Advice, Information Jobs

Be part of something amazing

We are looking for an organised and creative individual to join our service supporting Unpaid Carers in Lewisham to improve their health and wellbeing, and access support that meets their needs.

The team works with unpaid Adult Carers, Young Adult Carers and Young Carers and you will carry out home visits and community meetings, complete assessments, co-produce support plans, and develop effective relationships with Unpaid Carers, families, and professionals. You’ll build on your local knowledge to signpost and facilitate access to support services, including financial and benefit advice, housing, health and safety home systems, and leisure and social activities.

To facilitate group work, you will plan and deliver a programme of events, groups, activities, training and workshops. You’ll need to research and book trainers, venues, activities and resources, negotiate value for money, promote the calendar of events and manage bookings. The sessions will offer opportunities for Unpaid Carers to meet with peers, develop confidence, learn new skills, reduce social isolation, and improve their own wellbeing.

Applicants should have relevant personal or professional experience of working with Unpaid Carers and/or vulnerable adults or children in a social care, health, education or voluntary and community sector, as well as experience of planning and delivering a programme of group work.

You’ll need a practical understanding of barriers faced by Unpaid Carers, and an awareness of cultural differences and access to services. You should be an excellent communicator and able to motivate and empower others.

This is a full-time role. Driver and own car essential.

You can make a difference.

We offer our employees:

· Inclusive values-based environment

· Competitive remuneration package

· Workplace pension scheme

· Generous 31 days annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays

· Opportunities for hybrid working

· Benenden Health Care

· Death in Service Benefit

· Cycle to Work Scheme

· Employee Supported Volunteering scheme

· Development opportunities

· and more

Imago is committed to Safer Recruitment practices, and the post is subject to references and an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Please either submit your CV with a short covering note or visit our website  for full details.

Imago recognises that many people in our society experience discrimination or lack of opportunity for reasons that are not fair. We aim to create a culture that respects and values each other’s differences, and see these differences as an asset, as they improve our ability to meet the needs of the organisations and people we work with. We proactively seek to increase opportunities for inclusion, and celebrate diversity across our organisation and within communities.

Imago recognises its duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of the children, young people and adults at risk who access its services or with whom it comes into contact.

We are looking for someone who can enable effective delivery and growth of Bishops Castle and Leominster Youth Hubs across the Clun Forest, Pontesbury, Leominster and Kington & Weobley Deanery areas.

To ensure effective local research and evaluation in partnership with The Cinnamon Trust and Church Army Research Unit and learning opportunities in collaboration with the Church of England Vision & Strategy Team. 

Youth Hubs will have a focus on:

• Reaching young people with the Gospel
• Developing new young active disciples
• Forming of New Worshipping Communities
• Growing Young Leaders
• Developing new volunteer leaders and teams

35 Hours per week Monday to Friday, with some evening and weekend work

If you are excited about this opportunity and sense God is calling you to serve young people in rural Herefordshire and South Shropshire, we would love to hear from you and talk more!

LOCATION: Across Citizens Advice Hammersmith & Fulham sites with the potential for some hybrid working following completion of successful probationary period.

Citizens Advice Hammersmith and Fulham is recruiting for Advice Services Managers, who will be responsible for the supervision, quality and monitoring performance of the advice and information team. This busy and varied role will rely on your ability to mutli-task and bring out the best in paid and volunteer staff, to ensure the highest quality of advice across our many and varied projects. Working as part of a team with other Advice Services Managers, you will also be responsible for all aspects of risk relating to advice delivery, complaints handling, safeguarding and GDPR.

It is essential that you have the required management skills and a good understanding of the main advice enquiry areas including welfare benefits, housing, debt, and employment as well as a combination of the following attributes:

• Excellent and effective communicator
• Experience in managing and developing staff and volunteers
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and assess priority order
• Ability to research, analyse and interpret complex information
• Experience of working with colleagues to maintain a positive working and learning environment, ensuring equality and diversity principles are upheld 

If you are an experienced Generalist Advisers, and don’t have all the skills required, please consider applying as we are willing to consider appointing the right candidate as a training and development role.

What we can offer you:

We value our people and can offer a supportive culture within a high performing and award winning organisation. 86% of our workforce recommend us as a place to work. We are committed to being an inclusive employer and workplace to represent the diverse communities we service. We are committed to increasing our diversity and whatever your background, we welcome your application. We offer an attractive remuneration package with excellent terms including:

• Generous holiday entitlement starting at 25 days per year (in addition to bankholidays) and rising to 30 days with long service
• Learning, development and personal growth opportunities
• Mental health and Well-being support helpline

We will interview on a rolling basis. We reserve the right to close the applications earlier if suitable candidates are found so encourage early applications.

Closing Date: Thursday 16th May 2024

Community Advice Works is an established community charity based in New Cross in South
East London. As the only charity in the London Borough of Lewisham offering a general
drop-in advice service, we are a critical source of support to vulnerable residents. We have
built a strong reputation within the Borough for providing high quality, independent, person-
centred welfare and housing advice. The organisation employs several part-time staff and
has a team of volunteers. In addition to providing advice we currently deliver a domestic
violence project at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital.

Like many charities in the advice sector, CAW is going through a process of change. We are
looking for an experienced and community-driven individual with a strong set of managerial
and interpersonal skills, preferably with a background in advice work, to maintain the strong
structures and reputation for excellence that we have developed.

As service manager, you will work with our friendly staff and trustee team to deliver our vital
service. We pride ourselves on providing a flexible, inclusive and rewarding work
environment, and are parent-friendly. Our community links and reputation are very important
to us, and we are looking for a service manager who shares our commitment to community
and public service - whether your experience is the public, private or charity sector.

Key duties

• Staff and volunteer management
• Line manage staff by providing support and supervision as needed, conducting regular performance reviews, and identifying staff training needs
• Oversee recruitment, training, and management of volunteers to ensure they are properly supported and equipped to help meet CAW’s service goals

Service delivery

• Ensure high quality and timely service delivery in line with the Service Level Agreements with our various service partners
• Identify any issues with service delivery and help develop cost-effective solutions to them as appropriate
• Compile and maintain accurate statistics on service performance to share with funders and CAW trustees
• Develop and maintain positive relationships with our key service partners through regular engagement, including attendance at regular service partnership meetings
• Engage regularly with our funders and other key stakeholders to build and maintain positive working relationships, and provide them with timely reporting on our service performance as needed 
•  Update service level agreements with existing funders, and draft new agreements as needed
•  Interact with clients as needed in a friendly and professional manner

Administration and Finance

• Ensure day-to-day administrative processes are functioning smoothly, and that necessary policies and procedures are up to date
• Line manage work of receptionist/administrative support worker

Fundraising and Marketing

• Help identify new funding and other revenue-raising opportunities
• Support the work of the fundraising sub-committee in preparing funding applications
• Work with trustees and external vendors to ensure CAW website is kept up-to-date
• Work with trustees and external vendors (as appropriate) to develop a social media presence for CAW
• Identifying and supporting efforts to increase CAW’s profile in the local community and to build relationships with key local stakeholders as appropriate Governance
• Prepare monthly reports for the trustees on service performance
• Maintain good lines of communication with trustees on all operational matters
• Attend trustee board meetings as needed

Person specification
Essential criteria

• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in a managerial role
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
•  Strong teamwork and interpersonal skills, including ability to manage a diverse range of working relationships in an effective, empathetic but professional manner
• Experience of working in a busy environment, managing competing work pressures and prioritising tasks appropriately to ensure key deadlines are met
• Strong attention to detail
• Experience preparing reports and compiling service statistics
• Ability to think strategically, to identify problems and devise effective solutions
• Ability to work on own initiative, within established practices and procedures

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge and experience of advice work
• Experience with fundraising
• Experience with financial management in the charitable sector
• Knowledge and experience of the local community and voluntary sector in Lewisham

At Independent Age, we believe that no older person should face financial hardship. That’s why, by 2027, our goal is to have improved the lives of one million older people. Our impact across policy, campaigning, information and advice, grant-making and partnerships improves lives by increasing the financial well-being of older people in financial hardship, enabling greater choice and independence in wider areas of life. We want to find talented individuals from diverse backgrounds to join us on this journey.

Responsibilities and Person Specification:

This role is an integral part of the day-to-day delivery of our Advice and Support Service, which has been re-shaped and is due to go live in the summer of 2024. The service is targeted at older people in or facing financial hardship, and provides information, advice and follow up support relating to a range of issues, including Welfare Benefits, Social Care and Housing. 

As an Adviser (Health Social Care and Housing) you will be responsible for providing specialist support to older people, their families and carers through our advice service with their housing and social care enquiries as well as providing generalist level support on a range of issues through our duty service. 

 You should have in depth, specialist level knowledge of Health and Social Care or Housing (ideally both) as they relate to older people, experience of working within a high volume advice setting and advice supervision framework such as the AQS framework

For full details on the role and requirements, please review the job description and person specification.  If your experience doesn’t align perfectly with all of the criteria in the person specification but you do meet most of them and are excited about the role, we encourage you to apply anyway. 

This is a full-time role, 35 hours per week, which you can choose to work over five days or a 9-day fortnight. We also are open to this role being worked on a part-time basis on a minimum of 28 hours per week.

What it’s like to work at Independent Age:

 We celebrate diversity at Independent Age and champion the differences that make each of us unique. We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We aim to attract and retain a wide range of talent and create an environment where everyone can feel safe, protected, welcome and included.

We offer great benefits including 28 days annual leave plus public holidays, a generous pension scheme with life assurance, and fantastic learning and development opportunities. We also offer a number of enhanced leave provisions and benefits.

We know that a good work life balance helps us perform at our best and supports wellbeing. Flexible working hours and hybrid working is standard for all (those contracted to work in the office usually attend 1 day per week). But if you need a different form of flexibility, we are always happy to talk flexible working. 

You can find out more about what it’s like to work at Independent Age by visiting our website.

Salary information:

Hybrid working in London: £32,682 per year, increasing to £33,600 after 6 months and £34,493 after 12 months Pro-rata if part-time

Homebased (with regular travel to London): £29,453 per year, increasing to £30,267 after 6 months and £31,054 after 12 months. Pro-rata if part-time. 

Application Process:

To apply, please visit our website to submit a CV and a Supporting Statement, detailing how your skills and experience meet the criteria within the Job Description and Person Specification (please do not hesitate to contact us if you have specific requirements and need support to apply in an alternative format).

To support our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion our hiring managers use anonymous shortlisting. Therefore, please do not include your name, photo, or information to indicate your gender or age in your CV and supporting statement. Please do not omit dates of employment. Please ensure the title of any uploads does not contain your name. 

Independent Age is committed to safeguarding and follows Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding those we work with. We therefore ask that you supply your full work history with explanations for any gaps in the application documents you submit and, if offered the post, we will require two employment references including your current or most recent employer. A basic DBS Certificate will be required for this role.

Closing Date: 6th May

Interview Dates: 

First Round: 15th or 16th or, Second Round: 21st May

Are you passionate about supporting people to uphold their rights?

Disability Advice Service Lambeth (dasl) is Lambeth’s peer-led Disabled People’s Organisation.  

We want to appoint a Professional Advocate who shares our ethos and values and is committed to supporting Lambeth residents achieve their legal rights.

dasl have provided an advocacy service for Lambeth Council for 12 years and since 2020 we have played a key role in the Lambeth Advocacy Hub, a single point of access for all statutory independent advocacy services for Lambeth residents aged 16 and over. We manage referrals and enquiries and provide independent Care Act advocacy and a range of non-statutory advocacy.

We provide a high quality service - we hold the Advocacy Quality Performance Mark. You will hold, or be working towards, a qualification such as the Certificate/Diploma in Independent Advocacy (Level 3), or be able to show the necessary skills and relevant experience in a formal or informal advocacy role. 

dasl’s success comes from dedicated work of our skilled staff, many of whom are Disabled people. You will be valued for who you are in our supportive and friendly team.

We work flexibly between home and office. Our office in Brixton is accessible.

This is a rolling recruitment - applicants will be shortlisted and interviewed as soon as possible. We encourage you to apply as soon as you are able.

At Independent Age, we believe that no older person should face financial hardship. That’s why, by 2027, our goal is to have improved the lives of one million older people. Our impact across policy, campaigning, information and advice, grant-making and partnerships improves lives by increasing the financial well-being of older people in financial hardship, enabling greater choice and independence in wider areas of life. We want to find talented individuals from diverse backgrounds to join us on this journey.

Responsibilities and Person Specification: 

This role is an integral part of the day-to-day delivery of our Advice and Support Service, which has been re-shaped and is due to go live in the summer of 2024. The service is targeted at older people in or facing financial hardship, and provides information, advice and follow up support relating to a range of issues, including Welfare Benefits, Social Care and Housing.  

As a Generalist Adviser you will be responsible for supporting older people, their families and carers through our duty service with their welfare benefits and housing and other issues relating to financial hardship in later life.  

You should have a good level of knowledge of welfare benefits, social care and housing as well as experience of working within a high-volume advice service, ideally a telephone-based service. 

For full details on the role and requirements, please review the job description and person specification.  If your experience doesn’t align perfectly with all of the criteria in the person specification but you do meet most of them and are excited about the role, we encourage you to apply anyway. 

This is a full-time role, 35 hours per week, which you can choose to work over five days or a 9-day fortnight. We also are open to this role being worked on a part-time basis on a minimum of 28 hours per week.

What it’s like to work at Independent Age: 

We celebrate diversity at Independent Age and champion the differences that make each of us unique. We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We aim to attract and retain a wide range of talent and create an environment where everyone can feel safe, protected, welcome and included.

We offer great benefits including 28 days annual leave plus public holidays, a generous pension scheme with life assurance, and fantastic learning and development opportunities. We also offer a number of enhanced leave provisions and benefits.

We know that a good work life balance helps us perform at our best and supports wellbeing. Flexible working hours and hybrid working is standard for all (those contracted to work in the office usually attend 1 day per week). But if you need a different form of flexibility, we are always happy to talk flexible working. 

You can find out more about what it’s like to work at Independent Age by visiting our website.

Salary information:

Hybrid working in London: £32,682 per year, increasing to £33,600 after 6 months and £34,493 after 12 months Pro-rata if part-time

Homebased (with regular travel to London): £29,453 per year, increasing to £30,267 after 6 months and £31,054 after 12 months. Pro-rata if part-time. 

Application Process:

To apply, please visit our website to submit a CV and a Supporting Statement, detailing how your skills and experience meet the criteria within the Job Description and Person Specification (please do not hesitate to contact us if you have specific requirements and need support to apply in an alternative format).

To support our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion our hiring managers use anonymous shortlisting. Therefore, please do not include your name, photo, or information to indicate your gender or age in your CV and supporting statement. Please do not omit dates of employment. Please ensure the title of any uploads does not contain your name. 

Independent Age is committed to safeguarding and follows Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding those we work with. We therefore ask that you supply your full work history with explanations for any gaps in the application documents you submit and, if offered the post, we will require two employment references including your current or most recent employer. A basic DBS Certificate will be required for this role.

Closing Date: 6th May

Interview Dates: 

First Round: 15th or 16th May, Second Round: 22nd May

At Independent Age, we believe that no older person should face financial hardship. That’s why, by 2027, our goal is to have improved the lives of one million older people. Our impact across policy, campaigning, information and advice, grant-making and partnerships improves lives by increasing the financial well-being of older people in financial hardship, enabling greater choice and independence in wider areas of life. We want to find talented individuals from diverse backgrounds to join us on this journey.

Responsibilities and Person Specification:

This role is an integral part of the day-to-day delivery of our Advice and Support Service, which has been re-shaped and is due to go live in the summer of 2024. The service is targeted at older people in or facing financial hardship, and provides information, advice and follow up support relating to a range of issues, including Welfare Benefits, Social Care and Housing. 

As a Adviser (Housing and Welfare Benefits) you will be responsible for providing specialist support to older people, their families and carers through our advice service with their enquiries relating to housing and welfare benefits as well as providing generalist level support on a range of issues through our duty service.

You should you should have in depth, specialist level knowledge of Housing or Welfare Benefits (ideally both) as they relate to older people, experience of working within an high volume advice setting and advice supervision framework such as the AQS framework.

For full details on the role and requirements, please review the job description and person specification.  If your experience doesn’t align perfectly with all of the criteria in the person specification but you do meet most of them and are excited about the role, we encourage you to apply anyway. 

This is a full-time role, 35 hours per week, which you can choose to work over five days or a 9-day fortnight. We also are open to this role being worked on a part-time basis on a minimum of 28 hours per week. 

What it’s like to work at Independent Age:

We celebrate diversity at Independent Age and champion the differences that make each of us unique. We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We aim to attract and retain a wide range of talent and create an environment where everyone can feel safe, protected, welcome and included.

We offer great benefits including 28 days annual leave plus public holidays, a generous pension scheme with life assurance, and fantastic learning and development opportunities. We also offer a number of enhanced leave provisions and benefits.

We know that a good work life balance helps us perform at our best and supports wellbeing. Flexible working hours and hybrid working is standard for all (those contracted to work in the office usually attend 1 day per week). But if you need a different form of flexibility, we are always happy to talk flexible working.  

You can find out more about what it’s like to work at Independent Age by visiting our website.

Salary information: 

Hybrid working in London: £32,682 per year, increasing to £33,600 after 6 months and £34,493 after 12 months Pro-rata if part-time 

Homebased (with regular travel to London): £29,453 per year, increasing to £30,267 after 6 months and £31,054 after 12 months. Pro-rata if part-time. 

Application Process:

To apply, please sit our website to submit via CV and a Supporting Statement, detailing how your skills and experience meet the criteria within the Job Description and Person Specification, by clicking the Apply Online button below (please do not hesitate to contact us if you have specific requirements and need support to apply in an alternative format).

To support our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion our hiring managers use anonymous shortlisting. Therefore, please do not include your name, photo, or information to indicate your gender or age in your CV and supporting statement. Please do not omit dates of employment. Please ensure the title of any uploads does not contain your name. 

Independent Age is committed to safeguarding and follows Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding those we work with. We therefore ask that you supply your full work history with explanations for any gaps in the application documents you submit and, if offered the post, we will require two employment references including your current or most recent employer. A basic DBS Certificate will be required for this role.

Closing Date: 6th May

Interview Dates:

First Round: 15th or 16th May, Second Round: 22nd May 

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our dynamic team as a Money Advice Caseworker on our Debt Free London project. The successful applicant will be providing money advice as part of our London wide project.

You will be contributing to the health & well-being of the community and helping people from reaching crisis point. In return, as part of our team, you will benefit from learning and development opportunities.

If you are a team player, willing to learn, committed to quality and want a job which makes a difference in people’s lives then this could be the job for you.

Closing Date: 5pm on Tuesday 7th May 2024
Interview Date: Friday 10th May 2024

Citizens Advice Bromley values diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination. We encourage and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an Advice Session Superviser or experienced Generalist Adviser with at least 2 years’ experience looking for a development opportunity to join our dynamic team.

The successful candidate will join our team of Supervisers and contribute to the support and development of our excellent staff and volunteers.

Together with our Senior Management Team and Quality Performance Manager, you will help to ensure that we continue to provide a high quality advice service within the London Borough of Bromley.

If you are a team player, committed to supporting others, and want a job that makes a difference in people’s lives this could be the job for you.

Closing date: Monday 6th May 2024 at Midnight

Interview date: Wednesday 8 th May 2024

Citizens Advice Bromley values diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination. We encourage and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds.

• £31,619 per year
• 37.5 hours per week – full-time
• 1 year fixed-term contract
• Based at Greenwich Mental Health Hub in Plumstead, with work required across Royal Borough of Greenwich
• Hybrid working considered in line with policy

South East London Mind is working with Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and Bridge Support to deliver the Greenwich Mental Health Hub.  This will form part of the new transformation of mental health services in the Royal Borough of Greenwich under the NHS Long Term Plan. The service will bring together the expertise of local primary, secondary and voluntary sector mental health care providers with the aim of providing flexible, holistic, and integrated services for adults with mental health problems.

Unpaid carers in our communities are supporting relatives, friends and neighbours, often with limited or no support, to live the best lives they can.  The support of people with dementia, learning or physical disabilities, mental health difficulties or substance misuse problems by unpaid carers has been estimated to save the government close to the equivalent expenditure for the whole NHS.

We are looking for a Mental Health Carers Advisor who possesses an understanding of the challenges of unpaid caring and whose experience of working within mental health services includes support, prevention, recovery, and self-management. Applicants should possess effective skills in communication and have experience of completing assessments, managing a diverse caseload and working in a busy work environment. An ability to work independently but collaboratively, to be proactive and to show initiative is essential for this role.

The role will involve:

• Management of a diverse client caseload
• Providing recovery-orientated individual and group-based support to carers of adults with mental health problems
• Collaborative working with all partners involved in Greenwich Mental Health Hub work
• Undertaking holistic needs and risk assessments
• Commitment to regular training and supervision
• Effective contribution to the development and continuous improvement of the service

Successful applicants will be expected to undergo an Enhanced Level Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Closing date: Monday 6th May (11:59pm)

Likely interview date:Week beginning 13th May

SEL Mind supports people with mental health problems and dementia in the boroughs of Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark. We are proud of our diverse workforce and know that our organisation is made stronger by the variety of backgrounds, experience, and ideas within it. We promote a culture of inclusion and representation, and are working hard to build a workforce that even better reflects the communities we support.

SEL Mind is somewhere that you can be your authentic self without fear of discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, neurodivergence, gender, age, lived experience of mental health problems or anything else that’s part of who you are.

Read more about staff benefits and why staff love working here on our website.

Coaching and Therapeutic Lead

Hours: 28 to 35 hours per week, flexibility for the right candidate
Starting salary: £31,556 (pro-rata)
Contract: Maternity cover until 30 June 2025
Location: Base is in Chorley. You will have a mixture of home and office working with meetings across Lancashire

Do you want to join an organisation who are passionate about improving mental health and wellbeing for Lancashire communities?

The Role:
We’re looking for a bold and caring person to lead and develop Lancashire Mind’s Wellbeing Coaching service and mobilise a pilot of therapeutic services; a new service for Lancashire Mind.

You will be a mental health practitioner with experience of delivering therapeutic services and understand the different types of therapy and support clients need. To succeed in the role, you will need excellent communication skills, project management and line management experience.

The current postholder is going on maternity leave so we are looking for someone who is able to step into the role and hit the ground running. You will be motivated, flexible and adaptable.

Along with managing the rollout of Lancashire Mind’s therapeutic services, you will manage several coaching focussed projects. As such you will lead on partner and funder liaison, promotion, quality assurance, monitoring and reporting. You will work with a range of voluntary and community organisations and will identify and develop new opportunities for services.

This is an exciting time for Lancashire Mind as we grow our coaching and therapeutic service to reach and support more people. We want someone who believes in our vision of a Lancashire where everyone has the opportunity to have the best mental health and wellbeing possible.

Lancashire Mind has a dedicated workplace wellbeing programme to ensure staff are supported with their own wellbeing which includes an Employee Assistance Programme, a half-day wellbeing day and wellbeing activities throughout the year.

We also offer a workplace pension scheme, paid emergency time off to care for dependents, regular supervision, and a commitment to supporting learning and development opportunities. We have also recently enhanced our annual leave offer with basic annual leave of 25 days, plus 3 days closure between Christmas and New Year, long service leave, the option to buy or sell annual leave and a half-day wellbeing day for all staff.

Above all, we are a friendly and supportive place to work; ‘Great staff team, positive and supportive culture’ (Lancashire Mind wellbeing survey, March 2024)

Please note: This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check.

Application Forms:
The Lancashire Mind Application form and full job description can be downloaded via the attached documents

Deadline for applications: 9am on 13 May

Interviews will be held on 22 May

£31,133 per annum plus £802 essential car user allowance + excellent benefits including 30 days holiday and flexible working

Fixed term contract until March 2027 – linked to funding

Closing date: Sunday 12th May 2024 at 11.30 pm

Do you have a good understanding of child development and the needs of homeless families and children plus proven experience of supporting parents and children with complex needs? Then join Shelter as a Children & Families Support Worker. This is an exciting opportunity and you will play a key part in standing up to the housing emergency.

About Shelter

Home is a human right. It’s our foundation and where we thrive. Yet every day millions of people are being devastated by the housing emergency.

We exist to defend the right to a safe home. Because home is everything.

We need ambitious, passionate people to join us. This is your chance to play a part in the fundamental change we are striving to achieve.

 
Our enemy is the social injustice at the core of the escalating housing emergency. To win this fight, we must be representative of the people we are here to help and those who support our movement In all our people decisions, we take pride in being inclusive, equitable and transparent. We are committed to combating racism both within and outside Shelter. We welcome you on our journey to becoming truly anti-racist.

About the team

At Shelter Bristol we provide front line support to over 5000 people a year, through housing advice and support. We strive for change to address the underlying systems that are causing the housing emergency. The range of support also includes legal representation, practical DIY assistance, and welfare benefits advice, so people can address their housing and other related issues. We also raise awareness of housing rights within the community so people can take their own actions and work in partnership with other local organisations.

About the role

You will have your own caseload of families, acting as their key worker and supporting them to either resettle or prevent homelessness. Your primary focus will be on households where some tailored interventions are required around the needs of the children to stabilise their housing situation and enable the family to thrive. You’ll need to provide intensive, tailored support as part of a whole family approach both in a 1-2-1 setting and through group work. You’ll also need to regularly visits clients’ homes and schools across the city liaising with other agencies in the community to provide a co-ordinated service.

We are happy to talk about flexible working, personal growth, and to promote a workplace where you can be yourself and achieve success based only on your merit.

About you

You will have knowledge of housing, homelessness and ASB legislation and welfare benefits that affect families and the skills to network and gather information as well as advocacy, negotiation and problem solving skills. You’ll need to be able to demonstrate that you have worked within, or understand, a safeguarding framework, have experience of managing a caseload and can prioritise, organise and set boundaries.

You’ll need to be able to use a range of IT tools to carry out your work, including case management systems, Microsoft Office applications, internet and email etc. You must also possess a valid driving licence and be willing to use your vehicle for work purposes, for which an essential car allowance will be paid.

How to apply:

Please click ‘Apply for Job’ below. You are required to submit a CV and responses to the following points of the ‘About You’ section of the job description of no more than 350 words each.

• You will have knowledge of the following areas and be able to apply this to your support work:

- child development and an understanding of the needs of homeless families and children.

- homelessness and housing legislation, ASB legislation, welfare benefits that affect families.

• You will have experience of working within a safeguarding framework and be able to demonstrate your role within this.
• You will have experience of supporting parents and children with complex needs and developing parent and child activities, including through play.

Please provide specific examples following the STAR format and ensure you demonstrate how you address the behaviours below throughout your responses:

• We prioritise diversity and have an inclusive and open mindset
• We work together to achieve our shared purpose
• We enable decision making
• We learn from our experiences and are open to risk

Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including 30 days of annual leave, enhanced family friendly policies, pension and interest free travel loans. Our employees also have access to a tenancy deposit loan, payroll giving, cycle to work scheme and an employee assistance programme.

Shelter helps millions of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness through our advice, support and legal services. And we campaign to make sure that, one day, no one will have to turn to us for help. We’re here so no one has to fight bad housing or homelessness on their own. Apply to be part of our team and be the change you want to see in society.

Safeguarding is everyone's business. Shelter is committed to protecting the health, wellbeing and human rights of those we support, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. All our staff will be expected to observe professional standards of behaviour and conduct their work in line with our Safeguarding Policies.

Shelter does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.

Our Welfare Officers provide direct and impactful welfare support to RAF personnel and their immediate family. As a trusted and confidential source of support, you will assist our service users with challenges they are facing, from mental ill-health, difficult relationships, domestic abuse, financial and cost-of-living concerns, resettlement, housing, childcare, equality issues, bereavement, military discharge or deployment and many more - no day will be the same, as such this is a great opportunity to develop your knowledge and skills within the Welfare sector.

Our intervention is provided with consent on a non-statutory basis, and you will work with and engage our service users to develop appropriate interventions for individual outcomes.

Our service is transitioning to become more accessible and inclusive, digital technology plays a key role in this, as such you will use digital technologies to complement and enhance processes and service user experience.

You will play an active role within the community, promoting the service through the delivery of presentations and representing the service at public engagement events. You will also work closely with RAF welfare teams, local authorities, health, education, civilian agencies, charities and other military organisations to ensure the best outcome for the service use

About the Team

2024 marks 34 years since SSAFA began delivering an independent non-statutory, and confidential service, for the Royal Air Force community across the UK, and this is an exciting time to be joining as we were recently successful in our bid to continue delivering this service.

We are transforming our ways of working to be innovative, to ensure our service is even more inclusive and accessible to meet the needs of a modern RAF.

As part of this transition, we are recruiting to several Welfare Officer vacancies across the UK.

We are a hard-working team from diverse professional backgrounds.  Although we all have our own area of responsibility, we support each other in delivering the best possible service to our military community.

Find out more about the 34 year history of the Service Personal Support & Social Work Service and hear from a colleague at RAF St Mawgan on our careers page.

About you

To thrive in this role you will have relevant experience of supporting adults, families and children/young people. You will be able to take a flexible and creative approach to problem solving. You will have excellent communication skills and be able to deliver presentations with confidence.

You will have used Microsoft Office 365 to a high standard. It is important that you have experience of planning and managing your own workload, with minimal supervision.

It would be advantageous if you have experience of carrying out assessments, preparing plans, monitoring and reviewing outcomes.

There will be some travel required and therefore you will need to be able to drive and have access to your own car.

About SSAFA 

SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity is a trusted source of support for serving personnel, veterans and their families in their time of need. In 2022 our trained teams of volunteers and employees helped more than 59,000 people, including veterans, serving personnel (regulars and reserves) and their families.

SSAFA understands that behind every uniform is a person. And we are here for that person and their family, any time they need us and in any way, they need us.

Diversity and Inclusion at SSAFA 

SSAFA exists to support a diverse range of beneficiaries within the armed forces community, and we believe diversity within our teams is key to ensuring we can deliver our services effectively. We thrive on differences and believe it is critical to our success as a worldwide charity. SSAFA is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace that seeks to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We therefore encourage applications from all genders, races, religions, ages and sexual orientations, as well as parents, veterans, people living with disabilities, and any other groups that could bring diverse perspectives to our business. 

SSAFA is committed to using the Disclosure & Barring Service to ensure we, as an employer, safeguard those we serve.

Closing date: Midnight on Sunday 12 May 2024. SSAFA reserves the right to close the vacancy early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications. 

Interviews: TBC