Immigration Casework Manager

We are looking for someone both to deliver our immigration casework and to manage and develop our immigration advice services, including recruitment, line management & supervision of relevant staff and volunteers. The post holder will provide one-to-one legal immigration advice, casework and practical support to migrant and refugee clients in Brighton & Hove and Sussex in the areas of out-of-scope immigration and occasionally asylum work (up to OISC L2). You will also provide supervision for L1 and trainee staff and volunteer advisors as required. You will share the management of our broader advice & casework team, including generalist and resettlement casework, with our current generalist and resettlement managers.

You will be accredited to provide immigration advice at minimum OISC Level 2 and expected to carry a caseload of cases largely out of the scope of legal aid. For cases within scope you will make active referrals or signpost to legal aid providers wherever possible and practical.

Along with other managers you will lead on the development of our casework management system, AdvicePro, to ensure that agreed advice and organisational outcomes are embedded from the outset, and that staff and volunteers are trained and equipped to understand and provide these. You will be required to monitor and report against projects as needed by both funders and internally for e.g. the director and trustees.

You will be expected to participate in local networks and to participate and lead on conversations to develop immigration advice capacity in the city and region and to influence change and find solutions to the critical lack of immigration advice on the south coast.

You will have an awareness of clients’ holistic needs and be able to signpost and refer both internally and externally as appropriate to address needs including destitution; asylum support; children’s, family and adult social care; welfare benefits; housing & homelessness; access to mainstream and voluntary sector services including ESOL and employability, health and mental health care; and referrals into activities and services that can respond to people’s strengths and skills as well as their needs, including our own support groups and volunteering opportunities.

You will contribute to the senior management team of Voices, working closely with the Director, Head of Services, Generalist Advice Manager and Resettlement Manager to share oversight and reflections and planning of current operational needs and strategic planning.

You will be expected to contribute to broader learning and planning around developing our strategic plan and theory of change, including developing our work on the role of those with lived experience in our organisation.
We are currently the only free, L2-accredited, year-round provider of out-of-scope immigration advice on the South Coast, and increasing local immigration capacity is critical to address growing demand and changing demographics in the region. We are also seeing and will continue to see new arrivals and needs in the region over the next year and onwards including Hong Kong BNO nationals, Afghans resettled under the ARAP and ACRS schemes, EEA nationals who still have not registered for status, people required to transition to digital eVisas by 31st December 2024, and an increasing number of both newly arrived and established asylum seekers placed in emergency (‘contingency’) and dispersal Home Office accommodation.

Regular supervisions will be provided by the Director, as well as access to external training on specific issues where needed. However you will need to be ready to step immediately into a busy advice environment with the necessary confidence, skills and knowledge both to deliver a complex caseload and to manage a new team through an important moment in the growth of our advice and caseworker service.

Postholders will need to have the right to work in the UK.