Project support jobs in Stratford upon avon, warwickshire

We are looking for a dynamic, values-led, strategic leader to drive our mission for migration justice and social work solidarity. The role entails oversight of the operations and strategy of the organisation, responsibility for financial management and fundraising, maintaining the health of the organisation and embedding anti-racist and anti-opressive values into every aspect of the organisation. 

We are currently looking for a Project Worker 2 to join our Early Help - Yardley and Hodge Hill Localities.

Initial Location of Post

Fox Hollies Children's Centre, 419 Fox Hollies Road, Birmingham, B27 7QA.

Objectives of the Early Help Service

Yardley and Hodge Hill Early Help are two of ten Early Help Localities across the city of Birmingham lead by Voluntary and Community Sector organisations (VCS) alongside Birmingham Children's Trust (BCT). The aim of the provision is to build capacity within local communities to ensure that children, young people and families have access to the right support at the right time before issues and concerns escalate.

Outcomes 

Our Early Help Advisors provide “light touch work” with families. This can be one off interactions and on-going support/intervention for a suggested maximum of four to six weeks. The role can involve; some introductory and exit scaling work with parents (outcomes wheel), referral completion, signposting to families, building trusting relationships with families, children and young people – using mixture of remote (by phone and email) contact and direct work and home visits. Relationships are built through empathy, listening, sound knowledge and understanding of local and national resources and responses to be able to respond to need. You should be confident in meeting with families in community spaces, schools and their homes when needed.

You will respond effectively and in a timely manner to needs as identified in Family Connect Forms referred into the service and tasks set by team manager as well as those needs that arise directly from families. Where applicable you will assist with identifying and speaking with the most appropriate person (such as a school) to undertake Early Help Assessments and Our Family Plans, so you will need to build rapport with families and professionals working with them.  You will record and report and concerns and explore any barriers with colleagues and manager. You will be able to make clear and meaningful case recordings.

You will work well remotely and independently as you do alongside Early Help colleagues in shared office space, and be able to manage your time well, whilst being motivated to make a difference to the families and children you support.

Initial Specific Responsibilities 

• To assist parents and carers to engage with and utilise personal, professional and local community networks to develop solutions to meet their personal aspirations and needs.
• Offer meaningful contact (communication) with families whether by phone, email, or in person.
• Write high quality and timely case notes and assessments using ECINS and other recording systems – to evidence work completed and the story of families through Early Help.
• To be able to develop rapport and understanding with families using excellent phone manner and verbal communication.
• Speak to schools and other professionals supporting a family as part of a multi-agency approach, including, collaborating with schools to encourage them to complete an Early Help Assessment and to offer to contribute to this via your support of families.
• Make referrals to third party organisations to support a family's needs e.g. to Shelter, DWP or Early Help services such as Early Help Mentoring.
• Develop an informed understanding of the key issues within the local area for Children Young People and Families
• Ability to work independently on a day-to-day basis and use own initiative whether working from home or offices (role will involve a combination).
• Able to work closely with other Early Help Advisors.
• Work with an understanding of the importance of consent in Early Help and an awareness of safeguarding issues and procedures, following them as required.
• To support other professionals across the locality to find solutions and support for families.
• To cover the duty role and phone line to ensure that enquiries into the locality are responded to in a timely manner.
• To provide advice, information and guidance to families to enable them to access relevant support to meet their needs.
• Provide support to the Team Manager and other Early Help colleagues to promote the work of the Early Help partnership and share good practice.
• To attend if/as requested allocations meetings and provide relevant information to progress support to families.
• Attend relevant Early Help meetings and training courses in the course of the work.
• Keep up to date on support and funds available for families to be able to offer robust support and advice.
• Liaise with Early Help Locality Lead to identify priorities funding applications.
• Support the production of promotional and publicity materials as required.
• Support the evaluation strategy and identification of case studies which contribute to the monitoring of the Early Help Offer
• Have an understanding of the lived experience of individuals from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.
• To support induction/training of new staff
• To support staff supervisions
• To support with case screening for TAFN (Team Around Family Network) meetings
• To support with note taking at TAFN (Team Around Family Network) meetings

Education/Knowledge (additional to the Person Specification)

• Relevant Professional Qualification in relation to working with children, young people and families e.g. Social Care, Youth or Community Work
• In addition to experience with Microsoft packages, prior experience with some or all of the following is considered highly desirable: OpenText – Content Server, ECINS, RMM, RIO, etc.
• An in-depth knowledge and understanding of issues and challenges affecting families, financial difficulties, non-school attendance, worklessness, offending, emotional well-being and mental health, domestic abuse, impact of trauma etc. and suitable responses to these.
• Good working knowledge of services, resources and support available for Children and Families in Yardley, Hodge Hill and Birmingham would be highly
• Driver with car and/or ability to travel around Yardley / Hodge Hill as well as wider Birmingham effectively would be important.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people. 

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay. 

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application. 

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Our basis and values

Programme Lead - Maternity Cover (London and South East)

Salary: £34,237-£36,853 depending on experience, skills and qualifications* (see below for more details on remuneration)

Contract: Temporary position linked to maternity leave cover

About Voice 21 

Voice 21 is the national oracy education charity. We exist to empower every child to use their voice for success in school and life. Our work transforms learning and life chances through talk by increasing access to a high-quality oracy education for those that need it most. Follow the links to find out more about why oracy is so vital and the impact Voice 21 has. 

Your purpose

To lead professional development and school improvement programmes facilitating the Voice 21 approach in our Voice 21 Oracy Schools by delivering our high impact learning experiences and materials for teachers and school leaders. To be part of the team, designing and reviewing programme content.

Your opportunity 

Tackle a vital challenge, with great people. Voice 21 exists to transform children' s learning and life chances through talk and we are currently working with 1100 schools.  To reach this goal we recruit great people and give them real responsibility, training and support. 

Output focused culture, with flexible working opportunities. We have an agile and flexible approach – our team can work when and wherever works best to deliver the requirements of their role. For staff working at home, we support them to create a workspace and provide technology that enables them to work effectively. 

Real development opportunities. We believe in supporting people to develop the skills they need to be excellent – whether this means funding external training, finding a mentor to support them or giving them the time to learn from others in the organisations through our regular CPD sessions. We also offer paid study leave for team members taking part in formal studies outside of work. 

Great benefits. 36 days holiday (inclusive of bank holidays and Christmas closure period). Holiday entitlement increases linked to length of service, 5% employer contribution to pension, interest-free season ticket, cycle and technology loans, employee assistance scheme. 

Remuneration. Our pay is a band and spine point approach where there is up to 7 years progression available (depending on starting point) 

Your responsibilities

Quality programme delivery

• Lead high quality professional development and school improvement programmes in our Pathway programmes and Open Learning for groups of teachers. These may be delivered in person, online or in school. 

• Deliver transformative consultancy support, working with teachers and school leaders to design and implement bespoke improvement plans for their oracy provision, including through in school and online consultancy support, and one-to-one advice.

• Build credibility and purposeful relationships with programme participants, both at programme days and touchpoints, and on an on-going basis to drive impact in our schools.

• Be responsible for participant learning and experience on your programmes, upholding high standards for all elements such as preparation, adapting to participant needs, content and rigour, on-going interactions and support, and participant feedback.

Learning content & programme development

• Proactively share insights and learning from the programmes you deliver, proposing and shaping solutions to enable Voice 21 to continually improve its programme offer.

• Apply and share expertise through varied outputs such as teaching materials, online learning content, resources, written or video outputs. Proactively identify and respond to opportunities or gaps and fulfil briefs or commissions. 

• Contribute to the continual improvement of Voice 21’s programmes, through development and review cycles, based on first-hand learning from our schools, content expertise, programme insights and external research and evidence. 

Team and organisational contribution

• Act as an ambassador for Voice 21’s national oracy expertise, communicating the value and impact of our approach at conferences, events and through publications.

• Embody and communicate oracy teaching and learning expertise within the organisation, acting as a resource for the wider team and making contributions to organisational priorities, projects, campaigns and events, outputs and publications etc. 

• Continually and proactively develop your own and others’ expertise in Voice 21’s approach to a high quality oracy education, and use this to leverage impact for our schools through tangible learning outputs.

• Identify and carry out other tasks commensurate to the level and spirit of the role as required.

Your experience

• You are an excellent teacher (primary or secondary)

• You are passionate about teaching and learning, and the role of talk in learning. You have used talk to support learning in your classroom.

• You have experience leading whole-school change and inspiring teachers to embrace new approaches and ideas.

• You have a knowledge of a range of speaking and listening techniques and contexts for oracy, these could include: debate, dialogic teaching, storytelling, public speaking or communication and language development. 

• You are a strong communicator both when working in a small team and when facilitating learning for large groups of adults. 

• You are flexible, can think on your feet and can bring your own experiences to the work we do.

• You are highly-organised, look for solutions and can prioritise and manage a varied workload. 

• You are enthusiastic, willing to learn and feel you would be energised by our mission. If you do not fully meet all the above criteria, but are happy to work towards developing into the role, we would be happy to consider your application.

• You are willing to travel nationally on a frequent basis (3 days a week) during term time; this will include regular overnight stays. 

Further details 

Start date: September 1st 2026 

Terms: Temporary, linked to maternity cover and subject to successful probation review.

Contract: This is a full time post

Location: Home-based with frequent national travel, including overnight stays, to work with schools and attend meetings. Applicants must hold a valid UK driving licence and have access to a car they can use for work. 

Application details 

To apply: 

Please submit your most recent CV and a document answering the questions below:

• Tell us why you want to work at Voice 21. What is it about us and our mission that excites you? (Max. 400 words)

• Making direct reference to the job description, please tell us the three main reasons why you would make an excellent Programme Lead (Max. 400 words).

• Tell us about something you have achieved recently that you are proud of? (Max 200 words)

Please do not apply for this position if you are not based in this area of the UK

Closing date: Wednesday 22nd April

Interview date: Provisional dates for initial phone interviews week commencing Tuesday 5 May, with second round interviews on Zoom week commencing 11th May.

Questions: If you have any questions before applying for the role, please contact Catherine Pass

Valuing every voice

Voice 21 believes that every voice should be heard and valued. We are committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and do not condone discrimination on the basis of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership.

We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join Voice 21.