Senior Peer Support Officer (Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East)

This role is all about developing a welcoming and supportive support group community for kinship carers in Yorkshire and Humber and the North East of England. Building belonging, resilience and empowerment for support group leaders and kinship carers.

Funded by the Department for Education, our national peer support service is creating a sustainable and life-changing legacy for kinship carers across England.

This is a game-changing service for kinship carers and builds on Kinship’s 10 years’ experience of developing peer support groups, and two years delivering a national service which has set up 145 new groups.

As a Senior Peer Support Officer, you’ll make sure we deliver an exceptional and consistent peer support service for kinship carers.  You’ll also make sure your team delivers a joined-up experience which meets the needs of kinship carers.

You’ll set up and develop new in-person groups in areas of high need and support existing groups to thrive developing a resilient and powerful peer support community.

• in-person (face-to-face) strategic outreach into local and regional communities including setting up and attending local engagement events
• setting up and developing new sustainable in-person peer support groups, attending up to 6 sessions in person (if needed) before transition to self-sufficiency
• maintaining existing groups, rejuvenating where necessary, to maintain DfE KPIs
• recruiting and retaining support group leaders to develop their peer support groups
• collaborating with the ‘Hub’ team to provide a joined up and positive user experience for kinship carers
• managing special interest groups and regional online groups as required
• accurately recording all recruitment, contact information and volunteer case management in Salesforce in line with service framework and data protection requirements
• providing regular reports to ensure targets and service-level agreements are met for the service
• supporting continuous development and improvement of the service (new systems and processes) as required

• experience of line management and supervision of a small team and managing performance to deliver targets effectively
• proven experience in reaching and establishing strong relationships with hidden or underserved communities in person
• significant experience of developing peer support communities
• proven experience of recruiting, managing, training and supporting volunteers in community settings with an emphasis on understanding and working with vulnerable volunteers
• proven experience of ensuring outcomes and impacts of services are evidenced through high quality data collection
• evidence of developing and delivering training/support to volunteers, based on needs of service users (in this case kinship carers)
• strong facilitation skills and essential experience of peer support or user led groups with charity beneficiaries
• proven experience of using a customer relationship management system effectively (we use Salesforce)
• in-depth understanding of safeguarding particularly around vulnerable families
• excellent communication and engagement skills, with good attention to detail
• full, clean driving licence/own car

• lived experience of kinship care
• understanding of children’s social care
• digital community building via social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp