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We are looking for a Weekenders Journey Guide to support prospective Weekend Foster Carers from their first conversations with Now Foster through to the next stages of the recruitment and assessment journey.

This is a highly relational, candidate-facing role. You will be one of the main people helping applicants understand what Weekenders is, explore whether it is right for them, stay motivated through the process, and feel supported to take the next step.

Introductory conversations (our ‘intro chats’) will be a core part of the role. You will speak with people who are curious about fostering, but who may also feel unsure, nervous or are still working out whether they can foster. Your role will be to bring warmth, clarity and momentum: helping people feel welcomed, informed and confident, while also making sure the right people progress at the right pace.

You will use Now Foster’s digital platform (a bespoke CRM system) to manage the candidate journey, track progress, record key information and help the team understand where applicants are getting stuck or moving forward. You will play an important role in making sure we are attracting the right leads, supporting them well, and learning how to improve the journey as we grow.

This role would particularly suit someone with experience of fostering or working in fostering. It could also suit someone from a related background who is deeply motivated by innovation in this area and excited by what fostering could look like if it were designed around children, carers and relationships.

You do not need to be a qualified social worker, but you do need to be emotionally mature, reflective, organised and comfortable working closely with a social work-led team. You will need to understand safeguarding, and be confident holding thoughtful conversations with prospective carers.

What You’ll Be Doing

Supporting candidates through the journey

• Acting as a consistent, warm and encouraging point of contact for prospective Weekend Foster Carers.

• Carrying out intro chats with people who have expressed interest in the Weekenders programme.

• Helping candidates understand the Weekenders programme, what the role involves, and what the journey looks like.

• Supporting candidates to reflect on whether Weekenders is right for them.

• Keeping candidates engaged, informed and motivated as they move through the process.

• Helping people overcome practical barriers where appropriate, while being honest and clear about expectations.

• Making sure candidate communication feels relational, timely and values-led.

Helping the right people progress

• Helping identify candidates who are ready to move forward, as well as those who may need more time, more information or a different route.

• Support candidates to progress, pause or close, as advised by our fostering service colleagues.

• Using strengths-based and motivational approaches to help candidates reflect on their motivations, support networks and capacity.

• Working closely with social work colleagues to escalate questions, concerns or safeguarding issues appropriately.

• Supporting candidates to prepare for training, home visits and assessment stages.

• Helping ensure the process is clear, efficient and supportive.

Supporting groups, events and community activity

• Supporting information events, training sessions and candidate-facing events.

• Co-delivering sessions with social workers and other colleagues.

• Helping create a welcoming community for people exploring Weekenders.

• Supporting socials and community-building activity for applicants and approved Weekend Foster Carers.

• Helping candidates connect with the mission and feel part of something meaningful.

Administration, data and follow-up

• Keeping candidate records, notes and next steps up to date on Now Foster’s digital platform.

• Using Google Workspace, Trello and other tools to access key documents and manage your workload. 

• Making sure no candidate falls through the cracks.

• Supporting data capture so the team can understand what is working and where candidates are getting stuck.

• Helping improve templates, messages, prompts and workflows for the candidate journey.

• Supporting home visit admin and logistics where needed.

Contributing to innovation and learning

• Gathering feedback from candidates to help improve the journey and bringing this insight from candidate conversations into team discussions.

• Helping the team understand what motivates people to become Weekend Foster Carers, what worries them, and what helps them move forward.

• Supporting testing and iteration of new candidate journey approaches.

• Helping us build a process that is warm, efficient, inclusive and effective.

• Contributing to a new model of fostering that is relational, ambitious and designed around children and young people.

You’ll Thrive in This Role If You Are

• Warm and relational – able to build trust quickly and make people feel welcome.

• Emotionally mature – able to have thoughtful conversations about motivation, care, family life and uncertainty.

• A strong communicator – clear, encouraging and confident across phone, video calls, emails and written updates.

• Motivational and strengths-based – skilled at helping people see their potential while also being honest about what fostering involves.

• Organised and proactive – able to manage a busy candidate journey, track next steps and keep people moving.

• Tech-savvy – comfortable using digital platforms, Google Workspace and Trello.

• Confident in your judgement – able to decide when someone should progress, pause or close, while knowing when to seek advice.

• Safeguarding-aware – able to recognise when something needs to be escalated and comfortable working within clear safeguarding processes.

• Reflective and curious – interested in learning what works and improving the candidate journey over time.

• Comfortable with ambiguity – happy working in a small, growing charity where things are evolving.

• Committed to better outcomes for children and young people – motivated by Now Foster’s mission and the potential of Weekenders.

Experience We’re Looking For

Fostering experience would be highly beneficial. For example, this could include experience as a foster carer, working in fostering, supporting foster carers, working with fostering services, or working in a closely related part of children’s social care.

We are also interested in people with experience in:

• Volunteer management

• Children’s social care or youth work

• Community work

• Social prescribing

• Mentoring or coaching

• Recruitment, onboarding or candidate support

• Relationship-based support roles

Most importantly, we are looking for someone who understands the importance of relationships, can guide people through a meaningful decision-making process, and is excited by the possibility of building a different kind of fostering journey.

Bonus Points For

• Lived experience of the care system or fostering.

• Experience working directly with prospective or approved foster carers.

• Experience using motivational interviewing, coaching or strengths-based approaches.

• Experience supporting people through an application, recruitment, assessment or onboarding journey.

• Experience delivering or supporting information sessions, preparation groups, training or community events.

• Experience working remotely or in a flexible, fast-moving team.

An interest in innovation, service design or changing how fostering works.
 

About Us

Now Foster is a team of innovative social workers, designers, and entrepreneurs on a mission to change fostering in the UK.

We bring together social work, service design, public sector transformation and lived experience to create better outcomes for children and young people. Our overarching vision is to transform the fostering system by bringing many more wonderful people into it as foster carers, so that children and young people have the relationships, stability and support they need to thrive.

You will be joining a small, ambitious and passionate team, alongside our trustees, freelancers and advisors, all of whom play an active part in shaping our work. We partner with local authorities and not-for-profits who share our values and are ready to embrace change. As a registered charity, everything we do is driven by purpose, not profit.

About Weekenders

Weekenders is Now Foster’s flagship programme. It pairs children and young people in foster care with inspiring adults who can offer guidance, stability and encouragement on a regular basis. It is about showing up, making a difference, and being that person a young person can count on.

The programme is growing quickly. We are scaling Weekenders across London and beyond, testing new ways to support applicants, local authorities and independent social workers, and building the operational foundations needed for long-term growth.

A core part of this growth is making sure that people who are interested in becoming Weekend Foster Carers receive the right balance of warmth, encouragement, information and challenge as they move through the journey. That is where the Journey Guide comes in.

Working Pattern and Location

This role is offered at 4 to 5 days per week, with a salary of £34,000 pro rata.

The role can be based anywhere in England, with occasional travel to our Weekender delivery areas. Our Weekenders team is currently based across London and Manchester, and our wider organisational team is based in Oxford. Most work will be home-based, but there will be some in-person meetings, events, training sessions or bi-monthly co-working days.

The role will involve some work outside standard office hours. This is likely to include:

• Around one weekend day per month, which you would take back as time off during the previous or following week.

• Some evening work, for example around one information event per month.

• Some evening intro chats with prospective foster carers, where this helps people engage with the process.

We work flexibly and will support the successful candidate to manage their time in a sustainable way.

Safeguarding

Now Foster is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.

This role will involve contact with prospective carers, rather than direct work with children and young people. However, you will need to understand safeguarding, work within Now Foster’s safeguarding processes, and escalate any concerns appropriately.

This role will require an enhanced DBS check.

What’s In It For You

Joining Now Foster means being part of something different. We are small, ambitious and innovative, and you will play a key role in helping Weekenders grow.

You will be close to the people exploring whether they could become Weekend Foster Carers, and your work will directly shape whether they feel supported, confident and ready to take the next step.

You will join a supportive, collaborative and values-led team. We work hard, care deeply about what we do, and are building something bold and lasting: a new way of fostering that blends social work, design, technology and relational practice.

We will provide the tools and technology you need, cover agreed travel and expenses, and support you to work flexibly within the rhythm of the programme.

How to Apply

Please send us your CV and a short cover letter explaining:

1. Why you are interested in Now Foster and the Weekenders programme.

2. The experience you would bring in supporting, guiding or motivating people.

3. Any experience you have of fostering, working in fostering, children’s social care, community work, volunteer management or similar.

4. What excites you about innovation in fostering and what fostering could look like.

5. Your availability, including whether you are looking for 4 or 5 days per week and when you could start.

You must have the right to work in the UK.

We recognise that some candidates may use generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to support the preparation of their application. While this is acceptable, applications must remain an authentic reflection of your own experiences and motivations. We ask candidates to let us know if and how they used AI as part of the recruitment process.

Our Commitment to Equality

Now Foster is committed to being an equal opportunities employer. We celebrate diversity and actively encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, identities and experiences.

Recruitment and selection decisions are made on the basis of fair, objective and transparent criteria. We will also make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process to ensure accessibility for all candidates.

Please Note: We are hoping to appoint as soon as possible and will close recruitment once we find the right person so candidates are advised to submit an application as soon as they are able.

ROOTED FINANCE

Rooted Finance is a pioneering specialist debt and financial inclusion Charity based in London. We’re committed to making money and debt advice accessible, for everyone.

The people we work with come from all walks of life and so do we.

We employ advisers from all backgrounds, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because we are the communities we serve. We provide quality debt and money advice services to help clients manage their finances and debts, protect their essential services; and safeguard their income and priority needs. Our services have never been more needed in an uncertain financial environment.

Rooted Finance is expanding its team and is looking for a full-time Money Guidance Officer. This is an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic and supportive team at a pivotal moment in our growth.

We are looking for someone who enjoys providing a first-class client satisfaction and support service. You will work closely with our Advice team to ensure clients are accessing support through engagement activities and that they are able to progress their debt advice journey smoothly.

You will be the interface for advisers to ensure documentation and tasks are completed in a timely manner or the clients you are supporting. The post-holder will need to be comfortable interacting with a variety of audiences – advisers, clients and partner organisations, and enjoy supporting people to progress through their advice journey.

You will have strong administrative, research and data skills, excellent communication and critical-thinking skills, and should be flexible and capable of working independently and as part of a team.

The post holder will be part of a small team and need to be a proven self-starter. The team language is English, and Rooted Finance is an Equal Opportunities employer.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job : Title Money Guidance Officer

Salary: £28,000

Hours: 35 Hours per week 

Benefits: 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays Day of leave on your birthday Additional day of leave for each year of service up to 35 days 3% Pension contribution stakeholder pension £200 home-office equipment allowance Costco membership. Employee Assistance Programme Hybrid and flexible working arrangements available and agreed according to business needs 

Contract: Permanent/Fixed Term (subject to funding) 

Location: Rooted Finance delivers primarily an in-person service, postholder will be required to attend outreach locations/RF office. Hybrid arrangement with remote working will be incorporated where possible based on business demands.

Purpose of the Job

Rooted Finance provides client focused and impact driven services. The ability to provide first class advisory and casework services that impact individuals, and the communities they live in, is fundamental to the way in which Rooted Finance provides transparent and evidence-based services.

RF is looking for a proven self-starter to support our advice services and preventative initiatives. You’ll be passionate about working with people and committed to delivering a high-quality community engagement and support program. You’ll be adept at delivering comprehensive support to individuals within diverse community settings.

You will be confident in working with community members to grow and develop projects to reach isolated individuals. Working flexibly across dates (including occasional weekend working), times and locations, responding to project and community needs as required.

The successful candidate will have excellent interpersonal skills and be able to work flexibly with clients. You will be meticulous in your work, especially when supporting clients and maintaining case records for continuity of ongoing support. You will be trained and expected to keep up to date with regards to legislation, case law and policy changes relating to debt and a working knowledge of welfare benefits as directed by Line Manager.

Training and development

Rooted Finance will provide internal and external training as appropriate. Continued professional development is fundamental to the values of Rooted Finance in building capacity amongst its team members.

Reporting

The post holder will report directly to the Advice Manager of Rooted Finance

Role Requirements

This role aims to address the additional barriers and needs faced by overindebted individual, ensuring they are supported in navigating these challenges and can focus on the debt advice process effectively. As a Money Engagement Officer you will work across our various community partners, delivering money mentoring support and income maximisation services to local communities with the aim of promoting financial resilience and wellbeing. You will also provide assist in collecting essential documents and information for advisers to progress their cases. You will maintain accurate client and project records and contribute/support Manager(s) with effective project monitoring and reporting. You will capture learning to share with project stakeholders to help inform Rooted Finance’s wider approach to financial inclusion services.

Key functions and impact of the role will include;

Outreach and Engagement: Actively engage overindebted individual through various outreach initiatives such as community events, workshops, and partnerships with local organisations to raise awareness about debt advice to encourage individuals to seek help early and facilitate this through practical 121 support.

Support and guidance: Provide ongoing support needs to keep people with money worries engaged in the debt advice journey. Often people struggling with money worries have additional barriers and needs, this role focuses on the 'support function' which will be available to help people navigate barriers so they can focus on the specialist debt advice needed and offered through Rooted Finance and other support services.

Referral and Collaboration: foster a cohesive relationship to build partnerships and to collaborate with debt advice services, community organisations, and other stakeholders to facilitate referrals and ensure a seamless transition into debt advice services. Maintain strong partnerships with service providers to enhance accessibility and support for individuals in need.

Empowerment and Education: Equip our services users by providing ‘digestible’ financial education, coaching, and advocacy to help them make informed decisions, improve their financial literacy, and build long-term financial resilience. Data Collection and Reporting: maintain accurate records of all outcomes, advocacy and support provided to all individuals, diligently record outcomes to track the effectiveness of the triage process and measure the impact of the engagement efforts on increasing access to debt advice and other services.

Duties & Responsibilities: The main duties will include

1. Work closely with RF advice team in identifying client’ needs to work together to implement a holistic approach to supporting individuals.

2. Manage a joint caseload with debt advisers to ensure successful engagement in the debt advice journey, monitor progress and maintain diligent records across all systems

3. Working closely with advisers to support their more vulnerable clients

4. Delivering both 121 and group sessions to build individuals’ financial knowledge and resilience.

5. Increasing the visibility and awareness of the advice services through external events and roadshows

6. Develop and maintain good working relationships with clients to facilitate engagement in debt advice journey by explaining and outlining what debt advice offers, support to engage in attending debt advice appointment, follow up with obtaining required documents, make effective referrals for additional services and provide on-going support.

7. Draw up a personalised plan supporting clients to access and engage with the extensive range of support available in the community. Actively connect clients with a wide variety of services through signposting for additional help around health, wellbeing, housing, welfare, immigration, social support and financial advice. 

8. Identify aftercare support to help individuals increase their ability around ongoing financial capability and literacy skills and to reduce further and future financial exclusions

9. Working with, and recruiting clients to, our Lived Experience Steering Committee

10. Provide one to one/group sessions to encourage and increase engagement in the debt advice service

11. Develop marketing and creative initiatives to promote and engage with service users to increase uptake in debt advice service and increase full journey completion.

12. Ensure all project monitoring requirements are adhered to and all learning (including risks and opportunities) is captured and recorded in a timely manner.

13. Perform consistent impact measurements on project components, including undertaking financial wellbeing checks before, during and after, beneficiary engagement with RF service in a non-intrusive manner

14. Actively participate in team meetings and work with colleagues and beneficiaries to further develop the project

15. Maintain effective communication between colleagues, stakeholders and beneficiaries at all times.

16. Undertake recommended and self-identified ongoing training and development to ensure gaps in knowledge/skills are acquired to meet requirement of the role and quality assurance processes in timely manner as directed by Supervisor/LM.

17. Work to an agreed work-plan, meeting targets on time and all required KPI

18. Work collaboratively to share good practice in performance and quality improvement with fellow advisers/wider team.

19. Ensure that all services comply with equal opportunities and other relevant policies and quality standards and good practice as outlined in organisational policies.

20. Ensure all work is fully compliant with Rooted Finance policies and procedures and Quality Standard

21. Ensure data protections regulations are adhered to and office procedures followed

22. Abide by all Health & Safety at Work Act procedures

23. Adhere to policy and procedures around safeguarding vulnerable adults at risk

24. Demonstrable understanding and application of the provisions of GDPR

25. Behave in a professional manner at all times

26. Act as an ambassador for Rooted Finance, reflecting the objectives and values, and to always work in the best interests of the charity.

Other 1. Undertake additional tasks as defined by Advice Manager of RF and senior management team.

PERSON SPECIFICATIONS

Qualification 

Desirable: Educated to a degree standard or equivalent. 

Essential: Relevant professional qualification (i.e.CMA Connect Money Mentor training)/ or equivalent gained through experience Evidence of continued professional development 

Skills

Desirable: Excellent understanding of the principles and current best practice in debt, financial capability and financial inclusion.

Essential: Knowledge and understanding of the welfare benefit system and experience of advising customers on benefits.Understanding and commitments to the aims, principles, values and quality standards of Rooted Finance services. Awareness of, and ability to, understand and empathise with clients from a diverse range of backgrounds and disadvantaged groups living in the community, in particular barriers faced by over-indebted and financially excluded communities. Ability to use sensitive listening and questioning skills to get to the root of the issues and empower clients Ability to remain non-judgmental and apply active listening Ability to provide outstanding customer service Good communications skills – including written and personal presentation skills. Ability to give and receive feedback objectively and sensitively, and work as part of a team and be open to learning from others. Ability to manage own time and meet deadlines.High standard of numeracy and computer skills, specifically IT skills with a strong command of the Microsoft Office suite with an ability to understand and analyse complex financial and other numerical information Knowledge and experience of using case management systems to maintain accurate records Working in a small team and autonomously, experience of working in client facing role. A commitment to continuous professional development, including a willingness to develop knowledge and skills in advice topics

Experience 

Desirable: Experience of supporting and guiding junior team members (volunteer/trainee team members)

Essential: Experience of working directly in a community setting such as adult health and social care, learning support or information and advice settings Experience of gathering, providing and disseminating complex and sensitive information Experience of liaising with partner agencies; Excellent communication, negotiation and organisational skills; Commitment to working flexibly across all RF services, including evenings and weekends (TOIL applied)

OTHER:

This role will be subject to an enhanced DBS check Rooted Finance is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office and will process your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018. Please refer to our online Privacy Policy for more information on how your personal data will be processed and stored. This job description and personal specification does not form part of any contract.

We are looking for a motivated and creative individual to join our Charity Team at an exciting time of growth and ambition. If you have a talent for writing compelling cases for support and a passion for turning ideas into funded projects, this is a unique opportunity to make a tangible difference to patients, families and staff across our hospitals.

This role sits at the heart of our income generation activity, securing vital funding from trusts, foundations and corporate partners. You will play a key role in delivering high-profile projects and campaigns, contributing to major fundraising appeals and helping to grow our brand-new Impact Fund, which is set to transform services across the Trust.

There is real scope to shape this role, build meaningful relationships, and see the direct impact of your work in improving healthcare environments and outcomes.

This is a full-time position, with flexible hybrid working available following successful completion of probation.