National literacy trust jobs

About Young Roots

At Young Roots, we want to see a compassionate and welcoming society for young refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. We work alongside young people seeking safety in the UK, building trusted relationships, providing practical and emotional support and promoting young people’s rights and power.

Our youth clubs and casework are transformative for young refugees, allowing young people who have fled danger, had traumatic journeys and who are often here alone, to find community and connection, have a space to be a young person and access support in addressing a whole range of practical challenges they face. We also draw on our evidence from working every day with young refugees and asylum seekers to call for change to the laws and policies which are harming young people. 

The role

We’re looking for an experienced and collaborative Head of Finance to lead our financial management, planning, and governance.

This is a senior and influential role, sitting on our Leadership Group and working closely with the CEO, Trustees, and Finance Committee. You’ll provide clear financial insight to support decision-making, ensure strong financial stewardship, and help us plan sustainably for the future.

You’ll take ownership of the full finance function, supported by an Internal Operations Officer who manages day-to-day transactional processing.

What you’ll do

• Lead financial planning, including budgeting, forecasting, and cashflow management
• Produce clear, high-quality management accounts and financial analysis
• Support strategic decision-making through strong financial insight and modelling
• Ensure robust financial controls, systems, and compliance (including audit, SORP, and statutory reporting)
• Partner with colleagues across the organisation to support budgeting, funding bids, and full cost recovery
• Oversee payroll and financial operations, ensuring accuracy and efficiency
• Contribute to organisational strategy as part of the Leadership Group

About you

You’ll be a confident and values-driven finance professional who enjoys working collaboratively and making complex information accessible.

You’ll bring:

• Significant experience in a senior finance role within a charity or not-for-profit
• Strong knowledge of charity finance, including SORP, restricted funding, and compliance
• Experience producing management accounts, budgets, and forecasts for non-finance audiences
• The ability to influence and support senior leaders with financial insight
• A proactive, hands-on approach with strong attention to detail

A professional accountancy qualification (ACA/ACCA/CIMA) or equivalent experience is desirable.

This role is designed as a part-time position (28 hours/week) with flexibility around how hours are worked. We are a hybrid organisation, with the option to work remotely or from our London offices (Croydon or Brent). We ask that ideally you attend at least one in-person team day per month in London.

We offer a supportive, inclusive working environment and the opportunity to play a key role in a mission-driven organisation making a real difference.

To Apply:

To apply, please submit your CV alongside a personal statement by the closing date outlining how you would be a great fit for the role.

Your personal statement should be no more than 800 words, answering the following questions:

1. What is your motivation for working with Young Roots? (100 words)
2. What is your motivation for applying for this role specifically? (200 words)
3. What skills and experience would you bring that will enable you to be successful in this role?  Please ensure you refer to the essential criteria on the person specification and provide examples to demonstrate how and where you meet the criteria. (500 words)

Please submit your application via Charity Jobs.

No agencies, please.

Closing date: 14th April

Interview date: 20th April

Young Roots recognises the positive value of diversity, promotes equity and challenges discrimination. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, particularly those who can face disadvantage in employment, such as people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQ+ individuals and people with disabilities. As an organisation that supports refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, we particularly welcome applications from people within these communities. We offer a guaranteed interview for those with lived experience of the asylum system and those with disabilities, where they meet the essential elements of the person specification. If aspects of the application process create barriers to you applying and you’d like any adjustment to the process or you’d like an informal discussion or advice on your application, please get in touch. We would also like to alert you to the existence of organisations which support people from under-represented groups to access employment, who can advise you on applying for this role. For example, Scope, Young Women’s Trust and Experts by Experience.

Young Roots is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share this commitment. We take this duty very seriously.

Our work is underpinned by policies and procedures which promote safe working practices. We have a framework of training and supervision which everyone is expected to comply with and systems for monitoring, quality assurance and gaining service user feedback. On joining you will be expected to be part of this approach to safeguard our service users.

JOB TITLE:                         Centre Based Assistance Dog Instructor (Maternity Cover) 

LOCATION:                        Based at our Centre in Milton Keynes, with travel up to 3 hours 

SALARY BAND:                 £26K - £32K per annum, depending on experience. Line management experience desirable.

JOB TYPE:                          Full time and Part time applicants considered. Fixed Term of 12-18 months 

REPORTS TO:                    Interim Head of Assistance Dog Programme 

Medical Detection Dogs trains dogs to save lives. 

We train specialist dogs to detect the odour of human disease, providing life-saving alert assistance dogs to people with complex health problems across the UK and collaborating with NHS Trusts and other researchers and Universities both in the UK and internationally to advance the early diagnosis of disease.

We have an exciting new opportunity to join this small but fast-growing charity that is a world leader in its specialist innovative field. 

The Role 

We are looking for a passionate and driven person who has previous proven experience and skills working as an Instructor within an Assistance Dog organisation, who has worked with clients and partnerships. The role includes supporting both clients who have had a MDD dog placed with them and also our own dog applicants with their puppies and young dogs to ensure they receive the highest standard of socialisation and early training in terms of obedience, public access and developing an alert to the applicant’s condition, with the aim to reach an accreditable assistance dog partnership status. The role will also include carrying out client specific and odour training for MDD own dogs, placing these dogs with their new clients and looking after a number of established partnerships. This role would suit somebody residing up to an hour from our centre in Milton Keynes.  

Duties that encompass the role of an Instructor include:  

• Be the first point of contact for the allocated partnerships in your area. To provide guidance and instruction to applicants who have applied to the charity to have their own dogs considered for the training programme guidance and instruction on handling, behaviour and obedience and odour training as well as newly placed partnerships.

• Alongside the Instructing team, to run puppy classes, public access training, recall sessions in small groups for applicant own dogs that are in line with the charity’s quality standards and in accordance with timescales and targets. 

• To also carry out support visits and home interviews for applicants and clients that have been allocated to you.  

• Regularly monitor progress of any young dogs and partnerships in training in your area and provide detailed, evidenced feedback to Interim Head of Assistance Dog Programme.

• To carry out client specific training with any MDD owned dogs that have been matched, including the required odour scent training.

• Instructing, guiding and supporting new assistance dog clients in managing and handling a Medical Alert Assistance Dog effectively, via pretraining, placement training and aftercare visits.

• Supporting partnerships in training in successfully reaching an accreditation standard and in maintaining this standard throughout the life of the partnership.

• To support a number of established partnerships in the form of aftercare, refresher training and yearly re-accreditations, assisting further afield on occasions as required.

Responsibilities  

• To escalate issues and problems to the Interim Head of Assistance Dog Programme as appropriate.

• To carry out scent assessments on any MDD dogs in socialising as and when required with the support of the rest of the Instructing Team.

• To plan, organise and deliver practical and theoretical training to clients, meeting their individual needs in line with agreed standards to include areas such as dog welfare, appropriate handling, commanding and overall management. This will involve working with the parents as Team Leader and child as Client and working with adult clients.
• Assess the team dynamics of the family & balancing the needs of all family members as well as those of the dog.
• Assess the individuals preferred learning style and amending as relevant to aid a client.
• To accompany the client into all regular environments that they will take the dog to, ensuring the dog behaves in an acceptable manner and that the client and others are aware and clear in terms of where they dog should reside and behave for e.g. public transport, place of work. To complete a check list of environments for any applicant own dogs in training who are on the programme to be assessed within.
• To support and advise clients in transferring the odour training from pot training and recognising alerting behaviours to establish real life alerting.
• To ensure all partnerships are in line with the ADUK regulations with regards to behaviour, obedience and welfare and branding.
• Due to the nature of the role, flexible working hours may be required in some instances to facilitate the effective delivery of the work e.g. working during the school holidays with school age clients.
• To monitor the correct and false alerting percentages of allocated partnerships via data analysis, advising where necessary until the correct alerting levels are achieved.
• To complete comprehensive reports and paperwork for any time spent with applicants or partnerships in training or established. Maintain accurate records by providing verbal and written information with agreed timescales about clients, dogs, applicants and apprentices as appropriate.
• To work alongside allocated partnerships with the aim of the partnership reaching an accredited standard and feeding back to the Interim Head of Assistance Dog Programme if there are any concerns that the accreditation cannot be achieved.
• To provide clients with appropriate aftercare services at regular intervals in their own homes in the form of annual visits, support visits or at refresher workshops run at the Centre to agreed standards.  This will include continual re-assessment of the dynamics of family and dog, formulating and training on appropriate solutions, as well as offering additional dog training advice.
• To deliver handling days as part of an applicant’s pretraining to include ‘Introduction to Assistance Dog’ ‘Advanced Handling’ and Family Handling.
• To scent train and seizure proof advanced dogs in preparation to be partnered with an adult or child client and ensure that applicant own dogs have received this at the earliest opportunity.
• To maintain the ongoing public access training with any advanced dog in scent training that has been allocated to them.
• To liaise with Independent Contractors as relevant.
• To provide support to the Charity’s public relations and fundraising functions as required, specifically in your area.
• To act as the ‘contact’ person for the assistance dog programme in relation to training policy procedures with clients and their families, other professional service providers and members of the public.  This will include on-going research and development of the project.
• As required, to liaise and provide support for Volunteers of the Charity.

Other 

• Share best practice with colleagues across the charity.

• Any other duties or tasks that are required to ensure the successful running of the Medical Alert Assistance Dog Department and the Charity overall.

PERSON SPECIFICATION 

SKILLS AND ABILITIES 

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• High level of preparation, organisational and co-ordination skills
• Strong and clear teaching and instructing skills
• Experience of running puppy classes, carrying out public access training and recall sessions
• Able to develop training plans for any dogs in training under your care
• High level of self-motivation and planning
• Approachable, calm and empathetic to children and adults with debilitating and life-threatening conditions
• Happy to travel alone within the UK to visit any clients as necessary
• Willing to be on call for partnerships as and when required
• Willing to stay away from home in local accommodation when client locations are too far to travel back home
• Happy and able to have Medical Alert Assistance Dogs in training reside in your home
• Good team player, but equally able to work independently
• Positive, empathetic and calm attitude
• Able to embrace a constantly evolving organisation
• Flexible

KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE 

Essential 

• Previous Assistance Dog Instructing and Dog Training experience
• Knowledge of AD(UK) and ADI regulations
• Law in relation to dogs 
• Knowledge of medical conditions relevant to puppies between 8 weeks and 2 years of age
• Knowledge of dog and human psychology
• Proven evidence and experience of dog handling and training skills
• Previous experience of teaching and instructing
• Sound dog training and dog behaviour knowledge
• IT literacy and report writing skills
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, Teams, Zoom and SharePoint
• Full UK driving licence
• Pass a DBS (CRB) check due to regular contact with children

Preferable  

• Knowledge of debilitating medical conditions and understanding of how they can impact people, both physically and psychologically, particularly when they are unstable and fluctuating
• Previous knowledge of odour/scent training
• Previous line management experience 

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES ​

• Strong and clear teaching and instructing skills 

• Approachable, calm and empathetic to children and adults with debilitating and life threatening conditions 

• Able to embrace a constantly evolving organisation

• You should be supportive of the charitable aims of Medical Detection Dogs and capable of working as part of a team, as well as able to motivate yourself

• You should be adaptable and positively embrace change by not only being flexible towards the ideas of others but also putting forward ideas to colleagues. This will involve creativity in problem solving and making appropriate responses to new ideas and unexpected situations

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• You should be supportive of the charitable aims of Medical Detection Dogs and capable of working as part of a team, as well as being able to motivate yourself.
• You should be adaptable and positively embrace change by not only being flexible towards the ideas of others but also putting forward ideas to colleagues. This will involve creativity in problem-solving and making appropriate responses to new ideas and unexpected situations.

DIVERITY, EQUALITY & INCLUSION

We are a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive Charity. Medical Detection Dogs thrives when everyone feels comfortable bringing their best self to work. We celebrate difference, whilst striving to create an environment where colleagues feel respected and valued for their unique potential. We are committed to our values on equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Charity Values

All employees are expected to uphold the charity’s core values in their daily work. This includes demonstrating respect through open and considerate communication, fostering cooperation by working collaboratively, maintaining honesty in all interactions and ensuring fairness through just and transparent decision-making.

Finally, the successful candidate will also be expected to: 

• Hold a full UK Driving Licence 

• Provide proof of identity and eligibility to work in the UK. 

• Undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check 

• Work some evenings and weekends 

• Be willing to travel to the Centre based near Milton Keynes