Volunteer Officer

Background Information

About Carers UK

Across the UK there are 6.5 million people caring for a loved one who is older, seriously ill or disabled. This number is set to rise to 9 million by 2037.

Carers UK’s vision is a society that respects, values and supports carers.

Our mission isto make life better for carers.

  • We give expert advice, information and support.
  • We connect carers so no-one has to care alone.
  • We campaign together for lasting change.
  • We innovate to find new ways to reach and support carers.

As the UK's only national membership charity for carers, CarersUK is both a support network and a movement for change. Guided by a Board of Trustees that's primarily made up of carers, we're rooted in the real experiences of our members. Carers shape our services and drive our campaigns.

Our values inform how we work.:

Carers are at the heart of everything we do.

We are:

  • open and approachable
  • inclusive, respecting the diversity of each other’s caring experiences
  • independent and tenacious in advocating for carers
  • expert and innovative
  • committed to working with others.

Carers UK’s Strategy (2013-16) sets out our five priorities.

  1. Improve understanding of caring, give carers a stronger voice andsecure improvements in policies affecting carers
  2. Develop and extend our advice and support for carers
  3. Increase and improve our engagement with carers
  4. Increase our income and improve our long-term financial position
  5. Improve our systems; support our staff and volunteers; anddemonstrate quality in all we do

Carers

Caring is something that affects us all – it’s part of what makes us human. Every day 6,000 people start looking after someone. Our research shows that nearly 2 in 3 new carers do not get the support, advice and information they need until three years into their caring role. One of the key challenges is that people do not identify themselves as carers, and as a result miss out on practical and emotional support as well as benefits and pension entitlements.

Caring can be very isolating. Many carers value speaking about their caring experiences with other carers. Time constraints and difficulties in being able to plan ahead due to caring responsibilities mean such opportunities need to be very flexible.

Volunteering

Social action and volunteering are the backbone of Carers UK.For the past 50 years we've been driven by carers raising their voices together to call for change, seek recognition and support each other. We have a number of volunteer programmes:

  • GP and local Ambassadors reach carers, offer support and influence services in their local communities.
  • Listening Support Volunteers offer listening support to carers over the phone from their home and take referrals to our Advice Line
  • Carers groupsare independent carer-run and group members of Carers UK providing peer support to help break isolation in their local communities.
  • Online Forum Volunteers moderate our online forum, welcoming new members and signposting them to help and ensuring smooth running of the 24/7 forum.
  • Media Volunteers tell their story and help Carers UK get our message across in the news

We believe there is considerable untapped potential for people giving their time to help carers, including from within our membership who are our current primary source of volunteers. We have secured funding to help scale up our activity from about 130 volunteers to 500.

We areseeking to integrate our volunteer programmeswith improvedinfrastructure for continued growth of volunteering. This willseek to achieve

  • a simple route into and through the diverse range of volunteering opportunities and provide volunteers greater flexibility in how they can volunteer,
  • newvolunteer opportunities which support our work across the organisation
  • a comprehensive induction and learning and development programme
  • development of policies and procedures to support volunteering based on best practice
  • collaboration of staff teams to support the integrated approach
  • evaluation so we have robust evidence on activity and impact with simple processes for our volunteers to record their activity

The new post of Volunteer Officer will be joining an expanded team, comprising new posts of Head of Volunteering, Programme Analyst and existing posts of Ambassador Programme Manager, Ambassador Officer and Administrative Officer.

We are committed to seeking funding to sustain and grow our volunteering programme beyond the funding period. This post will primarily focus on our volunteer programme in England, but will look to develop opportunities to expand activity in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where we have small staff teams. We have already secured funding to take forward complementary work in Wales.

Carers UK is undergoing other areas of growth which fit well with our plans for volunteering: a new membership strategy; expansion of our advice and information services; development of innovative products and services; national campaigns which reach thousands of carers.