Pet Welfare Assistant - Off-site Services
Application Deadline: 16 November 2026
Department: Rehoming & Fostering Services
Employment Type: Permanent - Part Time
Location: Burford
Reporting To: Assistant Manager - Off-site Services
Compensation: £12,488 / year
Description
Contract: Permanent, 18.75 hours per week
Salary: £12,488 per annum (£24,976 FTE)
Location: Burford, OX18 4PF
Closing date: Monday 16th November 2026
Interview date: week commencing 23rd November 2026
We're recruiting a Pet Welfare Assistant for off-site animal care, for our Rehoming & Fostering team in Burford!
At Blue Cross, we're dedicated to providing the best care possible to pets in need. As a Pet Welfare Assistant for our offsite services, you'll play an important role in our mission, ensuring that every pet receives the love, attention, and support they deserve whilst they are in our offsite care.
Set within 200 acres of beautiful Cotswold countryside, our Burford Centre opened in 1990 and provides care for up to 25 dogs, 21 cats, 14 rabbits and other small pets. We also have paddocks and stables that enable us to care for up to 60 horses.
Our dedicated Rehoming & Fostering team, supported by an incredible network of volunteers, helps pets and people across Oxfordshire and beyond. The team plays a vital role in finding loving new homes for pets through both centre-based adoptions and our Home Direct scheme, which allows pets to remain in a home environment while they wait to be adopted. By working closely with adopters, owners and foster carers, the team helps ensure every pet has the best possible chance of finding the right home.
More about the role
Our Burford centre has a wonderful group of dedicated people with varying skills that meld into one team with one mission: to help as many pets as possible. With great facilities, including a woodland, the team are proud of what they can accomplish on a daily basis together.
As a Pet Welfare Assistant - Off-site Services, you will be responsible for expertly managing a specific number of pet cases within the offsite pet care service, these can be rehoming pets in foster or Home Direct service.
You will be ensuring welfare standards are met and that rehabilitation plans are followed and supported for pets in foster homes. As we want to help as many pets as possible, this role will be responsible for ensuring the assessment of pets preparing for a new home in offsite services is completed in the quickest amount of time.
For many, the centre will be the 'public face' of Blue Cross so you will need to ensure that good customer service is at the heart of every interaction. At Blue Cross we are ambitious, and the work carried out by our centres is key in achieving our strategy and ensuring that ultimately, we help more pets and people.
At our Burford rehoming centre, we provide onsite accommodation for pets in our care 24/7. Overnight shifts are usually undertaken by team members who live on site. Occasionally, you will be expected to carry out night checks or stay in on site accommodation overnight when the resident team members are either not working or away for a period of time. These duties are organised on a local rota and shared between all members of the team.
This is a permanent part time role working an average of 2.5 days a week across a 4-week rota:
Week 1: Monday & Tuesday
Week 2: Tuesday & Wednesday
Week 3: Monday, Tuesday & Saturday
Week 4: Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday
If you excel in an environment where you can see the difference you make every day, then this is the role for you. Interested? Then apply and let's work together to see if this is the role for you.
About you
The person will be empathetic, intuitive, and focused on animal welfare, with experience in a similar environment. You can assess pet needs, recognise behavioural signs, and have a basic understanding of medications like flea treatments and diabetes management. Self-motivated and collaborative, you bring practical, creative solutions for the best care outcomes.
Your communication skills are first-class, making you approachable and effective in sharing critical information with fosterers, clients, and stakeholders. You're resilient and emotionally intelligent, able to thrive in emotionally charged situations while supporting both clients and colleagues with empathy.
Knowledge, skills, and experience
- Experience of having previously worked or volunteered with domestic animals or in an animal welfare environment.
- Good experience of recording information and being
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Pet Welfare Assistant - Off-site Services in Burford employer: Blue Cross
Blue Cross is an exceptional employer, offering a vibrant and supportive work culture in Andover that prioritises both employee wellbeing and community engagement. As a Retail Cover Supervisor, you'll enjoy flexible hours while making a meaningful impact in the lives of pets and people, all within a friendly team environment that values your contributions and encourages personal growth through various wellbeing programmes and generous benefits.
