Senior Disability and Wellbeing Adviser

The Senior Disability & Wellbeing Adviser is a key role within the Student Services team leading on provision of a high-quality guidance service to disabled & neurodivergent students to enable students to access their studies successfully and encourage academic progress and student retention. They will manage a small team and deputise for the Head of Service as needed.
The role holder is responsible for the development and management of an effective and pro-active service, which provides advice, information, support and guidance to all disabled and neurodivergent students, a key function of this role is to be the university expert on disabled and neurodivergent student and applicant matters and to ensure legal and contractual obligations under the Equality Act 2010. They will also manage a small caseload of complex, high-risk students.
The role holder will lead on the formulation, promotion, delivery, monitoring and review of the team s processes which are designed to manage risk and initiate safeguarding, crisis and longer-term interventions for students with mental health diagnoses, many of whom are high risk.
The role is multi-faceted, working with disabled and neurodivergent students, staff, and external stakeholders to ensure high quality student-centred support is in place so that disabled students can successfully complete their programmes of study.
Student Services has a wide remit working alongside teams supporting the whole student lifecycle, including student recruitment, learning and teaching services, student support, and student employability.

+ Graduate level qualifications or equivalent, specialist disability qualifications, or equivalent extensive and significant experience working with disabled students in a HE environment.
+ A mental health practitioner professional qualification in a relevant field such as mental health nursing, social work, occupational therapy or clinical psychology is desirable.
+ Active registration with professional body relevant to the qualification above such as HCPC, NMC Social Work England is desirable.
+ Advanced problem-solving skills with the ability to identify, analyse and resolve problems quickly and effectively.
+ The ability to work independently without supervision on a daily basis.
+ Experience of using policy and processes in day-to-day work, with a clear understanding of the Equality Act 2010
+ Experience of managing a complex caseload with elements of risk.
+ Experience of leading people, projects or an area of work.
+ Excellent organisational, planning and time management skills.
+ Strong ability to follow processes and procedures and contribute to their development and implementation.
+ Experience of working to clear boundaries and using professional judgement to decide when to escalate complex or difficult issues to senior staff.
+ Ability to work in an objective, non-judgmental way, respecting the rights of students to make their own decisions about support options.
+ Up-to-date knowledge and practical experience of the Disabled Students Allowances process is desirable
+ Ability to respect a high level of confidentiality at all times.