MAIN PURPOSE: 

To work as part of the wider Leads team to support the implementation and delivery of Citizens Advice Wirral projects/services out in the community.  This role will oversee the delivery of advice in a range of outreach venues as well as providing support to the generalist advice service as part of the advice leads rota. The post holder will also be involved in the training and development of staff and volunteers to ensure agreed systems and processes are applied and will promote continued learning and development across the team.  This role will be an important link between management, staff and volunteers. 

A Team Lead will:

• Drive forward Citizens Advice Wirral’s advice offer, to ensure greater access routes to reach the widest possible client group, with a particular emphasis on face to face provision out in the community.

• Complete outreach risk assessments for venues that are used for the delivery of face to face provision, and visit these venues regularly to ensure that projects are operating according to agreed standards.

• Manage a busy integrated advice session, through which information and advice is given through a range of channels e.g. email, webchat, telephone and other digital channels.

• Ensure vulnerable clients and clients with mental health issues are supported appropriately and that staff and volunteers know how to support those specific clients.

• Develop and maintain excellent working relationships with other organisations including funders, partner organisations, other local charities and GP practices to ensure open channels of communication.

• Regularly liaise with the other Leads and Managers to identify gaps in volunteer resources across the full service and develop volunteering role descriptions for new roles.  

• Lead a team to ensure the established service model is delivered and is explained to clients in a positive way, and that self help is promoted to clients in the first instance.

• Ensure that advice services are resourced adequately -  forward planning, allocating staff, managing staff leave, managing volunteer hours and rotas to allow service delivery to cover all areas including emergency appointments, pre-booked appointments and dealing with the task lists. 

• Ensure a targeted approach is applied, with targets set for each paid adviser, and a suggested target for volunteers, to ensure the contract KPI’s are achieved. 

• Promote and review client satisfaction results, customer service and complaints in relation to the advice team.

• To provide effective line management to advisers including day to day activities, performance management, ensuring individual KPIs are met, supervision, appraisal, informal and formal disciplinary processes, staff wellbeing, leave management etc

• Support and develop existing staff and volunteers to ensure good customer service is offered to clients and information and advice provided meets the required quality standards. Promote continued learning and identify additional training/learning needs, where quality is deemed to be poor.

• Identify and develop ways that staff and volunteers can contribute to Citizens Advice Wirral’s Wellbeing, Research and Campaign and other programmes of work.

• To provide cover for the other Lead roles, during periods of absence.

• Ensure that all advice conforms to the Citizens Advice Wirral’s systems and procedures and the AQS.

• Attend relevant internal and external meetings and prepare for and attend supervision sessions/team meetings/staff meetings as appropriate.

• Ensure GDPR compliant training is completed on an annual basis.

• Demonstrate a commitment to the aims and policies of Citizens Advice.

• Abide by health and safety guidelines and take responsibility for own safety and that of colleagues.

• Recognise the importance of safeguarding procedures within the organisation ensuring that any concerns, disclosures or allegations of abuse are immediately and correctly reported.

• Carry out any other tasks which may be within the scope of the post to ensure effective delivery and development of the service.  This may include supporting co-workers and volunteers to deliver the quality outcomes by providing cover during holiday periods and sickness;  attendance at occasional out of hours events in conjunction with the work of Citizens Advice Wirral and participation in fundraising activities; Manager in Charge duties for Citizens Advice Offices.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

1 Holds level 2 qualifications (GCSE or equivalent)  in English and maths.

2 Holds the Citizens Advice Adviser Certificate (or is willing to work towards this) and has experience of delivering advice in the main areas of welfare benefits, housing and employment.

3 Experience of successfully leading staff and/or volunteers to achieve success.

4 A confident user of a range of IT packages, with an innovative approach to digital solutions, and the ability to embrace new technology in order to enhance service delivery.

5 Able to motivate and challenge people to develop and reach their full potential - supporting them and encouraging them whilst providing constructive feedback to facilitate improvements.

6 Able to demonstrate a range of experience from different organisations or sectors, with an appetite for sharing these experiences and seeking new connections with other organisations.

7 Willingness and ability to travel to a range of outreach settings each week.

8 Ability to engage positively and confidently with people from a wide range of backgrounds and organisations so that they are comfortable and at ease.

9 Flexible and adaptable with the ability to embrace change and find new and innovative ways of working, providing a solution based approach.

10 Understanding of and commitment to the aims and principles of the Citizens Advice service and commitment to equal opportunities. 

Interview date: Thursday 17th July 2025

Interview location: Birkenhead, Wirral

Citizens Advice Wirral is part of the Disability Confident scheme. We're taking positive action by providing interviews to candidates who have a registered disability - provided they meet the minimum skills for the role. We'll ask you whether you are eligible when you apply, so if you'd like to be considered for this scheme, all you need to do is let us know in your application.

At Citizens Advice Wirral we seek to embrace emerging technologies and understand that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly part of everyday life. When we are recruiting, we use situational questions to assess a person's suitability for the role and so it's really important that we hear from the person themselves. With this in mind we screen responses to detect the presence of AI and where high levels of AI are detected we then downgrade the score. We therefore strongly encourage applicants to avoid the use of AI, or to use minimal AI input to avoid a detrimental effect on the shortlisting process. Please note that our screening tool will assess responses as 100% AI where an answer is written and then submitted to an AI tool for improvement.