Head of Employability and Volunteering

This role will be leading and developing the Volunteering and Employability functions for FSSW, alongside providing operational safeguarding support to the Safeguarding Team. The core volunteer program supports the running of the organisation as a whole every day and is embedded across all departments in Bristol and Plymouth. The Employability team runs a NEET Employability programme in our South Bristol warehouse 3 days a week, with administrative duties full time. This part of FSSW is expanding and your role will oversee the pilot and launch of another Employability programme in Plymouth.

In this role you will:

1.  Be the senior management overseeing and supporting the running of our employability and volunteering functions across Bristol and Plymouth.

2.    Support the organisation as the Operational Safeguarding Lead, working alongside the Strategic lead to oversee incidents and support the training and development of staff.

3.    Lead on project development across both volunteering and employability as we grow our offer and launch a number of major organisational developments. This will include but is not limited to; policy, strategy, role and process development.

4.    Build and work with our volunteer, employability and warehouse teams to ensure that they have the skills, knowledge, support and training opportunities needed to manage the volunteer workforce and deliver the employability programs across the charity.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Line Management:

·        Line management of Volunteer Manager based at Bedminster and St Jude’s in Bristol and the Volunteer team at Sisna Park in Plymouth

·        Line management of two Employability Programme Leads based at both Bedminster and Inner-city Bristol office and future Plymouth based Employability staff

·        Recruit and contract for any staffing gaps in the Volunteer and Employability Teams based on skills and expertise required

Volunteer Recruitment, Retention & Development:

·         Oversee the volunteer managers who run the day-to-day of the volunteer programme

·        Oversee the Volunteer teams to create a recruitment and retention plan to build a reliable voluntary workforce

·        Support in any required monitoring and evaluation of the volunteering function

·        Work with the Fundraising, Volunteer and Partnerships teams to develop corporate volunteering across Bristol and Plymouth, which generates a flow of committed corporate volunteers and income

·        Support the development of the enrichment and pastoral aspect of the volunteer journey provided by the volunteer teams

·        Develop community and broad stakeholder partnerships to support the volunteer functions across Bristol and Plymouth

·        Oversee development of and then lead on reviews for relevant volunteer policies, processes and any necessary training

·        Work with the wider leadership team on the volunteering function as we grow our offer alongside the major organisational developments

Employability Programme Management & Development:

·         Overseeing the day-to-day management of the Employability Programme

·        Working with the relevant Bristol teams on a review and consolidation of Employability and future development opportunities.

·        Support in the development of future partnerships and opportunities to expand the work and impact of Employability

·        Working with the Plymouth team on the development and launch of an Employability program

·        Working with the fundraising team on aspects of funding bids, monitoring and future development.

·        Working with the wider leadership team on program expansion alongside the organisational major developments    

Safeguarding:

·         Take the lead on organisational safeguarding:

o   Overseeing incidents and supporting staff to complete actions

o   Ensuring incident reports completed

o   Completing monitoring and reporting as required

·         Facilitate internal safeguarding training

·         Report into the strategic safeguarding lead on any high-level incidents

·         Attend the Safeguarding Sub Committee meeting

Communications and Reporting:

·         Work with the Head of Communications and CEO to design an ongoing internal communications plan to ensure staff and volunteers are up to date with plans, development and activities

·         In collaboration with the Communications Team, ensure there is continuous engagement with external audiences

·         With the Communications Team build a schedule of promotional activity

·         Work with other Fareshare network partners  share and learn best practice across the network

·         Support the fundraising team to develop future funding proposals and reports

·         Collate reports from each team to submit to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and/or Board of Trustees covering all Volunteer and Employability activities, plans and developments

Systems, Policies & Processes:

·         Working with the Volunteer Managers, CEO and Wider Senior Leadership Team (WSLT) to develop/update the Volunteer and Farechance Handbooks and other key documentation

·         Lead the review and development of policies, processes and procedures specific to Volunteering and Employability

·         Support consistent practices and procedures across the south west as well as sharing best practice

·         Lead on the FSSW relationship with FareShare UK (FSUK) regarding volunteering, employability, and safeguarding, including policies, best practice, innovations, and systems

·         Support the development of the FSSW Corporate Volunteering Policy

·         Support the implementation of new systems for the recruitment, rota and monitoring of both programmes

·         Identify, monitor, and action specific needs and risks of two programmes, regularly updating the risk register; sign-off risk assessments to ensure safety in the workplace

·         Lead on and support the development of a MEL (monitoring, evaluating and learning) framework of primary data collected from IT systems to measure, analyse and report on impact

Person Specification

It is not expected that a successful candidate will necessarily have all the following criteria. FareShare South West is committed to helping individuals develop professionally and personally, and your application is encouraged.

Essential

·         High level of organisational and time management skills allowing for managing multiple priorities

·         Demonstrable experience of leading a team

·         Knowledge and experience of safeguarding vulnerable adults

·         Knowledge and experience of working with young people

·         Knowledge and experience of volunteer programmes

·         Experience of recruitment, either volunteers and/or employees

·         Experience or knowledge of developing outreach programmes to increase our diversity, social impact, and community engagement

·         Ability to produce high-quality written reports

·         Ability to monitor and evaluate project development

·         Ability to oversee departmental budgets 

·         Ability to travel between Bristol and Plymouth

·         Excellent communication (verbal and written) and interpersonal skills

·         Ability to build effective relationships at all levels, externally and internally

·         Good IT skills

Desirable

·         Experience of writing strategies and accompanying workplans around programme development working with a variety of demographics

·         Experience of working in a management or mid-senior management role

·         Experience of process development around on-boarding

·         High level budgeting and financial monitoring skills