- Salary: £30,000 – £32,500 per annum, depending on experience
- Contract: Initial one year fixed term contract with expectation of extension
- Hours: Full time, 35 hours per week, flexible working hours
- Location: Anywhere in the UK on a work from home basis, or in Protection Approaches’ offices in Kennigton, London
- Deadline: Sunday 16th April 2023, 11.59pm
About the Organization:
On Your Side is the UK-wide support and reporting service for East and Southeast Asian communities who experience racism and/or any forms of hate. Launched in August 2022, the service includes a 24/7 freephone helpline available in East and Southeast Asian languages; a website with reporting forms and resources; and ongoing community-based support delivered by trained casework advocates. We work to ensure that those who experience racism and/or hate have access to the highest levels of culturally competent support while building a better picture of the nature and range of incidents so they can be better prevented.
Funded by the UK Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities, On Your Side is delivered by a consortium of 15 organizations including 13 East and Southeast Asian led community groups alongside national hate crime reporting and hate crime prevention organizations. This role will be based at the consortium lead organization, identity-based violence prevention charity Protection Approaches.
About the role:
This is an exciting new role Coordinating the On Your Side Casework Advocacy Team to deliver the highest level of support services to those who have experienced racism and/or hate.
All who contact On Your Side are offered the opportunity to receive ongoing casework advocacy support. This support is delivered by 4 – 5 part-time Casework Advocates based at East and Southeast Asian community partner organizations and trained in advocacy, trauma-informed practice, safeguarding, cultural competency and hate crime awareness. Their role is to support the service user understand and to claim their rights while helping them to identify and access any professional support services they need, such as legal aid or mental health support.
The Casework Advocacy Coordinator will report directly to the On Your Side Service Manager coordinating the team of Casework Advocates ensuring that cases are being referred to the most appropriate team member while tracking capacity and quality of the service. You will organize regular meetings with all Advocates individually and as a group to discuss open cases, and share best practice and advice. You will ensure that all casework advocates are following agreed processes and that safeguarding and data protection responsibilities are being upheld. You will use your experience in Casework Advocacy to manage some cases yourself while ensuring that all cases are being handled appropriately with the highest levels of support delivered.
You will lead on ensuring that all Casework Advocates have completed the necessary training while identifying new training an upskilling opportunities to improve the service for those who use it.
While this is a 12-month fixed term contract we expect that the Casework Advocacy Coordinator role will continue to be a core part of the On Your Side Coordination Team into the next phase of the service’s development, possibly as an independent organization outside of Protection Approaches.
Responsibilities:
- Coordinate the Casework Advocacy team to deliver a highest level of support to those who have experienced racism and/or other forms of hate
- Review new referral requests daily and refer new cases to appropriate Casework Advocates
- Deliver On Your Side casework advocacy support directly with service users (around 50% of you time will be spent working directly with service users as a Casework Advocate)
- Ensure all Casework Advocates are following agreed processes and procedures (including safeguarding and data protection responsibilities)
- Continually update and improve casework advocacy processes in line with learnings from delivery and feedback
- Maintain understanding of all open cases and advise Casework Advocates where necessary on next steps
- To identify complex cases that require additional support and find appropriate solutions that meets the needs of the client
- Track capacity of all casework advocates
- Actively seek, learn about and build networks of specialist support systems and services throughout the UK
- Maintain and update the Casework Advocacy Handbook
- Organise and chair regular meetings with Casework Advocates
- Liaise with senior management at Casework Advocacy partner organisations
- Manage updating of a signposting directory
- Regularly update On Your Side secure database with case information
- Ensure all Casework Advocates have received agreed training
- Identify and commission additional training for Casework Advocacy team
- Report on progress and issues related to Casework Advocacy at fortnightly coordination team meetings
- Improve and oversee implementation of monitoring and evaluation processes focused on delivery and impact of casework advocacy
- Speak at meetings, conferences and or events about the On Your Side Service and Casework Advocacy
- Support the Protection Approaches and On Your Side Management teams with various bits of administration or office management
Requirements:
- Professional experience delivering similar casework/casework advocacy services
- Experience of coordinating projects and/or teams to deliver agreed outputs to a high standard
- Experience of working with vulnerable service users with multiple complex needs
- Monitoring and evaluating community based services to ensure they are delivering the service intended (and making adaptions when not)
- Attention to detail – able to work methodically with attention to detail to ensure all cases are dealt with appropriately and within agreed timelines
- Willingness to take responsibility for ensuring successful delivery of this vital service which may occasionally mean working longer hours or experiencing a stressful workload
- Deep understanding of safeguarding and data protection responsibilities, laws, and processes
- Deep understanding of issues faced by East and Southeast Asian communities and community members in the UK and complex additional needs of individuals with multiple protected characteristics
- Knowledge of hate crime legislation and hate crime reporting in England and Wales, Scotland and /or Northern Ireland
Benefits:
Flexi hours: All staff members at Protection Approaches work flexible working hours allowing them to better plan their workload as well as make time for the things they need to do outside of work.
Employee Assistance Programme: All staff member have access to a free employee assistance programme including a 24/7 helpline with trained operators able to help and advise with any issue you are facing, including referring you and/or your family to free counselling services.
Wellbeing Micro-grants: All staff members have access to £150 to spend on wellbeing such as music lessons, massages, gym classes, counselling or whatever makes sense for them.
Duvet days: All staff are entitled to take ‘duvet days’, which are unscheduled day’s leave from work, taken to alleviate stress or pressure, and that do not count against your holiday days or sick days.
How to Apply:
Candidates to submit the following via email no later than 11.59pm Sunday 16th April.
- The application cover form that can be found below
- Answers to the three questions below. These can be submitted as written answers or as a voice recording. Answers should be no more than 300 words per question
i. What is your experience delivering similar casework/casework advocacy services
ii. What are the most important considerations when delivering a service such as this with service users who may be vulnerable
iii. What would make you a good coordinator? (i.e. why would you be good at ensuring the team is delivering everything to a high standard and meeting its targets? ) Applications are to be sent to Trà My via email: TraMy.Hickin@protectionapproaches.org. Please do not send your CV at this stage