28 hours per week (4 days)
Full-time equivalent salary £33,179. Actual salary £26,543 (0.8)
Location: Hybrid – Office base with local travel.
Ready to ensure unpaid carers are seen, heard, and valued across Essex?
We are the leading carer support charity in Essex, and we believe that everything we do must be rooted in the real, lived experiences of the people we support. This is a brand-new, high-impact role working directly alongside our CEO. You will be the vital link between local carers – including young carers – and the strategic decisions that affect their lives.
If you are a natural relationship-builder who wants to turn real-life stories into positive, systemic change, we want to hear from you.
How you will make a difference:
· Lead community outreach: Design and run engaging opportunities for carers of all ages across Essex to share their views, challenges, and ideas
· Champion carer co-production: Facilitate focus groups, panels, and forums that allow service users to actively shape our charity’s future
· Shape strategic policy: Work closely with the CEO to turn carers’ lived experiences into compelling evidence for local decision-makers
· Analyse and communicate need: Gather feedback and look at trends to build a clear, data-backed picture of what Essex carers truly need
· Empower young voices: Create safe, accessible, and creative spaces for young carers to participate and contribute
What we’re looking for:
· An empathetic communicator: Someone with exceptional active listening skills who can build trust with diverse communities.
· Lived experience: Personal experience of unpaid caring responsibilities is desirable and deeply valued here.
· A strategic thinker: The ability to take frontline stories and identify the bigger picture to help influence local policy and planning.
· A group facilitator: Ideally, prior experience in bringing service users together to gather feedback or run workshops.
· A passion for equity: A genuine commitment to securing better outcomes and giving a platform to unpaid carers.
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:
To co-ordinate 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:
· Engagement Strategy & Action Planning: Lead the Carer Engagement Strategy and Action Plan, including targeted engagement with adult and young carers, to establish consistent and inclusive participation across the charity.
· Inclusive Participation & Consultation: Design and facilitate surveys, consultations, focus groups, forums, research, regular Carer Voice meetings and an appropriate equivalent for young carers so that diverse lived experiences are heard.
· Co-production & Carer-led Activity: Develop opportunities for carers to contribute to service delivery through peer-led activity, training and mentoring, strengthening co-production and shared ownership.
· Lived Experience Support & Preparation: Equip and support carers to share their lived experience confidently and effectively, enabling meaningful participation in engagement activity.
· Evaluation & Feedback Integration: Work with Service Managers to embed evaluation, engagement and feedback mechanisms in carer activity so that learning informs delivery and review.
· Best Practice & Benchmarking: Identify relevant national best practice and benchmarks in carer engagement, applying suitable approaches in Essex to strengthen quality and consistency.
Insight, Analysis & Reporting:
· Insight Collection & Trend Analysis: Collect, collate and analyse carer voice and lived-experience data to identify and evidence trends, themes and priorities in local carer experience.
· Senior Management Insight: Provide the Senior Management Team with regular, clear insight on carer experience, trends and themes to support timely and evidence-informed decisions.
· Reporting & Dissemination: Produce and disseminate credible reports on carer voice, data, trends and themes, including an annual ‘Essex State of Caring’ report that highlights priorities and progress.
· Funding Evidence & Proposals: Provide accurate carer insight and evidence for funding applications and proposals, strengthening the case for investment and service development.
Influence, Outcomes & Organisational Learning:
· Feedback, Outcomes & Accountability: Communicate the outcomes of engagement to carers and to internal and external decision-makers, closing the feedback loop and showing how contributions have been used.
· Impact Evidence & Communication: Identify and share examples of positive impact arising from carer voice and engagement, demonstrating the difference that participation makes.
· Strategic Learning & Planning: Work with the Senior Management Team to translate carer insight and engagement learning into future service and organisational planning, including strategic planning with the Board of Trustees.
· Internal & External Understanding: Present carer experience and emerging needs in forms appropriate to different audiences, strengthening understanding and recognition of unpaid carers internally and externally.
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, including the financial procedures.
· 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).
· Assist in promoting the charity’s vision, campaigns, and services by supporting internal communication efforts and helping to expand the charity’s outreach and service awareness wherever appropriate within this job role.
· Take personal responsibility for the quality of this job role’s output, ensuring all work is accurate, professional, and aligned with the charity’s operational standards and legal obligations.
· Foster a culture of continuous learning by identifying areas for developmental growth, participating in reflective practice, and suggesting innovative solutions to challenges faced by colleagues and the charity.
· 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
Closing date for completed applications is Monday 26 October
For an informal conversation about the role please contact James Clarke on 0300 770 80 90 or email james.clarke@affc.org.uk.
