• Full time

• £23,345

• Fixed term contract for one year

• Based in Bromley or Greenwich (one vacancy in each)

Bromley, Lewisham & Greenwich Mind is a highly regarded, innovative local charity working alongside people with mental health problems and dementia to improve their quality of life. With an annual turnover of £4M, over 150 staff and 260 volunteers, we are one of the largest charities in the Mind network.

The opportunity to change minds. The power to change lives. 

Our new Hospital to Home Service will work closely with Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust to support hospital discharges and enable patients to feel settled and supported in their community.

This is an incredibly rewarding role where you will have the opportunity to improve the lives of your clients, to give them hope and direction. You will support their recovery journey by enabling them to settle more quickly into their homes and communities. 

This is a challenging role, so you’ll need to be organised, resilient, empathetic, adaptable and dedicated to supporting the adjustment from hospital to home in a smooth transition. As a people person, you’ll build good rapport with your clients, gaining a real understanding of their key needs and their aspirations, and support them to achieve their goals. 

If you’re looking for a career where you can make a positive difference to the lives of people needing mental health support and create a fairer, more inclusive society in a role where no two days are the same, apply today. 

Staff benefits include 

• a matched contribution pension scheme

• 25 days' holiday 

• quality supervision and training opportunities. 

Successful applicants will be expected to undergo an Enhanced level Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Closing Date: Wednesday 3rd February 2021

Likely interview date: Week commencing 15th February 2021

More details, including a Job Description and Person Specification, can be downloaded from our website.

Job Title:                       Community Support Leader

Location:                       Southwark

Contract:                       Full Time

Hours:                            39

Salary:                            £29,857 per annum

Contact:                         Victoria Robinson

Information:                  This role is shift work. Driver, full UK driving licence, is desired not essential. Experience in management is essential.

The Camden Society (London) is a Thera Trust subsidiary that provides innovative and modern support across London, enabling people with learning disabilities to live full and active lives. We are currently looking for a Community Support Leader to manage the support to people in Southwark. The successful candidate will work flexibly and within a dynamic and mobile team to ensure the delivery of high-quality, individual support to people within their communities.

The Community Support Leader will manage a team of Support Coordinators and Support Workers to deliver support that is in line with the wishes, aspirations, and choices of people. You will work with a senior management team to oversee a person-centered and sustainable community support for people with a learning disability.

You will:

Develop and manage person-centered support for people

Monitor the quality of support and be responsible for the safety of people we support and staff

Conduct a wide range of HR tasks, including line management Ensure the support is compliant with CQC and contractual agreements

Promote social inclusion and the vision and values of The Camden Society (London)

Network within the community for greater inclusion and opportunities

Ideal candidates will:

Take full direction from the people they support

Have experience in developing support for people with a learning disability in a community setting

Have experience of directing people to support others in ways that increase independence through positive outcome-based monitoring

Have experience of working to budgets

Have excellent communication skills

Keep accurate records

Be able to work as part of a team and also happy to lone work Have experience of working in a diverse setting and be able to meet the cultural needs of people

The Camden Society (London) share Thera’s Vision of:

 Showing that people with a learning disability can be leaders in society

Thera will be controlled by people with a learning disability People with a learning disability will check the quality of support from their Thera company.

Thera Group will be led by a charity.

We offer great rewards, comprehensive training, a pension scheme, childcare vouchers and opportunities for you to develop your career in the way you want. Due to the nature of the role, you will be required to complete an enhanced DBS check if successful.

Apply now to avoid disappointment. 

Headway East London is currently looking for Community Support Workers to join our team, working one to one and collaboratively with survivors in their own homes and the local community.

All of the roles and skills at Headway East London contribute to our success. If you are interested in the role and you think you don’t have all the desirable experience but are passionate and care for our community and have skills you think will be beneficial to Headway East London we would still love to receive an application from you.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 3rd February at 5pm. Interviews will commence the week beginning 15th February 2021.

The company provides a supported living service to single homeless adults who are vulnerable and have support needs, including accommodation.

The role of the Service Administrator will be to provide comprehensive administration support to all teams. This role is to ensure the smooth running of the Company and therefore working with all teams is an essential part of the daily working practice.

Your primary tasks will include the overall responsibility of keeping a record of all service charge payments made by our clients including creating new statements, updating finance statements as well as chasing up and keeping track of any arrears. An assertive but supportive approach will need to be taken when talking to our clients as arrears is a sensitive subject to discuss. You will be making contact via telephone, text messages, emails and letters and will need to keep track of deadlines given for payments to be made.

You will be supporting these clients by keeping on top of their service charge by advising them to set up standing orders. Payment plans may need to be put in place if a client falls behind on payments and also kept track of, so no further payments are missed. It is detrimental if a client falls into large arrears as this could lead to eviction.

You will be required to produce monthly reports/ figures and report any concerns daily.

You will be required to attend regular staff meetings, one to one supervisions with your line manager and attend mandatory training offered by Assisted Accommodation.

Person Specification:

Essential:

• Have good communication skills to converse with clients appropriately.
• Be organised and be able to prioritise your work to meet specific deadlines
• To have a sufficient understanding of both spoken and written English language to be able to effectively record and report as well as adhere to written company policy and procedure.
• Be confident in asserting boundaries
• Have good knowledge and understanding of Microsoft Office systems such as Word, Excel, Outlook and 365, to be willing to learn any new systems that the company decide will make their output more efficient. 
• Having the ability to balance assertive telephone mannerism with an empathic approach when communicating with  clients in arrears
• To be proactive in creating systems that will improve the running of the service
• Proficient in letter writing, sending and receiving emails and understanding the protocol and regulations set by the GDPR (Data Protection)
• Be able to set up and maintain team calendars and be able to make appointments using the calendar invitation facility.
• Be able to work alone using your initiative and also in a team to attain joint goals
• Be willing to undertake administration tasks that are required by any of the teams and or the Directors.
• Proficient in producing factual and detailed reports.

Desirable:

• Experience in office/business administration/finance – dealing with arrears or debt
• Have some knowledge and experience of supporting people in the community

Role:

1. To work within the administration and finance team ensuring that the processes and practices followed, promote the effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation.
2. To provide administration support to all the teams and to work with the Directors and Managers as and when requested.
3. To work closely with the Administration Manager and Group financial controller on financial admin that must be dealt with sensitively and confidentially.
4. To ensure that all client files are maintained with all current finance information filed and accessible at any time. Create, update and archive client finance statements (electronic) and other files as requested by your Manager.
5. To conduct client finance statement reviews as instructed
6. You will be required from time to time to complete online housing benefit applications for the service users placed in the accommodation.  You will work with an experienced member of staff to ensure that you have gained a full understanding of this procedure. You must also be able to pay attention to detail and ensure that any information provided on the application document is correct.
7. You will be required to monitor and maintain service charge payments and work with the Finance team to retrieve service charge from clients in arear. Training will be given.
8. Write letters using current templates and create new templates as and when required. 
9. Ensure that important information is passed on to the relevant member of staff
10. Provide your manager and or the Directors with records or reports as required
11. Provide your manager with service charge figures and or any other reports as they are requested
12. Be prepared to work with current systems and create new systems for monitoring or filing documents and or information or statistics.
13. To undertake any other task required to ensure that the service provider is efficient.
14. On occasion, you may be required to work over your normal working hours to complete a task on a deadline.

This is normally an office-based role, but would start with Working from home as local Covid-19 guidelines are updated.

Service Administration Coordinator

Location: Islington, North London

Salary: £22,750 per annum

Hours of Work: 35 hours per week

About the Company:

As a rapidly growing department, the Learning and Leisure Service at Centre 404 now has a position available for a highly organised individual to join our core team and support with the administrative day to day needs of running a dynamic service, which offers support to children and adults with learning disabilities.

The right candidate will need to have excellent IT and administrative abilities, strong organisational skills and be able and driven to suggest improvements to service administration systems.

This a varied role within a fast-paced environment and comes with great opportunities to gain a wealth of experience, knowledge and training within the charity sector. If you are interested in supporting the team to grow and develop our provisions, then this is the role for you!

Service Administration Coordinator Requirements:

* Flexible and able to attend work commitments taking place in the evenings/weekends (for which time off in lieu can be taken) and at different locations
* Understanding of what makes a quality support service for people with learning disabilities and/or Autism, including Social Role Valorisation, Person-Centred Values and self-direct support values (Desirable)
* Understanding of and sensitivity to the discrimination experienced by members of vulnerable and/or minority groups
* Strong working knowledge of Data Protection Act and associated requirements
* Experience Extensive experience of working in an environment with varied and complex administrative needs
* Experience of developing and maintaining efficient administrative systems and databases
* Experience working in a customer-facing environment or within customer services
* Strong interpersonal skills, able to communicate and collaborate effectively with a range of people
* Confident in operating standard office/technical equipment
* Strong numeracy skills and excellent written communication skills
* Able to work on own initiative, proactively resolving issues
* Excellent IT skills with the ability to use a range of computer software systems (i.e. Microsoft Office, data entry systems)
* Ability to adapt and respond positively to a dynamic work environment, managing change effectively
* Ability to organise own and others' workloads effectively
* Strong self-reflective skills, able to take learning from situations
* Able to maintain professional boundaries and handle confidential information appropriately
* Committed to concepts of equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion

How to apply: If you are interested in this role, please submit an expression of interest that addresses the requirements of the person specification, by giving examples of how you meet each criteria to demonstrate your suitability for the post. We encourage you to draw on your experience from your existing role at Centre 404 and explain what skills you have gained from it that are relevant to this role.

Closing Date: 15th February, 12:00pm - but the closing date will be bought forward is a successful candidate is found before then.

Centre 404 is dedicated to staff development and supervision and we will provide a detailed induction and on-going training and support. We are also committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of adults at risk and we are looking to recruit people who share these values. All offers of employment are subject to an enhanced DBS check, proof of eligibility to work in the UK and two satisfactory references.

Centre 404 is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. Charity ref number 299889

Services Administrative Assistant

We have an exciting opportunity for a proactive, enthusiastic administrator to provide exceptional levels of administrative support, across all patient facing services. If you want to use your awesome administration skills to help an amazing team to deliver support to people affected by bowel cancer, we want to hear from you!

Position: Services Assistant

Location: Home based – UK wide

Hours: Full-time (35 hours a week)

Salary: £25,000 per year pro-rata

Contract: Fixed term for 6 months

Benefits: Pension Scheme and Stakeholder Pension, Life Assurance: provides a four times salary death in service benefit, Flexible working: core hours are between 10am – 4:30pm, Holiday: 25 days plus 3 between Christmas and New Year and Statutory holidays, Employee Assistance Program available to all staff, Cycle to Work Scheme.

Closing Date: 10th February

Interview Date: 17th February

The Role

The Services Assistant will report to the Head of Services and is responsible for providing exceptional levels of administrative support to the Services team, across all our patient facing services.

Along with general administrative support, responsibilities also include:

• Collecting, collating and analysing all monitoring and evaluation data for patient services
• Ensuring systems are accurate and up to date
• Working with the Communications team to produce and deliver marketing mail outs and promotion across all services including producing and mailing newsletters to health professionals
• Supporting the distribution of publications by volunteers
• Regularly communicating with the wider Services team

About You

As Services Assistant, you will have excellent administrative skills including experience of using a database, Survey Monkey and all Microsoft packages including Word, Excel and Outlook, with the ability to use your initiative, prioritise and demonstrate a problem-solving approach.

You will have experience of:

• Working in an administrative support role or support service role
• Using a database to manage work and keep accurate records
• Collecting and analysing monitoring and evaluation data and reporting findings in a professional way
• Contributing to event planning and marketing
• Project co-ordination experience

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a CV and Cover Letter, detailing how you meet the person specification (no more than two A4 page).

In Return…

In this rewarding role you will be joining a passionate team of staff, determined to improve the lives of people affected by bowel cancer, in a warm environment. The charity offers a great benefits package including flexible working options and a generous holiday allowance, if this sounds like the role for you… then we would love to hear from you!

About the Organisation

As the UK’s leading bowel cancer charity, determined to save lives and improve the quality of life of everyone affected by bowel cancer, the organisation supports and funds targeted research, provides expert information, supports to patients and their families, educates professionals about the disease and campaigns for early diagnosis and access to best treatment and care.

You may also have experience in areas such as Service Assistant, Support Service Assistant, Service Coordinator, Service, Programme, Service Administrator, Service Admin, Services Administrator, Service Support Administrator, Admin, Administrator, Admin Assistant, Admin Support, Patient Service, Patient Services, Patient Service Admin, Patient Services Coordinator, Project Coordinator, Project Administrator.

Harris Hill is pleased to be working with the Third Age Trust who support the U3A movement to find their new Head of Internal Services .Founded in 1982, U3A is a UK-wide movement of locally-run charities with interest groups that provide a wide range of opportunities for members who are no longer in full-time work to come together to learn for fun. Members explore new ideas, skills and activities together. There are 1,057 u3as with over 450,000 members across the country.

The new Head of Internal Services will report to the CEO and will work to embed the Trust upgrade and manage the organisational infrastructure services. The role will be responsible for bringing together finance, IT, premises, HR, data and security, and policies and procedures in one department. It will involve both strategic reasoning and operational management and be responsible for financial planning, compliance, risk management and governance processes.

Person Specification:

* Relevant experience in understanding and examining charity accounts OR a professional qualification in accountancy (CIMA, ACA, ACCA, CIPFA)
* Strong knowledge of the charity accounting SORP and charity governance
* Experience of providing financial information for fundraising bids, competitive tenders, and reports
* Ability to communicate complex financial and legal issues clearly to non-finance experts and develop effective financial management systems
* Relevant experience of managing the upgrade of IT infrastructure including web services
* Experience in overseeing data compliance
* Ability to think strategically and deliver against the charity's strategy
* Proven line management and staff development skills and human resources
* Proven experience of building strong staff teams including developing a shared vision where every team member counts
* Demonstrable excellent communication skills
* A proven track record of project management skills
* Experience of managing premises and operational office requirements

If you would like to understand more about this role and the organisation, please apply or contact Simon Bascombe at Harris Hill
Closing date for applications: 12 noon on Friday 18 December.

Harris Hill is pleased to be working with the Third Age Trust who support the U3A movement to find their new Head of Internal Services .Founded in 1982, U3A is a UK-wide movement of locally-run charities with interest groups that provide a wide range of opportunities for members who are no longer in full-time work to come together to learn for fun. Members explore new ideas, skills and activities together. There are 1,057 u3as with over 450,000 members across the country.

The new Head of Internal Services will report to the CEO and will work to embed the Trust upgrade and manage the organisational infrastructure services. The role will be responsible for bringing together finance, IT, premises, HR, data and security, and policies and procedures in one department. It will involve both strategic reasoning and operational management and be responsible for financial planning, compliance, risk management and governance processes.

Person Specification:

* Relevant experience in understanding and examining charity accounts or a professional qualification in accountancy (CIMA, ACA, ACCA, CIPFA)
* Strong knowledge of the charity accounting SORP and charity governance
* Experience of providing financial information for fundraising bids, competitive tenders, and reports
* Ability to communicate complex financial and legal issues clearly to non-finance experts and develop effective financial management systems
* Relevant experience of managing the upgrade of IT infrastructure including web services
* Experience in overseeing data compliance
* Ability to think strategically and deliver against the charity's strategy
* Proven line management and staff development skills and human resources
* Proven experience of building strong staff teams including developing a shared vision where every team member counts
* Demonstrable excellent communication skills
* A proven track record of project management skills
* Experience of managing premises and operational office requirements

If you would like to understand more about this role and the organisation, please apply or contact Simon Bascombe at Harris Hill

Closing date for applications: 12 noon on Friday 18 December.

About The Advocacy Project

We help marginalised and vulnerable people make effective choices about what happens in their lives. We also support them to speak up and help improve important services we all need. We want to make sure people across all age and care groups – including learning disability and mental health – can:

• voice their concerns
• understand their rights
• make effective choices about what happens in their lives

We do this through advocacy services which support people individually, and user involvement projects that help organisations improve the services they offer.  

About the role

The post-holder will lead a team of advocates working with adults and young people across NHS and private hospitals and the local community.

You will be required to provide line management support, be the point of contact for our stakeholders and ensure high quality delivery of our advocacy contracts.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of assigned advocacy services actively encouraging your team to contribute to service planning, quality improvement and development.
• Ensure the team provides instructed and non-instructed advocacy and signposting, working to the advocacy empowerment cycle and actively promoting self-advocacy throughout all work with service users where practicable.
• Ensure the team capture high quality advocacy notes, outcomes information and other evidence into the Case Management System in a timely manner.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of new legislation and reports and current trends and issues in mental health, mental capacity, care act, and health and social care legislation, local and national policy relating to people with mental health issues and disseminate across your team.
• Ensure quality standards are achieved by implementing operational policies and procedures to maintain professional and consistent advocacy services.
• Ensure contracts are delivered within budget, to agreed key performance indicators, case work standards and monitoring requirements, eg producing reports including quarterly monitoring reports.
• Lead on raising awareness of the advocacy service to service users and potential referrers.
• Ensure referrals are allocated efficiently, appropriately and within the requirements of the contract.
• Provide support and supervision to your staff team including professional development, appraisals, team meetings and work review meetings, and organisational activities such as CPD lectures and staff briefings.

General responsibilities

• Participate in team meetings and training (and make sure your staff to attend).
• Keep to our policies, including health & safety, and risk regulations.
• Work to our mission, vision, and values.
• Carry out other projects and tasks as needed.
• Participate in personal, team and organisational development.
• Contribute to monitoring reports.

Person specification

Essential

• Experience of delivering advocacy.
• Achieved qualification in advocacy.
• Proven leadership ability and strong people management skills.
• Experience of managing contracts and delivering advocacy services.
• Understanding of statutory and non-statutory advocacy.
• Sound knowledge of current issues in health and social care policy, practice and legislation.
• Exceptional stakeholder management abilities with experience of building effective relationships with ranging commissioners, partners, service users and colleagues.
• Excellent communications (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills. Effective in working with a wide variety of stakeholders ranging from trustees to service users and employees.
• Commitment to working within The Advocacy Project code of conduct, equalities and safeguarding policies.
• Ability to work as part of a team and on your own initiative, to plan and prioritise your own workload.
• Willingness to promote The Advocacy Project and the mental health service in line with our mission, vision and values.

Desirable

Achieved qualification in advocacy management

Benefits of working for us

We’re committed to providing an empowering, flexible and supportive working environment for all our staff.

Our employee benefits include 30 days annual leave (including up to 3 days between Christmas and New Year), participation in a pension scheme with 6% employer contribution, access to a free confidential counselling service, and an interest-free travel/bike loan.

All our staff are supported to learn and develop in a variety of ways, including a monthly lecture series where we invite sector experts to talk to our staff on topical issues.

We are a Disability Confident and Mindful Employer.

How to apply

Send your CV and a supporting statement explaining why you think you’re the person we’re looking for and how your experience meets the person specification.

Upload your application via our website on. 

Job Title - Volunteer Coordinator – Independent Visitor service

Contract – Permanent

Hours -  21 hours per week 

Salary - Part time pro rata 15,600 FTE 26,000 (including London Weighting)

Location – London

About Coram 

Coram is committed to improving the lives of the UK’s most vulnerable children and young people. 

We support children and young people from birth to independence, creating a change that lasts a lifetime.

Coram is the UK’s oldest children’s charity founded by Thomas Coram in London helping vulnerable children and young people since 1739. Today, the Coram group helps more than one million children, young people, families and professionals every year by providing access to the skills and opportunities they need to thrive. 

About specific entity 

There are exciting opportunities to join Coram Voice as our Independent Visiting services continue to grow across London and SE. We are looking for a motivated person to build our volunteer group and services for looked after placed across London and South East. We currently hold contracts in Waltham Forest, Southwark and Hillingdon.

About the role

This post will require strong leadership, supporting and supervising a diverse team of volunteers, with excellent interpersonal skills. You will enjoy working with children and young people and will be driven to creating better chances for children though supporting them through care and accessing their rights. You will also be a capable ambassador for Coram Voice with the ability to engage effectively with social workers, foster carers, commissioners, and other stakeholders.

We are looking for experienced child focused professionals who can lead, work as part of a team, and proactively contribute to service development. We are looking for people who like a challenge, want to make a real difference in the lives of the children and young people and will innovate to achieve this. Above all we want people who will be a champions for children and young people.

To apply for this role, please click on the 'apply now' button below to complete the application.

Closing date: 

Monday 25th January 2021 – 5pm

Information sharing sessions: 

Monday 18th January 2021 - 6.00 – 6.30pm

Interview date: 

Wednesday 3rd February 2021

Thursday 4th February 2021

Coram (entity) is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. We actively encourage applicants from Asian, African, Caribbean and other minority ethnic backgrounds to join our teams. Whilst we have a diverse team we recognise we are a predominantly white workforce and are genuinely committed to encouraging candidates from diverse communities in order to improve the services to the children and families we help.

We are committed to the safeguarding of children and where appropriate will require the successful applicant to undertake a check from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Registered Charity No. 312278.

We are seeking an experienced, enthusiastic individual who wants to make a difference to the lives of people living with dementia and their carers. The ideal candidate will have experience of working with this client group in a similar role, have good written and verbal communications skills, including good digital skills, be committed to problem solving as part of a small team, and have a commitment to go the extra mile. This is a role which requires a range of skills and flexibility, but provides job satisfaction and the opportunity to develop skills and experience for those wishing to develop their career. Understanding of the diverse communities of East London helpful.

To apply, please submit a c.v. and personal statement explaining how you meet the requirements identified in the personal specification description in the job description.

Interviews start week commencing 11th January.

ABOUT WLM

WLM’s mission is to empower positive change.

WLM has been working in the community in London since 1887.  We currently work in Lambeth, Southwark, Westminster and Islington providing a range of services supported accommodation for ex-military personnel, a residential care home for men managing an addiction to alcohol, an approved premise for men coming out of prison, advice and support for people experiencing homelessness, affordable and accessible counselling in the community and financial resilience services.

WLM is values led organisation.  Our people are the heart of what we do.  We have recently embarked on developing an asset based approach in partnership with Mayday Trust building on our work embedding recovery and psychologically informed approaches.

ABOUT WLM THE HAVEN

WLM The Haven is a CQC registered care home for men managing an addiction to alcohol.  It offers long-term care and accommodation, providing a stable environment using a harm-reduction approach.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Service Manager is responsible for overall service delivery and providing effective leadership for the staff team.

We are looking for an experienced leader with exceptional ability to establish a high quality service in a CQC regulated care home.  You will have the ability to motivate staff as you lead on the change management process – designed to improve service quality in line with CQC requirements.

The role requires a highly motivated, flexible and passionate individual.  You will need to be able to work collaboratively with colleagues and have the ability to establish and maintain relationships with appropriate networks.

In return WLM offers a competitive salary, generous annual leave (27 days on appointment, rising to 30 days after 5 years continuous service), staff benefits including interest free season ticket loan and group personal pension plan.

HOW TO APPLY

• Please visit our website to apply for the role.
• Please note an Enhanced DBS certificate is required for the role.
• Interviews will be held as applications are submitted and before the closing date below so please apply early.
• The closing date for applications is midnight Monday 8th February 2021.

Please ensure that all documents submitted to WLM are in either MS Word document or PDF format. If you are using the Pages application on an Apple device, you will need to change the document to one of these formats.

We are seeking a qualified Solicitor or Barrister with a practicing certificate in England and Wales with experience in family law to lead our advocacy and legal service.  Mosac provides holistic support to families of victims of Child Sexual Abuse. Central to our work is providing pro-bono legal advice as families navigate the family courts and in some cases criminal courts in extremely difficult circumstances. 

Job description

We are seeking a committed, empathetic and resilient Manager, experienced in dealing with high levels of client trauma, to grow our current advocacy service into a pro-bono legal advice department to respond to growing demand.

You will be a qualified Solicitor or Barrister with a practicing certificate in England and Wales. You will have proven experience of working in UK family law.

In the first instance you will be responsible for running  our  telephone and face to face pro-bono legal advice service for the protective parents of sexually abused children. Over time, you would move to overseeing other legal expert officers and volunteers, building partnerships and managing the more complex cases. 

 

Mosac Background

Mosac has been delivering unique support services for the families of victims of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) for over 25 years. In a safe environment, we offer free services to families affected by CSA, all of whom are vulnerable with some being excluded, or facing other forms of hardship.  Mosac’s services include a national Helpline, Counselling, Play Therapy, Advocacy & Advice, Training and Email support services. We enable families to achieve and sustain an improved quality of life by rebuilding confidence, alleviating isolation, improving well-being and resilience, promoting inclusion and empowering individuals to move on with their lives, with the skills and knowledge to safeguard themselves and their children in the future.

Advocacy & Specialist Advice Service 

Our Advocacy Service was established in 2005 in response to a growing need from clients to provide advice and guidance on a range of issues including:

• Criminal proceedings, family court proceedings, CAFCASS and Social Services

• Preparing for interviews, medicals, court hearings, core assessments, psychological evaluations, case conferences and safeguarding frameworks

• Complaints procedures with Police, CPS, Social Services and others

• Liaising with professionals such as police, social services, teachers, legal professionals

• The safeguarding children framework and CAF (Common Assessment Framework)

• Supporting parents undergoing separation/ divorce as a result of allegations of sexual abuse: court hearings, financial restructuring, housing and school issues

• Supporting families requiring access to criminal or private compensation

• Emergency protection orders (primarily non-molestation and occupation)

• Emergencies such as breach of parole by offenders or victim suicide attempts

• Helping to reduce the likelihood of repeat victimisation and reducing the isolation experienced by families in this situation

• Attending Child Protection Conferences, Team Around the Child meetings

• Ensuring equality and accessibility for disadvantaged groups.

Role Description and Key Responsibilities

• Lead on the  transition of our advocacy service into a pro-bono legal advice department for individuals and families whose children have been sexually abused, from across England and Wales.

• Provide specialist pro-bono advice to individuals and families. 

• Work with the CEO to grow and develop the department by developing partnerships, raising additional funding and consulting with internal and external stakeholders to support service design. 

• Lead on the evaluation and monitoring of the department’s work 

• Work collaboratively with other Mosac Service Managers and existing clients to provide support that is tailored to suit the needs our clients

• Line manage legal experts and volunteers 

• Attending regular clinical Supervision, supported by Mosac

• Attending regular Mosac staff and team meetings

• Represent Mosac externally on TV, radio and through various media interviews, to help build relationships with influencers and key decision makers and to raise the profile of the Mosac pro-bono legal advice service. 

• Carrying out any other reasonable duties required from time to time by the charity

Person Specification:

Essential Skills, Experience and Qualifications

• Qualified Solicitor or Barrister with a practicing certificate in England and Wales. You will have proven experience of working in UK family law.

• Experience of working with clients who have experienced high levels of trauma

• High level communication skills, including experience of communicating effectively across cultures and with diverse audiences, both verbally and in writing

• Excellent IT skills – with a good knowledge of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel

• Excellent organisational and time management skills

Personal Attributes and behaviours

• Empathy with Mosac’s clients

• Ability to manage own/ joint workload and prioritise tasks

• Conscientious, resilient and self-disciplined

• Demonstrates the ability to build rapport with quickly and to understand needs, wants and expectations

• Ability to work to deadlines/targets for self and others

• Works effectively and calmly under pressure

• Attention to detail in all aspects of work

• Ability to work on own initiative

• Active team player

• Ability to guide, support and develop volunteers

• Non-judgemental

Introduction

Spitalfields Crypt Trust (SCT) is an East London charity providing practical help, support and training to people who have been homeless and suffering from addiction. It runs a homeless drop-in, a Recovery Hub (which includes an abstinence-based residential recovery hostel, an Addictions Counselling Programme, and a Training & Development Programme), supported houses and two social enterprises supporting people in recovery from addictions to put their lives back together. Our integrative approach is based on the ‘Recovery Capital’ methodology and is a whole-person approach, which considers physical, cultural, social, human, and spiritual factors and assets.

In employment we actively seek to recruit people with a good combination of talent, skills, and potential, promoting equality for all, and welcome applications from a wide range of candidates.  We select all candidates for interview based on their skills, qualifications, experience and commitment to the values and purposes of the organisation. (Sources - Equal Opportunities Policy 2.2 (i) and (v)).  SCT is a growing organisation with opportunities for people with good motivational skills and high levels of initiative.

About the role

The Housing First Support Worker provides person-centered and housing-related support, information, and advice to residents of SCT’s Housing First for Recovery service. The Housing First Support Worker acts as the key worker for a small group of Housing First residents. The anticipated ratio is one staff member to six residents, although this may vary through the life of the project.

Residents of Housing First will be single people who are rough sleeping, homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness; they may present as challenging and are likely to have multiple and complex needs which make finding, securing, and maintaining accommodation extremely difficult.

Staff will work to engage with residents and potential residents who have a history of disengaging from services, using a variety of techniques and approaches to build and develop a supportive working relationship. Staff will help residents meet their personalised goals, make informed decisions, and achieve a greater level of stability and independence.

All activity will be underpinned by the following Housing First Principles:

1. People have the right to a home
2. Flexible support is provided for as long as it is needed
3. Housing and support are separate
4. People have choice and control over all aspects of their lives
5. The service is based upon people’s strengths, goals, and aspirations
6. An active engagement approach is used
7. A harm reduction approach is used.

Staff may work alongside peer mentors who, as former users of services, may be able to provide additional advice and support to Housing First residents.

Staff are expected to be available to support Housing First for Recovery residents during usual working hours (Monday to Friday, 9.00am-5.00pm) although may be required to work outside of the conventional working week on occasion.  

Role and Responsibilities

• Work with Housing First residents to help them articulate their goals and aspirations offering personal, therapeutic, and emotional support. The work will be informed by core Housing First principles.
• Undertake comprehensive needs and risk assessments with each allocated resident.
• Adopt a Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) and Trauma Informed Care (TIC) approach to supporting Housing First for Recovery residents, including use of learning from PIE and TIC training and Reflective Practice.
• Develop and maintain relationships with Housing First residents to enable person-centered support, promoting personal choice and wellbeing. This will be done through regular contact, including visits to residents’ homes and appropriate community settings.
• Be adaptive and flexible, resilient to challenges and rejections, to support the stability and progression of Housing First residents to achieve personalised outcomes.
• Liaise with accommodation providers and actively encourage Housing First residents to move into appropriate Housing First accommodation of their choice.
• Identify barriers to acquiring and maintaining accommodation and provide support, including practical help with furniture, benefits advice, budgeting, neighbour relations and liaising with landlords.
• Support tenants to register with a GP, dentist, and optician and in addressing any immediate and longer-term physical and mental health concerns.
• Support tenants in the best use of personalised budgets to purchase items identified as needed (e.g., furniture, appliances, clothes, etc.).
• Offer advice, guidance, and support on ways in which substance misuse and other harmful activities can be practiced more safely. This includes anticipating and supporting the reduction of harmful challenges while maximising opportunities.
• Support residents in attending AA/NA and taking first steps to address their substance misuse issues.
• Be empowered and persistent in advocating for residents to access all services, including reconciliation work with agencies, if required.
• Develop, maintain and coordinate effective working relationships with external agencies, promoting effective communication for and about residents ensuring the Housing First project is widely known and promoted.
• With tenants’ agreement, liaise with other agencies to facilitate access to support, including recovery from addiction, offending and criminal justice, health and mental health, domestic abuse, welfare and housing benefits, debit, child and adult protection, employment, training, and volunteering.
• Identify cases requiring further help (specialist advice, alternative support) referring and supporting engagement as appropriate.
• Support residents to accessing the suite of additional SCT services run by our Drop-In team such as art, gardening, IT, pre-abstinence, and women’s groups.
• Support residents to access community resources to develop positive peer networks and meaningful leisure opportunities, including social, recreational, sport, faith, learning and arts.
• Regularly review people’s support plans to update, record and monitor progress.
• Promote and encourage peer involvement with the service.
• Maintain accurate monitoring and evaluation records using InForm, including detailed information on people worked with.
• Actively participate in achieving targets as set by the Housing First/Drop-in Manager.
• Contribute to regular reports on the service and its evaluation as required.
• Strengthen links and relationships with other SCT projects.
• Occasional lone working with high-risk people.
• Actively engage with supervision with line manager, including review of training needs.
• To be responsible and accountable for the delivery of high-quality support.
• Undertake any other duties consistent with the role.

Key Outcomes

1. As a result of being housed and supported, residents lead less chaotic lives.
2. As a result of improved self-confidence and resilience, residents are empowered to make their own choices in all aspects of their lives.
3. Residents have improved physical health.
4. Residents have improved mental health.
5. Residents have increased networks of support

Closing date Sunday 21st February

Interviews to take place W.c. 1st March