Title: Adviser (Bereavement and Funerals) - Affordable Cremations Scotland CIC
Location: Base in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire with travel across Scotland
Salary: £24,000 - £27,000 Pension: After six-month probation, employer contribution of 6% of salary
Contract: 12 month fixed term contract
Hours: 37.5 hours per week mostly in normal working hours with some flexibility
Annual Leave: 28 days (plus 8 public holidays)
Line Manager: General Manager
Deadline: NEW DEADLINE 10.00AM 2 OCTOBER 2017
Queries: 0773 876 0598
Application: CV, covering letter, two referees and equalities form to
Estimated start date: October 2017
About Affordable Cremations Scotland CIC
Affordable Cremations Scotland Community Interest Company is a newly incorporated social enterprise launching later in 2017. The new company is wholly owned by the charity Community Renewal Trust. The company will trade under a different brand name when launched.
In 2017, funeral poverty remains a common experience for Scottish families. Our market research sets out that over the next decade it is reasonable to expect funeral prices to continue to rise well above inflation and for low-income household earnings to continue to fall. An average cremation cost £3,100 in 2014, a burial £3,600. Compare this to the maximum Social Fund Funeral Payment benefit grant available of £1,400. Someone responsible for a family member’s funeral who earns minimum wage would take 2-3 months to pay for a basic funeral if leaving nothing for themselves. This leaves the recently bereaved, especially those in poverty, needing either to somehow find the money to pay for the funeral they feel is appropriate or requesting only the most basic options. We know people often borrow from friends/family or pay day lenders.
Affordable Cremations Scotland CIC will deliver direct cremations across Scotland operating from a base in either Glasgow or Ardrossan. This social enterprise will seek to:
- Provide direct cremations at an affordable cost
- Provide advice to help families arrange other funeral services such as memorials, celebrations, flowers, celebrants, bereavement support
- Provide support to claim Funeral Payment benefits
- Provide additional support to bereaved families including advice
- Reinvest any profits into the reduction of poverty and education around death/bereavement/funerals.
- Become a sustainable business and flagship social enterprise
About Community Renewal
Community Renewal Trust is a social enterprise (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation number SC043684) with headquarters in Govan and operating in deprived communities across Scotland including Muirhouse, Craigmillar, Leith, Govanhill, Ardrossan, and Torry. Our aim is to lift neighbourhoods out of poverty. We do this by taking an innovative approach, starting with community of 4000-10000 people and working systematically, house by house listening to people about the issues they and their community face and helping them tackle these complex needs. To date five of the datazones we have focussed on have literally risen out of the list of the 15% most deprived (SIMD) areas. We receive Big Lottery and People’s Health Trust grants and deliver public service contracts including ESF funding. We have around 35 staff and £1m turnover.
We work holistically, taking a community development approach to health and employment support. We help people with food poverty, fuel poverty, healthy living, worklessness, disability, but when people come with funeral poverty there have been previously limited options for the support could offer. More information is on our website:
Adviser Role
Affordable Cremations Scotland CIC is looking to appoint an Adviser who can support bereaved families. The Adviser will be a key point of contact for bereaved families with more complex needs.
A key role will be to liaise with other providers related to funerals such as florists, memorial makers, crematoria, celebrants, venues, catering etc. These are services that Affordable Cremations Scotland CIC will not provide but will arrange for bereaved families. The Adviser will make a directory of partners and suppliers of relevant funeral supplies. The Adviser will also provide some bereavement counselling by phone and face to face.
The Adviser may have a support role developing and delivering the fundraising and marketing strategies. This may include posting on social media or responding to press enquiries. This aspect of the role is desirable not essential.
The Adviser will also be expected to get involved in an ad hoc manner in other aspects of the business. This will include taking bookings, processing payments, and some contact with bodies including helping uplift and transportation. These are not expected to be major parts of the role, but flexibility is a requirement.
The role may involve some work outside normal working hours (9-5) and at weekends when urgent calls are made from bereaved families. This will be as part of a pre-agreed on-call rota.
This role is funded by Scottish Government and European Social Fund Social Innovation Fund which is a 12 month programme. Therefore, the post is initially limited to a 12 month fixed term.
There will be an opportunity to spend 1-2 weeks learning on the job at an existing direct cremations business.
Job description (key areas for the role)
Funeral Advice
- Supporting bereaved families who are customers to book arrange for other peripheral funeral services from third party providers additional to the basic direct cremation such as celebrants, flowers, memorials, catering, venues etc.
- Provide clear advice around funerals to bereaved families who are customers.
- Provide other advice, guidance or training to others in these skills as directed by Management.
- Provide advice and support for bereaved families who are customers to apply for Social Fund Funeral Payments.
- Responsible for provision of some basic bereavement counselling for families by phone or face to face. Some additional training can be provided to improve expertise in this area.
- This may include some lone working or visiting bereaved families homes.
- Supporting bereaved families to book recoveries and pay for services.
- Maintain and update a diary so all staff have access to clear information about whereabouts.
- Keep all areas clean and tidy and ensuring office and vehicles are secure when not attended.
- Responsible for provision of clear communications online, by email, by phone and face to face with bereaved families
- Create, maintain and update a directory of peripheral services (bereavement counselling, debt counselling, florists, memorial companies, celebrants, venues) that bereaved families may wish to access.
- Maintaining a professional personal appearance and compassionate manner at all times when around members of the public.
- Keep clear records and provide careful monitoring of bodies and cremated remains including ensuring paperwork and identification processes are always completed.
- Providing ad hoc support for recoveries to take place, including but not limited to supporting recovery team to find addresses, prioritise recoveries, maintain a schedule, attending recoveries, lifting/handling deceased individuals, and driving a transit van or smaller vehicles.
- This may include out of hours recoveries in some limited circumstances.
- Ensuring recoveries are always conducted in a dignified and compassionate manner.
- Handling and resolving all complaints effectively, reporting on complaints and resolutions and escalating any urgent/important/unresolved complaints.
- Supporting day to day implementation of the marketing and PR plans as determined by the Board and Community Renewal Senior Management. Please note that marketing and PR activities will mostly be delivered through a contract with an external partner.
- Support fundraising efforts including from personal donations, crowd funding, corporate relationships, and grants.
- Developing and maintaining effective strategic relationships with partners and key stakeholders
- Representing the organisation to a range of organisations and agencies, at local and at national level.
- Representing the interests of Community Renewal in a variety of external groups.
Person Specification - Skills & Abilities
Cooperative team member / Essential
Excellent communicator both orally in in writing / Essential
Emotionally intelligent, able to build and sustain positive relationships / Essential
Excellent organisation and planning skills / Essential
Able to use own initiative and bring fresh ideas / Essential
Committed to social justice, diversity and equality / Essential
Confident in the use of IT / Essential
Excellent customer service standards in telephone and one to one contacts / Essential
Calm under pressure / Essential
Flexibility and determination to get the job done / Essential
Commitment to personal development / Essential
Experience (personal, volunteering or work based)
Experience in a one-to-one advice role(not necessarily in funeral business) / Essential
Experience with / in a funeral business including recovery of bodies / Desirable
Experience in bereavement counselling / Desirable
Experience in customer service roles (not necessarily in funeral business) / Desirable
Experience with / in social enterprises / Desirable
Experience of marketing / Desirable
Experience of deprived neighbourhoods or people in poverty / Desirable
Experience coordinating fundraising / Desirable
Knowledge
Understanding of bereaved people’s funeral needs / Essential
Understanding of existing providers of peripheral funeral services such as celebrants, florists, memorial makers, venues etc / Desirable
Understanding use of language and tone when dealing with bereaved families / Essential
Understanding of legal requirements around funerals and cremations in Scotland / Desirable
Understanding of social enterprise and the third sector / Desirable
Training and Qualifications
Degree or equivalent / Desirable
Diploma in funeral arranging and administration or similar / Desirable
Customer Service / Desirable
Marketing / Desirable
Leadership or Effective Communicating / Desirable
Other
Full UK Driving Licence- endorsements will be checked / Essential
Access to own car / Desirable
Ability and willingness to be involved in manual handling of bodies (we are able to make reasonable adaptations if required due to disability) / Essential
Willingness to drive small vans and transit vanssometimes for recoveries / Essential
Willingness for disclosure check to be carried out before/during employment / Essential
Equal Opportunities Recruitment Monitoring Form
This form will be detached from your application form upon receipt and the selection panel will not have access to the information during the shortlisting or interviews.
Affordable Cremations Scotland CIC is wishes to ensure equality of opportunity in our recruitment process. People seeking employment will not be refused on the grounds of gender, ethnic origin, colour, sexuality, disability, religion, appearance or HIV status.
To ensure that this policy is effective, we monitor our Job Applicants according to the categories below. Completion of this form is voluntary, but it does help us provide a better service if this information is given. Thank you.
THE INFORMATION YOU GIVE ON THIS FORM WILL BE CONFIDENTIAL TO COMMUNITY RENEWAL AND USED FOR MONITORING PURPOSES ONLY.
Name: / VacancyI define my gender as: / Female / Male Other
I define my ethnic group as:
White / Asian / Asian British
British / Indian
Irish / Pakistani
Gypsy or Irish Traveller / Bangladeshi
Other: / Kashmiri
Chinese
Mixed / Multiple Ethnic Groups / Other:
White and Black Caribbean
White and Black African / Black / African / Caribbean / Black British
White and Asian / Caribbean
Other: / African
Other:
Other Ethnic Group (please specify):
I define my religious belief as:
No religion / belief / Hindu
Buddhist / Muslim
Christian / Jewish
(including Church of England,
Catholic, Protestant and all other
Christian denominations) / Sikh
Other:
I define my sexuality as: / Lesbian/Gay / Bisexual / Heterosexual
Do you define yourself as having a disability? / No / Yes / If yes, please
give details:
Age: / 30 or Under / 31 – 40 / 41 – 50 / 51 +
Status at time of application / Employed / Self employed / Unemployed
Other:
Where did you see the advertisement for this vacancy?
Please be specific as this helps us to see where our advertising is effective. If you saw it on the internet please tell us which site, not just “internet”.
If you would like this application form to be supplied in large print, Braille or disc format, please telephone Helen Barrie (0141 237 4457) who will arrange this.