Advice, Information Jobs in South East
About The Fostering Network
The Fostering Network is the UK’s leading fostering charity. We are dedicated to creating a better future for fostered children and young people. We bring together everyone who is involved in their lives, leading, inspiring, motivating and supporting them to make foster care better. Together with our members and supporters we are a powerful catalyst for change, and we have been shaping and influencing the fostering agenda for more than 50 years.
About the role
Mockingbird, led by The Fostering Network in the UK, delivers sustainable foster care. This exciting programme is currently working with over a hundred fostering services across England, Scotland and Wales, and is looking to grow further. Mockingbird is an evidence-based model structured around the support and relationships an extended family provides. The model nurtures the relationships between children, young people and foster families supporting them to build a resilient and caring community.
We are seeking to grow our team of passionate and dynamic project workers within Mockingbird. You will make a vital contribution helping us to sustain and expand this US based model throughout the UK. In this role you will help make a difference and improve the lives of foster families and of children and young people in foster care. You will provide guidance and support to fostering services to enable them to understand, implement and sustain the Mockingbird model.
This a great opportunity to join the Mockingbird programme at an exciting time of growth in a role that offers the opportunity to have a genuine impact on the experiences and outcomes for looked after children and fostering families.
The role is home based London/East England, but will require extensive travel and occasional overnight stays within the UK on a regular basis.
Full details of the role can be found on our website.
To apply, please click the below apply via our website and email your completed word application form to the email address provided. CVs will not be accepted.
When submitting your application form, please use your covering email to tell us about any previous experience you have of working with Mockingbird and what makes you passionate about the programme.
Closing date is: Sunday 21nd April 2024 at midnight.
In person interviews will take place on: 30th April – in our London office.
The Fostering Network is committed to equal opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community and especially encourage applications from groups which are under-represented. All applicants are treated equally and selected on the basis of individual merit and ability to meet the requirements of the role.
The Fostering Network is committed to recruiting staff members with lived experience of fostering, care experienced or related experience.
As an organisation we are committed to supporting flexible working. This post is advertised as full-time, but we are open to applications from individuals who would like to work part time as part of job-share arrangement, please indicate on your application.
The Fostering Network is a registered charity in England and Wales 280852 and in Scotland SC039338.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Job Title: Advocate
Service: Coram Voice Shropshire
Contract Type: Part Time – Permanent
Hours: 17.50 hours per week
Salary: £11,150.50 per annum (£22,301 FTE)
Location: Home Based with Travel Across Shropshire.
About Coram:
Coram is committed to improving the lives of the UK’s most vulnerable children and young people. We support children and young people from birth to independence, creating a change that lasts a lifetime.
Coram is the UK’s oldest children’s charity founded by Thomas Coram in London helping vulnerable children and young people since 1739. Today, the Coram group helps more than one million children, young people, families and professionals every year by providing access to the skills and opportunities they need to thrive.
About Coram Voice:
Coram Voice exists to enable and equip children and young people to hold the system to account, to challenge and support it to do its job properly and to uphold the rights of children and young people to actively participate in shaping their own lives.
Coram Voice strives for a society which recognises, and willingly accepts, its responsibilities to children and young people, where the inequalities and discrimination they currently face have been eradicated. Where those children and young people are fully engaged in all decisions that are made about their lives. Where the views, needs and feelings that they express are at the core of those decisions.
Coram Voice is a national independent children’s charity established in 1975 and has grown to become one of the leading organisations for children and young people in the UK.
Coram Voice is a leading children’s rights organisation. We champion the rights of children. We get young voices heard in decisions that matter to them and work to improve the lives of children in care, care leavers and others who depend upon the help of the state.
Our Advocacy services we provide advocacy direct to children and young people in care, in need, in custody and to care leavers and children and young people with mental health needs. Advocates around the country support children and young people to get their voice heard in decisions about their lives. This may be through the telephone helpline or through an advocate working directly with a child, for instance, to support them at a review meeting or to help them make a complaint about their care. Coram Voice provides visiting advocacy services to most of the secure units nationally, to Secure Training Centres, Juvenile Young Offender Institutions, psychiatric hospitals, residential special schools and children’s homes.
About the Role
You will work directly with care experienced children and young people and those on Child Protection Plans providing them with advocacy support in the community and in a variety of settings. You will empower and support them to ensure their voices are heard within decision–making processes that effect their lives. You will be a capable ambassador for Coram Voice with the ability to engage effectively with professionals, carers, other stakeholders and most importantly children and young people.
If you have the necessary experience and skills and a commitment to promoting the rights of young people, we would like to hear from you.
What you will receive
We wish to reward and recognise the valuable contributions our staff make to the organisation and offer an attractive benefits package to do so. Coram Voice benefits package includes a competitive salary, a matched pension scheme up to 5% of salary, generous leave entitlements of up to 25 days’ annual leave plus an additional 3 days paid leave between Christmas and New Year. A supportive work environment fostering a good work/home life balance and a suite of family friendly policies, which promote employee wellbeing.
You will get a genuine opportunity to make a difference every day.
Recruitment process
Shortlisting will be undertaken by our Children’s Rights Managers. Successful candidates will then be invited for interview. The interview process comprises of a written exercise and a panel interview. Successful candidates will have a further one to one interview in accordance within Warner recommendations. Internal candidates will need to notify HR of their interest in the post and they will provide further information on the internal application process.
Returning your application:
- We cannot accept general CVs.
- When completing your application form, you need to address each point of the person specification and demonstrate how you meet it.
- Applications must be fully completed.
- If you are a current Coram Voice employee you may submit a supporting statement only addressing the person specification requirements for the post.
Closing date: 14th May 2024 at 23.59pm
Interview date: w/c 20th May 2024
General consideration for applications:
- DBS checks: all posts are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring check.
- Training: All successful candidates are required to complete our compulsory training programme which includes training in Advocacy (Being a Voice) Safeguarding and Diversity
- Conflict of interest: the independence of the service is important to Coram Voice. Prospective applicants need to raise any other potential conflicts of interest when initially contacting Coram Voice about this post.
Coram is an equal opportunities employer and we believe a diverse workforce enables us to improve the services to the children and families we help. We are genuinely committed to encouraging candidates from all sections of the community we seek to support. This includes those from, Asian, African, Caribbean and other minority ethnic backgrounds, those that identify as LGBQT+, those with disabilities, those with lived experience of care, those with neuro-diversity, and those from other groups who are underrepresented at Coram.
If applicants feel comfortable, we would encourage them to draw on lived experience as well as professional experience in their personal statement as part of their application.
We are committed to the safeguarding of children and where appropriate will require the successful applicant to undertake a check from the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Registered Charity No. 312278.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.