Independent Visitor and Advocacy Coordinator
Job description
Salary: Circa £27,000(including London Weighting)
Responsible to:Children’s Rights Services Manager (London)
Hours:Full time(35 hours per week)
Location:Coram Voice, Coram Campus
General principles for all Coram Voice staff
All Coram Voice staff are expected to work in line with our brand, values and management principles, in particular by:
- Building and maintaining meaningful, supportive, mutually empowering relationships with and between colleagues, partners, and children and young people.
- Creating and supporting a friendly and trusting working environment, working flexibly and supporting each other in times of high workload or when life gets difficult.
- Accepting personal responsibility for our work and being accountable for delivering results against those responsibilities.
- Recognising that we all have a role to play in all aspects of Coram Voice’s success, in particular in supporting fundraising, storytelling, and involving children and young people in shaping the future of Coram Voice.
Main responsibilities of the post
- To coordinate and develop the Independent Visitor and Advocacy servicefor LB Waltham Forest, and to assist the London Children’s Rights Services Manager in the delivery of other services in London and South East;
- To assist in the recruitment, training and provision of supervision to Independent Visitors in London and South East.
- To provide supervision to advocates providing services in London and South East;
- To ensure that the needs of the children and young people using the service are met.
- To support the monitoring, reporting and evaluation of the project.
General Responsibilities
- To support the Children’s Rights Services Manager in maintaining the quality of our services through the supervision and coordination of Independent Visitor and Advocates.
- To prepare reports and provide statistical information as required by the organisation and partner agencies.
- To manage the budget for Independent Visitoractivities and to maintain financial, administrative and case records as required by the organisation.
- To promote ongoing evaluation of the project; listening to the views and needs of the young people, volunteers and advocates.
- To liaise with Local Authority representatives and other statutory and voluntary organisations, establishing good working relationships, receiving referrals and promoting the Independent Visitor and Advocacy service.
Responsibilities in respect to Independent Visitor service:
- To help assess, recruit and train new volunteers as Independent Visitors to meet the needs of the children with particular consideration of ethnicity, language, culture and religion or other special needs.
- To meet with young people, the foster carers, social workers and any other relevant people in order to recruit appoint and match visitors appropriate to young people’s particular circumstances.
- To provide regular supervision, training, and ongoing support for Independent Visitors and to offer appropriate guidance and advice concerning practice issues ensuring that the service runs in accordance with Coram Voice policies, local procedures and national guidance.
- To authorise and monitor out of pocket expenses for volunteers.
Responsibilities in respect to Advocacy service:
- To oversee staff and associate advocates caseload, ensuring contact is maintained, follow up is timely, contacts are accurately recorded, that cases are opened and closed appropriately
- To be involved in recruitment, induction and training of advocates.
- To assist with the promotion of the organisation and the advocacy service.
- To monitor the service provided by advocates supervised and to support the production of written reports and information as required by the contract
- To authorise and monitor financial claims made by advocates relating to the service.
This role requires a significant amount of travel to places where personal transport would be required in order to accomplish the job description.
These responsibilities are subject to annual review and may need to be adjusted in line with service developments.
Independent Visitor and Advocacy Coordinator
Person Specification
* Method of Assessment
A = Application Form D = Documentary Evidence (e.g. Certificates/Portfolio) I = Interview (panel and/or young people)E = Exercise
Please note that this column is indicative of where each criterion is likely to be tested, however all elements of the person specification may be tested at any stage of the recruitment process. Candidates must use each element of the person specification as a heading in the supporting statement of their application, explaining clearly and with examples how they meet the criteria.
Factor / Criteria / Essential/Desirable / Method of Assessment*A / D / I / E
Education / Experience /
- Good standard of general education
- A social care, counselling, youth work or other relevant qualification
- At least 3 years experience of direct work with children/young people in a professional capacity
- Direct work with children and young people from diverse backgrounds
- Experience of working with a range of professionals including children’s Social Care
- Experience of working with looked after children and/or care leavers
- Previous experience in supervision or management of staff/volunteers
- Experience of supporting the work of volunteers
- Experience of working with children in specialised areas, for example mental health, refugees, disability and care leavers, young offenders
- Experience of working with children and young people in an advice, advocacy or counselling capacity
- Experience of working with children’s safeguarding issues and of making safeguarding referrals for children.
- Experience as a trainer
Skills/Abilities & Knowledge /
- Ability to listen to and communicate effectively with children
- Ability to challenge discrimination on any grounds, including race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, disability and age
- Ability to work in partnership with other professionals involved with children/young people
- Ability to work with children and young people in ways that are safe, open and respect their rights
- Ability to work on own initiative
- Ability to organise own work, use IT systems competently and be reliable
- High level of written skills and the ability to produce letters and reports to a professional standard
- Good understanding of the role of Advocates and Independent Visitors and the legislation and policy that guide the role.
- Sufficient knowledge of the care system and the responsibilities of children’s social care for looked after children
- Knowledge of Children’s Rights, including the Children Acts (1989, 2004)
- Understanding of the possible tensions between the needs of the child and the agencies providing services to them and the demonstrable ability to manage and navigate these
- Specialist skills in communicating with young people with disabilities
General /
- A commitment to the organisation and team working, flexibility and willingness to support colleagues and to share in overall work of Coram Voice
- Commitment to working and managing in line with Coram Voice’s values and the ability to apply this in the role
- An awareness of and sensitivity to differences of race, culture, belief, class, gender, sexuality, and ability and commitment to anti-discriminatory practice
- Access to use of motor vehicle for off site visits
Andrew Dickie
July 2017