THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job Title: Grants Officer
Reporting to: Grants Manager
Role Purpose:
Level 1: To support the Legion’s grant making to individual beneficiaries by: auditing grants awarded by Area offices to ensure compliance against policy and procedure; obtaining funds from other charities with which a Legion beneficiary has a civilian or Armed Forces connection; processing orders with preferred providers on behalf of Area offices; and making decisions on funding requests for beneficiaries whose cases are managed by caseworkers other than Legion staff or volunteers (eg, SSAFA, RAFA and civilian charities.)
Level 2: As above, and to provide a senior level of support to colleagues in the team by coordinating tasks, maintaining policy and procedural resources and deputising for the Grants Manager as appropriate at internal or external events (eg, staff or stakeholder training events.)
Key Responsibilities (Level 1)
· Assessing and processing applications for grants to individual beneficiaries by reviewing eligibility, household income and expenditure, recommendations from internal and external stakeholders (eg, the Legion’s Outreach service, StepChange,) identified need in casework reports and compliance with policy.
· Providing advice to external caseworking organisations and volunteers on the availability of funds or services available from statutory sources (eg, Disabled Facilities Grants) or other charities as appropriate depending on the individual needs of a particular household/beneficiary.
· Based on casework information and evidence provided by external caseworking agencies (eg, SSAFA,) considering and advocating ways in which TRBL can maximise internal and third-party support for clients beyond or in place of grant funding.
· Approving grant expenditure up to £3,000 per household in line with Legion grant-giving policy and process, and making formal recommendations to the appropriate line manager for exceptions or financial ‘higher authority’ when sufficient need is evaluated to be present.
· Performing compliance checks on cases and transactions raised by The Legion’s 16 Area Offices to ensure that they meet the requirements outlined in The Legion’s Royal Charter and grant giving policies.
· Ensuring value for money for the Legion and partner charities by identifying the most cost-effective product, and advising caseworking staff and volunteers (Legion and external) on the most up-to-date selections from providers who have been identified as a ‘preferred provider’ by line management.
· Liaising with existing Armed Forces specific and civilian charitable sources to ensure the beneficiary is accessing all relevant funding and services that are available and to offset the costs of Legion-funded awards.
· Ensuring that any case information that is shared with other organisations fulfils the requirements outlined in the Legion’s Data Protection policies.
· Using the Case Management System (CMS) to communicate with external charities and Legion Area staff, keeping case statuses and actions up-to-date.
· Using the Legion’s customer relationship management database (RightNow) to assign casework requests to Area offices and create referrals to specialist functions, such as Benefits & Money Advice and Independent Living Advice.
· Ensuring the efficient delivery of casework and annuity payment processing services for Armed Forces charities (eg, the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund) and their beneficiaries, supporting in the region of 600 individuals per annum. This includes reviewing funding agreements from other charities, commissioning caseworker visits from the appropriate Area office, communicating with beneficiaries by phone/letter, processing payments and maintaining reliable records on CMS and RightNow.
· Liaising with the Legion’s preferred providers to ensure continued effective and efficient service to the Legion; to include processing orders and requesting and coordinating invoice payments with the Accounting Services team.
· To ensure that contributions made to grants budget from the Legions Membership Structure are allocated to cases in accordance to the governance and allocation of each individual trust or fund.
· Assisting with the provision of induction training and presentations on almonisation and preferred providers to internal and external stakeholders.
· Working at all times towards the Grants Team’s established targets and service standards for case assessments, payments and income generation.
· Identifying beneficiary cases that could be used to encourage public support and understanding of the Legion’s work, whilst also identifying cases that are of a sensitive nature and should not be shared with other funding organisations.
· To oversee the Legion’s Employment Support Grants scheme, making decisions against the establish policy on a case by case basis and provide the support needed to the beneficiary to organise and fulfil relevant training, licences, equipment, travel and accommodation to allow our beneficiaries to achieve sustainable employment.
· Assessing grants, processing applications and commissioning referrals to relevant services from external organisations that do not have access to Cobseo’s Case Management System (CMS).
· Reconciling case related income to specific cases to ensure financial compliance, ensuring cases are not over almonised and identifying cases where TRBL can acquire further contributions towards the funding.
· Communicating with patience and professionalism challenging decisions to internal and external stakeholders (eg, caseworker volunteers, Area staff, external funders.)
· Preparing written correspondence as required and appropriate.
· Being responsible for own administration duties, including data-entry and filing and management and prioritisation of received correspondence.
· Opening, sorting and prioritising the Department’s post; including redirecting post as necessary to ensure action is taken on urgent items.
· To carry out any other duties within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job, the title of the post and its grading as requested by the line manager.
Key Responsibilities (Level 2)
· All Level 1 Responsibilities.
· Approving grant expenditure up to £5,000 per household in line with Legion grant-giving policy and process, and making formal recommendations to the appropriate line manager for exceptions or financial ‘higher authority’ when sufficient need is evaluated to be present.
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· Monitoring and reporting to the line manager upon key performance indicators for the centralised functions of the Grants Department, including assessment and communication response times.
· Maintaining a log of non-compliance with grants in Area offices and providing a written report on a monthly basis to the Grants Manager and Head of Grants, along with recommendations for improvement to process or identification of emerging needs.
· Assigning cases for assessment to the team on a daily basis.
· Processing Property Repair Loan (PRL) redemptions, including liaising with beneficiaries (or their Estates,) external solicitors and the Legion’s Legal Department.
· Coordinating the annual issuance of statements for the existing portfolio of Property Repair Loans.
· Deputising for the Grants Manager at events or conferences as and where appropriate.
· To produce and distribute payment requests within the Legion’s membership and trust structure.
Note: This job description reflects the present requirements of the post. As duties and responsibilities change and develop the job description will be reviewed and be subject to amendment in consultation with the post holder.
GENERAL
1. To implement the Equal Opportunities policy into daily activities wherever possible.
2. To be responsible for your own health and safety and that of your colleagues, in accordance with the Health & Safety at Work Act (1974) and relevant EC directives
3. To work in accordance with the Data Protection Act (1998) and to ensure all new systems are reported to the Data Protection Officer.
Conditions: May be required to attend meetings and seminars outside of London and at weekends; Time off in Lieu will be given with prior management approval.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
DESIRABLE / HOW TO BE MEASURED
QUALIFICATIONS
Good standard of general education (GCSE or equivalent) / E / Application
EXPERIENCE
Demonstrable experience of working in a similar grant giving/funding role in a similar environment / E / Application/interview
Current knowledge of the statutory UK benefits system / D (Level 1)
E (Level 2) / Application/Interview
Experience of providing advice and guidance to clients/customers / E / Application/Interview
Experience of working in a policy and process compliance or audit role / D / Application/Interview
Previous experience working in the voluntary sector, public service or Armed Forces services / D / Application/Interview
Demonstrable experience of managing and prioritising a high workload with varying levels of urgency / E / Application/Interview
Previous work with volunteers / D / Application/Interview
Working knowledge of the Armed Forces community and UK veteran organisations / D / Application/Interview
Demonstrable experience at providing administrative and secretarial support / E / Application/Interview
SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE
Ability to develop and maintain effective working relations with preferred providers, other ex-Service and charitable organisations and government agencies / E / Application/Interview
COMPETENCIES
Customer Service (Level 2) / E / Interview
Relationship Building (Level 2) / E / Interview
Teamwork (Level 1) / E / Interview
Analytical Problem Solving (Level 2) / E / Interview
Planning and Organising (Level 1) / E / Interview
SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES
Excellent IT skills – including being a skilled user of MS Office and familiarity with in-house database systems / E / Application/Interview
Effective communication skills, verbal and written / E / Application/Interview
Empathy with mission, objectives and values of TRBL / E / Application/Interview
Strong team player, able to work effectively with diverse client groups / E / Interview
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Version 5 – 01/04/2015