Organisation: Leicestershire County Council
Work Location: County Hall Glenfield, Leicester
Worker Category: Hybrid Worker
Salary: £37,410- £40,083 per annum (pro-rata for part-time)
Working Hours: 37 hrs per week
Contract Type: Permanent
Closing Date: 17th April 2024
Interview Date(s): 10th May 2024
We have a rare opportunity for a Full time Volunteer Coordinator position in our Targeted Family Help Service in Leicestershire
If you are interested in the post read on………
About Us
At Leicestershire County Council we are committed to doing our very best for vulnerable children and families; working to make a positive impact on their lives so they can achieve their potential and flourish.
We have received the Investors in Volunteers award for the 4th consecutive time which is testament to our volunteer offer and the support volunteers are given.
Over the last 5 years our volunteer offer has gone from strength to strength with more support, training, development and celebration of the impact volunteers bring to our service and what we can deliver for children and families.
We currently have 177 volunteers across the service who across an average week run; 18 stay and play groups; 25 mentor sessions, 3 wellbeing groups and 5 staff groups.
If you are interested in leading a strong and ambitious team of Volunteer Development Officers and see yourself as a high calibre manager then this could be the new role you have been waiting for!
We are on a journey to be an inclusive Service where a culture to celebrate Equality, Diversity and Inclusion is embedded and Discrimination challenged at every level together as a Service and a Council. We warmly welcome those from all cultures, ethnicities and beliefs - this diversity is vital to our journey and is fundamental to our values and enriches the service we offer our Children and Families.
CFS department recognises the movement on equality and is committed to driving change within the organisation. This commitment has led to the development of a Race Inclusion Board to help the CFS department on the journey to being an anti-racist department and the allocation of senior management race allies for race and for equality. We recognise that there is a range of equality issues and are now building on the learning from this pilot to expand the focus to disability and LGBTQ+ issues.
As a learning organisation, Senior Officers recognise there is more to be done to understand inequality and drive change. Working with equalities mentors is another step in achieving this change. In CFWS we have a Race Inclusion working group and an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion panel where we all strive to take proactive, outcome based action to address barriers faced and challenge Privilege – these meetings are chaired by our Head of Service.
We want all our staff to be inspired to go the extra mile. We are doing our best to create the sort of culture where practice excellence can flourish. We want to learn from what works, as much, if not more, than from when things go badly – we are ambitious to create a true ‘learning organisation. So…
1. Every year we run two annual conferences for all staff to motivate and encourage them to be the best they can be.
2. Our ‘bottom line’ is that every month each team sets aside time together as a team for sharing practice, developing work and collaborative.
3. Each quarter, all Family Help Managers come together for learning, planning and peer support.
4. We encourage reflective supervision.
5. Twice a year our senior leaders take a week out spending time with workers observing practice and talking to young people and parents and carers about their experience of services.
If Leicestershire sounds like an interesting place to work – we would welcome your application.
Managers and staff all have regular monthly supervision. You will be responsible for providing leadership and management for a county-wide team of Volunteer Development Officers, leading on the development of volunteering programmes within the service, creating new opportunities and managing effective recruitment and training to build capacity within our wider workforce.
A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.
About You
6. You will be an energetic and enthusiastic manager with extensive experience working with volunteers.
7. You will be able to evidence your skills and knowledge of developing a creative and innovative menu of volunteering opportunities that have been accessed by a wide range of individuals.
8. You will have knowledge of Performance management and the importance of this in the teams you manage.
9. You will be committed to hearing the voices of children, young people and families at a locality level to shape service delivery.
10. You will have a thorough understanding of Anti Discriminatory practice and the impact of discrimination on those you manage and the families we serve.
11. We want people with energy and people who have a ‘can- do’ attitude; we want people who will help us to build a real culture of reflection and learning and who can support our workforce to be the best that they can be. We want team players!
We hope this sounds like you!
What we are looking for from you:
12. To devise and develop appropriate training programmes for volunteers working within the service, including a thorough induction, statutory training, programme specific and regular refresher training, enabling volunteers to support the needs of children, young people or families they are connected with.
13. To implement the volunteer strategy and operating model. This will include some operational decision making, oversight of practice and to take operational responsibility for agreed projects, initiatives and areas of practice as required.
14. To contribute to the development of volunteering opportunities across LCC creating a network of volunteers and a menu of opportunities for them, identifying trends, gaps, and limitations in service availability, particularly for hard-to-reach groups.
15. To deliver high quality volunteer services by ensuring that delivery meets standards outlined in Investors in Volunteers. This will be achieved by ensuring a robust quality assurance plan is in place to include audit, observations and listening to children, young people and families.
16. To provide a range of verbal and written reports, including an annual report. To monitor work around outcomes and ensure there is comprehensive planning for all interventions delivered in the volunteer programme and ensure statistical information is available for the service. Reports will also contain service user input, showing evidence of the impact of interventions.
17. To lead team meetings and contribute to service meetings and to create opportunities for volunteers to come together to share good practice and their experiences.
18. To create and maintain effective working relationships with key partners that enable information sharing and collaboration, contributing to problem solving approaches for improved outcomes for children, young people, families and volunteers.
We look forward to hearing from you.
For more about working in Leicestershire go to: