Freelance Caseworker (fortnightly, 2 year contract) in Birmingham

Help Close By are looking for a freelance Case Worker to work on a fortnightly basis for the next two years in the Birmingham area. The role will support people who have used our services in the local area find longer term solutions and support. The role will be a mixture of sign-posting and proactive support on form filling and advice. We would ideally like to place someone from a social work or benefits support role who has pre-existing knowledge as we won’t be able to offer training at depth in these areas.

The role is hybrid but will require some Tuesday evening visits to service users with the support of our local volunteers, so that people are introduced to you through someone familiar. Some in-person follow-ups may be necessary. Where these few early evening visits are needed, we will let you work a shorter offset day. We may ask you to work with our local community volunteer to enable them to do some basic form and application work to maximise your impact.

A laptop and phone will be provided for the duration of the contract with all necessary software and email set up in advance to ensure service users' data remains secure. You will receive a short induction to the charity and will get training on our case management system via our provider at a time you can book directly.

About us and the project: Help Close By is a charity that fights poverty using technology. As well as having an app that coordinates poverty relief, we have run a local food support group since late 2021. We have service users from Ladywood and Northfield constituency areas we wish to reach out to for this longer-term support. We are a year into developing a version of our app that will help those able to self-help to get more support across a range of issues but whilst that is ongoing, we want to make sure we have addressed deeper issues with our local service users. While the new app is being developed, we will have increasingly improved data on local services paired with existing local knowledge from our team and our ideal candidate.

This position is funded via The National Lottery Community Fund. This is a freelance position; you will be responsible for your own tax and pension arrangements from within the £250 fee. Expenses for travel from within the West Midlands for pre-authorised travel. We are unable to support visa applications at this time. You must have a current DBS to work in this role and candidates not passing vetting will not be given a contract.

We would like to place someone in post at the earliest opportunity. Deadline for applications is 6th February. We won’t be able to respond to correspondence on the role until we have a shortlist as all trustees may be carrying out day jobs and will not actively monitor for messages or emails on this. Interviews will be conducted in the evening to accommodate our ability to have two trustees join an interview via video call on either the 10th or 11th of February. Applications via the form on our website only.