Prepared by West Oxfordshire CAB

West Oxfordshire Citizens Advice Bureau

Advice Session Co-ordinator

Salary: £22,442 pro rata

Fixed Term Contract: until 31 March 2016

Holidays: 4.6 weekspro rata

Hours:15 hoursper weekover 2 days

Based in Witney but may be asked to travel to other locations

Job Description

Managed by the Advice Services Manager you will be responsible as part of the team of Advice Session Coordinators for providing quality support to our team of volunteer advice sessionsupervisors and advisers at our bureau in Witney.You will also be responsible for supervising advice sessions and providing holiday and sickness cover. This will include gateway, open door, email, letter, telephone advice including remote supervision ofAdviceLine, appointment sessions and outreaches. You will also assist the Advice Services Manager in ensuring a comprehensive high quality service to people within West Oxfordshire within the aims and principles and polices of the Citizens Advice Service. You will be responsible for raising awareness of social policy issues within your teams and will assist the Operations Manager to maintain a high standard of social policy work in the bureau.

Context of Role

  • You will be working with the Advice Services Manager to guarantee the quality standards of all our advice. You will supervise advice sessions and may be asked to provide holiday cover including ourlate evening session on Thursdays from 1pm until 6.30pm. You will manage different teams of volunteers working on different days.

Purpose of the Role

  • To implement quality controls and standards and supervise the Bureau’s advice and information within the aims, polices and principles of the CAB service.

Service Delivery

  • Support a team of volunteer Advice Session Supervisors
  • Supervise advice sessions
  • Manage practicalities of the advice sessions
  • Monitor and respond to emails sent to the supervisor inbox and telephone calls received on the supervisor telephone during advice sessions
  • Monitor and respond to the PETRA work queue
  • Supervise the work of designated staff and volunteers to ensure that standards meet Citizens Advice requirements
  • Provide technical support and act as consultant to the advisers
  • Ensure delivery of agreed level of service and adequate cover
  • Monitor the quality of advice given to clients during the advice session
  • Monitor the quality of work by case checking PETRA records
  • Provide feedback to volunteers on quality standards
  • Support the Advice Services Manager to develop and maintain standards of service delivery
  • Support the Advice Services Manager to ensure that appropriate systems are developed and maintained for case recording, statistics, follow up work and quality control
  • Undertake advice work as and when required
  • Ensure all relevant policies and procedures are followed during the advice session
  • Ensure the development of social policy and instigate systems and procedures

Staff Supervision

  • Attend regular meetings of paid and volunteer staff
  • Supervise staff and volunteers through the provision of regular support
  • Ensure that the service area is adequately staffed
  • Encourage good teamwork and lines of communication between all members of staff
  • Participate in the recruitment of staff when requested
  • Carry out annual appraisals

Social Policy and Monitoring

  • Make sure that all the members of your teams actively engage in social policy work by reporting evidence and information about clients’ circumstances through the appropriate channel
  • Provide statistical information on the number of clients and nature of cases and provide regular reports to bureau management
  • Monitor service provision to help ensure that it reaches the widest possible client group

Administration

  • Maintain and monitor effective and efficient administrative systems
  • Monitor health and safety policy with regard to staff, equipment and premises within statutory requirements
  • Maintain complaints procedures in accordance with Citizens Advice guidelines

Training and Development

  • Identify and implement own training and development needs
  • Identify the training needs of volunteers through support and annual appraisals, and contribute towards the bureau’s training development plan
  • Organise training activities in conjunction, as appropriate with the Training Manager
  • Support the Training Manager in delivering training sessions, either by delivering training on specific subjects of expertise, or by delivering sessions within the advice room as appropriate.
  • Manage and support Advice Session supervisors, trainee advisers, trainee gateway assessors, advice support workers and other advice volunteers during advice sessions to achieve competence

Planning and Development

  • Be an active member of the Advice Services team and contribute to team meetings and service development
  • Advise the line manager on staffing and service delivery issues
  • Participate in Citizens Advice initiatives as appropriate
  • Coordinate activities, procedures and systems so as to promote common policies and practices

Other Duties and Responsibilities

  • Carry out any other tasks which may be within the scope of the post to ensure the effective delivery and development of the service
  • Abide by health and safety guidelines and share responsibility for own safetyand that of colleagues

Person Specification

Experience

  • Recent and ongoing experience of advice work
  • Experience of managing volunteers or other staff members

Skills and Abilities

  • Ability to demonstrate how s/he keeps knowledge up to date
  • Ability to analyse and interpret complex information
  • Understanding of the importance of support, development and motivation
  • Effective oral communication skills
  • Effective written skills
  • Understanding of the issues involved in interviewing clients
  • Numerate to the level required by the tasks
  • Ability to prioritise own work and the work of others, meet deadlines and manage a workload in a pressured environment
  • Ability to use IT in the provision of advice and the preparation of reports and submissions
  • Ability to give and receive feedback objectively and sensitively and a willingness to challenge constructively
  • Ability and willingness to work as part of a team
  • Ability to monitor and maintain recording systems and procedures

Knowledge and Understanding

  • Understanding of the issues affecting society and their implications for clients and service provision
  • Understanding of and the commitment to the aims and principle of the CAB service and its equal opportunities policies

Attitudes

  • Willingness to work outside office hours and travel as necessary
  • Full of initiative and enthusiasm
  • Highly professional in outlook and manor, while retaining sensitivity and flexibility.

Please note that West Oxfordshire is a very rural area with few public transport links and the successful applicant may be expected to travel to outreach locations other than our Witney office.

West Oxfordshire Citizens Advice Office Manual January 2012

Version: January 2012 Approved: Next Review date: Feb 2013

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