Outreach and engagement advisor jobs in reigate and banstead, surrey

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.

The Youth Endowment Fund

Senior Change Manager, Education 

Reports to: Head of Change for Education 

Salary: £51,300 per annum, depending on experience  

Location: Central London or Hybrid*(see below) 

Contract: (2-year fixed term – potential to extend)

Closing date for applications: Tuesday 29th April 2025 at 12pm

Interview dates: Week commencing 12th May 2025

About the Youth Endowment Fund 

We’re here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. We do this by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.

In recent years violent crime has risen significantly. Homicides, assaults, robberies and offences involving weapons have all seen sustained growth. We have also seen large increases in violent crime involving children and young people. This is a tragedy. Every child captured in these numbers is an important member of our community and society has a duty to protect them.

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is a charity with a £200m endowment and a mission that matters. We exist to prevent children becoming involved in violence. Our mission is to find what works and build a movement to put it into practice. A big part of the movement that we need to build is in the world of education. We need to inspire and connect with education leaders across England and Wales to spread what works and make our country safer for some of our most vulnerable children. We are looking for someone to lead on making this happen.

Key Responsibilities

We are making good progress building the evidence of what works within and around education to reduce violence, including launching our new Education, Children and Violence Guidance in May 2024 which provides school, college and alternative provision leaders with five evidence-based recommendations to help prevent children’s involvement in violence. We also have our Toolkit, annual Children, Violence and Vulnerability Report and new implementation resources due next year. But the big risk is that we publish these resources and nothing changes. That’s where you come in.

Your role is to help us ensure more senior education leaders within schools, colleges and alternative provision settings use our Guidance, toolkit, research and implementation tools to inform day to day operations and strategic decision making. This will involve:

• Developing great relationships and partnerships with executive and senior leaders in education, making connections and building credibility and trust with the sector.   
• Managing our new online digital self-assessment tool for sector leaders, driving awareness and engagement with education leaders and refining and optimising the system in collaboration with the software developers. 
• Synthesizing and analysing data from the self-assessment tool, using findings to produce value insights reports for YEF and the sector. 
• Creating implementation resources which respond to need and support education leaders to put evidence into practice. 
• Continuing to develop a strong understanding of education practice and policy across England and Wales. 
• Working out other effective ways to connect people with the evidence, then making those things happen, from regular virtual learning events to presentations. 

As a senior member of staff in the organisation you also: 

• Build a culture where it is natural to perform well and support colleagues brilliantly.
• Contribute to setting the strategy, delivering results and building and modelling the culture that we need to succeed.

You are this sort of person: 

• You are fascinated about change and are experienced in making it happen. You have outstanding analytical judgment alongside the emotional intelligence and experience needed to identify the right opportunities for change, then make them happen.
• You understand why people find change difficult. You come alive talking about how people make decisions and why they do the things they do. 
• You understand the education sector. You really understand how schools, colleges and/or Alternative Provision settings tick. You have experience of working with/supporting senior and executive education leaders to facilitate change and improvement that improves the lives of young people. You might have previous experience of supporting a school to reflect on and adopt evidence-based practice. 
• You are digital and data savvy. You have experience of working with data and systems to support evaluation, improvement and meaningful change.You have experience of translating complex information into plain writing and impactful visuals that everyone can understand.
• You have excellent project and time management skills and the ability to design and deliver high quality outputs such as reports and digital resources to a high standard.   
• You win people over. People tend to warm to you and respect you. You have built good relationships with very senior people and with very junior people. You are good at chairing meetings, connecting people and having good introductory meetings. You are comfortable talking to a government minister, a youth worker, a company CEO, a teacher and a 15-year-old student. Listening to people from all backgrounds matters to you.
• You have experience of developing resources which support schools/education settings. You understand and take a curious approach to learning about the needs of leaders from across the education spectrum. You are able to skilfully translate these insights into helpful resources and tools which support leaders to improve practice. 
• You learn fast but remain humble. You are very quick at getting your head around things. You like learning. You are very good at synthesising information. You know how much you don't know. You know that you can learn more. You know that it's easy to assume you know when you don't. You care more that good things happen than who gets the credit. You are a great and supportive team player. 
• You don't want your days to pass without making a difference. You want to play a significant part in reducing violence.
• You understand young people. You understand what the lives of vulnerable young people can be like, and you understand some of the organisations that work with them, ideally through first-hand experience.
• You are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. 

You must have this sort of experience 

• Delivering positive change within education: You have significant experience of working with education leaders to support the development and improvement or practice.
• Working as a senior leader within the education sector, preferably in a role/setting specifically working with young people who are vulnerable to or involved in violence.

While it’s not a criteria, we’re especially interested to hear from applicants who have lived experience of violence affecting children and young people. 

It’s also important to us that the people we hire do not discriminate. We believe in being inclusive and giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race, sexual orientation, transgender status or social economic background.

All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process. In line with the Equality Act 2010, however, the organisation may employ positive action where candidates from underrepresented groups can demonstrate their ability to perform the role equally well. 

Hybrid Working 

The office is based in Central London. Those living in and around London are expected to be in the office a minimum of 2 days per week. If you live outside of London and work remotely, you’ll be expected to work from the London office 2 days per month. 

To Apply 

Please click on the "Apply for this" button and submit your CV, your completed monitoring form and ensure your covering letter answers the following three questions below. Please submit your application by Tuesday 29th April at 12pm

Application Questions 

1. How have you successfully supported education leaders to improve their practice or leadership? Please be specific about the scale and context of your experience working with senior leaders in education settings. 
2. Describe your experience using data and digital tools to gather insights, inform decisions, and drive improvement in education. What data did you use, how did you present it, and what impact did it have? 
3. What personal and professional experiences shape your understanding of the education sector and its role in preventing youth violence? 

As part of our commitment to flexible working we will consider a range of options for the successful applicant. All options can be discussed at the interview stage. 

Interview Process 

This will be a one stage interview process. Interviews will take place the week of 12th May 2025 

Please Note: We do not sponsor work permits and you will be required to provide proof of your eligibility to work in the UK. 

Benefits Include 

• £1,000 professional development budget annually 
• 28 days holiday plus Bank Holidays 
• Four half days for volunteering activities 
• Employee Assistance Programme – 24hr phone line for free confidential support 
• Volunteering days - 4 half days per year 
• Death in service - 4 times annual salary 
• Flexible hours. Core office hours 10am – 4pm 
• Financial support including travel and hardship loans 
• Employer contributed pension of 5%. 

Your Data 

Your personal data will be shared for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes our HR team, interviewers (who may include other partners in the project and independent advisors), relevant team managers and our IT service provider if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles. We do not share your data with other third parties, unless your application for employment is successful, and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you. We do not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.

About The Connection at St Martin’s

We believe that no one should have to sleep rough on London’s streets, and that everyone should get the support they need to find a place to call home. We get to know every person we work with, understanding what they need to recover, helping them build on their strengths, and supporting them to find their own way home. Help us make London a city where no one sleeps rough on our streets.

London’s diversity is its biggest asset and we strive to ensure our workforce reflects London’s diversity at all levels. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability.

We particularly encourage applications from candidates with lived experience of homelessness who we believe are an essential asset in our sector.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and welcome the opportunity to consider flexible working arrangements.

About the Role

• The Connection Community is a place where people can gain respite from street homelessness, engage in group and coproduction activities, develop social inclusion and reduce isolation and have their needs met by a committed and dedicated multi-disciplinary team.
• You will be joining a dynamic and creative team, focused on building trust through relationships.
• You will support the team to identify, engage and provide harm minimisation to our clients whilst promoting a sense of belonging, and working with clients to support them on their journey towards a place to call home.
• Together we are piloting a new approach to working with people experiencing homelessness in Westminster facing multiple exclusion. We are creating a psychologically-informed environment, adopting a trauma-informed model with direct support from a team of specialist NHS psychologists.
• You will have experience in delivering a psychologically, gender and culturally informed service to people who are experiencing street homelessness.  You will be both strength-based and solution-focused, developing and enhancing the service with a commitment to embedding coproduction.

Salary: £35,252 
Closing Date: Monday 5th May
Interview Dates: Thursday 15th May

Our Benefits

· 30 days holiday plus bank holidays

· Generous training budget, plus an annual personal training budget

· Enhanced Sick Pay Policy

· Enhanced family friendly policies

· Day off for moving house

· Pension – 5% Employer, 3% Employee

· Cycle to Work Scheme

· Season Ticket Loan

· Employee Assistance Programme

· Reward Gateway (access to discount vouchers and cashback at the UK’s favourite retailers)

We are a London Living Wage employer