28 hours per week (4 days)
Full-time equivalent salary £32,057. Actual salary £25,646 (0.8)
Office base: Maldon, Essex
Could you help transform the way our charity engages with unpaid carers? As the leading Essex charity supporting carers it is vital that what we do is rooted in their voice and lived experience.
We have an exciting opportunity for a Carer Engagement Lead to join our team, in a new role working directly with the CEO to ensure that carers lived experience is heard and understood and that carers, including young carers across Essex, have opportunities to participate and contribute. This is a rewarding and varied role, combining direct engagement with carers alongside analysing data and communicating evidence of need to help effect real and positive change.
You will be an engaging communicator with active listening skills and the ability to interpret and apply lived experience to strategic and policy decisions and planning. You will ideally have personal experience of unpaid caring responsibilities and may have previously facilitated service user involvement. You’ll be passionate about harnessing the voice of local carers to secure improved outcomes for carers of all ages across Essex.
Action for Family Carers is a thriving charity which for over 35 years has been providing support for Adult Carers and Young Carers – people with unpaid caring responsibilities for others. We are a Carers Trust Network Partner and hold the Excellence for Carers quality mark. We provide support including information, coaching, counselling, peer support, respite care, and Young Carer clubs across Essex, working within schools, GP practices and a variety of community settings.
We offer:
· Full induction and relevant training
· Contributory pension scheme
· 24-hour Confidential Staff Helpline
· An opportunity to help vulnerable families in the local community
· A chance to be part of a supportive and friendly team
Job Description
ROLE PURPOSE:
Coordinating engagement with carers and young carers to ensure that their lived experience drives and informs service planning, delivery and review and that their circumstances and needs are better recognised and understood internally and externally.
MAIN DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
Carer Engagement and Involvement Activity
· Create and lead a Carer Engagement Strategy and Action Plan to include targeted engagement with both adult and young carers
· Promote and facilitate opportunities for carers to participate in surveys, consultations, focus groups, forums and research
· Organise and facilitate regular Carer Voice meetings with adult carers and establish an appropriate equivalent for young carers
· Establish opportunities and mechanisms for carers to contribute to service delivery such as peer-led activity, training, mentoring
· Support Service Managers to ensure that all carer activity across the charity includes mechanisms for evaluation, engagement and feedback
· Provide training and support for carers to share their lived experience confidently and effectively
· Identify examples of best practice in carer engagement nationally as a benchmark and seek to apply in Essex
Insight and Analysis
· Collect, collate and analyse data to evidence trends and themes in local carer experience
· Communicate regularly with the Senior Management Team about carer voice and lived experience data, trends and themes
· Produce and disseminate credible reports on carer voice, data, trends and themes including an annual ‘Essex State of Caring’ report highlighting priorities and progress
· Provide content on carer insights for funding applications and proposals
Outcomes and Impact
· Communicate and disseminate outcomes from engagement both with carers and with internal and external decision makers
· Highlight and communicate examples of positive impact arising from carer voice and engagement
· Work with the Senior Management Team to apply insights and learning from carer voice and engagement data to inform future planning including strategic planning with the Board of Trustees
CORE DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
· Uphold the charity’s Values and demonstrate a passion for its Mission, acting as a positive and professional representative of the organisation
· Adhere to the policies, procedures and processes of the charity
· Demonstrate a commitment to the charity’s safeguarding policies and procedures and promotion of the welfare of young and adult carers
· Comply with the charity’s Health, Safety and Welfare policies and procedures
· Commit to the charity’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policies and treat everyone with dignity and respect
· Respect and maintain confidentiality
· Carry out duties in line with the principles of the UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
· Contribute to organisational quality assurance activity
· Participate fully with the charity’s appraisal / performance management process taking personal responsibility for the identification of learning, development and training opportunities in discussion with line manager
· Undertake mandatory training and development and as commensurate with the job role
Person Specification
Experience:
Desirable
· Working in a charity or other not-for-profit organisation
· Facilitating user/voluntary engagement, consultations
· Lived experience of unpaid caring responsibilities
Knowledge & Skills:
Essential
· Confident and competent in use of IT including Word, Excel, CRMs (databases)
· Confident and engaging communicator both orally and in writing
· Group facilitation skills – guiding focus groups, consultations
· Active listening skills
· Data analysis and ability to apply data insights to practice
Qualifications:
Essential
· GCSE Maths and English grade A-C
Desirable
· Degree level qualification
Personal Attributes:
Essential:
· Proactive, able to work independently
· Empathy and passion for supporting vulnerable people, communities
· Willingness to learn and develop in the role
· Excellent organisation skills.
· Highly organised in managing multiple tasks and deadline
