applications to work on a flexible and job share basis wherever possible. 

We are looking for a Football Development Officer to support the delivery of TeamUCL's new focus sport, football. The role combines football delivery with desk-based sports administration and student engagement. We are looking for someone passionate about developing football in all forms - from running beginner friendly sessions to working with students to co-create community volunteering projects. 

Do you have experience delivering sports leagues and events? Do you want to support students to develop professional skills through football? If the answer is yes, then we want to hear from you. Our ideal candidate will be able to deliver football sessions for a range of abilities, have experience of working with and motivating volunteers and good verbal and written communication.

Ref: RVPL-251

Closing date: Monday, 22nd September 2025 at 9.00 am

Are you a proactive, collaborative and empathetic individual with experience of managing reception or front-of-house responsibilities? Do you have a proven record of recruiting, training, or managing volunteers and supporting people with barriers to employment?

If so, join St Giles as a Reception and Volunteer Pathway Lead (internal job title) where, as part of the Central Services or Service Delivery team, you will lead both front of house reception services and a structured volunteer employment pathway.

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.

About this key role

As Reception and Volunteer Pathway Lead, you will act as the first point of contact for visitors, ensuring a welcoming and professional environment, and also manage incoming calls, emails, and correspondence and maintain a tidy and accessible reception area.  You will also design and deliver a volunteer pathway programme for individuals returning to employment, which will include recruiting and onboarding volunteers with a focus on those who have been out of work and collaborating with internal departments to identify placement opportunities and role specifications.

We will also rely on you to provide induction and training support for volunteers and to offer ongoing supervision, coaching, and check-ins throughout placements.  Monitoring and evaluating volunteer progression with clear pathways to employment and maintaining accurate volunteer records, ensuring safeguarding and compliance standards are both key duties, as is supporting departmental teams in coordinating volunteer schedules and placement logistics.

What we are looking for

• Relevant experience in administration, HR, or volunteer management

• An understanding of barriers to employment and trauma-informed support

• Sound knowledge of GDPR and data protection and of safeguarding practice

• An understanding of of EDI and creating an inclusive work culture

• Excellent interpersonal, IT and communication skills, verbal and written

• A professional, collaborative and flexible approach to your work.

Please note:  as an organisation that works with children and adults at risk we are committed to safeguarding, protecting and promoting the safety of our clients and successful applicants will be subject to an Enhanced Child Workforce with Child Barred list DBS.

In return, you can expect a competitive salary, generous leave allowance, staff pension, flexible working, a mentoring programme, an advice and counselling service, clinical therapist sessions, life insurance (4 x annual salary), duvet days, season ticket loan, employee perks programme, eye care voucher and much more.

We are an equity and inclusion confident employer. We welcome all applications, and we particularly encourage applications from people of the global majority (black, brown, multi- heritage) and those who identify as disabled, neuroexpansive, neurodiverse, with any protected characteristics and/or social barriers or challenges. We value the empowering and informative impact that all lived experiences and diversity of thought can offer the organisation.

St Giles will guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria set out in the Job Description for the vacancy.

We will be reviewing applications as they are received, and reserve the right to close this advert early if a suitable candidate is appointed. We therefore strongly encourage early applications to avoid any disappointment.

Energy Efficient Project Coordinator

Part‑time | Closing Date: 12.00pm Wednesday 10th September 2025

• Leicestershire (Remote/Home-based)
• £28,000 per year (pro rata)
• Part‑time 1.5 days a week
• Contract or Self Employed
• Fixed term until May 2027
• Reporting to Executive Director

About the Role

We are looking for an enthusiastic, experienced and talented individual to help us grow community energy in Leicester and Leicestershire. With an emphasis on energy efficiency, you will support community groups and volunteers to develop and deliver community energy projects in their own neighbourhoods. You’ll play a key role in building knowledge, confidence and capacity within communities, and supporting them to take forward practical projects that save energy, cut bills, and contribute to tackling the climate crisis.

How to apply

Email a CV and covering letter outlining your relevant skills and experience by clicking apply now. Alternatively, send a short video (max 3 minutes) outlining your relevant skills and experience.

If an alternative format for providing this information would be more accessible to you, please get in touch and we can discuss potential options.

Interview

All successfully shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview.

Closing date for applications: 12.00pm Wednesday 10th September 2025

Interviews: 17th September 2025

How this role fits into the vision and objectives of Causeway

We have an exciting opportunity for an Accommodation Advocate working within our Bolton safehouses supporting male survivors of modern day slavery. This role includes providing service users with emotional and practical support; advocating on their behalf, communicating with other organisations including but not limited to health professionals, legal representation and the Home office. Please note there is an occupational requirement for the applicant to be male. 

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Case working service users identified as PVOHT (Potential Victims of Human Trafficking).
• Regular feedback and review meetings with Accommodation Coordinator.
• Arranging and attending appointments with Service users including families.
• Following up all the paperwork and details of VOHT in adherence to the terms of the contract; including online reporting. Including but not limited to; weekly reviews, risk assessments, support plans and inductions.
• Duties in relation to the accommodation, including cleaning and preparing service user bedrooms for new arrivals and basic H&S checks.
• Ensuring that volunteers who work with you on shift have the proper level of support and adhere to policies and procedures.
• Ensuring that all Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are met.
• Ensuring progression of PVOHT through system;
• Liaising with organizations and individuals regarding VOHT and Causeway in a professional manner - including but not limited to SATco, UK Visas and Immigration, Modern Slavery Human Trafficking Unit, other agencies, police, and medical professionals.
• Identifying support hours and ensuring accurate logging of all hours.
• Ensuring paperwork is being completed correctly and in a timely fashion.
• Ensuring exit strategies are being prepared in a timely fashion.
• Dealing with out of hour crisis in accordance with standby rota.
• Receiving out of hours’ referrals, carrying out inductions, weekly reviews and updating the IT system.
• Ensuring adherence to all internal procedures regarding Causeway, the Safe Houses and any legislation.
• Promoting Causeway in adherence to the terms of the contract – this may include attending events on behalf of Causeway as a whole.

You will be joining us at a time that holds the greatest potential for fundraising in our history, following the launch of the UK Government’s Delivery Plan for ME and initial findings of the DecodeME genetics study (co-led by Action for ME) in Summer 2025. 

Building on our charity’s already established level of support from major donors, you will provide exceptional relationship management to existing donors alongside growing our network of high value supporters.

Working closely with the CEO, alongside managing a portfolio of donors and prospects ensuring excellent stewardship, you will support our Breakthrough-ME Group (a group of high net worth and highly networked individuals). There is an established level of support from major donors at Action for ME so this is a role that will require exceptional relationship management to retain our current valued supporters while growing this crucial area of fundraising. 

This would be an ideal role for an experienced philanthropy professional seeking to work for a small but ambitious charity, helping us to achieve our mission to improve the lives of all people affected by ME – better meeting their needs today while taking action to secure change for tomorrow.

Key duties

Major Donor Fundraising

• Successfully develop and implement the philanthropy strategy to secure and maximise funds from high value individuals for Action for ME achieving annual income of £250k+

• Set plans and budgets which will deliver income through major gift fundraising and philanthropic giving through family trusts and foundations, including quarterly forecasting.

• Manage a portfolio of prospects and donors at the £5k to £100k level, to develop and maintain strong and long-standing partnerships

• Work closely with the Director of Fundraising and Development and other colleagues to ensure that plans and activities for fundraising from high value individuals are integrated into the overall fundraising strategy and plan for significant growth.

• Be responsible for our Breakthrough-ME Group with high quality proposition development.  Contribution to Group fundraising activities with a specific focus on ensuring their networks support pipeline growth for future fundraising.

• Lead the delivery of our biennial fundraising gala dinner, maximising income and new opportunities from attendees.

• Develop engaging and inspiring opportunities to steward and cultivate support creating a calendar of activities including events, presentations, approaches, networking and meetings.

• Utilise the CRM database (Raisers Edge) to provide the data required to strategise your approach to philanthropy, monitor progress and provide a high-quality donor experience.

• Ensure utilisation of insight & data, producing management information data to inform planning and strategy development.

• With the Director of Fundraising & Development, create inspiring cases for support and resulting propositions with clear budgets and outcomes.

• Create adequate systems and processes to support the major donor programme.

• Undertake and manage research into prospects and major donors, preparing for approaches and presentations and briefing senior leadership and trustees for donor meetings and events.

• Develop and maintain relationships with donors, a wide range of staff and volunteers from trustee level down.

• Provide regular feedback and internal reporting to line management.

• Work with other fundraisers to ensure that all fundraising opportunities and leads are followed up – particularly in corporate, community and trust fundraising.

• Work with Trustees, the Chief Executive and members of the Leadership Team to develop relationships with major donors.

• Self-administrate including managing your own diary and meetings, keeping accurate and up to date records of activity

• Occasional travel to London, Bristol & events

Other duties

• To positively promote the work and activities of Action for M.E. at all times.

• To contribute to the team’s overall, ongoing and annual planning and budgeting.

• To undertake any other reasonable activity in line with the responsibilities of the post as requested by the Director of Fundraising and Development, Chief Executive or any other senior Action for ME management.

• Act as an advocate for the Charity and its work.

• To work in accordance with Action for ME’s values of collaboration, equity and empathy.

Deputy Head of Service (Shared Lives)
Salary: £45,000 per year
Job Ref No: DHOS072025
Hours: 37 hours per week
Location: Office closest to applicant (listed in the job description)

Contract type: Permanent

Are you passionate about making sure people have a voice and a choice when it comes to their care? Fancy a new role you can get your teeth into and make a big impact?

We’re on the hunt for a new deputy head of our Shared Lives service.

What is Shared Lives?

Shared Lives is a little bit like fostering, but it’s for adults who need some support to live as independently as possible. Someone who needs support goes to live with one of our ace Shared Lives carers and they support them to live their best lives, do all the things they love and be part of their communities. PSS invented Shared Lives back in 1978 and it’s now become a national model of care that lots of other social care providers run. We’re really proud of that. It’s the most brilliant, safe and cost-effective form of care there is (and we’re not just biased – in October 2023, CQC rated 97% of Shared Lives schemes in England as good or outstanding, in comparison to just 78% for the wider social care sector!).

We have Shared Lives schemes in seven different places across England and North Wales – and we’ve got big plans to add to that.

What do we need out deputy head of Shared Lives to do?

Alongside the head of Shared Lives, your job will be to make sure each one of the services in Shared Lives is absolutely top-notch in every way:

• They provide excellent support to the people who use our Shared Lives service
• They support people to reach their goals
• Any issues that crop up are dealt with effectively and in line with our policies and procedures
• They run effectively and like clockwork (but are flexible enough to change things up when it’s needed – even if it’s how things have always been done);
• They’re performing well financially, they’re sustainable and they’re cost-effective
• Carers, PSS Shared Lives teammates and people we support all feel really well informed, motivated and part of a big family
• Our service is getting better all the time

You’ll be supported by a cracking team of service managers who will lead each of the seven individual regional services within Shared Lives. They’ll be looking to you to help them review and develop their services, looking at best practice and national/local strategic priorities together.

On a day-to-day basis, your work would involve things like:

• Getting behind our Shared Lives teams and offering them your support with Care Quality Commission (CQC) compliance, safeguarding reports and complaints
• Leading the way when we win new contacts in new areas of the UK (the plan is to grow our schemes)
• Deputising for our head of Shared Lives: maintaining the risk register for services, identifying, managing, monitoring and escalating risks appropriately when our head of Shared Lives isn’t around
• Helping keep our Shared Lives carers and supported people feeling happy, connected, motivated and part of our big Shared Lives family
• Finding out what our carers and supported people need and how they feel things are going by heading out on the road to meet them
• Supporting our Shared Lives communications and engagement manager with nailing any info and insights they need for their role by sharing what you know, and supporting them with maintaining and introducing communications and engagement initiatives

By 2029, we want to make PSS the most inclusive place it can possibly be, where everyone feels like they belong – and you’ll need to play your part, along with everyone else at PSS, to make it happen.

Check out the full job description on our website for more info about what you’ll need to do in this role.

So what are we looking for?

We’re on the hunt for someone who (amongst other things):

• leads teams brilliantly and especially through periods of change, has great people skills, communicates well and brings people along with them on the journey;
• is open-minded, determined, professional, big-hearted and genuine;
• understands and knows lots about the relevant quality and regulatory frameworks for health and social care;
• builds fantastic relationships with people;
• is self-aware and takes accountability for results whether they’re good or bad;
• loves driving continuous improvement strategies to make sure we’re getting nothing but excellent outcomes for the people we support; and
• has a degree in health or social care, or an equivalent qualification

Have a look at the person specification within the job description for more info about what we’re looking for.

Before you apply, we just want to let you know some key information about our selection process:

We have an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policy, which aims to remove any kind of discrimination in employment. Our candidates are selected on merit only, which means they’ll be given equal opportunities no-matter what their age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, race, religion or beliefs might be.

Once you hit that ‘apply’ button, you’ll be taken across to an online recruitment system called Applied. Applied is the only hiring software with diversity and fairness built into every step of the process and we’re very proud to partner with them to help us give you an unbiased recruitment experience.

Applied wants to make sure its doing its job by finding out more about the socio-economic backgrounds of people applying for roles through their site. Once you register your details on the Applied site, you’ll be asked to give a bit of info about you: things like your age, gender, ethnicity, etc. You’ll also be asked questions around whether your parents went to university and whether you had free meals at school. These questions are set by Applied experts based on extensive research and expertise, and you can find out more about this here.

This information is completely anonymised, and here at PSS, we never see answers linked to a candidate’s name. The answers you give here don’t form any part of our decision-making. We only receive combined data about an applicant pool (and only when there’s enough applicants to ensure that answers can remain anonymous). We report on this data every quarter to help us find out if there’s anything in our process that harms the chances of success for candidates from minority groups and any possible steps to help improve this.

If you still prefer not to answer, that’s no problem at all - there’s also an option to select ‘prefer not to say’. The only EDI-related information that we will learn about you is if you tell us that you have any reasonable adjustments needed at any part of our process.

Your trusty candidate pack will also help you get a feel for what it’s like to work with us, find out what we’re looking for, explain the recruitment process and help you decide whether you can see yourself as a part of our amazing team. Each section is crammed with hints and tips to help you make a great application, so please take the time to give it a good read.

Please feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions about the above.

We also welcome any feedback you might have about our approach so there’ll be plenty of opportunities for you to give this as part of the process.

Like the sound of it?

Come and join us!

Closing date: Friday 19th September 2025

PSS values the importance of diversity