Advocacy Service Manager

SWGfL; Exeter; In loco; GBP 38.000 - 46.000; Tempo pieno

Descrizione del lavoro

SWGfL seeks an Advocacy Service Manager to lead the development and day-to-day delivery of a national advocacy service for intimate image abuse across England and Wales. The postholder will establish the service model, oversee the advocacy team, manage complex cases and safeguard, quality and survivor voice across delivery.

The role combines service development with operational leadership, while maintaining a small caseload of the most complex cases, reporting to Head of Support Services and

Competenze

• Professional/clinical service management experience delivering advocacy for victims of abuse.
• Experience of safeguarding and information governance.
• Ability to mobilise and develop a national advocacy service across multiple sites.

Mansioni

• Lead mobilisation and establishment of the Advocacy Service with clear operational processes.
• Develop end-to-end advocacy pathway including triage, eligibility, and safety planning.
• Coordinate with Revenge Porn Helpline to ensure a coordinated service journey.
• Define safe caseload parameters and inform capacity decisions.
• Lead safeguarding, quality assurance and performance reviews.

Conoscenze

Trauma-informed practice

Survivor-centered approach

Leadership

Case management

Partnership building

Safeguarding knowledge

Communication skills

Staff wellbeing

Formazione

Qualified IDVA

ISVA qualification

Domestic abuse advocacy qualification

Strumenti

Zendesk

Case management system

Descrizione del lavoro

Advocacy Service Manager

Intimate Image Abuse Advocacy Service

Job description and person specification

Job title: Advocacy Service Manager

Service: Intimate Image Abuse Advocacy Service, working alongside the Revenge Porn Helpline

Reports to: Head of Support Services

Direct reports: Three Advocacy Caseworkers, Referrals coordinator and Development Pathways Coordinator

Location: Office based, Exeter

Hours: Full time, 37 hours

Salary: £42,000

Contract: 12-month fixed contract (with possibility for extension subject to funding)

Start date: as soon as possible

DBS: Appointment is subject to the appropriate level of DBS check and safer-recruitment checks

About SWGfL and the service

SWGfL is a charity working to ensure that technology benefits everyone. Its specialist support services include the Revenge Porn Helpline, which supports adults affected by non-consensual intimate image abuse and related technology-facilitated harms. The new Advocacy Service will complement the Helpline by providing more intensive, one-to-one, victim centred support for people with complex needs. It will help individuals navigate relevant systems and services, improve safety and recovery, and reduce the burden of coordinating support across multiple agencies.

Role purpose

The Advocacy Service Manager will lead the mobilisation, development and day-to-day delivery of a high-quality national advocacy service for people affected by intimate image abuse across England and Wales. The postholder will establish the service model, lead and support the advocacy team, maintain oversight of complex and high-risk cases, and ensure safeguarding, quality, accessibility and survivor voice are embedded throughout delivery.

The role combines service development and operational leadership with a limited caseload of the most complex cases. The postholder will work closely with the Head of Support Services, Revenge Porn Helpline colleagues, safeguarding leads, referral and pathway roles, external partners, and the programme and grant management function.

Key responsibilities

Service mobilisation and development

• Lead the mobilisation and establishment of the Advocacy Service, translating the funded delivery model into clear operational processes, standards and guidance.
• Develop and maintain the end-to-end advocacy pathway, including eligibility, triage, prioritisation, allocation, needs assessment, safety planning, support planning, review, case closure and transition arrangements.
• Establish clear working arrangements between the Revenge Porn Helpline and the Advocacy Service so service users experience a coordinated journey and are not passed unnecessarily between services.
• Define safe caseload parameters and referral-opening arrangements, using demand and complexity information to inform capacity decisions.
• Contribute to service-readiness reviews and provide evidence-based recommendations on whether minimum safe operating requirements have been met.

Practice leadership and case management

• Ensure advocacy is independent, trauma-informed, consent-led, strengths-based and directed by the service user’s priorities.
• Maintain a small caseload of the most complex or high-risk cases and provide expert oversight or consultation on escalated cases.
• Ensure service users receive proportionate assessment, safety planning, risk management, practical advocacy and warm referrals to appropriate support.
• Ensure practice recognises the relationship between intimate image abuse and other harms, including domestic abuse, coercive control, stalking, sexual violence, harassment, sextortion and risks associated with threatened disclosure.
• Ensure safe and consistent practice for 16 and 17-year-old service users and cases involving child dependents, working within child and adult safeguarding requirements.
• Support service users to understand and navigate relevant systems, which may include police reporting, criminal justice processes, health, housing, welfare, legal and specialist VAWG services, without providing regulated advice outside the service’s competence.

Safeguarding, quality and information governance

• Embed active safeguarding within the service, ensuring concerns are identified, recorded, reviewed and escalated through SWGfL procedures.
• Work with safeguarding leads to maintain effective policies, professional boundaries, allegation management routes and protections for service users and staff.
• Ensure sensitive personal information, intimate content and case records are handled only through approved systems and in accordance with data-protection, confidentiality, consent and information sharing requirements.
• Lead case audits, reflective practice, quality assurance and learning from incidents, complaints, near misses and feedback.
• Maintain clear operational guidance and ensure legal, policy and practice changes are incorporated into delivery.

People management and workforce development

• Line manage, supervise and support three Advocacy Caseworkers, setting clear objectives and maintaining regular case and wellbeing oversight.
• Support recruitment, safer-recruitment checks, induction and competency sign-off for the advocacy team.
• Develop and maintain a role-based training plan covering safeguarding, trauma-informed practice, risk assessment, professional boundaries, intimate image abuse, evidence preservation, platform processes and partnership working.
• Ensure relevant staff hold, or work towards within the required period, an appropriate regulated Level 3 qualification.
• Promote psychologically safe working, manage exposure to distressing material, and ensure staff use clinical supervision, peer support and wellbeing arrangements.

Partnerships, pathways and accessibility

• Work with referral and pathway colleagues to develop reciprocal national and local referral arrangements with statutory and specialist services.
• Build productive relationships with police, safeguarding partnerships, VAWG and sexual violence services, housing, health, mental-health, immigration and legal-support organisations, and relevant industry partners.
• Support appropriate participation in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, including MARAC or equivalent forums, where this is relevant and proportionate.
• Ensure the service can respond appropriately to differing communication, language, disability and accessibility needs, including Welsh-language, interpreting and BSL arrangements.
• Maintain links with equivalent advocacy managers and contribute to sector learning, government collaboration and continuous improvement.

Performance, learning and accountability

• Lead monthly operational performance reviews covering demand, caseloads, waiting times, risk, outcomes, referrals, disengagement, staff capacity and service-user feedback.
• Ensure accurate, timely and complete recording within the case-management system and contribute to funder monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
• Use data, case learning and survivor insight to identify improvements, assign actions and assess whether changes produce better outcomes.
• Work with lived-experience colleagues to ensure survivor participation is safe, meaningful and connected to service decisions, including a clear “you said, we did” feedback route.
• Contribute to the service risk register, continuity planning, audit activity, funding assurance and final evaluation.

General responsibilities

• Act in accordance with SWGfL policies, values and expected standards of conduct.
• Promote equality, inclusion, dignity and respect in all aspects of the role.
• Maintain confidentiality and appropriate professional boundaries.
• Undertake other reasonable duties consistent with the purpose and level of the post.
• Participate in occasional travel and out-of-hours activity where agreed and necessary for effective service delivery.

Service and practice experience

• Professional service manager with experience of managing IDVAs/practitioners in delivering direct support to victims of domestic abuse, stalking or other forms of gender based violence
• Experience supporting victims of intimate image abuse, technology-facilitated abuse, stalking, coercive control or online harms.

Qualifications and professional standing

• Qualified IDVA or equivalent with minimum of 3 years direct experience
• ISVA, stalking advocacy or other relevant specialist advocacy qualification. Relevant degree or postgraduate study.

Leadership and management

• Experience supervising or managing practitioners or advocates, including case oversight, performance, training, wellbeing and safe caseload management. Experience developing or improving an operational service, pathway or practice framework.
• Experience mobilising a new service or leading significant service change. Experience managing a national or remotely delivered service.

Safeguarding

• Strong working knowledge of adult and child safeguarding, escalation routes, information sharing and professional boundaries. Ability to make proportionate decisions in complex and high-risk situations. Experience of developing service policies and protocols including safeguarding, data protection, privacy
• Experience contributing to MARAC or other multi-agency safeguarding forums. Experience managing allegations, incidents or serious safeguarding concerns.

VAWG and victim-centred practice

• Strong understanding of trauma-informed, survivor-led and consent-based practice. Understanding of how online and offline behaviours can form part of a wider pattern of abuse and affect safety, autonomy and recovery.
• Knowledge of the wider VAWG sector, victim rights, and criminal justice pathways.

Partnership working

• Experience of developing referral and partnership pathways to achieve best outcomes for victims of online abuse. Ability to work constructively with partners while maintaining the independence and role boundaries of the advocacy service.
• Established professional networks across VAWG, policing, safeguarding, legal, health, housing or online safety services.

Accessibility and inclusion

• Demonstrable ability to adapt services or practice for people with differing language, disability, communication, cultural or accessibility needs. Commitment to equitable and non-discriminatory service delivery.
• Experience working with specialist “by and for” organisations or improving Welsh-language, BSL or interpretation provision.

Information governance and digital capability

• Working knowledge of confidentiality, consent, data protection, secure case recording and proportionate multi-agency information sharing. Confidence using case-management systems and performance data.
• Experience with Zendesk or a comparable CRM/case-management system. Knowledge of online content-reporting, evidence‑preservation or image-removal processes.

Analysis and communication

• Ability to analyse complex information, exercise sound judgement and clearly document decisions. Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain sensitive issues to service users, staff, partners and senior stakeholders. Ability to produce concise writing. Calm, compassionate and boundaried approach. Able to lead through uncertainty, make timely decisions, challenge constructively and maintain focus on service-user safety. Able to manage competing priorities and sustain effective practice when working with distressing material.
• Experience producing grant, commissioner or governance reports and using data to drive improvement. Experience embedding survivor voice into service improvement and governance.

SWGfL welcomes applications from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Applicants may request reasonable adjustments for any stage of the recruitment process. Recruitment information and candidate data will be handled in accordance with SWGfL's applicable privacy and recruitment arrangements.

This role involves responsibility for services supporting people who may be at risk of abuse or exploitation. Appointment is therefore subject to safer-recruitment checks and adherence to SWGfL safeguarding, professional-boundary and information-governance requirements.