Head of Advice and Support Services

Independent Age is the national charity focused on improving the lives of people facing financial hardship in later life. We believe no one should face financial hardship in later life.

Our Helpline and expert advisers offer free, practical support to older people without enough money to live on. Through our grants programme, we support hundreds of local organisations working with older people across the UK. 

We use the knowledge and insight gained from our support services and partnerships to highlight the issues experienced by older people in poverty and campaign for change.

We would love to find individuals from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds to join us on this journey.

Responsibilities and Person Specification:

This role will play a critical role in delivering and developing our UK wide Advice and Support service, ensuring it works seamlessly with our outsourced Helpline and delivers real impact for older people in or facing financial hardship. You will also work closely with the Director to inform the future design and delivery of these services. 

You should have experience of leading and managing a similar high volume, multi-channel remote service with demonstratable success in identifying and implementing service improvements. 

You will have a deep understanding of issues affecting older people in financial hardship in the UK and an understanding of how Advice and Support interventions can improve lives.  

This role could either be contracted to our London office, or homebased. Regular travel to our London office will be required, regularly if homebased, and a minimum of once a week if contracted to the London office. The ability to travel across the UK, including to Scotland, is also required. 

For full details on the role and requirements, please review the job description and person specification.  If your experience doesn’t align perfectly with all of the criteria in the person specification but you do meet most of them and are excited about the role, we encourage you to apply anyway. 

This is a full-time role, 35 hours per week, which you can choose to work over five days or a 9 day fortnight. We also are open to this role being worked on a part-time basis on a minimum of 28 hours per week.

Salary (pro-rata if part-time):

Hybrid working in London (minimum one day per week in the office): £65,678 per annum

Homebased (with regular travel to London): £59,115 per annum

What it’s like to work at Independent Age:

We celebrate diversity at Independent Age and champion the differences that make each of us unique. We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We aim to attract and retain a wide range of talent and create an environment where everyone can feel safe, protected, welcome and included.   

We offer great benefits including 28 days annual leave plus public holidays, a generous pension scheme with life assurance, and fantastic learning and development opportunities. We also offer a number of enhanced leave provisions and benefits.

We know that a good work life balance helps us perform at our best and supports wellbeing. Flexible working hours and hybrid working is standard for all (those contracted to work in the office usually attend minimum one day per week). But if you need a different form of flexibility, we are always happy to talk flexible working. 

You can find out more about what it’s like to work at Independent Age on the Careers page on our website.

Application Process:

To apply, please visit our website to submit a CV and a Supporting Statement, detailing how your skills and experience meet the criteria within the Job Description and Person Specification (please do not hesitate to contact us if you have specific requirements and need support to apply in an alternative format).

To support our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion our hiring managers use anonymous shortlisting. Therefore, please do not include your name, photo, or information to indicate your gender or age in your CV and supporting statement. Please do not omit dates of employment. Please ensure the title of any uploads does not contain your name. 

Independent Age is committed to safeguarding and follows Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding those we work with. We therefore ask that you supply your full work history with explanations for any gaps in the application documents you submit and, if offered the post, we will require two employment references including your current or most recent employer. A Basic DBS will be required for this role.

Closing Date: Sunday 12 January 2025, 11:59pm