Do you believe everyone has the right to enough to live on? 

Turn2us is a national charity tackling poverty and the structural causes of poverty. We work with people with lived experience of poverty and partners to provide people in financial crisis with the means and agency to get back on their feet, build resilience, move forward with their lives and thrive. 

We are looking for a Programmes Assistant to join the Edinburgh Trust Team and the Local Programmes Team. These teams develop programmes that work in a particular place, to give people experiencing poverty control over decisions that affect their finances. We work with community organisations who are already experts in their communities. 

We are looking for an organised and flexible person to provide support across the two teams, the role includes managing diaries and coordinating internal and external meetings, supporting us to develop well maintained and organised shared folders. The postholder will help us manage payments to coproduction partners (people with lived experience of financial insecurity) and community organisation partners. The role also includes providing support with and at community events and keeping our CRM updated. 

Turn2us is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from members of all communities. It is committed to equality of opportunity, inclusion and diversity. We encourage and welcome applications from all parts of the community regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.  

Turn2us wants to enable an environment where everyone is kept safe from harm and can thrive. We are committed to safeguarding everyone involved in our charity and the work we do. You can read our safeguarding policy on the Turn2us website.  

We offer flexible working patterns, both in terms of hours and remote working. Please note that all employees are contractually required to work from the office a minimum of 4 days a month. Some roles may be required to be in the office more often than this and this will be agreed with the hiring manager upon starting at Turn2us.   

Job Description 

Job Title: Programmes Assistant 

Department: Programmes & Partnerships  

Reports to: Head of Local Programmes or Head of Edinburgh Trust 

Location: Hybrid: Home Working and choice between Head Office, Hammersmith, London W6 7NL or Edinburgh Trust, Edinburgh, EH6 5NP  

Type of Role: Full-time, permanent  

Purpose of the Role: To provide administrative support to the Local Programmes Team and the Edinburgh Trust Team maintaining positive working relationships with a range of internal & external stakeholders & partner organisations

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities: 

1. To provide administrative support to the Local Programmes and Edinburgh Trust Team 

2. To support the management of the Heads of Edinburgh and Local Programmes and wider team calendars 

3. To manage the shared Microsoft Teams space for shared documents across the two teams 

4. To manage the processes required to support new and existing partner organisations and co-production partners to participate in Turn2us’s programmes 

Duties: 

1. To provide administrative support to the Local Programmes and Edinburgh Trust Team 

• Organise and minute key meetings, arranging agendas, circulating meeting papers and recording actions 

• Provide administrative support for directorate wide meetings, workshops & events as required 

• Submit invoices and complete monthly expense reports on finance systems 

• Support recruitment processes in collaboration with HR colleagues 

2. To support the management of the Heads of Edinburgh and Local Programmes and wider team calendars: arranging appointments and meetings in a timely manner, helping to find space to meet, and prioritising meetings with external stakeholders  

• Working with the Heads to prioritise meetings (internal and external) 

• Managing the Head of Edinburgh’s calendar 

• Managing the Heads of Local Programmes calendar 

• Managing team calendars to make space for team meetings, training, and learning sessions  

• Support the sharing of information about forthcoming meetings across the two teams 

• Support the two teams to work more closely together by aligning calendars 

• Supporting the Edinburgh Team management of external meetings 

3.  To manage the shared Microsoft Teams space for shared documents across the two teams 

• To develop and manage the shared online space for documents, making sure the space is organised and accessible  

• Support the integration of online documents of Edinburgh and Local Programmes, including reducing duplication  

• Support communication between the teams by keeping teams up to date via teams and email  

4. To manage the processes required to support new and existing partner organisations and co-production partners to participate in Turn2us’s programmes  

• Support partner organisations and co-production partners to participate in programme activities (e.g. workshops, committee meetings). Ensure processes set out in Turn2us’s co-production framework and toolkit are followed, including making sure people are paid promptly for their time 

• To support the maintenance of collaborative, positive relationships with partner organisations and co-production partners (these could be people who have used Turn2us services and/or people who have used partner organisations’ services)

• Keep partnership and co-production information up to date on the CRM database 

These are the normal duties, which the Charity requires from the position. However, it is necessary for all staff to be flexible and all employees will be required from time to time to perform other duties as may be required by the Charity for the efficient running of the Charity. This Job Description is non-contractual. It will be reviewed from time to time and may be subject to change.  

At Turn2us, we are committed to protecting personnel, children, adults, and service users from any harm arising from each other, themselves, our activities, or organisational failings whilst in contact with us. The post holder will be required to follow the safeguarding policy and will be responsible for integrating safeguarding into all aspects of their work. 

The post holder will be expected to ensure that their work complies with contractual terms and conditions, the Charity’s policies and procedures and key legislation, such as data protection and charity law.  

Person Specification 

Skills:  

Necessary:

• Exceptional organisational skills 

• Ability to competently use MS Office suite and Microsoft365 to deliver work  

• Interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate in a warm, empathic, courteous and professional manner 

• Ability to present clear, concise minutes and/or reports  

• Ability to confidently engage with different people 

Knowledge: 

Necessary:

• Understanding of financial hardship 

Experience:  

Necessary: 

• Administrative experience  

• Diary management experience 

• Experience of data and/or customer relationship management systems   

Desirable:  

• Lived experience of poverty and/or an understanding of the impact of living in poverty 

Personal Attributes:  

• A commitment to learn and develop new skills 

• Highly motivated with an ability to work on own initiative and work proactively in key areas of responsibilities  

• Commitment to equity, diversity & inclusion and social justice 

• Ability to travel across the UK 

• Commitment to Turn2us values 

Turn2us is fully committed to equity, diversity and inclusion in our sector. We want this to be reflected in the diversity of the people who work for us and we are particularly interested in applications from people from all backgrounds.