JOB DESCRIPTION

POST TITLE Prisoner and Family Link Worker, part-time

REPORTING TO Prisoner and Family Support Service Manager

SUPERVISION OF Volunteers when necessary

LOCATION 89-93 Fonthill Road, London N4 3JH

1. Job Purpose

To provide a proactive advice and information service to Prisoners Abroad service user groups (British citizens who are incarcerated in prisons overseas and preparing for release, their family and friends and those returning for resettlement).

2. Key AREAS OF responsibilitY

·  To take particular responsibility for developing work regarding the reintegration of ex-prisoners back into the family and to organise and host Prisoners Abroad’s family support events in and outside London, sometimes at the weekend.

·  To undertake, as directed, development tasks and completion of workplan targets leading to an enhanced service to service users.

·  To take proactive responsibility for a caseload of clients (prisoners, their families and friends and returning clients) and to liaise with other teams in service delivery in order to provide a comprehensive service to those incarcerated abroad and preparing for their release.

·  To provide, by telephone, email and letter, information about all aspects of resettlement.

·  To liaise with other services, groups and individuals as well as with governmental authorities at home and abroad.

·  To refer clients to specialist agencies, as appropriate.

·  To maintain both a paper and electronic-based ‘case file’ system to ensure that notes of all conversations and meetings, as well as incoming and outgoing correspondence, are efficiently retained.

·  To work closely with – and be answerable to – the Prisoner & Family Support Service Manager and attend regular supervisory meetings for guidance and support on case work and managing your workload in general.

·  To maintain appropriate confidentiality at all times.

3. GENERAL

This job is self-servicing. All staff are expected to:

·  Collaborate with members of other Prisoners Abroad teams, eg to provide media and fundraising information. And contribute to outcomes measurement and impact assessment.

·  To attend and prepare for monthly supervision and to participate in team meetings and other meetings, as required.

·  Participate in general office rota duties.

·  Production of briefing papers and reports as directed.

·  Carry out any other reasonable duties as and when required by management.

Post details

Salary / £27,007 (scalepoint 28), pro rata
Hours / 17.5 hours (2.5 days) per week, job share.
Contract Length / 1 year (1st April 2013 – 31st March 2014)
Leave / 30 days per annum plus Public Holidays, pro rata
Pension / 6.5% of gross salary paid by Prisoners Abroad into a Personal Scheme following completion of probation
Probation / 3 months’ probationary period during which time one week’s notice is required by both employer and employee. This post will be subject to a Criminal Records Bureau check.
Notice / At the end of a successfully completed probationary period, this post will be subject to one month’s notice by either party.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Prisoner and Family Link Worker

The successful candidate will be the person who achieves the best match with the person specification set out below and who fully supports the aims of the organisation and is committed to equality of opportunity.

ESSENTIAL

• Issues facing service users upon release/ ex-offenders

The Prisoner and Family Link Worker will be required to give advice, information and access services for returning prisoners and their families and also to liaise with the resettlement team on issues facing clients upon their return, so knowledge of these issues will be important.

• Excellent Communication Skills


A lot of your work will be on the phone – speaking and listening to distressed families and friends; to prison officials; and to Consuls, for example. You must have an excellent telephone manner and be able to communicate clearly and professionally with a wide variety of people. You will also need to work closely with the other Prisoner & Family Link Worker, ensuring efficient handover and joint responsibility.

·  Non-judgemental

Prisoners Abroad operates on a non-judgemental basis and all staff are expected to demonstrate this value in their work.

• Excellent self-administration skills

Everyone in the office undertakes their own administration. A lot of your work is on the computer and you must therefore be confident in its use. You must be able to handle a number of different cases at the same time and manage a varied caseload efficiently and effectively.

·  Recording Skills

Good case work requires excellent recording skills. Every conversation involving casework must be recorded immediately and accurately in the file and in a database. Two years’ experience in an advice or information-giving background is therefore required.

• Excellent Correspondence and Drafting Skills

A lot of your work will involve drafting of correspondence to all our client groups, Consuls and other agencies. The ability to write sensitively and accessibly is particularly important.

• Excellent Analytical and Learning Skills

A service user will contact you and, once trained in the issues, you will have to be able to identify what advice and assistance Prisoners Abroad can provide.

DESIRABLE

·  Developing Services

As there will be a strong developmental aspect to this role, experience of setting up a new project and/ or development work would be desirable.

·  Voluntary Sector

Working within the voluntary sector represents a particular ethos and a specific range of challenges and therefore it would be desirable if you had previous experience of working in this environment, either in a paid or voluntary capacity.

·  Presentation Skills

Prisoners Abroad undertakes regular presentations to a variety of audiences in which, after training, you would be expected to participate.

·  Group Facilitation Skills

As you will be responsible for supporting families face-to-face at family days, experience of running or facilitating a group would be useful.

This job description describes the principle purpose and main elements of the job. It is a guide to the nature and main duties of the job as they exist currently, but it is not intended as a wholly comprehensive or permanent schedule and is not part of the contract of employment.

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