Age Dispute Casework Adviser

About us

The Refugee Council is the nation’s refugee charity. Together with community groups, partners and volunteers, we help people who have escaped war and persecution to rebuild their lives, integrate into communities, and play their part in Britain. Born in the aftermath of World War II, our frontline services support over 14,000 refugees each year to find safety, get to know their neighbours, and enter education, training or work. We share our evidence and expertise with policymakers to help build integrated communities where everyone can contribute. 

About the role

The Refugee Council’s services strategy is aimed at delivering high impact, sustainable services that are centred on the needs of people seeking asylum and refugees in the UK, and improving the system of support that they rely on for their safety and future lives in local communities. We seek to significantly improve early access to information, advice and support for people seeking asylum and refugees in crisis and those seeking to integrate into the UK.

In December 2023, with consultancy support, we designed an exciting youth service strategy with a delivery model centred around children’s needs and with the vision for change on how separated children and young people are treated in their asylum journey by creating holistic casework, high quality joined up relationships across the organisation, collaboration with local partners and supporters through learning and sharing best practice to transform their experience and bring systemic change.

The Age Dispute work sits within the Youth Casework team, and we seek to deepen the impact by supporting more children and young people now dispersed across England and who are wrongly age assessed of assumed as over 18 by the Home Office and/or by the local authorities. The age disputes casework adviser will bring expertise to provide specialist casework to challenge incorrect age assessments, use experience to deal and prioritise high risk cases, work with various stakeholders including legal representatives, statutory agencies, and collaborate with others in sector to develop, learn and share best practice resources in casework provision. The postholder will maintain an understanding of the changing practice in relation to age assessments in particular and the wider policy landscape, work with colleagues in the Youth Services and in consultation with the Youth Services Manager, liaise with other relevant Refugee Council teams, including advocacy, practice development, youth involvement, In-Form to use casework evidence to address inequities in policy and practice.

Based within the Youth Services of the Refugee Council, the Age Disputes Casework Adviser will be responsible for:

• Working with children and young people to understand their experiences and needs.
• Working closely with other Age Disputes Casework Advisers and the Youth Services Manager to identify and review high risk and complex cases that need prioritising and create effective internal case triage and allocation systems.
• Liaising with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that the needs of young people with disputed age are recognised and met.
• Identifying age assessment policy and practice issues impacting on the lives of separated children for possible action via strategic litigation with legal representatives and advocacy colleagues.
• Maintaining expert casework knowledge and understanding of the environment and barriers that separated children seeking asylum face in with regards to the assessment of their age, and issues related to access to high quality information, advice and legal representation on immigration, asylum and welfare, and always learning and sharing the knowledge with others.

Staff benefits

To reward our staff for the value they bring, we offer a variety of enhanced terms and conditions and a wide range of benefits, including:

• Training & Development
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Pension Scheme
• Work Life Balance Policies
• Employer-Sponsored Volunteering
• And more.

Let’s work together to improve the lives of refugees in the UK -  apply on our website today.

Closing date: 2 May 2025.

Ensuring that the Refugee Council is an inclusive and accessible place to work is important to us. We want to enable people from different backgrounds to apply and thrive with us. We believe our recruitment process enables that and are also happy to make adjustments on request.