Independent living service volunteer jobs in Milton keynes

Director of Community Services
£80,000 pa plus excellent benefits
Remote working
Permanent, 35 hours per week

This is a key senior leadership role, responsible for shaping and leading RNID’s community services so that we change lives one by one. The Director of Community Services will lead our flagship RNID Near You services and Contact RNID, with responsibility for business development, operational delivery, service quality, safeguarding, volunteer management and continuous improvement.

As Director of Community Services you will:

• Provide strategic leadership for RNID’s community services, setting a clear direction, maintaining strong delivery discipline and maximising impact for our service-users.  

• Set and maintain high standards for service quality and assurance, ensuring consistent practice, effective compliance arrangements and a culture of learning and continuous improvement.  

• Grow RNID’s community services by maximising opportunities to establish new RNID Near You services and maintaining a strong future services roadmap.  

• Strengthen safeguarding across RNID, ensuring systems and processes are proportionate, robust and effective in protecting service users, staff and volunteers.  

• Lead volunteer management across RNID, ensuring services have the volunteer capacity they need and that volunteers are well trained, supported and recognised.  

• Drive continuous improvement and further modernisation of services, ensuring they meet community needs. Improve the efficiency of services, helping RNID reach more people.  

• Foster a culture of strong performance management across all services, using insight into demand, quality, risk and impact to support effective decision-making and delivery.  

• Build and strengthen partnerships, particularly with NHS trusts, commissioners and other funders, to grow and improve services.  

• Play an active role in collective leadership and decision-making as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, modelling values-led, inclusive leadership and creating a culture of accountability, learning and continuous improvement.  

You are ready to work for a home-working organisation and have good IT skills, particularly with Microsoft Office applications including Outlook, Excel, Word.

We are RNID: the national charity supporting the 18 million people in the UK who are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus. Together, we will end the discrimination faced by our communities, help people hear better now and fund world-class research to restore hearing and silence tinnitus. We work with our communities and partners across industry, government, charity, education and more to change life for the better. 

RNID has a proud history and big ambitions. We’re focused on making the greatest impact possible across the whole of the UK. We champion the latest technology and the opportunities it brings. We also know the value of a friendly face in local communities to support people where they need it most.

We champion the value of difference and equality and celebrate our diverse and inclusive workforce. We actively encourage applications from eligible candidates from BAME backgrounds or who are deaf or hard of hearing. With almost 20% of our employees having a disability we proudly hold Disability Confident Leader status and guarantee an interview for disabled applicants meeting the minimum essential criteria.

Closing date: 12 July 2026

Interview dates as below:

1. Stakeholder sessions: 20th & 21st July 2026
2. Final panel interviews: 27th & 28th July 2026

Company Description

Marie Curie is the UK’s leading end-of-life charity. We are the largest non-NHS provider of end-of-life care in the UK, the only provider across all 4 nations, delivering community nursing and hospice care across the country, while providing information and support on all aspects of dying, death, and bereavement. Our leading research pushes the boundaries of what we know about good end-of-life, and our campaigns fight for a world where everyone gets to have the best possible quality of life while living with an illness, they’re likely to die from. 

Team and role overview 

At Marie Curie, our Case for Support team plays a vital role in the delivery of our strategy and supporting fundraising growth, by creating compelling cases for support and innovative propositions for our highest-value campaigns. Working alongside passionate, purpose-driven professionals, you’ll help us maximize impact and create meaningful connections with our supporters. 

As a Case for Support Lead, you will be instrumental in developing impactful narratives that resonate with our supporters and drive our mission forward. Your work will provide essential, up-to-date information about our clinical services, research and policy work. This will support all fundraising teams to build accurate and inspiring fundraising campaigns. By identifying funding opportunities and crafting tailored cases for support, you’ll ensure that our high-value fundraising teams continue to achieve transformational impact. 

What you will be doing:

• Create compelling case for support narratives about all aspects of Marie Curie’s work, articulating the need, solution, and impact for various audiences. 
• Collaborate with service, policy, and research teams to gain a deep understanding of their work and goals, gathering insights to support funding applications and campaigns. 
• Work closely with high-value income streams, supporting Trusts & Foundations, Philanthropy and Corporate teams by coordinating with internal stakeholders to develop compelling propositions. 
• Provide all fundraising teams with accurate, self-service information, including writing narratives and interpreting data. 
• Delivery of online Discovery Sessions with fundraising teams to improve their understanding of our cause. 

What we are looking for: 

• Proven experience in fundraising, service delivery, cause-led communications, or evaluation work. 
• Creative thinker with an independent, autonomous approach to work. 
• Strong communication skills to inspire others and positively influence opinions, with the ability to gain respect at all levels and drive practical, meaningful change. 
• Skilled at understanding and interpreting complex information and data and articulating it in a compelling way, both in writing and verbally. 
• Excellent people skills with a proven ability to integrate quickly into complex organizations. 
• Financial literacy with experience in interpreting budget information. 

Please see the full job description  

Additional Information

Application & Interview Process 

• As part of your online application, you will be asked for a CV and supplementary details. Please review both the advert and job description and outline your most relevant skills, experience and knowledge for the role. 
• Close date for applications but may close early: 2nd July 2026 
• Interviews due to take place 9th and 13th July2026 

** Important we encourage you to apply early as we may close the job advert sooner after receiving a sufficient number of suitable applications**. 

Salary: £36,900 to £39,900 

Contract:Permanent Full-Time 35 hours per week

Based: Remote based within the United Kingdom, occasional travel may be required travel costs covered 

Benefits you’ll LOVE: 

• Flexible working. We’re happy to discuss flexible working at the interview stage. 
• 25 days annual leave (exclusive of Bank Holidays) 
• Marie Curie Group Personal Pension Scheme (we will match your contribution up to 7.5%) 
• Loan schemes for bikes; computers and season tickets 
• Continuous professional development opportunities. 
• Industry-leading training programmes 
• Wellbeing and Employee Assistance Programmes 
• Enhanced bereavement, family friendly and sickness benefits 
• Access to Blue Light Card membership 
• Subsidised Eye Care 

At Marie Curie, our values are central to everything we do. They guide how we care for people, how we work together, and how we make decisions every day. We are committed to creating a workplace that is safe for everyone — staff and volunteers alike — supportive, inclusive and rewarding.  We take stringent steps to ensure that anyone who joins our organisation are suitable for their roles and are committed to safeguarding all our people from harm. We actively consider our impact on the planet, embedding sustainability into everyday decisions to create a lasting, positive difference for the individuals we care for and the world we share.

We believe everyone should have the opportunity to thrive and fulfil their potential. Marie Curie is deeply committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, recognising both the social justice imperative and the strength a diverse workforce brings.  We actively encourage applications from people of all cultures, perspectives and lived experiences.

We are happy to make reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process. If you require any support, please contact us at .

Every application we receive is personally reviewed by a member of our Talent Acquisition team, and in return, we ask that your application authentically reflects you — your experience, perspective and voice.

IT Infrastructure and Field Support Engineer

We are looking for a skilled and motivated IT Infrastructure and Field Support Engineer to help deliver secure, reliable, and efficient technology services across the organisation.

This is a varied and hands-on role, combining infrastructure support, field-based work, and involvement in technology projects that directly support services making a real difference to people’s lives.

Position: 6800 IT Infrastructure & Field Support Engineer

Location: Remote

Hours: Full time, 37.5 hours per week. Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm (flexible working available)

Contract: Permanent

Salary: £30,775.03 per annum

Closing Date: 09/07/2026. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early, if enough suitable applications are received.

The Role

The IT Infrastructure & Field Support Engineer plays a key role in supporting, maintaining and improving the  technology infrastructure to ensure secure, reliable and efficient services across the organisation.  As an IT Infrastructure & Field Support Engineer to will be responsible for:

• providing technical support for systems and infrastructure
• contributing to the design and delivery of cost-effective solutions
• helping to maintain strong standards of security, resilience and service continuity

You will work within an ITIL-aligned framework, collaborating closely with colleagues across Technology and with third-party suppliers to support service delivery, operational performance and the evolving needs of the charity.

This role is remote (home based) but requires occasional travel across England and Wales, along with some out-of-hours work where necessary to support critical systems.

About You

You will need:

• Experience in a Service Desk or infrastructure support role
• Strong troubleshooting skills
• A structured, organised approach to managing workload
• Knowledge of Microsoft technologies
• Experience working in an ITIL environment and ideally exposure to networking and cloud infrastructure
• Strong communication skills and the ability to support a wide range of users and stakeholders

You will be required to join the on-call rota following successful completion of their probation period.

Appointment to this role is subject to successful Non-Police Personnel Vetting (NPPV) with Security Clearance (SC). Candidates must have been living and working in the UK for a minimum of 5 years to be eligible for this level of security vetting.

In Return…

Benefits include:

• Flexible Working Options: Including hybrid working.
• Generous Annual Leave: 28 days plus Bank Holidays, increasing to 33 days plus Bank Holidays, with options to buy or sell annual leave.
• Birthday Leave: An extra day off for your birthday.
• Pension Plan: 5% employer contribution.
• Enhanced Allowances: Enhanced sick pay, maternity, and paternity payments.
• Exclusive Discounts: High Street, retail, holiday, gym, entertainment, and leisure discounts.
• Financial Wellbeing: Access to our financial wellbeing hub and salary-deducted finance.
• Wellbeing Support: Employee assistance programme and wellbeing support.
• Inclusive Networks: Access to EDI networks and colleague cafes.
• Sustainable Travel: Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loans.
• Career Development: Ongoing training and support with opportunities for career progression.

About the Organisation

This independent charity is dedicated to supporting people affected by crime and traumatic incidents in England and Wales.  They are at the heart of the organisation and the support and campaigns are informed and shaped by them and their experiences.

The organisation is committed to recruiting with care and to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Background checks and Disclosed Barring Service checks may be required.

Our client is proud to celebrate diversity and create a workplace where everyone feels they belong. They are committed to being an antiracist organisation, and actively welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, including those from Black and Asian and other minoritised communities.

As a Disability Confident Employer, they will offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet all essential criteria for a job where it is practicable to do so and are also happy to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment and selection process.

You may have experience in areas such as IT, Infrastructure, IT Infrastructure, Field Support, IT Engineer, Infrastructure Engineer, IT Infrastructure Engineer, Field Support Engineer, IT Support, Service Desk, IT Service Desk, 1st Line Support, 2nd Line Support, 3rd Line Support.

Please note this role is being advertised by NFP People on behalf of our client.  #INDNFP

Internal title: Executive and Governance Administrator

Location: Home (most meetings are online and we are largely a remote working organisation, however travel will be expected to central events at  least 1-2 times a year which will be paid for by the charity)

Salary: £34,453 Full Time

Hours: 35 per week (full time)

Closing Date: Sunday 19 July - 23.30

Contract: Permanent

About the role

This is a key support role at the heart of Housing Justice, providing high-quality, proactive and highly organised executive support to the CEO and senior leadership team in a fast-moving national charity environment. The postholder plays a critical role in enabling the CEO and Directors to operate effectively, requiring excellent diary management, strong judgement, discretion, and the ability to manage competing priorities and anticipate organisational needs. The role also involves coordinating meetings end-to-end, ensuring they are well-structured and outcome-focused, including preparing agendas, capturing accurate notes, maintaining action logs, and proactively following up to ensure timely completion.

About you

We are looking for someone with:

· Significant experience supporting senior leaders in a PA, Executive Assistant, or equivalent role

· Experience managing complex diaries across multiple senior stakeholders

· Experience of agenda setting and action tracking for a variety of senior management and trustee meetings

· Experience working in a fast paced, often changing environment

About us

Housing Justice brings together communities and finds solutions to homelessness by building personal connections, a sense of belonging, and creating justice in the housing system. We train and support volunteers to offer various accommodation options while building a network of local support. This includes providing personalised assistance to help individuals access relevant local services and address their other needs. Through compassionate, courageous, and collaborative action, we implement innovative solutions to tackle housing injustice, enhance the quality of housing, and elevate the voices and experiences of groups affected by housing injustice to both local and national governments.

Public Affairs and Water Policy Officer

This role is predominantly home-based with regular travel to locations across the UK specifically London. Office facilities are available at our Newark office (Tuesdays to Thursdays) for those within easy travelling distance.
up to £36,380 per annum

Permanent, Full Time (35 hours per week)

Closing date for applications: 12th July 2026

First interview: 21st & 22nd July (Online Interview)

Second interview: 29th July (Online Interview)

About Us

The Wildlife Trusts are a grassroots movement of people from a wide range of backgrounds and all walks of life, who believe that we need nature and nature needs us. We have more than 945,000 members, over 33,000 volunteers, 4,100 staff and 600 trustees. There are 46 individual Wildlife Trusts, each of which is a place-based independent charity with its own legal identity, formed by groups of people getting together and working with others to make a positive difference to wildlife and future generations, starting where they live and work.

Every Wildlife Trust is part of The Wildlife Trusts federation and a corporate member of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, a registered charity in its own right founded in 1912 and one of the founding members of IUCN – the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Taken together this federation of 47 charities is known as The Wildlife Trusts.

The next few years will be critical in determining what kind of world we all live in. We need to urgently reverse the loss of wildlife and put nature into recovery at scale if we are to prevent climate and ecological disaster. We recognise that this will require big, bold changes in the way The Wildlife Trusts work, not least in how we mobilise others and support them to organise within their own communities.

About You

The post will support the Head of Public Affairs in helping the Wildlife Trust movement make arguments and develop relationships with parliamentarians in order to influence policy in Westminster, to the benefit of nature recovery. You will work with policy, campaigning, and communications colleagues to build support for The Wildlife Trusts’ advocacy priorities, including work on water policy.

You will have an understanding of the legislative process and parliamentary procedures and will have the ability to communicate detailed policies in a compelling and persuasive way, especially in written form. Experience of and a proven track record of working with politicians is advantageous, as is experience of supporting successful advocacy campaigns and fronting policies and programmes. You should feel comfortable with policy work as well as parliamentary advocacy, any past experience of water policy will be particularly useful.

The Wildlife Trusts value passion, respect, trust, integrity, pragmatic activism and strength in diversity. We are passionate in promoting our aims, and we pride ourselves on being inclusive. We particularly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented within our sector, including people from minority backgrounds and people with disabilities. We are committed to creating a movement that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities.

RSWT take our Safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously. Please click here to read our commitment statement. The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk. For applicable roles, applicants must be willing to undergo checks with past employers and Disclosure and Barring Service checks at the eligible level.

RSWT are committed to increasing the diversity of its staff through its Levelling the Field recruitment pledge and, as a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to fostering an inclusive, equitable, and welcoming recruitment experience for all applicants. Applicants with disabilities and from ethnic minority backgrounds, will be considered for the next stage of the selection process should they meet all the minimum criteria for the role outlined in the person specification detailed as essential criteria in the recruitment pack.

As part of our Disability Confident Scheme, RSWT offers an interview to a fair and proportionate number of applicants with disabilities and therefore not all applicants with disabilities would be entitled to an interview as they must still satisfy the minimum requirements for the job. This commitment is designed to help reduce barriers and promote equal opportunity. We actively work to remove barriers throughout the recruitment journey and are dedicated to creating an accessible and supportive recruitment experience by offering reasonable adjustments at every stage of the recruitment process, as well as within the workplace. If you would benefit from any adjustments to support you during your application or interview process, please let us know and we will be pleased to put the appropriate support in place.

Location: Remote working in Wales

Salary: £29,580 per annum rising to £32,016 after 1 year of service

Responsible to: Head of Work Experience Projects and North 

Contract type: Full Time (37 hours per week), Fixed-term contract for 3 years in line with the funding from Creative Careers projects

Closing date: 29th June 2026, Midnight

Interviews: We will be interviewing on a rolling basis. Please apply as soon as possible

Who we are

Futures For All is the largest social mobility charity in the UK. We help to level the playing field between state and independent schools by giving all young people access to the same prestigious networks available to the top fee-paying schools.

We believe that by inspiring young people to explore their ambitions through our speaker programme, facilitating access to multi-day experiences of the world of work, and supporting young people to successfully seize opportunities available to them, then we can make a profound difference to the lives of young people, their future happiness and prosperity.

By 2028, our ambition is that every young person in the UK has access to high quality work experience. Yet today, less than half of young people leave secondary school having had any work experience whatsoever. 

Role Summary

The purpose of this role is to support and ensure end-to-end delivery across Wales within the Programme and Delivery team. The current focus is within our Creative Careers offer, however, this could evolve in terms of scope to include other flagship programmes in the future. This role will be crucial for liaising with Welsh schools, creative employers, speakers and the wider charity to coordinate and ensure best practices in programmatic delivery,  ensuring alignment with programme wide expectations and KPIs. Essentially, this role is the glue between Futures For All, stakeholder outreach and schools’ partners within Wales. The role will be crucial in coordinating and ensuring successful delivery of different programmatic interventions including, but not limited to, school talks, workshops and work experience for young people in Wales. efforts across that nation to successfully provide end-to-end deliver for Wales’s Creative Talks, Workshops and work experiences and achieve the aims.This includes working with the Futures For All programme teams (Work Experience and Speakers for Schools Teams), and our internal Evaluation and Education teams. 

Key Duties / Responsibilities

Strategic purpose

• Responsible for the end-to-end delivery of Talks and Work Experience opportunities from initial scoping with schools to securing commitments from speakers and employers, monitoring young person applications, programme design and implementation, and stakeholder follow up.  
• Nurturing relationships with key delivery partners to ensure employers or school introduced to the programme are seamlessly onboarded. 
• Working with partners in securing commitments from speakers and employers to deliver talks, workshops and multi-day work experience opportunities.  

• Account management and stewarding for speakers and employers throughout their journey.  

• Preparing employers and speakers to use all speaker and work experience guidance in the coordination and delivery of their placements, including but not limited to Portal and Google Classroom.  

• Working closely with Delivery Partners to ensure seamless delivery of opportunities.  

• Leading on all speaker and employer engagement and meetings with your dedicated contacts/accounts.  

• Work with evaluation team on developing and disseminating impact reports within your specific nation.

• Working closely with Education team to ensure school engagement is in line with charity’s mission

• Delivering training sessions to schools and colleges on our programmes and building on engagement in Wales.

• Building partnerships as determined by needs of the DCMS contract and education partners.

• Developing long-standing relationships with school and college contacts to enable engagement in and implementation of our product offer.  

Delivery:

• Providing best practice guidance and advice on programme set up and content.  

• Responsible for delivery and completion of own work experience placements and the operational and administrative activity required.  

• Taking ownership of own capacity management using capacity management frameworks to help inform future workload planning.  

• Adherence to data compliance, standards, guidelines and best practices to ensure our data integrity and consistency.  

• Retain our registered schools and colleges in our network and increase engagement levels in all programmes.  

• Ensuring all data relating to KPIs is accurate, recorded and presented in reports when required.  

• Represent and work to our values as, fostering a culture of positivity, support, respect, and inclusivity, while taking personal responsibility for their attitude, performance, and development.  

•  Ensure safeguarding best practice is enshrined in all organisational activity.  

Skills / Experience / Knowledge:

Essential:

• Programme Coordination experience, with complex stakeholder management
• Experience and knowledge of the education and careers landscape in Wales. 
• Proficient in process improvement and reporting
• Proficient use of CRM and Microsoft Office to track relationships and ensure proper data management 
• Clear and concise communicator, capable of producing written reports to a professional quality 
• Excellent people relations and communication skills to liaise effectively with all project stakeholders 
• Demonstrable time management skills and proven ability to work to key deadlines 
• Relevant project coordination related experience 
• Experience in analysing data and producing reports and recommendations 

Desirable:

• Hands on approach to all tasks with a spirit of getting stuck in and supporting others 
• Knowledge and/or experience of working with National Quality Assurance Frameworks 
• Project Management Qualification or equivalent experience 
• Experience in supporting young people via charity programmes 
• Previous experiences designing packages/maintaining relationships with educational establishments as an external partner 
• Experience of working with or within the creative sectors 

Diversity at our core

Futures For All is committed to an inclusive and accessible recruitment process and encouraging equality and diversity among our workforces. We acknowledge that some candidates may require additional support to overcome barriers experienced during the application process. 

The Application Process:

Please apply as soon as possible by clicking the 'apply for this job' button in the top right-hand corner of the job advert. Once clicked, you will be asked to complete your application by submitting your CV and a cover letter. The cover letter is an opportunity for you to share the skills and knowledge you have to be successful in this role. Appointees are subject to a DBS check. You must have the right to work in the UK to apply. Please only apply if you meet the required experience for the job role and are based in Wales.

The deadline to submit your application is 29th June 2026, Midnight. Please note that we reserve the right to close this advertisement early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications

We will be interviewing on a rolling basis. Please apply as soon as possible.

Futures For All is committed to safeguarding the young people we work with and expects all staff members to share this commitment. Appointees are subject to a DBS check. Having a criminal record will not automatically exclude applicants. You are also required to have the Right to Work in the UK for this role.

Benefits offered at Futures For All

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Morning of your birthday off 
• £500 a year professional development fund 
• Option to purchase additional annual leave yearly
• 'Winter shutdown' gifted so no need to use annual leave between Christmas and new years eve. 
• Early bank holiday finish - we finish at 3:30pm on a Friday before all bank holidays
• 22.2 hours of volunteering days to use each year
• Home office set up support
• Enhanced sick pay 
• Enhanced family friendly leave 
• Employee Assistance Programme 

Futures For All Values

PASSION: We are committed to levelling the playing field for young people across the UK, creating social mobility and tackling disadvantages.

AGILITY: We challenge our ideas of what is possible in order to better meet the needs of those we support. We are human, make mistakes, learn, evolve and adapt.

INTEGRITY: We act with empathy and bring our authentic selves to work every day. We value and respect the talent, time and intentions of those we work with.

COLLABORATION: We are one team with one mission and only by working together can we deliver better outcomes for young people. We support each other unconditionally and feel motivation in shared success as well as individual progress.

DIVERSITY:  We know it takes people with different ideas, strengths, identities, interests, and cultural backgrounds to make our organisation succeed. We encourage constructive debate and critical friendship.

We are looking for a Weekenders Journey Guide to support prospective Weekend Foster Carers from their first conversations with Now Foster through to the next stages of the recruitment and assessment journey.

This is a highly relational, candidate-facing role. You will be one of the main people helping applicants understand what Weekenders is, explore whether it is right for them, stay motivated through the process, and feel supported to take the next step.

Introductory conversations (our ‘intro chats’) will be a core part of the role. You will speak with people who are curious about fostering, but who may also feel unsure, nervous or are still working out whether they can foster. Your role will be to bring warmth, clarity and momentum: helping people feel welcomed, informed and confident, while also making sure the right people progress at the right pace.

You will use Now Foster’s digital platform (a bespoke CRM system) to manage the candidate journey, track progress, record key information and help the team understand where applicants are getting stuck or moving forward. You will play an important role in making sure we are attracting the right leads, supporting them well, and learning how to improve the journey as we grow.

This role would particularly suit someone with experience of fostering or working in fostering. It could also suit someone from a related background who is deeply motivated by innovation in this area and excited by what fostering could look like if it were designed around children, carers and relationships.

You do not need to be a qualified social worker, but you do need to be emotionally mature, reflective, organised and comfortable working closely with a social work-led team. You will need to understand safeguarding, and be confident holding thoughtful conversations with prospective carers.

What You’ll Be Doing

Supporting candidates through the journey

• Acting as a consistent, warm and encouraging point of contact for prospective Weekend Foster Carers.

• Carrying out intro chats with people who have expressed interest in the Weekenders programme.

• Helping candidates understand the Weekenders programme, what the role involves, and what the journey looks like.

• Supporting candidates to reflect on whether Weekenders is right for them.

• Keeping candidates engaged, informed and motivated as they move through the process.

• Helping people overcome practical barriers where appropriate, while being honest and clear about expectations.

• Making sure candidate communication feels relational, timely and values-led.

Helping the right people progress

• Helping identify candidates who are ready to move forward, as well as those who may need more time, more information or a different route.

• Support candidates to progress, pause or close, as advised by our fostering service colleagues.

• Using strengths-based and motivational approaches to help candidates reflect on their motivations, support networks and capacity.

• Working closely with social work colleagues to escalate questions, concerns or safeguarding issues appropriately.

• Supporting candidates to prepare for training, home visits and assessment stages.

• Helping ensure the process is clear, efficient and supportive.

Supporting groups, events and community activity

• Supporting information events, training sessions and candidate-facing events.

• Co-delivering sessions with social workers and other colleagues.

• Helping create a welcoming community for people exploring Weekenders.

• Supporting socials and community-building activity for applicants and approved Weekend Foster Carers.

• Helping candidates connect with the mission and feel part of something meaningful.

Administration, data and follow-up

• Keeping candidate records, notes and next steps up to date on Now Foster’s digital platform.

• Using Google Workspace, Trello and other tools to access key documents and manage your workload. 

• Making sure no candidate falls through the cracks.

• Supporting data capture so the team can understand what is working and where candidates are getting stuck.

• Helping improve templates, messages, prompts and workflows for the candidate journey.

• Supporting home visit admin and logistics where needed.

Contributing to innovation and learning

• Gathering feedback from candidates to help improve the journey and bringing this insight from candidate conversations into team discussions.

• Helping the team understand what motivates people to become Weekend Foster Carers, what worries them, and what helps them move forward.

• Supporting testing and iteration of new candidate journey approaches.

• Helping us build a process that is warm, efficient, inclusive and effective.

• Contributing to a new model of fostering that is relational, ambitious and designed around children and young people.

You’ll Thrive in This Role If You Are

• Warm and relational – able to build trust quickly and make people feel welcome.

• Emotionally mature – able to have thoughtful conversations about motivation, care, family life and uncertainty.

• A strong communicator – clear, encouraging and confident across phone, video calls, emails and written updates.

• Motivational and strengths-based – skilled at helping people see their potential while also being honest about what fostering involves.

• Organised and proactive – able to manage a busy candidate journey, track next steps and keep people moving.

• Tech-savvy – comfortable using digital platforms, Google Workspace and Trello.

• Confident in your judgement – able to decide when someone should progress, pause or close, while knowing when to seek advice.

• Safeguarding-aware – able to recognise when something needs to be escalated and comfortable working within clear safeguarding processes.

• Reflective and curious – interested in learning what works and improving the candidate journey over time.

• Comfortable with ambiguity – happy working in a small, growing charity where things are evolving.

• Committed to better outcomes for children and young people – motivated by Now Foster’s mission and the potential of Weekenders.

Experience We’re Looking For

Fostering experience would be highly beneficial. For example, this could include experience as a foster carer, working in fostering, supporting foster carers, working with fostering services, or working in a closely related part of children’s social care.

We are also interested in people with experience in:

• Volunteer management

• Children’s social care or youth work

• Community work

• Social prescribing

• Mentoring or coaching

• Recruitment, onboarding or candidate support

• Relationship-based support roles

Most importantly, we are looking for someone who understands the importance of relationships, can guide people through a meaningful decision-making process, and is excited by the possibility of building a different kind of fostering journey.

Bonus Points For

• Lived experience of the care system or fostering.

• Experience working directly with prospective or approved foster carers.

• Experience using motivational interviewing, coaching or strengths-based approaches.

• Experience supporting people through an application, recruitment, assessment or onboarding journey.

• Experience delivering or supporting information sessions, preparation groups, training or community events.

• Experience working remotely or in a flexible, fast-moving team.

An interest in innovation, service design or changing how fostering works.
 

About Us

Now Foster is a team of innovative social workers, designers, and entrepreneurs on a mission to change fostering in the UK.

We bring together social work, service design, public sector transformation and lived experience to create better outcomes for children and young people. Our overarching vision is to transform the fostering system by bringing many more wonderful people into it as foster carers, so that children and young people have the relationships, stability and support they need to thrive.

You will be joining a small, ambitious and passionate team, alongside our trustees, freelancers and advisors, all of whom play an active part in shaping our work. We partner with local authorities and not-for-profits who share our values and are ready to embrace change. As a registered charity, everything we do is driven by purpose, not profit.

About Weekenders

Weekenders is Now Foster’s flagship programme. It pairs children and young people in foster care with inspiring adults who can offer guidance, stability and encouragement on a regular basis. It is about showing up, making a difference, and being that person a young person can count on.

The programme is growing quickly. We are scaling Weekenders across London and beyond, testing new ways to support applicants, local authorities and independent social workers, and building the operational foundations needed for long-term growth.

A core part of this growth is making sure that people who are interested in becoming Weekend Foster Carers receive the right balance of warmth, encouragement, information and challenge as they move through the journey. That is where the Journey Guide comes in.

Working Pattern and Location

This role is offered at 4 to 5 days per week, with a salary of £34,000 pro rata.

The role can be based anywhere in England, with occasional travel to our Weekender delivery areas. Our Weekenders team is currently based across London and Manchester, and our wider organisational team is based in Oxford. Most work will be home-based, but there will be some in-person meetings, events, training sessions or bi-monthly co-working days.

The role will involve some work outside standard office hours. This is likely to include:

• Around one weekend day per month, which you would take back as time off during the previous or following week.

• Some evening work, for example around one information event per month.

• Some evening intro chats with prospective foster carers, where this helps people engage with the process.

We work flexibly and will support the successful candidate to manage their time in a sustainable way.

Safeguarding

Now Foster is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.

This role will involve contact with prospective carers, rather than direct work with children and young people. However, you will need to understand safeguarding, work within Now Foster’s safeguarding processes, and escalate any concerns appropriately.

This role will require an enhanced DBS check.

What’s In It For You

Joining Now Foster means being part of something different. We are small, ambitious and innovative, and you will play a key role in helping Weekenders grow.

You will be close to the people exploring whether they could become Weekend Foster Carers, and your work will directly shape whether they feel supported, confident and ready to take the next step.

You will join a supportive, collaborative and values-led team. We work hard, care deeply about what we do, and are building something bold and lasting: a new way of fostering that blends social work, design, technology and relational practice.

We will provide the tools and technology you need, cover agreed travel and expenses, and support you to work flexibly within the rhythm of the programme.

How to Apply

Please send us your CV and a short cover letter explaining:

1. Why you are interested in Now Foster and the Weekenders programme.

2. The experience you would bring in supporting, guiding or motivating people.

3. Any experience you have of fostering, working in fostering, children’s social care, community work, volunteer management or similar.

4. What excites you about innovation in fostering and what fostering could look like.

5. Your availability, including whether you are looking for 4 or 5 days per week and when you could start.

You must have the right to work in the UK.

We recognise that some candidates may use generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to support the preparation of their application. While this is acceptable, applications must remain an authentic reflection of your own experiences and motivations. We ask candidates to let us know if and how they used AI as part of the recruitment process.

Our Commitment to Equality

Now Foster is committed to being an equal opportunities employer. We celebrate diversity and actively encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, identities and experiences.

Recruitment and selection decisions are made on the basis of fair, objective and transparent criteria. We will also make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process to ensure accessibility for all candidates.

Please Note: We are hoping to appoint as soon as possible and will close recruitment once we find the right person so candidates are advised to submit an application as soon as they are able.