Refugee and Migrant Centre, Closing date: On Request

The aim of this role will be to enable and empower newly arrived often vulnerable refugees to settle into their new communities with confidence. As a Resettlement Caseworker you will work closely with the volunteers, floating support workers and Resettlement Coordinator to provide a wraparound service to our clients across Wolverhampton and Walsall. Key elements of the service will include support with housing, health, education and employment.

Title: Resettlement Caseworker (Ukrainian speaking essential)
Reporting to: Resettlement Coordinators
Salary: £22,500 to £25,500 (depending on experience)
Hours: 35 hours per week
Contract 18 months fixed term contract

About us
The Refugee and Migrant Centre (RMC) is an established, multi award winning charity that provides a safe, welcoming environment to thousands of refugees and migrants living in the Black Country and Birmingham.
Our highly skilled and diverse staff team provide a broad range of services including advice and support on immigration (OISC regulated level 1, 2 & 3), employment, welfare, education, ESOL, housing, homelessness, destitution, citizenship, health and wellbeing.
RMC have been assisting beneficiaries to access and sustain appropriate accommodation and improve their housing and living conditions for nearly two decades. RMC also deals with many aspects of homelessness, destitution, rough sleeping,exploitation,etc.

Purpose of the Job:
Why work for us
Our culture is what makes us unique. We encourage an open, honest working environment where people are valued. We're always challenging each other to learn and improve, because we know when we work together, we can deliver better outcomes. Due to recent expansion, we are looking to recruit for the following role:
What you'll be doing:
About the role

The aim of this role will be to enable and empower newly arrived often vulnerable refugees to settle into their new communities with confidence.

As a Resettlement Caseworker you will work closely with the volunteers, floating support workers and Resettlement Coordinator to provide a wraparound service to our clients across Wolverhampton and Walsall. Key elements of the service will include support with housing, health, education and employment.

There will be a requirement to record and document contact using online systems, ensuring an evidence-based practice model of working and seamless support delivery for our clients.

Purpose of post

• To support refugee families and/or individuals who have newly arrived to the UK.
• To enable clients to sustain independence within their new communities.
• To provide bespoke support and intervention based on client individual needs.
• To work alongside volunteers and other organisations to assist refugees to reach their own goals and aspirations as part of their integration in the UK.


Main duties and responsibilities

For service delivery – working directly and with volunteers and support workers:

• Manage a caseload of clients:

o Provide initial reception and orientation.
o Carry out a holistic needs assessment and prepare a Personal Integration Plan with clients
o Negotiate specialist intervention with external agencies as appropriate according to the client’s needs.
o To be the lead contact for all agencies and responsible for coordinating support for your key clients.
o To lone work within client’s homes.

• To deliver a comprehensive action plan for welcoming the refugees from preparation prior to arrival and support for the first year and beyond. This includes but is not limited to:

o Checking suitability of properties with the housing partner
o Welcoming families upon arrival at a UK airport
o Registering with GP’s, dentists and opticians; attending medical assessments and appointments; securing appropriate specialist medical care and liaising with different health services;
o Working with Social Services to ensure all special needs are addressed;
o Registering for Biometric Residence Cards and benefits, ensuring that refugees understand their financial rights and responsibilities;
o Providing on-going orientation to the UK – information, classes, workshops and visits by key statutory services;
o Registering and supporting children with local schools;
o Facilitating access to ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes for all newly arrived adults;
o Signposting and assisting in training, education and employment to ensure long term independence;
o Organising trips and outings to places of interest and providing opportunities for social interaction.
o To provide holistic support around all areas of need including housing, welfare, employment, substance misuse, family reunion and social engagement.

• To ensure that this work has a focus on fostering the independence of the clients and has respect for the culture, personal history and situation of all its users.

• To promote the long-term integration of refugees and the development of refugee communities by providing a range of tailored services to them and through working with other service providers to maximise opportunities for refugees.

• To work with clients to facilitate their access and engagement with mainstream statutory and voluntary sector services.

• To liaise as appropriate with the client’s housing providers, ensuring that the clients can represent any concerns to the provider.

• To ensure that this work is carried out in accordance with RMC’s values, principles, policies and procedures, specifically those around equal opportunity, confidentiality, impartiality and non-directive advice.

• With the support of the coordinator, to maintain and develop excellent working relationships with and between external stakeholders in order to improve the availability of mainstream and specialist services for newly arrived refugees.

• To develop the service in collaboration with volunteers, and ensure that they receive all of the support they need to take an active role in the support of refugees

• To work as part of a multi-skilled team, supporting your colleagues and volunteers to achieve outcomes.

• To keep full, accurate and up-to-date case records.

• To provide written and oral reports as required.

• To work with the coordinator in reviewing, planning and developing the service.
• To carry out monitoring and evaluation processes as appropriate

For the Charity

• To play an active role in one or more RMC’s working groups as required.

• To liaise with other teams in RMC as appropriate.

• To attend regular team meetings, to share information, monitor services and foster effective and supportive teamwork.

• To participate in supervision, appraisal and training as agreed with the Manager.

• To carry out administrative tasks in support of own work (e.g., word- processing, filing and recording on RMC’s database).

• To carry out other duties consistent with the nature of the post, and in furtherance of the project.

• To carry out all the above in accordance with the aims, values and policies of RMC, in particular, confidentiality, impartiality and Equal Opportunities.

The above duties will be prioritised by the Head of Services in consultation with the post-holder. The post-holder may be asked to re-organise his/her work to help RMC to respond to changes in type or extent of needs of refugees, which can arise from time to time. This would be done in a way consistent with the purposes of the post and in consultation with the post-holder.

Candidate Specification

Experience – essential

• Experience of working with vulnerable people and an understanding of the needs of refugees, and the issues or difficulties which may affect their resettlement.
• Experience of comprehensively assessing need and creating risk management plans for multiple individuals.
• Experiences of supporting people to address their needs through support planning, case management and an understanding of the importance of involving clients fully as possible in that process.
• Experience of working with a wide range of professionals to access needs led intervention.
• Experience of working within a multitier staff team, inclusive of supporting volunteers to support clients.
• Fluent in a community language – Pashto, Dari or Arabic

Knowledge, Abilities and Skills- essential

• Knowledge and awareness of how to engage with hard-to-reach individuals and understanding of the potential barriers to active engagement.
• An understanding of the issues facing refugees during integration to a new community.
• Good knowledge of the services available to support refugees.
• Proven ability to communicate and negotiate to a high level and build strong partnerships, both verbal and non-verbally with shareholders and stakeholders.
• Good organisational and monitoring skills, with the ability to prioritise.
• Excellent administrative skills including good computing skills and the ability to use I.T. applications.
• Understanding and a commitment to diversity and equality, with demonstrable cultural competence.
• Ability to lone work and complete delegated task with own initiative.
• Ability to be flexible to the needs of the organisation.
• Excellent verbal and non-verbal communication.
Desirable
• Good local knowledge
• Experience of providing outreach support to families in their home.
• Car driver

• Ability and understanding of how to provide high quality face-to face support in the community and minimum of two years’ experience of having done so.
• Ability and experience of assessment and compiling appropriate packages of support with service users and two years’ experience of having done so.
• Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to service user involvement and fostering independence.
• Working knowledge of UK mainstream services e.g., Education, Health, Housing, Welfare Benefits and community support systems.
• Experience and understanding of cultural diversity and the ability to work with people from a range of different cultures.
• Understanding of and commitment to equal opportunities
• Ability to work in partnership with and provide support for volunteers and interpreters as appropriate.
• Good negotiating skills for working with a wide range of voluntary and statutory agencies.
• Commitment to the principles of confidentiality, impartiality and non-directive advice.
• Constructive approach to working within a small team and a larger agency.
• Excellent active listening skills.
• Good spoken and written English, sufficient to provide advice in English, to advocate and negotiate on behalf of clients.
• Open and reflective attitude to your own work and experience.
• Ability to plan and manage own workload.
• Ability to be administratively self-sufficient, including the working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite to the required standard.

A DBS check will be carried out for this post.
Flexibility
In order to deliver the stated aims of for this post, a degree of flexibility is needed, and the post holder may be required to perform work not specifically referred to above, such duties will fall within the scope of the job and be directly related within the appropriate pay grade. The job description will therefore be subject to periodic review with the post holder to ensure it accurately reflects the duties that are being performed.

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