Victims services initial response officer jobs
We are looking for a motivated & empathetic individual to join the team at Victim Support based at Compass House, Ashford as Initial Support Agents (known internally as Triage & Early Intervention Officers). This position is offered on a permanent basis.
Are you looking for a new challenge that will be rewarding and make a real difference to people's lives? Do you enjoy talking to people, providing empathy & support, and helping to find solutions to problems?
If this sound like you, then we'd love to hear from you...
What we offer:
At Victim Support we believe in attracting & retaining the best people and offer a competitive rewards & benefits package including:
- 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 role:
You will be talking to people on the telephone from a variety of different backgrounds, all with different experiences. No two days are the same & you will need to use your communication skills and resilient nature to help those dealing with trauma and the effects of crime, who may have gone through a life-changing experience. Previous experience is not required as you will receive robust training prior to working directly with clients. You will also receive ongoing support to ensure that you can provide victims with quick responses to meet their needs and help them cope and recover.
These roles are based in our Victim Care Unit in Ashford. You will be working shifts Monday to Friday between 8am and 4pm or 12pm and 8pm. Shifts are designated on a rota basis and scheduled well in advance so you can plan ahead. You will be working within a supportive team that is part of a large independent charity which offers the opportunity to develop skills to enhance your ongoing personal development.
Please see attached Job Description and Person Specification for further details.
About Us:
Victim Support is an independent charity dedicated to supporting people affected by crime and traumatic incidents in England and Wales. We put them at the heart of our organisation and our support and campaigns are informed and shaped by them and their experiences.
Victim Support are 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.
At Victim Support, we're proud to celebrate diversity and create a workplace where everyone feels they belong. We're committed to being an antiracist organisation, and we actively welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, including those from Black and Asian and other minoritised communities.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we will offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet all essential criteria for a job where it is practicable to do so. We are also happy to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment and selection process.
How to apply:
To apply for this role please follow the link below to the Jobs page on our website and complete the application form demonstrating how you meet the essential shortlisting criteria.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early, if we receive enough suitable applications to take forward to interview prior to the published closing date. If you have already registered & started an application, then we will contact you to advise of the amended closing date wherever possible.
Registered Charity 
More than 1000
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Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
General Overview
FearFree delivers services across the Southwest for victims, children and perpetrators of domestic abuse, sexual violence and stalking, with the aim to break the cycle of abuse and support all to live free from fear. We provide trauma responsive support, and this post will be fundamental to ensuring service users, stakeholders and partners experience this in our daily delivery.
The aim of the Interpersonal Trauma Response Service is to improve the health, wellbeing and safety of people who have been exposed to trauma arising from sexual violence and abuse and/or domestic abuse.
You will work across a specified number of GP practices across South Devon, to offer support to health professionals working in practices, people who have experience of interpersonal trauma arising from sexual violence and abuse and/or domestic abuse, as well as a service for people at risk of perpetrating abuse.
You and the team will provide training to GP surgeries to improve identification, enquiry, and response for patients. You and your team will also support adults and children who have been impacted by interpersonal trauma with emotional and practical support, focusing on trauma stabilisation. The team will be responsible for facilitating timely access to further appropriate support services where needed.
FearFree is committed to flexible and hybrid working and this role will be a mix of home based with requiring travel to GP practices and for multi-agency meetings and other deliverables. Occasional travel to the FearFree office in Exeter and other locations will also be required.
This role may include evening and weekend work when required.
Key Responsibilities
- To provide specialist, individual and needs-led domestic abuse and sexual violence advocacy and support to patients who are or have experienced, who are referred from participating practices or self-refer, and to provide onward referrals where appropriate.
- Provide direct assessment, casework support, advice, information, and advocacy through telephone contact, and/or meetings at the relevant practice.
- Provide support to increase people’s personal safety, and that of any children, and inform them of their rights and options in terms of housing, legal and welfare rights.
- To provide signposting and onward referrals to patients.
- To provide ongoing specialist advice and support around Domestic Abuse (DA) and Sexual Violence (SV) to practice teams.
- To encourage general practice health professionals to ask patients about their experience of abuse and respond, record, safety check and refer.
- To provide feedback on case outcomes to referring clinicians.
- To collect and collate performance and monitoring data for reporting purposes.
- Provide in-house training and refresher training for general practice teams on understanding, recognising, and responding to DA and SV.
- Develop good working relationships and liaise with outside agencies where needed.
- Keep accurate records of all referrals received and of work done with or on behalf of service users.
- Deliver DA and SV training to clinicians and non-clinical staff in participating general practices.
- Develop a good relationship with all general practice staff and work effectively as part of the practice team.
- Contribute to monitoring and evaluation of the programme collecting required data and producing written reports as requested.
Application
To apply, please download the full job description/person specification along with the application and equality monitoring forms. Please send the completed application form and optional equality monitoring form direct to FearFree.
There is no specific closing date for this role and this vacancy will close once a suitable candidate is found, so early applications are encouraged.
For information about the processing of your personal data at FearFree, please visit our website.
FearFree is committed to encouraging equality and diversity in the workplace. We strive to be a diverse and inclusive place to work where we can all be ourselves and individual differences are recognised and valued.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Overview
FearFree delivers services across the Southwest for victims, children and perpetrators of domestic abuse, sexual violence and stalking with the aim to break the cycle of abuse and support all to live free from fear. We provide trauma responsive support, and this post will be fundamental to ensuring service users, stakeholders and partners experience this in our daily delivery.
This exciting post will be working with children who have experienced or been affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence. Focusing on standard and medium risk cases, this role will provide practical and emotional support to children and young people, whilst working proactively with other professionals, with an emphasis on early intervention and awareness raising.
FearFree is committed to flexible and hybrid working and this role will be a mix of home based and office based, alongside requiring travel for multi-agency meetings and other deliverables.
This role may include evening and weekend work when required. It is fixed term until October 2026.
Key Responsibilities
- Manage a caseload of low to high risk children and young people, predominantly through face to face appointments but also utilising virtual technologies and group work.
- Plan, recruit and deliver group work interventions for children and young people alongside colleagues.
- Complete an initial assessment of the child’s needs so that you can identify and plan the support needed to address issues and prevent any problems from escalating.
- Assess the needs of the child and devise appropriate support and safety plans with due regard to the dynamic nature of risk.
- Proactively engage with children and young people affected by DA/SV by providing therapeutic sessions tailed to their needs in where they are in their recovery journey.
- Risk assess and follow FearFree safety procedures to ensure personal safety and that of service users and other staff at all times.
- Actively support carers and parents in how to support their CYP affected by trauma. This may include working together to ensure the child is support at every stage in their recovery journey.
- Respond to emergencies and crises with a focus on the child’s wellbeing and safeguarding.
- Provide child-centred, trauma responsive support to all your cases taking in considering different learning needs, to empower the young person to make informed choices.
- Enable service users to participate in the design, delivery and evaluation of services.
- Keeping the child’s voice central to all support and decision making wherever possible: taking the time to talk through and work with the individual child’s understanding around safeguarding and why we need to share certain things.
- Act as duty officer, responding to incoming calls, logging referrals and making assigned outgoing calls, according to the duty rota.
- Work effectively within a multi-agency framework, consisting of the MARAC and local partnership responses to domestic abuse and sexual violence, in order to reduce the risk for service users and their families.
- Be proactive with your line manager to carry out periodic case reviews.
- Respect and value the diversity of the community in which the services work in, and recognise the needs and concerns of a diverse range of survivors ensuring the service is accessible to all.
Application
To apply, please download the full job description/person specification along with the application and equality monitoring forms. Please send the completed application form and optional equality monitoring form direct to FearFree.
The closing date for this role is 6th February 2026. We reserve the right to close the vacancy earlier if sufficient applications are received before then, so early applications are encouraged.
For information about the processing of your personal data at FearFree, please visit our website.
FearFree is committed to encouraging equality and diversity in the workplace. We strive to be a diverse and inclusive place to work where we can all be ourselves and individual differences are recognised and valued.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
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The Cathedral has a particular responsibility to safeguarding children, young people, and vulnerable adults in the Cathedral community. It shares this responsibility with the Diocese of St Albans. This work is wide‑ranging, and the Cathedral Safeguarding Officer (CSO) plays a central role in maintaining good safeguarding practice.
This part‑time role (15 hours per week) becomes vacant as the current postholder retires after four years, with time planned for handover with the person appointed to the role now. The CSO works with senior staff and the governing body to help lead policy development, training, reporting, and compliance with Church of England guidance. They report to the Canon for Mission and Pastoral Care and receive regular professional supervision from the National Safeguarding Team, with occasional networking with other CSOs.
Safeguarding is recognised as a shared leadership responsibility. The CSO meets weekly with senior clergy to review cases and will also work with the newly appointed non‑executive Safeguarding Lead on Chapter, the Cathedral’s governing body.
A core part of the role is promoting safeguarding awareness across the Cathedral community and understanding all activities involving children, young people, and vulnerable adults. The CSO provides professional advice on concerns raised, ensuring responses follow law and national policy, and works closely with diocesan and national safeguarding teams on complex cases. They also ensure appropriate support for survivors and proper management of those who pose risk.
About You
The Cathedral is seeking candidates with strong knowledge and professional experience in relation to safeguarding issues and proven experience working collaboratively in teams.
The post will require some flexibility in working patterns and will therefore require occasional weekend working and the ability to respond to urgent cases.
The successful candidate will hold a relevant professional qualification and relevant experience and expertise in child and/or adult protection.
How to apply
If you have questions about the post, please contact the Head of HR, Michelle Ovenden. For further details including an application form and job pack please visit the Cathedral website vacancies page.
Applicants should submit a covering letter and application form (which can be downloaded from the cathedral website) to the Head of HR, Michelle Ovenden
Closing date: 20 February 2026
Interviews (in person): 11 March 2026
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.