Referral centre advocate jobs in Leeds, west yorkshire

Due to educational commitments and a strategic review of our services, our Founding Director is stepping back from leading the organisation. This creates an exciting opportunity for a Managing Director to join a women-led movement shaped by lived experience.

Working closely with the Founder, Board, and team, you will take the lead in implementing our strategy, turning vision into action, and ensuring our work is sustainable, impactful, and ready to grow. You will play a central role in securing financial stability, strengthening income streams, and building a resilient organisation for the future.

We are looking for a proactive and experienced leader who can strengthen systems, processes, and team culture, while supporting and developing a small, dedicated team. This role is not just about leadership, but about working alongside others - someone who is human, approachable, and a genuine team player.

You will value collaboration and co-production and feel comfortable working in a culture rooted in trust, flexibility, and compassion. You will bring the confidence to represent the organisation externally, alongside the humility to listen, learn, and grow with the team.

This UK-based, remote role sits within a small, friendly organisation committed to reflection, learning, and continual improvement. You will help shape how we evolve, ensuring we deliver safe, high-quality, trauma-informed, and gender-sensitive support for women affected by their own or someone else's gambling addiction.

We are seeking someone who aligns with our values, understands the realities women face in a male-dominated space, and can lead with humanity and humility.

The Managing Director will be accountable for:

• Strategic direction
• Financial sustainability
• Safeguarding and risk oversight
• Commissioner relationships
• Organisational culture and values

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Lead development and delivery of the 3-year strategic plan.
• Ensure organisational growth aligns with mission and peer-led ethos.
• Identify opportunities for funding, partnerships and influence.
• Ensure services evolve in line with women’s needs and policy context.

Governance & Risk Oversight

• Maintain oversight of safeguarding and clinical governance.
• Ensure robust risk management and compliance systems are in place.
• Report quarterly to the Board on performance, finance and risk.
• Ensure Delegated Authority Framework is implemented effectively.
• Act as Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Financial Sustainability

• Accountable for organisational budget and reserves strategy.
• Oversee funding pipeline and income diversification.
• Negotiate and sign contracts within Board-approved limits.
• Ensure staffing model remains financially sustainable.

Leadership & Organisational Culture

• Lead and support staff team.
• Maintain trauma-informed, women-centred organisational culture.
• Ensure appropriate delegation and clear accountability.
• Protect staff wellbeing and prevent executive overload.

External Representation & Influence

• Represent the organisation with commissioners, funders and partners.
• Build relationships with VCSE organisations, OHID, NHSE, ICBs, Local Authorities and sector bodies.
• Position the organisation as a credible specialist provider.
• Support policy and influence activity at strategic level.

Board Relationship

• Work closely with the Chair
• Provide clear and transparent reporting.
• Support Board development and portfolio governance.
• Ensure Board receives timely information on risk and performance.

Person Specification

Essential Experience

• Senior leadership experience within VCSE, health or social care.
• Experience in women-specific services.
• Experience managing budgets and financial sustainability including evidence of successful fundraising and income diversification.
• Experience working with statutory commissioners.
• Experience overseeing safeguarding in complex services.
• Experience leading multi-disciplinary teams.

Desirable Experience

• Experience in addiction, gambling harm or mental health sectors.
• Experience within CIC or charity governance structures.
• Experience influencing policy or commissioning frameworks.
• Understanding and appreciation of lived experience communities and peer support spaces

Essential Skills

• Strategic thinking and planning
• Financial acumen
• Strong governance understanding
• Stakeholder diplomacy
• Ability to delegate effectively
• Crisis management capability
• Clear written and verbal communication

We kindly ask applicants to avoid submitting AI generated responses to encourage a real sense of who you are. 
 

Our operational days are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. We operate flexibly but our regular team meetings are held on a Wednesday and this role is expected to be accessible for our staff within these days. 

Job Title:

Senior Legal Rights Team Manager

Department/Responsibility for:

Legal Rights Team

Line management of 3 employees

Reports To:

Director of Research and Support Services

Purpose of the Role:

Due to an ambitious strategy to increase our reach and revenue by 2027, and increasing demand for our legal services, we are ready to welcome an experienced Senior Legal Rights Team Manager to our Legal Rights Team.

We are looking for an experienced and organised individual to lead the delivery of our high-quality legal rights service, managing a team to ensure our services and support comply with regulatory obligations and remain up to date with the latest legal updates. This includes casework supervision within the team as well as managing your own caseload. The legal focus of the team’s work is within the health and social care field.

In addition, you will need to support the Director of Research and Support Services in managing our external relationships, evaluating and monitoring our service, devising and delivering training and supporting research and marketing activity. Additionally, you will use casework evidence to inform the Charity’s wider policy and advocacy strategies to achieve systematic change.

To be a success in this role, you should be an excellent communicator, proactive, flexible, highly organised and able to meet deadlines. This is a challenging but well-supported role, where you can make a large, career-defining impact for Cerebra and the children and families that we serve.

Key Areas of Responsibility:

1. Team Management and Supervision

• Provide effective, remote line management, support and performance management to direct reports to help them maximise their potential and effectiveness.
• Ensuring that knowledge, training and skills are maintained within the team, with a particular focus on legal knowledge and expertise.
• Conducting inductions, performance management and ensuring casework supervision.
• Provide practical and person-focused coaching support to the Legal Rights Team.
• Ensure there is a continual culture and focus on learning and development and wellbeing.

2. Culture & leadership

• Work to continue the development of a strong, person-centred, empathetic, supportive and inclusive culture at Cerebra.
• Build on excellent relationships between different teams and directorates for each other’s and Cerebra’s overall strategic goals and objectives
• Collaborate across departments to align partner activity with service delivery and communications.
• Contribute to strategic, organisational and cultural development.
• Champion innovation, growth mindset and learning from failure.

3. Legal Casework

• Oversee and supervise casework around health and social care legal entitlements.
• Manage referrals to the Legal Rights Service and triage new cases.
• Ensure that casework is managed in a timely, appropriate and compliant manner.
• Undertaking a personal caseload, including complex cases.
• Ensure all cases are handled in a timely manner - compliantly, effectively and ensuring quality standards are adhered to.
• Develop and maintain legal information products.
• Providing reports to the Director Group and Trustees where required on service performance, legal trends and key performance indicators.
• Use any common occurring problems that arise from the casework to feed into developing further research work into the area of health and social care.

4. Policy and Advocacy

• Utilise insights and data gathered from casework to identify systematic issues/updates and contribute to Cerebra’s policy and advocacy strategies.
• Collaboration and supporting the Senior Research, Policy and Influencing Manager to ensure insights and data trends identified from casework are appropriately actioned and communicated.
• Use knowledge, experience and legislative updates to influence wider policy changes.

5. General

• Monitor and evaluate the impact of the Legal Rights Team.
• Build and develop relationships with similar charities/organisations.
• Analyse trends in the area of health and social care law that can feed into future research projects.
• Develop and deliver Cerebra’s legal rights strategy, ensuring alignment with organisational goals and research priorities.
• Support collaboration across the different Cerebra teams.
• Experience using Client Relationship Management (CRM) systems or similar digital tools for recording and tracking work.
• Uphold Cerebra’s Data Protection Policy and all relevant confidentiality and safeguarding policies.
• Carry out any other reasonable duties in line with the needs of the team and organisation.

Please see attached job description for person specification.

The Tenovus Macmillan Welfare Benefits Caseworker Role

We’re excited to lead a pan-Wales Financial Health and Wellbeing Service funded through our Macmillan partnership to directly help people with a cancer diagnosis.

We're recruiting experienced Welfare Benefits Caseworkers across areas in Wales in the Hywel Dda & Cwm Taf University Health Boards for a 3 year Fixed Term contract.

With your expert and specialist knowledge and experience in the Welfare Benefits advice area you’ll be able to apply this within the cancer community at a crucial time for these individuals to meet their needs.

You'll need to be available to attend an Assessment Centre in Cardiff week commencing 20th April for a 1st June start date

The Tenovus Macmillan Welfare Benefits Caseworker Role Details

Covering the Hywel Dda or the Cwm Taf University Health Board this is an important and meaningful advice role in the cancer community for an experienced Welfare Benefits Caseworker. Managing a fully triaged caseload of welfare benefits clients across your specific area when it comes to cancer you’ll put your existing expert welfare benefits knowledge to good use, so your clients receive their full benefits and entitlements.

Your work is mainly done over the phone but may also be in person or digitally where you’ll be delivering a casework management and advice service for people with a cancer diagnosis and providing all the necessary support.

You’ll receive your referrals through your colleagues delivering the first contact element of the service. These referrals will contain full details of the advice needs ready for you to action the next steps. You’d also be required to independently build professional partner working relationships to support your role across the University Health Board as we grow the service.

What’s key is our service user experience is slick, professional and personable whether that’s with partners or services users.  You’ll be supporting and advising your own caseload of clients with a chronic cancer condition or a life-limiting cancer prognosis so knowledge of working with people with disabilities, people too ill to work or in a distressing situation is something you can comfortably manage in a targeted environment. 

It’s a rewarding welfare benefits job working with people with a cancer diagnosis. It’s one where you’ll make an immediate difference through your practical and sound advice, existing customer service skills and knowledge and experience in the welfare benefits area.

Whilst we offer flexible home working options, we require your ability to commute across your specific University Health Board (Hywel Dda or Cwm Taf) and to our Cardiff Head Office when necessary with Head Office working welcomed. For example, you’ll need to be flexible to commute to Cardiff with a higher concentration of days during your induction and probation period for training and team interaction on at least a monthly basis or across your University Health Board for partnership working.

The Tenovus Macmillan Welfare Benefits Caseworker Fit

We’re looking for a relationship builder and a team player who is an expert in this type of benefits advice field. You can comfortably manage a busy caseload, glean key information and tailor your communication style in a common sense and logical approach. You’re a detailed and analytical thinker who handles sensitive conversations and emotions well and with resilience.

It’s not just in doing the nuts and bolts of the job but how you go about it that matters just as much.

Making a difference for people affected by cancer is at the heart of what we do. Our values are our guiding principles in how we go about doing that in the way we think, go about work and interact with people and across teams.

Solution solving with a collaborative and open mind, being inclusive and super supportive and team focused means you’ll fit in well. You work in a way that can adapt to dealing with curve balls and know when to ask for help all whilst keeping on top of the day to day to keep focus on what’s important to achieve our shared goals

If you’re an adaptable and motivated person who’s proud to deliver quality work, has a people focused attitude and is excited to be part of our work we’d love to hear from you.

The Tenovus Macmillan Welfare Benefits Caseworker Skills

If you're seasoned in this area we’d love to see your application demonstrating how your skills or experience match the job role essentials and understand your motivation behind your application and what you’d bring to the team.

To be great in this role you’re skilled with:

• The expert Welfare Benefits advice knowledge & customer service capabilities -you confidently know and can explain your stuff and help others well taking on feedback
• Producing well managed and quality work on time – you’re careful and double check your work, manage your own time independently and are results focused to get a job done well within a deadline
• A flexible approach to working – your attitude’s good when there’s pressure to deliver and you adapt to the flow of work recognising where you need to change your focus
• Being collaborative, team and people focused – you know how to deliver great customer service. You work well with your colleagues to help them, listen to others’ ideas and put forward your own ones and demonstrate how you treat customers, so they feel valued
• Solution solving – you’ve a positive and resilient attitude looking for the best options in any situation or challenge things appropriately when coming up with a new idea or have a suggestion

At Tenovus Cancer Care we’re guided in all that we do by our core values. These are: Collaborative, Integrity, Innovative, Respectful and Inclusive. We’re dedicated to making our workplace diverse and inclusive where everyone feels they belong and can be their authentic selves at work. This means that whatever your background you’ll have an equal opportunity with us.

With our commitment to safeguarding the successful candidate’s role is eligible for an enhanced DBS check (Adults)

Applying is easy, just click the ‘Apply Now’ button at the top of the page and follow the online process. If you’d like any help with your application or to discuss any adjustments you may need please contact our People Team.

Do you want to join an organisation committed to addressing low literacy levels amongst people in prison?
Shannon Trust are delighted to be working with His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) to provide peer-led learning programmes at HMP New Hall. Working closely with the prison and their staff, people in prison, Shannon Trust volunteers and mentors, this post will lead the delivery and development of our prison-based reading and numeracy programme, maximising opportunities for people in prison to learn to read.  

Ideally you will have some experience of prison settings underpinned by the ability to build relationships and personal qualities that include resilience, determination and a problem-solving approach. 

This role is a fixed term role until 31st March 2027 with the opportunity to be made permanent subject to contract renewal.

The role will be prison-based. Employee benefits include a company contribution to pension scheme of up to 5%, 30 days holiday plus bank holidays, life insurance, paid volunteering days, discounts via Reward Gateway and an Employee Assistance Programme. The biggest benefit though is our culture – our people really want to work for the organisation.

?We welcome job applications from people with lived experience of the criminal justice system and do not routinely ask for details of any criminal convictions. These roles do require prison security clearance, so we will need to ask for details of any relevant criminal convictions before an offer of employment is finalised.

Please note this role is subject to contract award

Closing date is 23rd April 2026.
Interviews are planned for 29th April 2026.

REF-227 632