Age UK Nottingham & Nottinghamshire – Information & Advice Volunteer Co-ordinator

Post Title:
Department:
Responsible to:
Responsible for: / Information and AdviceVolunteer Co-ordinator
Information, Advice & Support Services
Information,Advice Manager
Recruitment, Training & Support of Volunteer Advisers / Pay Scale:
Hours of Work:
Tenure:
Based:
Date of Issue: / £16,875 per annum
(£18,638-20,400 FTE)
33.5 hours per week
Permanent
Bradbury House
June 2015

PURPOSE OF THE DEPARTMENT/SERVICE

The Information & Advice (I&A) Service is responsible for delivering a range of quality advice services in line with the Age UK Brand Partnership requirements and aims to extend its reach across the City & County, referring and signposting to more specialist advice services where appropriate. The areas of advice provided relate primarily to welfare benefits, community care and local services (also housing options which currently sits with our Housing Service). With a small team of paid staff, the service works extensively with volunteer advisors to deliver a mixed portfolio of services offering advice via face to face sessions, on the telephone and through home visits. The service is based alongside and dovetails with our Information Hub which offers first point of contact Information & Signposting to members of the public as well as supporting referrals into the Advice Service itself. The service will empower individuals through the provision of accurate, up to date information & advice and through income maximization.

PURPOSE OF POST

To recruit, induct, train, (with the support of some externally produced materials) and support a team of approximately 20 volunteer advisers who provide welfare rights advice including income maximisation checks and welfare benefit form completions, as well as signposting to other relevant services. To work with volunteers so that they are self-sufficient in completing their own administration, including entering service user and case details onto our electronic database system called Charity Log. To cascade relevant information and support I&A Volunteers so that they are up to date with any necessary legislation and information and so that they feel valued and supported.

KEY DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Volunteer Management

  1. To recruit,induct, train and provide one to one and group support to a team of approximately 20 I&A volunteers in various roles (including volunteers providing administration support for the service).
  2. To provide ongoing informal support and mentoring to the I&A volunteers to aid their development and enhance their experience of volunteering.
  3. To allocate cases to I&A volunteers,ensuring that all cases are correctly entered onto Charity Log (our electronic case management system) and/or the correct paperwork is completed and that all key and follow up dates are actioned.
  4. To organise, plan the content and chair bi-monthly volunteer meetings that are informative and supportive for the I&A volunteer team, with support from the I&A Manager as necessary.
  5. To remain up to date with relevantwelfare rights legislation and wider social welfare information, as well as developing a detailed knowledge about local services, disseminating this to volunteers as appropriate.
  6. To keep abreast of the training needs of self and the volunteer advice team to ensure that the volunteers can provide appropriate advice and support and raise this with the I&A Manager, as appropriate

Service Outcomes & Quality Provision

  1. To work alongside the I&A Manager in ensuring that information and advice provision and case management undertaken by the I&A volunteers is in line with the requirements of the Age UK I&A Quality Standard and other relevant quality standards.
  2. As part of quality assurance to undertake file reviews and case checking for the volunteer advisors at a frequency agreed with the I&A manager
  3. To assess advice enquiries into the service and allocate these to appropriate volunteers or to signpost and refer to other specialist agencies, internally and externally, as appropriate.
  1. Use recording systems, including Charity Log, to ensure all enquiries are dealt with and progressed in a satisfactory and professional manner.
  2. To ensure that all outcomes are entered onto Charity Log, including benefit gains that result from our advice and assistance.
  3. To be responsible for all administration for this service including overseeing the administration of advice cases provided by volunteers and to shift the administration of cases onto the advice volunteers themselves as far as possible, through training and mentoring.
  1. To support the I&A Manager through the provision of data, case studies and other information as necessary to produce reports for monitoring and other purposes in a timely manner.
  1. To undertake a minimal amount of advice provision to help develop & maintain technical knowledge
  1. Have a good understanding of the boundaries of the advice service and oversee appropriate signposting and referrals to specialist agencies.

Networking & Promotional Activities

  1. Conduct promotional activities, including giving brief presentations/ talks to recruit volunteers and to effectively promote Information & Advice as well other Age UK Notts services to ensure that their uptake is maximised and targets are met.
  1. Maintain and develop effective working relationships with stakeholders, partners, colleagues and volunteers to support the smooth running of the service on a daily basis and enhance any- partnership working opportunities.

Charity Responsibilities - Standard Clauses

Your Needs

  • You will keep under review your own developmental needs, keep yourself informed of current issues and be alert to the Age UK Notts training programmes and policies and attend all supervision meetings advised by your line manager. It is your responsibility along with your line manager to identify training and development needs and to inform your line manager of these.

Equality and Diversity

  • You will uphold the Age UK Notts Equality and Diversity policies and practices thereby promoting fair and quality services to all. If Age UK Notts deem you have breached any of these policies this may be dealt with under the disciplinary procedure. All policies can be viewed on the Nottingham Users shared drive – please ensure you refer to the Equality and Diversity Policy and the Bullying and Harassment Policy.

Health and Safety

  • You will take reasonable care for your health and safety and have regard to other persons who may be affected by the performance of your duties, in accordance with the provisions of Health and Safety legislation and actively encourage, promote and reinforce all Health and Safety procedures in accordance with the guidelines laid down in the Age UK Notts Health and Safety Manual.
  • You will exercise proper care in handling, operating and safeguarding any equipment or appliance provided, used or issued by Age UK Notts or provided by a third party for individual or collective use in the performance of your duties.

Safeguarding

 You will act as an alerter and report all allegations of abuse in line with theAge UK Notts Safeguarding policy

Customer Care

  • You will promote and deliver services in a way which is sensitive and responsive to those receiving such services and be aware of and implement the Age UK Notts customer care policies and service level agreement requirements (if applicable).

Professional Integrity

  • You will maintain at all times the professional integrity of the Charity and represent its main interests in any dealings with other bodies, groups and individuals.

Quality Assurance

  • You will uphold and proactively contribute to the Age UK Notts Quality Assurance framework including ISO 9001 and ISO 14001

Other

  • You will attend staff meetings, the annual staff conference and other meetings as requested in order to keep up to date with information within the Charity
  • You will provide for your line manager, weekly diary sheets and any other reports or information as required.
  • You will carry out any other specified tasks that may be reasonably required by the relevant Manager, with the proviso that any changes of a permanent nature will be included in the job description.

This job description is intended as a summary of the main elements of the job described. They may be varied from time to time in consultation with the job holder without changing the general character of the duties or the level of responsibility entailed. Such variations are a common occurrence and cannot of themselves justify a reconsideration of the grading of the post.

I confirm that I have discussed the content of this Job Description with my line manager and that I understand its content.

Please indicate on enclosed application form evidence to show why you fulfil each individual point below:

Essential Requirements

Knowledge

  1. Current knowledge of the welfare benefits systems, including means tested, non-means tested, health related and carers’ benefits and also tax credits to be able to support the accurate delivery of income maximisation checks and form completions.
  2. Awareness of good advice and case management practice.
  3. Understands the needs of older and vulnerable peopleand of the difficulties faced by disadvantaged groups in accessing information, advice and support.
  4. Knowledge of local statutory and voluntary sector services for older people and experience in liaising with a wide range of organisations.
  1. Understanding of volunteer support and management techniques.

Skills/Abilities

  1. Able to provide knowledgeable support to the volunteers with some advice and information queries and/or to helpthem to research answers as appropriate
  2. Ability to effectively induct, mentor andsupervise a team of volunteer advisers and deal with any issues that arise and to ensure that they feel valued and supported.
  3. Ability to communicate by phone, face to face, and in groups with a variety of people with excellent interpersonal skills.
  4. Supportive team working skills.
  5. Ability to remain calm and effective under pressure and retain a positive attitude.
  6. Ability to use an electronic case management system and mentor, support and train volunteers to use this consistently.
  7. Ability to produce written correspondence using Microsoft Office as required.
  8. A commitment to ensuring quality practices within the team and ensuring that the service is using appropriate quality assurance tools.
  9. Ability to organise events, chair meetings and give presentations as required.
  10. Ability to prioritise and organise work of self and others to maintain the I&A service and ensure all advice is provided in a timely manner.

Experience

  1. Advice provision experience in a relevant area.
  2. Experience of managing, mentoring and supporting volunteers (or staff).

Equality and Diversity

  1. Must have an understanding of and be committed to the Age UK Notts policy on Equality and Diversity both in service delivery and service provision.

Work Related Circumstances

  1. This role may, at times, require the post holder to work outside of normal office hours.
  2. Driving license and access to a car for the purpose of home visits, attending meetings and training.

Salary: £16,875 for 33.5 hours per week

(£18,638 - £20,400 FTE)

Start Date:As soon as possible

Hours of Work:33.5 hours per week, job-share considered.Age UK Notts consider a full-time working week to be 37 hours, Monday to Thursday 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. and 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Friday with 30 minutes for lunch (which is unpaid). Age UK Notts operates a scheme of flexible working hours.

Holidays:24 working days (pro rata for part time hours). Employees are granted 8 Public Holidays. One additional days leave is added to the annual leave entitlement for each year of service up to a maximum of 8 additional days.

Mileage

Allowance: Currently 45p per mile.

Pension:The Charity will contribute 6% of basic salary into our NEST pension scheme after 3 months service with a phased employee contribution rising to a maximum of 1.6% from 1st April 2018 (in line with auto-enrolment rules).

Place of Work:Bradbury House, Shakespeare Street

Timetable for Appointment

Post Advertised:w/c Monday 8th June 2015

Closing Date:Monday 22nd June 2015 at 9am

Short-listing: w/c Monday 22nd June 2015

Interviews: Monday 29th June 2015

N.B. Due to financial constraints, applicants who are not short-listed will not be notified. If you have not received an invitation to attend an interview within three weeks of the closing date you may assume that your application has not been successful