This role is part time at 28 hours per week. Salary is £38,036 FTE, meaning the pro rata salary is £30,429 per annum.

To apply for this role please submit a CV, no more than three pages, and a covering letter, no more than two pages of A4. The covering letter should contain a brief statement on why you would like the role and an indication of how you meet each item on the person specification, providing examples where possible, unless referenced in your CV.

Support Services Co-ordinator – Lupus UK

· Hours: 28hrs

· Working Pattern: Flexible

· Location: Head Office, Hybrid, Remote (with a minimum of 8 in person team meetings year)

· Reporting to: Community Services Development Manager

· Responsible to: Chief Executive Officer and Board of Trustees

· Salary: Gross £38,036; Pro rata (28hrs) £30,429.

Organisation

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease which is uncommon, complex and poorly understood. It affects the immune system and can cause lasting damage to the kidneys, skin, heart, lungs and/or brain. Lupus disproportionately affects women and people from Black African, Caribbean, and Asian ancestries. Around 50,000 people in the UK are thought to have lupus (approximately 1 in 1000).

Lupus UK is the only national charity supporting people living with lupus and those that care for them. We hold an ambition for a world where people with lupus can live full and active lives. We work hard to empower people by providing information about lupus and offering support, so their voices are heard and their condition diagnosed and managed effectively.

Purpose

This is a new role. Following the delivery of helpline services shared by the team, we identified the need for a specialist role leading on support services and recruiting and training volunteers. The eventual aim for this role is to create a fully responsive support service for the UK wide lupus community.

The Support Services Co-ordinator provides the key interface between those looking for support and the resources at Lupus UK. This role provides the frontline service for most of the public and member enquiries relating to support and information about Lupus.

The Co-ordinator leads on the helpline service, which includes a telephone line, email and text response services. This includes providing direct support to service users, creating good quality records about those interactions, producing regular reports on the service, and supporting and managing volunteers to provide additional resourcing.

The Co-ordinator also provides some moderation of our online forum via Health Unlocked and provides support to our online support group services, including supporting the delivery of online webinars.

Where appropriate the Co-ordinator signposts service users to external services or information resources within Lupus UK.

This role includes the recruitment and line management of volunteers.

Key Responsibilities

Support and Information

Work with our health information team to ensure that the latest information is available to contacts
Operate our support and information services via telephone, email, text and online webchat facilities
Record detailed information about contacts and our interaction
Create monthly, quarterly and annual reports on the data collected from the service
Create, and regularly update, detailed signposting pathways to information resources and support services across all UK nations
Ensure that there is clear messaging when the service is not in operation
Work with the comms team to ensure the web pages and social media channels are effectively updated
Send satisfaction surveys to all contacts and collate and report on this data, creating improvement plans where required.

Online support services

· Respond urgently to any reported posts on Health Unlocked, contacting the relevant parties and commenting on or deleting the post as appropriate

· Monitor topics and trends and provide this data to our health information and comms teams

· Dip sample posts and replies daily to moderate content for healthy and supportive discussions and facts

· Create a record of posts which have been moderated

· Download reports from the site and create quarterly data reports for the SLT

· Support volunteers and staff to deliver regular online support groups/ information exchanges/ webinars, including facilitating talks by healthcare professionals

· Working alongside the Young People’s and Family Support Officer, provide an online parent support group and create a pathway for referrals between the services

In person support services

· Where required, supporting the Young People’s and Family Support Officer in face to face and online delivery for groups of young people

· Where required, support the delivery of face-to-face community support groups

Volunteer support

Identify volunteer opportunities, create and deliver a recruitment plan
Working closely with the Community Services Development Manager and the Finance and Resource Manager to identify, recruit and on-board suitable volunteers to assist with the support and information work
To identify training needs and ensure those volunteers have suitable training
Provide line management support and supervision
To implement and routinely monitor the quality of the services provided by volunteers

Additional duties

· This role deputises to the Safeguarding Lead and fields the organisation’s safeguarding enquiries when the Safeguarding Lead in unavailable

· The post holder must attend regular training to ensure they are up to date on the latest legislation and issues

· The post holder is required to attend a minimum of four in-person organisational team meetings per annum

· The post holder is required to attend a minimum of four in-person community development meetings per annum

· The post holder will include a minimum of one Saturday per month and one evening per week within their ordinary working hours

· The post holder is expected to undertake some travel to meet with volunteers, occasional overnight travel may be required

· This will require keeping up to date with our fundraising campaigns to ensure any queries or promotional opportunities are met with accuracy

Person Specification:

Essential:

Experience

At least 5 years’ experience of working in support services
Experience of working within a health-related field
Experience of managing a support service
At least 2 years’ experience of referring safeguarding concerns to relevant authorities, including police and social services
Experience of recruiting and line managing volunteers

Knowledge

A clear understanding of safeguarding legislation in all UK nations, in particular how to respond to immediate risks of harm
A clear understanding and demonstratable experience of collecting both quantitative and qualitative data and creating reports to illustrate the data
A clear understanding and demonstratable experience of supporting others to navigate the UK health system, with a particular understanding that this differs between UK nations

Skills and abilities

Able to deliver services online via email, Teams, Zoom, telephone, WhatsApp and other virtual mechanisms, without the need for additional training
Sound working knowledge of Microsoft office, including Microsoft Forms
Able to create engaging reports
To be able to demonstrate good empathy
To have good self-management skills and to manage own well-being
To be able to communicate well with patients, family members and professionals alike
Ability to travel across the UK to meet with team members

Desirable:

Level 3 and above qualifications in health and/ or social care, community work, counselling or a related field
GCSE A-C grade in English and Maths or equivalent
Lived experience of lupus or another autoimmune condition
Experience in delivering engaging training programmes, in particular training people via online mediums
Experience of delivering peer mentoring services
Experience of volunteering

Benefits:

20 days annual leave (pro rata) plus bank holidays

5% employer pension contribution

Flexible and hybrid working options

The opportunity to be part of a small, supportive team making a real difference to people's lives

Death in service benefit

Access to Assured Care support services

Lupus UK

New Opportunities

Support Services Co-ordinator