Researcher jobs in whitehead, carrickfergus
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Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
About Kinship
We are Kinship. The leading kinship care charity in England and Wales. We’re here for kinship carers – friends or family who step up to raise a child when their parents aren’t able to.
Together, let’s commit to change for kinship families.
About the role
Funded by the Department for Education, the National Peer Support Service for England is a game-changing service that creates a sustainable and life-changing legacy. It builds on Kinship’s 10 years of experience in developing peer support groups and over two years of delivering a national service that has set up 145 new groups.
This role is community-based and focuses on engaging kinship carers, bringing them together to form peer support groups, and supporting them to achieve independence at which point they will receive ongoing support from our national Hub.
You will do this by working with local authorities, schools, other charities and community groups. Arranging information events such as coffee mornings to engage kinship carers. You’ll create a welcoming, inclusive, and supportive community for kinship carers, building belonging, resilience, and empowerment.
About you
We are seeking a dynamic person located in or close to Greater Manchester, and willing to travel into priority areas across the North West of England who possesses the drive, passion, and skills to:
- Establish new peer support groups across a diverse range of communities
- Supervise a small team of Peer Support Development Officers
- Demonstrate the energy and enthusiasm required to inspire yourself and your team to achieve key targets and objectives
- Work collaboratively within the Peer Support and Community Team, as well as throughout the broader organisation, to ensure the delivery of safe and effective support services for the kinship community
- Support the sustainability of existing Peer Support Groups, taking the lead from the Hub (our network support Team)
- Keep precise records to create reports, extract learning, and share key insights throughout Kinship, enabling the organisation to enhance our services and products continuously
In the role of Senior Peer Support Development Officer, you will be instrumental in ensuring the delivery of a high-quality, consistent, and sustainable peer support service that has a significant impact on the lives of kinship carers.
You should have experience in developing and maintaining meaningful relationships with various community-based stakeholders such as local authorities, health services, schools, charities, and kinship carers. You will need to understand the key success factors involved in establishing and developing new in-person groups in areas of high need, as well as how to support existing groups in their journey toward sustainability.
An essential requirement of the role is to be a driver with access to a vehicle for work purposes.
Essential requirements include:
- Experience of team leadership or line management and supervision of a small team and managing performance to deliver targets effectively.
- Proven experience in reaching and establishing strong relationships with hidden or underserved communities in person.
- Experience developing peer support communities.
- Proven experience of recruiting, managing, training and supporting volunteers in community settings with an emphasis on understanding and working with vulnerable volunteers.
- Proven experience of ensuring outcomes and impacts of services is evidenced through high-quality data collection.
- Evidence of delivering training/support to volunteers,
- Strong facilitation skills and essential experience of peer support or user led groups with charity beneficiaries.
- Understanding of safeguarding particularly around vulnerable families.
What we’ll offer you
Kinship offers 30 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part-time) as well as a generous pension scheme. We have an excellent wellbeing offer including the Employee Assistance Programme and clinical supervision. We will invest in your professional development with training and career development opportunities.
Kinship is committed to championing equality, diversity and inclusion. We believe our work is greatly enhanced by the varied backgrounds, experiences and views represented within our teams. We aim to create inclusive teams, celebrate differences and encourage everyone to join us and be their true self at work. We therefore encourage applications from anyone who fits our values, whatever their religion or belief, sex, gender identity, race, age, sexuality or disability and are actively seeking candidates that can bring real innovation and commitment to us.
This is a fantastic time to join a supportive and well-established team within an organisation with rapid growth ambitions. This role will be what you make it and we’re looking for someone to seize this opportunity!
How to apply
Please apply via Charity Job with your CV and a cover letter of no more than 2 pages for the attention of Deborah Fox. Please include your notice period and earliest availability to start in your cover letter.
- Application deadline: 11.59pm, Thursday 26 June 2025
- First interview: We will hold ongoing online first-round interviews as we receive applications. Final interviews will be held face-to-face in Manchester on Thursday 3 July 2025
Kinship reserves the right to close applications early on receipt of sufficient applications. Apply early!
• Really tell us why you want to work for Kinship. We’re interested in working with people who share our values. You can read about our values above.
• Keep your response clear – use bullet points and short paragraphs if that helps. It will help the recruitment team to really focus on your answer.
• Don’t go over 2 pages on your cover letter.
• Please do not use AI tools like ChatGPT to produce your cover letter. We use software to check and your application will be rejected if you do.
Registered Charity
21 - 50
We support kinship carers in their homes and communities, giving advice and helping them work through problems to find the best way forward.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
At Guide Dogs, we help people with sight loss live the life they choose. We're seeking a skilled and compassionate Partnership Operations Manager to lead the delivery of our guide dog service across Northern Ireland.
In this key leadership role, you'll manage a team of Guide Dog Mobility Specialists and Dog Wellbeing Technicians, ensuring high-quality, standardised guide dog partnership services. You’ll be responsible for operational planning, staff performance, volunteer engagement, customer experience, and quality assurance, ensuring services are consistently safe, effective, and tailored to the needs of individuals and their families.
As a lead representative for Guide Dogs in Northern Ireland, you'll act as a spokesperson when required and maintain visibility across the region. You’ll build strong local relationships, promote our mission within relevant sectors, and ensure services are delivered in line with legislation and regulation specific to Northern Ireland.
You’ll bring experience in leading teams and delivering services for vulnerable people, along with a strong understanding of safeguarding, person-centred practice, and operational delivery. You should be confident in performance management, resource planning, and developing a positive team culture. Strong communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills are essential.
A management qualification (such as ILM) or equivalent relevant experience is required. Familiarity with safeguarding policies, compliance, and relevant legislation for Northern Ireland is expected.
This is your chance to lead meaningful change, empowering people with sight loss to live more independently and confidently across Northern Ireland.
This role will be based at our Belfast office. You’ll be working 35 hours per week, worked 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
How to apply
Further details on the full role are attached below. When you are ready to apply, submit an online application form via this page.
If you would like to have an informal conversation about the role before applying, or require any accessibility support to apply, our friendly recruitment team is ready and waiting to help.
As part of your application ensure you provide evidence and examples of how your skills & experience meet the criteria as set out in the attached job description. You will also be asked to complete a few job-specific questions as part of this application process, so please be prepared to write your answers to these questions.
If you want to know more about the teams who work at Guide Dogs, you can find it on our Careers Page
Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
Guide Dogs welcomes applications from all sections of the community and actively encourages diversity to maximise achievements, creativity and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or nationality.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we are proud, whenever possible, to offer an interview to all candidates that meet our selection criteria, and who indicate they wish their application to be considered under our Disability Confident interview commitment. For more details, visit our careers site.
If you are successful you will need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK via our digital ID checking supplier; in addition, we cannot offer visa sponsorship at this time.
Safeguarding
Guide Dogs is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children, young people and adults at risk of harm with whom we work. We expect all our employees and volunteers to fully share this commitment.
At Guide Dogs, we believe in fair and equitable hiring practices. A criminal record will not automatically disqualify an applicant from consideration for a position. Each case will be evaluated individually, taking into account the nature of the offense, its relevance to the role, and the time that has passed since the incident. We encourage all candidates to disclose relevant information, and we assure you that it will be handled confidentially and fairly.
Guide Dogs follow Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding the vulnerable people we work with. As part of this, we require a full work history with any gaps accounted for & a minimum of 2 professional referee details fully covering the past 5 years. If you are applying for a disclosure role, please note that you will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check and sign up to the DBS update service.
For high volumes of applications, we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than advertised.
Registered Charity
More than 1000
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.