Job Description: Migration Advisor

ABackground Information

The Connection at St. Martins is based in the heart of London, near Charing Cross Station and Trafalgar Square. CSTM has been helping homeless people since the first world war and is one of London’s largest homelessness charities. CSTM helps 3,500 people each year through services for rough sleepers and people who are vulnerably housed:

  • A Day Centre supporting 2500 people to engage in mainstream services
  • A Night Centre providing 750 people a year with access to emergency accommodation
  • Advice for 900 people a year so that they can access housing and improve wellbeing
  • Workspace helping 700 people a year to move towards into work, learning and volunteering

Connection at St. Martins has an annual turnover of £4.2m, a staff team of 90 and around 50 regular volunteers. The charity benefits from the BBC Radio 4 Christmas Appeal, run by our partners - the St. Martin’s Charity. This gives CSTM a high profile and a sound financial footing. There are close working links with Westminster City Council and other significant providers of services such as The Passage, St. Mungos and West London Mission. The charity also has a number of high profile corporate neighbours who support our work.

Half of CSTM’s clients are not from the UK. This reflects the high numbers of homeless migrants in central London. The rights and entitlements to support services are complex for this group. Therefore, the charity is building a specialist migration team to respond to client need and to build capacity internally and externally to support homeless migrants.

The Migration Advisor will provide specialist case work support to CSTM homeless migrant and refugee clients; monitor and evaluate service delivery to demonstrate impact; manage volunteers; build the capacity of all CSTM services to support homeless migrants and work with External Agencies to improve support, disseminate learning and avoid duplication.

This role requires someone with experience of providing immigration advice and support, with the relevant OISC qualification. The post holder will be able to build the understanding of clients, non-specialist staff and volunteers of migrant rights and entitlements to services. The post holder will have experience of working jointly with other agencies and of building strong, effective partnerships.

TITLE OF POST: / Migration Advisor
Responsible to: / Migration Coordinator
Responsible for: / Volunteers as agreed with the Migration Coordinator
Job Purpose: /
  • Provide specialist case work support to CSTM homeless migrants and refugees;
  • Monitoring and evaluation of service delivery to demonstrate impact;
  • Manage volunteers;
  • Build the capacity of all CSTM services to support homeless migrants;
  • Work with External Agencies to improve support, disseminate learning and avoid duplication.

Salary and Scale: / Salary: £29,133 – 33,293 pa (including London Weighting) – Starting Salary £29,424
Scale: SO1/2Points 29-34 – Candidates will be appointed at Point 29 if OISC level 1 or point 31 if at level 2.
Contract: / Permanent, Full-time 35 hr p/w

BMain Tasks

1Provide specialist case work support to CSTM homeless migrant and refugee clients (65%)

  • Support a case load of in the region of 50 people each year, including:
  • Specialist immigration advice (to OISC L1/L2);
  • Help to gain ID and retrieve paperwork from the Home Office;
  • Accessing accommodation such as night shelters and hosting schemes;
  • Facilitating voluntary reconnections, including outside of the EU;
  • Rights on employment and exploitation.
  • Liaise with external referral agencies and CSTM staff to undertake joint work to support clients;
  • Provide clear and accurate signposting to clients to ensure they access other services to which they are entitled;
  • Work with the Communications Officer to create resources for clients in a range of formats to improve accessibility, including written translations, audio clips for the website and phones, short films etc;
  • Visit clients away from the CSTM base and accompany clients to appointments and other services to support them to actively addressing their situation;
  • Working within the Activity Programme design and deliver workshops for homeless migrants to cover a range of advice including immigration rights, housing rights, employment and the benefits system.

NB, whilst the case work in this role will cover immigration status, housing and employment rights initially, over time as the team grows, specialism will be introduced into the team.

2Monitoring and evaluation of service delivery to demonstrate impact (10%)

  • Support the creation and regular monitoring of service referral criteria and a clear service offer for internal and external referrals (EEA and non-EEA);
  • Support the creation and use of CSTM strengths based assessment and case management tools;
  • Manage caseload, keeping clear, accurate and timely records of all work;
  • Support the production of reports to demonstrate the impact of the Migration Team;
  • Support client involvement in, and feedback on the service.
  • Support improvements in the monitoring of service use across CSTM by homeless migrants in order to improve data collection and understanding of client need.

3Volunteer Management(10%)

  • Identify roles within the team, create role descriptions and recruit high quality volunteers. This will include:
  • A pool of language volunteers to help with translation and understanding support needs;
  • Volunteers who support case work.
  • Train, manage and provide ongoing supervision to a small team of volunteers, reflecting CSTM volunteer policies and procedures.

4Work with CSTM and external services to support homeless migrants (10%)

  • Participate in an internal cross organisational working group to create and implement an action plan to enable homeless migrants to overcome barriers and fill gaps in service provision;
  • Disseminate learning across the organisation and wider sector;
  • Contribute ideas and frontline experience to support the development of new projects and funding proposals;
  • Attend the St Martin’s Church Sunday International Group every week, on a rota’d basis, inviting volunteers to attend CSTM internal training events;
  • Provide advice to teams about how to deal with specific cases which require knowledge on migrant rights;
  • Participate in the creation of a service marketing plan so that referral agencies and homeless migrants are clear about our service offer;
  • Participate in meetings and networks to share updates, understand policy and identify opportunities to enhance partnership working;
  • Undertake good practice visits to understand developments in the sector, making recommendations relating to our own practice;
  • Keep abreast of government policy and service provision (NASS, NHS, employment, housing, Home Office enforcement action etc), sharing updates internally and across Westminster where appropriate.

4.General(5%)

  • Implement The Connection at St Martin’s Equality Policy and all other policies in all areas of work;
  • Ensure that Health and Safety requirements are complied with;
  • Attend internal and external training courses as appropriate;
  • Assist in the promotion of the work of The Connection at St Martin’s to its visitors and funders.

Job descriptions are intended to give individuals clear guidance on what they are expected to achieve. However, they rarely capture all tasks and responsibilities. The Connection at St. Martins by definition is dynamic. All staff are therefore expected to undertake occasional other duties not detailed above but within the scope of the job.

CPerson Specification

This person specification sets out the essential experience and abilities needed by the successful candidate for this post. Please bear these points in mind when completing your application form, as these requirements will be taken into account at both the shortlisting and interviewing stages.

1.Qualification
OISC level 2 (or level 1 with the commitment to train towards level 2) immigration & asylum qualification
2. Knowledge
Anunderstanding of the causes of homelessness and the needs of homeless people;
Good up-to-date working knowledge of the immigration system, of access to justice and of access to services for migrants in the UK
Good up-to-date working knowledge of housing and homelessness legislation, policy & services
Good understanding of NRPF and destitution issues
Good general knowledge of issues faced by refugees and migrants
Understanding of employment law legislation and pathways to enforce employment rights (desirable but not essential)
3. Experience
Experience (or equivalent) of face to face work with vulnerable people within a charity setting;
Experience of providing generalist and/or immigration advice & casework (OISC Level 1 or 2)
Experience of development partnership working with other agencies
Experience of delivering training (desirable but not essential)
Experience of volunteer management
3. Abilities and Skills
The ability to provide a fully sensitive and responsive service to clients and to work effectively with people who have multiple and complex needs;
The ability to prepare and present written reports, and to communicate information effectively, both verbally and in writing, to clients and other workers;
The ability to work independently using own initiative, taking responsibility for own performance standards and reporting requirements;
The ability to network and develop new relations with other organizations and government agencies;
The ability to manage time and prioritise a challenging and fluctuating workload effectively;
The ability to respond appropriately and effectively when faced with challenging or violent behavior and the personal stress associated with this
Strong skills in data input and review (including good IT skills)
Fluency in another language (desirable but not essential)
The ability to reflect CSTM’s core values in all aspects of the role.