Senior Practitioner - Finance, Benefit, & Debt

Full-time Contract type: Full time - permanent

Department: Justice

Service type: Finance, Benefit and Debt

Compensation: up to GBP 31858 - yearly

Company Description At Catch22, we are proud of our reputation as a modern and progressive employer. Our 1,300 colleagues and 300 volunteers work at every stage of the social welfare cycle, supporting over 60,000 individuals from cradle to career. Our work builds a better society - one where everyone has good people around them, a purpose, and a good place to live.

In Justice, we work with young people and adults in custody and in the community, providing a range of services including offender management and resettlement, veterans in custody, victim services, gangs work and youth.

This post presents an exciting opportunity to become a senior frontline practitioner within our CRS services in the London region. Commissioned by HMPPS, these services are focused on supporting adult male ex-offenders across rehabilitative needs. This role will involve working in close partnership with delivery partners, HMPPS, Voluntary Sector and other Criminal Justice organisations.

Senior Finance Benefit and Debt Practitioners continue to manage a caseload of Service Users, completing ongoing assessments and management of each Service User’s needs, capacity, opportunity, and motivation to rehabilitate while supporting management. They deliver and train staff on interventions that support rehabilitation, working in partnership with a range of local providers and taking account of available risk information.

The role will be based in the community and will require travel across various delivery sites across London and may require some travel around London to access training and develop links with partnership agencies.

Role and Responsibilities

• Be a SPOC at practitioner level for quality assurance, supporting with training new staff and giving them a good understanding from the start of their journey on how to deliver best practice within their role and the importance of this.
• Give a consistent approach to onboarding of new starters through shadowing and on the job training.
• Lead on holding complex / high risk cases referred to the FBD Service.
• Support staff with problematic cases, attending sessions and joint working where needed due to lower caseload.
• In the absence of a Team Leader, could be used to support/cover additional responsibilities including allocations of cases, weekly appointments spreadsheet submission and providing group work updates/scheduling across their cluster areas.
• Represent Catch22 at a management level such as attendance at weekly meetings in the absence of a Team Leader.
• Other ad hoc tasks to support management or SOMs.
• Leading on specific project development for example Protected Characteristics whereby quality of delivery needs enhancing.

As a Senior Finance Benefit and Debt Practitioner with responsibility for supporting Service Users in addressing their needs, you will have a great opportunity to be a positive influence for change and to work with a wide range of partners to improve Service User’s prospects.

The ideal candidate will possess the following:

• An understanding of the importance of initial assessments, interventions, the timeframes which sit alongside those and quality of practice to train new staff adequately.
• A strong understanding of the contractual requirement of the service and how to successfully meet these targets in order to train new staff adequately.
• Innovative in their ideas for supporting staff with difficult cases.
• A strong understanding of learning styles and how to adapt training in the necessary way to ensure high quality training, being patient at all times.
• Good organisational skills. Ability to organise and manage multiple tasks successfully whilst working under pressure and to meet deadlines.
• Good verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to produce high quality Action Plans and Feedback on R&M (Evidenced in consistent QA scores).
• Demonstrates a positive approach and commitment to both team and partnership working.
• Demonstrable commitment to equalities and diversity.
• Support delivery of weekly briefings / Responsible for arranging regular wellbeing activities and events for the team.
• Advocating for Quality Assurance Best Practice and supporting with peer quality assurance.
• Support the Quality Assurance Manager and SOMs in preparation for HMIP/OSAG as well as feedback and findings being fed back to practitioners.

Qualifications

• Good basic education, including Maths and English GCSE or equivalent.
• Evidence of continual professional development.
• Experience working with Microsoft Office - Word and Excel.
• Any qualification relevant to working with those in the Criminal Justice System, for example criminology/ criminal justice/ social care/ mental health/ IAG/ Family.
• Training on Delius.

Additional Information

When applying please be cautious over the answers you provide. If you select “NO” to the screening question regarding Right to Work in the UK, your application will automatically be closed.

Contract: Permanent

Hours & work pattern: Full time, 38 hours per week.

Location: West London Cluster

Closing Date: Pvt. link

Screening: Successful admission to post subject to enhanced DBS check, HMPPS vetting check, and employer Right To Work in the UK check. The post-holder must have right to work in the UK. Catch22 does not currently provide a licence to sponsor visas but please see this register to see those that do.

Catch22’s Commitment to Opportunity & Progression

At Catch22 we are proud of our commitment in supporting people develop in their careers and progress in our organisation. In 2024, within our Justice Hub, we have 68% of those in management roles that originally joined Catch22 in the frontline workforce and some worked across a number of roles and Leadership positions before joining management. This allows us to have a highly experienced management group and provides development opportunities for those in our much valued front-line.

Social Media Search

Please note, we may conduct an online search as part of our due diligence checks for successful candidate(s). This will involve a search of all publicly available information online and in social media.

Vetting Requirements

This role is subject to the satisfactory completion of relevant pre-employment checks, which may include HMPPS vetting, NPPV, or other role-specific security clearances. Any offer of employment will be conditional upon the successful outcome of these checks. Where clearance is not granted, or is subsequently withdrawn, Catch22 reserves the right to withdraw the offer of employment.

Catch22 Justice requests no contact from agencies or media sales. Catch22 is committed to rigorous safeguarding and safer recruitment practices; ensuring that every individual within the organisation has been safely and appropriately checked.