Senior Caseworker and Volunteer Team Lead

About Care4Calais and the Legal Access Department

Care4Calais is a volunteer-based charity providing essential aid and support for refugees in France and the UK. 

In northern France we operate year-round from Calais, working alongside communities in Calais and Dunkirk to provide warm clothing, bedding and service provision to displaced people who live in appalling and dangerous conditions. 

Across the UK we collect and distribute clothes, shoes, mobile phones and other essential items, as well as providing social support and interaction, including language lessons, sport and music workshops. We also help with vital access to medical and educational services. 

Our Legal Access Department is an access to justice project that exists to support people seeking asylum in the UK by facilitating access to legal representation and offering holistic support to people throughout the asylum process. The department, made up mostly of specially trained volunteers, works tirelessly to ensure that people feel informed, empowered, and far less isolated and alone. We conduct one-to-one, complex casework for people seeking asylum for a variety of matters, over the years we have supported thousands of people to secure legal representation. Our current casework channels include securing legal representation and support for people’s asylum claims, challenges to unsuitable accommodation and potential removal from the UK (for example under the previous Rwanda policy), and support of young people in their age dispute matters. Our teams work remotely across the UK. The Department seeks to adapt and amend our services based on the needs of the communities that we work with. 

About the role

The aim of the role is to support and inspire volunteer casework teams to undertake the individual one-to-one casework and support that lies at the heart of what the Legal Access Department does, furthering access to justice for people seeking asylum and refugees. The successful candidate will lead our Asylum Team of volunteer caseworkers to support individuals in their asylum claim, assisting with legal referrals and onward signposting where appropriate. They will work collaboratively with other Volunteer Team Leads and the Head of Department to respond with agility to a fast-moving policy environment.

Responsibilities

Volunteer Team Lead / Coordinator

• Lead existing team(s) of volunteers to undertake their specified casework roles as agreed with the Head of Department.

• Conduct quarterly 1:1s with volunteers to receive feedback, reaffirm commitments, and ensure volunteer wellbeing. Escalate any issues and/or concerns to the Head of Department where necessary.

• Motivate and engage volunteers, taking into account the remote nature of the roles, collaborating with other Volunteer Team Leads.

• Facilitate regular team meetings and/or virtual drop ins for volunteers to ensure continued engagement and space to raise issues or concerns.

• Support volunteer caseworkers undertaking their roles, providing advice on casework and stepping in to support clients where required.

• Oversee the appropriate collection and management of client information and data, ensuring that volunteers adhere to organisation policy at all times.

• Support volunteers to raise safeguarding / protection concerns through the appropriate channels. Escalate concerns where necessary. Support volunteer caseworkers through debriefs.

• Recruit, train and onboard new volunteers with the support of the Head of Department.

• Keep team procedure documentation up to date, implementing changes where required to keep pace with the ever-changing policy environment. Work with the Head of Department to proactively adapt the casework services provided to suit the needs of the communities we work with.

• Report on team progress to the Head of Department, CEO and senior leadership via pre-arranged channels and format.

• Work with the Head of Department to proactively identify systemic issues seen regionally and/or nationally and influence the direction of the Department. Contribute to evidence gathering and furthering any strategic litigation cases undertaken by the Department. 

• Develop and maintain a network of key contacts within relevant authorities, legal teams dealing with immigration and public law matters, and other NGOs focused on support of refugees and people seeking asylum.

• Attend and contribute meaningfully to team meetings.

• Attend relevant external meetings representing the organisation as needed, ensuring that knowledge and learning is shared across the department. 

Individual casework

• Manage own limited, complex caseload of adult asylum seekers requiring legal representation where required to support the volunteer casework team.

• Communicate effectively and sensitively with clients and refer to legal firms. 

• Identify clients’ individual wellbeing needs and make onward referrals in line with this. Provide emotional support to clients through the process of claiming asylum in the UK.

• Liaise with legal teams on behalf of clients where necessary.

• Keep relevant records up to date to allow for quick and effective retrieval.

Person specification

• In-depth understanding of the UK asylum system

• Dedication to social justice with a clear understanding of the challenges faced by vulnerable populations, or a willingness to learn about these

• Ability to work sensitively with a diverse range of people, demonstrating cultural competence, respect and compassion

• Able to build positive relationships with a range of stakeholders including those from displaced communities, legal teams, and other charities

• Clear leadership ability, with the capability to act with initiative and drive

• An understanding of the volunteer experience including potential challenges volunteers may face  

• Self-motivated and used to managing multiple priorities to meet deadlines

• Collaborative team member with excellent verbal and written communication skills

• Strong digital literacy, including ability to work on Google Workspace and Office 365

• Resilience in the face of challenging and emotionally demanding situations, with a positive and solution-oriented mindset

Whilst not essential, we welcome applications from people with the following skills

• Proficiency in one or more of the languages spoken within asylum seeking communities, such as but not limited to: Arabic, Farsi, Pashto, Dari, Kurdish Sorani, Tigrinya or Amharic

• Experience leading and managing volunteer teams from varied backgrounds

Application process

Please apply via CharityJob and submit your CV and a letter of interest. In this, please outline your interest in the role and what skills and experience you have that meets the person specification. The recruitment process will include two interview stages. We will be reviewing applications as they arrive and reserve the right to close the posting before the closing date.

Care4Calais receives a very high volume of applications for roles we advertise and therefore we are unfortunately unable to reply or feedback to applicants who are not successful in securing an interview. We do however thank you for your interest and taking the time to apply for this role.

Care4Calais is dedicated to cultivating a diverse and inclusive work environment and recognises that this is invaluable to our ability to serve the communities we work with. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from diverse backgrounds including from Black, Asian and Minority-Ethnic communities, people from refugee and migrant backgrounds, and people with lived experience of the UK or EU immigration system. If you have first hand experience applying for asylum in any country, please let us know in your application. We do however respect that people’s identity is not defined by their past experiences and will not expect candidates to describe their lived experience at interview unless they wish to do so.

We also recognise that experience comes from more than just employment history and encourage anyone who meets most of the specification for this role to apply even where this experience comes from outside traditional employment structures. If you are interested in applying but do not have all the experience necessary, we encourage you to contact us at ukadmin [@] care4calais .org to set up an informal chat with our staff. We can discuss why you would like to apply for the role and what skills or experiences you have which could be relevant to the role.

If you have any questions about this or need additional support with the application process for any reason, please contact us at ukadmin [@] care4calais .org.