Welfare Rights Worker

Job title: Welfare Rights Worker- looked after children

Salary: SO2 £37,280 - £39,152

Hours: 37 hours

Contract: Temporary

Location: Kernel House Leeds

The Commissioning and Market Management Service in the Children and Families Directorate is seeking applications for the post of Welfare Rights Worker.

You’ll will be part of our Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ rated Children and Families service and employed by Leeds City Council where we have a culture of excellence and are continually striving to drive up standards.

You will provide a comprehensive Welfare Benefits Services, giving information, advice and assistance to claim a whole range of welfare benefits.

Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.

About you

As a Welfare Rights Worker, you will bring to the role:

• Experience of working in a welfare rights field
• Ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of people, face to face, over the telephone.
• Ability to develop productive working relationships with health partners, Council departments and other agencies
• An excellent understanding of welfare rights issues
• Ability to remain calm when dealing with clients who become upset/aggressive

About the role

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Children and Families Commissioning & Market Management Service. The service has a critical role as a core function in the directorate and with its partners to deliver priorities in the Children and Young People’s Plan and obtain the best possible outcomes for children and families.

The Benefit and Finance Team offer information and advice on a whole range of welfare benefits and financial allowances to care leavers, looked after children and their carers. We are looking to appoint a Specialist Welfare Rights Worker who is hard working, committed and enthusiastic and who wants to help make a real difference to people’s lives. The job will primarily involve assisting young people and their carers to complete application forms for welfare benefits at different Children and Families offices across Leeds and sometimes out of authority area. The role consists of hybrid working, with some home working and some office based.

The successful applicant will need to have an in-depth knowledge of welfare benefit legislation, excellent organisational and communication skills, written and verbal and the ability to travel across the city and occasionally out of Leeds.

The post is full time 37 hours per week Mon to Fri.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Lucie Yardley-Fear at lucie.fear@leeds.gov.uk

We are keen to recruit the right people that have the ingredients to develop into exceptional commissioners. There will be a full induction to develop people who can demonstrate the right knowledge and aptitude.

Regardless of your previous experience all successful candidates will be required to undertake continuous professional development. You will gain or strengthen best practice knowledge of various aspects of children’s service delivery, technical commissioning skills including commercial acumen and value for money techniques. As a core service in Children and Families, you will be integral to decision taking.

What we offer you

We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:

• a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
• membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
• flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
• a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
• a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further

How to apply

For an informal discussion regarding these posts, please contact Lucie Yardley-Fear at lucie.fear@leeds.gov.uk.

Apply for this job online.

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check against the Children’s or Adults’ barred list as applicable will be carried out on preferred candidates. Read our recruitment of ex-offenders policy.

We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.

If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.

Job Description

Job Purpose: To provide a comprehensive Welfare Benefits Services giving information, advice and assistance to claim a whole range of welfare benefits

Responsibilities:

• To provide a comprehensive welfare benefits and rights service that is confidential, impartial and non-judgmental
• To offer information and advice on a whole range of welfare benefits and to have the ability to convey very complex benefit legislation in a simple way to clients
• To provide advice and information via telephone, home, visits, email and web chat
• To support clients with appeals, producing submissions and if appropriate representing at appeal hearings
• To have an in-depth knowledge of the Leaving Care Finance Policy and how this interacts with benefit legislation
• To have an in-depth knowledge of the Staying Put Policy and how this interacts with benefit legislation
• To actively encourage benefit take-up
• To assist with the production of publicity material including leaflets and posters etc
• To deliver talks and awareness sessions in the daytime and evening as necessary
• To develop positive working relationships with other Council departments and agencies to share information and make good referrals as appropriate
• To manage own workload, and undertake clear case recording and follow up work from enquiries
• To act as mentor and help to support new Welfare Rights Workers and Assistant Welfare Rights Workers
• To work as part of a team, to support and assist colleagues, and to attend regular team meetings and training courses as required
• To maintain a high level of confidentiality and to sign a declaration to that effect
• To work flexibly to meet the needs of customers, and the ongoing development of the service
• To promote and deliver positive solutions to achieving equal opportunities in all aspects of service delivery and human resources, focusing on equality of outcome
• Any other duties considered commensurate with the post
• To carry out duties in accordance with the Council’s Values

Generic

• To participate in appraisal, training and development activities as necessary to ensure up to date knowledge and skills
• To improve own practice through observation, evaluation, discussion with colleagues and appropriate CPD programmes.
• To work collaboratively with colleagues, knowing when to seek help and advice.
• Contribute to the overall ethos, work, and aims of the service by attending relevant meetings, training days/events as requested.
• Be aware of and comply with Leeds City Council policies and procedures e.g. child protection, health, safety and security, confidentiality and data protection, reporting all concerns to an appropriate person
• Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding and promoting the values, standards and equal opportunities of Leeds City Council.
• Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation and any form of abuse of equal opportunities, ensuring compliance with relevant policies and procedures.
• The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.
• The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and this role will be expected to work within these parameters.

Qualifications

Minimum grade C GSCE in Maths and English

PERSONAL SPECIFICATION

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS: It is essential that the Candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post within the context of the specific role duties and responsibilities: Candidates will only be shortlisted for interview if they can demonstrate on the application form that they meet all the essential requirements

Method of Assessment will be through one or more of the following Application Form, Test, Interview, and Certificate

Skills Required

• Ability to case record effectively
• Ability to carry out complex calculations
• Ability to deal sensitively with a wide range of enquiries
• Ability to respect confidentiality
• Ability to work to customer care standards
• Ability to develop productive working relationships with health partners, Council departments and other agencies
• Ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of people, face to face, over the telephone.
• Ability to deliver talks/presentations to groups
• Excellent organisational skills
• Ability to prioritise and organise own work
• Ability to read and interpret very complex benefit legislation
• Ability to manually calculate benefit entitlement and to provide better off calculations to enable customer to make informed financial decisions
• Ability to work under pressure and multitask
• Ability to remain calm when dealing with clients who become upset/aggressive

Knowledge Required

• A excellent understanding of welfare rights issues
• An excellent in depth working knowledge of welfare benefits legislation
• Good level of understanding of the public sector
• Minimum of a grade C GSCE or equivalent in Maths and English

Experience Required

• Experience of working in a customer services environment
• Experience of working in a welfare rights field
• Experience of doing appeal work
• Experience of directly advising clients on a one to one basis
• Experience of working to tight deadlines, and with competing priorities
• Experience of using a variety of computer packages

Behavioural & other Characteristics required

• Committed to continuous improvement.
• Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council Equal Opportunities Policy.
• Carry out all duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health & Safety Policies.
• Willingness to actively participate in training and development activities to ensure up to date knowledge, skills and continuous professional development
• Commitment to continually improving customer satisfaction
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team
• Totally committed to excellent customer care and putting the customer at the heart of everything you do
• Willing to be adaptable and flexible
• To work on own initiative, without supervision, and to show self-reliance and foresight

DESIRABLE REQUIREMENTS: It is essential that the Candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post within the context of the specific role duties and responsibilities: Candidates will only be shortlisted for interview if they can demonstrate on the application form that they meet all the essential requirements

Knowledge Required

• A working knowledge of the Leaving Care and Staying Put policies

Experience Required

• Experience of outreach work including home visits