Family Information Officer

A Bit about Us:

WellChild, based in the centre of Cheltenham, is the national charity for children with complex medical needs and their families. We fund programmes and services to make it possible for children and young people living with serious illness to be cared for at home instead of hospital.

The WellChild Family Tree is a growing network that exists to connect families across the UK caring for a child with complex health needs with each other and with WellChild. Through its online forum, and programme of activities and communications, it provides members with the opportunity to make friends, make memories and make a change.

What we are looking for:

We are looking for an enthusiastic and well organised person to join us as our Family Information Officer as part of our Family Team. Working alongside the Family Programme Team and wider Programmes Team, this role will fill a critical information gap for the families that WellChild supports and will help the charity attract new and harder to reach families into the WellChild Family Tree network.

Through becoming familiar with relevant policy and guidance for families caring for children with complex medical needs, you will be able to help identify the key issues facing our families and then curate the most relevant, up to date information from a variety of expert sources to help support them whilst also taking the lead on information projects aimed at helping families to thrive at home.

Purpose of the role:

Families thrust into a world of disability and complex care find themselves having to navigate their way through a ‘new normal’ with nowhere to go for relevant information and advice. The result leaves many unaware of their entitlements or the help that might be available. This puts many families under extreme pressure, leading to financial hardship, family breakdowns and emotional strain.

Working within the Family Team and reporting to the Family Programme Manager, this role will continue to develop and expand WellChild’s information provision. This will be achieved through research and delivery of information, tools and advice for families on subjects such as, but not limited to health, legal rights and entitlements, wellbeing and local services.

There are two key parts to this role:

■     Identifying key issues/challenges:-

Work with other members of the Family Team and wider Programmes Team to listen and identify common themes and challenges being raised and discussed in the WellChild Family Tree forum; WellChild Nurse network and with other key stakeholders.

■     Information Development & Delivery:-

Develop an information/content plan covering a variety of family relevant subjects, focused on the key issues/ challenges & themes raised. Delivering information in a variety of mechanisms designed to engage with families and attract new, harder to reach families.

You will also be expected to provide content for the WellChild Family Tree online forum, create and deliver family workshops based on the resources you create, and develop appropriate monitoring, evaluation, and reporting methods to demonstrate the impact of the information articles and WellChild information hub. You will also be expected to support the development and moderation of a new interactive directory of services for families. Throughout your work you will embed safeguarding processes and policies to keep families safe.

You will be able to:

■     Demonstrate recent experience of producing information for vulnerable people with excellent writing and editing skills

■     Demonstrate experience in generating and analysing research information

■     Confidently use digital and social media channels to communicate to target audiences

■    Produce content in a variety of formats; maximising opportunities to engage harder to reach and more diverse families.

■     Demonstrate excellent attention to detail

■     Demonstrate commitment and ability for strong team working

■     Effectively prioritise and work calmly under pressure

■     Collaborate with other teams across the organisation such as Comms & Fundraising to maximise promotion of the information hub, In Your Area and events.

You will have:

■     A passion for working with families with children who have serious health needs.

■    A desire and commitment to improve family’s ability to thrive at home, by providing reliable information to help them on their child’s journey

■     Strong communication and organisational skills

■     You will have experience using Client Management Systems

■     A competent Microsoft Office user

What we can offer:

■     Competitive salary circa £25,500

■     23 days holiday on appointment rising to 27 days plus 8 bank holidays

■     Stakeholder Pension Scheme from appointment

■     Employee Assistance Programme

■     TOIL for out of hours work

Other:

This is a permanent full-time role, based in Cheltenham. In conjunction with this we operate a hybrid home working/ office working policy.

There will also be some travel to meetings and events required that fall outside of normal working hours.

Equal Opportunities:

WellChild actively promotes equality, diversity and inclusion. We match charity needs with skills and experience of candidates, irrespective of age, disability (including hidden disabilities), gender, gender identity or gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. We do this because we know greater diversity will lead to even greater results for the charity and families that we work with.

Safer Recruitment:

Safer Recruitment WellChild is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The suitability of all prospective employees or volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process. The successful candidate will be required to complete regular safeguarding training and undertake a DBS check relevant to the requirements of the role. For this role that will involve a basic disclosure.

Recruitment Timetable

Application deadline: 9am 19th August 2024

Interview date: Week commencing 26th August

Interview location: Cheltenham