Volunteer Coordinator - Children's Services

We are recruiting a Volunteer Coordinator to be responsible for recruiting volunteers from a wide sector of the community, delivering training and coordinating the volunteer programme within Children's Services. The role will also involve developing our volunteering offer; supporting and debriefing volunteer mentors, in addition to matching children and young people with suitable mentors, in order to positive outcomes and drive forward our Family First agenda. The post holder will also develop volunteer pathways and establish links and relationships with community organisations, as well as supporting the coordination and facilitation of various forums. The position will require some evening and weekend work as required. This post will directly support the delivery of a programme of activity to support volunteers in Children's Safeguarding and Family Support, including Grand Mentors, Child and Family Ambassadors and other key volunteering schemes. This will involve working on a number of volunteering projects within the Council and working with a wide range of public, private and voluntary sector partners. The role of the coordinator will be to develop clear outcomes and targets for volunteering projects. It will also ensure that information is collated and reported, demonstrating the impact volunteers have on those projects. The post holder will be responsible for the effective promotion, recruitment, training and supervision of groups of volunteers. Also ensuring that volunteers are well supported to carry out their volunteering role in line with the Council's volunteering policy. The post holder will work closely with with members of the voluntary and community sector helping them to increase the number of volunteers across the borough supporting local communities. Here at Telford and Wrekin Council, we have been judged to be outstanding overall in terms of effectiveness (the only Authority in the West Midlands with this judgement) for the second time!

Telford & Wrekin Council is an award winning council, and we were recognised as Local Authority of the Year 2022 at the Municipal Journal Awards, and the Association for Public Service Excellence Council of the Year in 2021. At Team Telford we work hard to protect, care and invest to create a better borough and our employees are at the heart of everything we do. Having the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles allows us to deliver the excellent services that residents and businesses on the borough expect from us. Our friendly and passionate teams are trusted by leaders and managers to deliver this ambition. We invest and nurture our workforce and support our employees to develop and thrive. The better we are the bigger difference we make to the people we serve.

• Children and families in Telford and Wrekin continue to experience exceptional social work practice when they are in care and as care leavers.
• Participation is a real strength and children's and families' involvement is threaded throughout service developments.
• Social workers know their children well and have developed effective relationships with parents.
• The virtual school is a significant strength in Telford and Wrekin.
• Care leavers benefit from an extremely comprehensive and generous local offer.
• Corporate parenting is a strength in Telford and Wrekin.
• The stability of the experienced workforce creates the perfect environment to benefit children and care leavers. As a result, social workers maintain relationships with children who know them over many years, which contributes to children's feeling of belonging.
• Staff enjoy working in an environment where senior leaders are visible, and they feel valued.
There has never been a more exciting time to join our service after the recent publication of our Ofsted Inspection! If you think you can meet the challenge and would like to find out more about this role, please contact us by emailing laura.moore@telford.gov.uk Please click on the links below to view the job description and person specification. At Telford & Wrekin Council, we know that having a diverse workforce is key to providing the best possible services to our community. We celebrate having a diverse and inclusive culture where people are able to be themselves at work, and everyone has a voice. Posts working with children or vulnerable groups will be subject to an appropriate criminal records check. It is an offence to apply for a role that involves engaging in regulated activity with children and adults in vulnerable circumstances if you are barred from working with one or both of these groups. We value our employees and offer staff rewards and plenty of opportunities for personal development and career progression including:
• Competitive rates of pay
• Automatic access to a secure, flexible and tax efficient Local Government Pension Scheme
• Staff benefits and discounts including salary sacrifice schemes
• Free on-site parking
• Generous leave entitlement (24 days rising to 32 days) plus 8 bank holidays and an additional concessionary day
• Free access to our employee assistance programme and confidential counselling
• Flexible and mobile working policy - we are well adapted to a hybrid model of working which includes a combination of time spent in the office and at home - our approach is to promote greater level of flexible working around personal and family commitments, In return we also offer a great range of benefits including competitive salaries, flexible working hours and work arrangements, employee discounts, salary sacrifice schemes, a local government pension scheme and generous annual leave entitlement.
At Telford & Wrekin Council, we know that having a diverse workforce is key to providing the best possible services to our community. We celebrate having a diverse and inclusive culture where people are able to be themselves at work, and everyone has a voice and we know we are stronger and better connected as a result. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and where our data shows that specific groups are under-represented within our workforce, our adverts will actively encourage applications from these groups. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, committed to recruiting and retaining people with disabilities or other health conditions. You can find out more about this and our 'guaranteed interview scheme' here You can also read more about our Recruitment and Selection Policy and Recruitment of Ex-Offenders here and the Transgender & Non-Binary Inclusion Policy commitments here