Arrivals and Social Support Worker

  • Salary: £30,000 - £33,000 per annum at 1.0 FTE (or pro rata equivalent if part-time).

  • Working pattern: This role can be full-time or part-time at 0.8 – 1.0 FTE (30 – 37.5 hours per week). Flexible working requests will be considered.

  • Contract: Permanent with a 6 months probationary period

  • Team: Operations Team

  • Location: This role can be remote, hybrid, or office based. At a minimum, candidates will be required to work from the London office at least 2 days each month, as well as be able to regularly (at least weekly) travel around the country to meet clients and their families in person. At least 1/3 of the families we support are currently based in London/South East but are dispersed across England and Wales.

  • Reporting to: International Safeguarding and Protection Manager

Safe Passage International (SPI) is recruiting an Arrivals and Social Support Worker to support to continuing and sustainable growth in our ground-breaking work to ensure that safe routes to sanctuary exist for all people seeking asylum, and that the young people and families we work with have dignity and safety on arrival.

This Arrivals and Social Support Worker will work with young people and families to support them in their reunification and arrival to the UK. This legal casework is facilitated by our UK Legal Team and covers a range of geographic regions inside and outside of Europe, including responding to emerging crises such as working to support people fleeing Afghanistan, Ukraine, Sudan and Palestine.

Reunification and resettlement is a difficult process. This role will involve conducting pre-arrival needs assessments, preparing the family for the reunification, and supporting them after they arrive in the UK. The Arrivals and Social Support Worker will also help young people and families transition into their new life, by supporting them with the practical and emotional aspects of resettling in the UK. You will work with the family and professionals and act as a bridge into longer term services and support.

This role will also provide social support on a case-by-case basis for others in vulnerable situations, including family members pre-arrival, as well as to those on our Young Leaders Programme.

This is a challenging and extremely rewarding role for candidates with a good understanding of the challenges young people and refugees face on arrival to the UK.

We are looking for candidates with strong social support skills, as detailed in the Person Specification. Experience in a similar role would be welcome, but this could also be your first paid position in the charity sector, or you could be returning to work after time out. This position will have a dedicated training budget and you will be supported to grow and develop within your role.

We value equity and diversity in our organisation and are striving to build a workforce reflective of the communities we work with. We encourage applications from people of all ethnicities, working ages, genders, sex, sexual orientations, faiths (or non), marital statuses (or non) and pregnancy status. We also have full flexible working policies to support people with disabilities and caring responsibilities. People with refugee or asylum-seeking backgrounds are experts by experience and are particularly encouraged to apply.

As a refugee charity, we offer a guaranteed interview for people with direct lived experience of seeking asylum who meet most of the essential criteria outlined in the Person Specification. If you have first-hand experience of applying for asylum in any country, please let us know in your application.

We respect that people’s identities is not defined by their past experiences and do not expect candidates to describe their lived experience during the interview process unless they wish to.

If you are excited by this role and working at Safe Passage but do not have all the experience you think is needed, we would encourage you to apply anyway and reach out for an informal chat beforehand to discuss why you would like to apply for the role and what skills or experiences you think are relevant.

If you would like to arrange this, please contact Phil, our International Safeguarding and Protection Manager, on phil@safepassage.org.uk

How do I apply?

Please read the full Job Description & Person Specification and our ‘Application Questions and Guidance’ document below.

The ‘Application Questions and Guidance’ asks candidates to submit a CV and Cover Letter answering five specific questions linked to the Person Specification. Applications can be submitted via email in written form or as digital audio or video files.

We also ask candidates to complete our ‘Equal Opportunities Form’ to help us monitor and improve in our aims to become a truly diverse, representative and inclusive work force.

We are proud to be a member of the Experts by Experience Employment Network (www.ebeemployment.org.uk), which aims to increase representation of people with lived experience in the charitable sector. Please feel free to use information and resources at https://www.ebeemployment.org.uk/ebe which may help in preparing your job application. If you are an expert by experience (a refugee or a migrant with direct, first-hand experience of issues and challenges of the UK asylum or immigration system), you can ask for an independent and confidential support for your job application from the Experts by Experience Employment Network (www.ebeemployment.org.uk). Please complete this form to request support and they will confirm if they can match you with a mentor to support your application

For information on further application guidance, FAQs and an insight into what it’s like working at Safe Passage, please visit the ‘Working at Safe Passage’ section of our website

Closing date: Sunday 13th October at 11.59 pm.