Early Help IDVA

Advance; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 28,000 - 35,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

30 days paid holiday per year

Pension scheme

Employee Assistance Programme

Refer a Friend Scheme

Job summary

Advance Charity is seeking an experienced Early Help Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse in Brent and surrounding areas. The role focuses on increasing safety and access to services for families, with a 35-hour week and a 12-month fixed-term contract.

You will deliver trauma-informed, survivor-centred support alongside local agencies, completing risk assessments and safety planning while maintaining professional boundaries.

Qualifications

• Experience of working directly with victims and survivors of domestic abuse.
• Experience of completing domestic abuse risk assessments, including DASH assessments.
• Strong knowledge of safety planning and risk management.
• Experience of multi-agency and collaborative working with social care, health, education, police and other services.
• Ability to build trusting relationships with survivors while maintaining professional boundaries.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist support to victims and survivors and their children.
• Help increase safety, wellbeing and access to services.
• Deliver service through Brent CYP Specialist Services and Early Help.
• Engage in trauma-informed, survivor-centred practice.

Skills

Domestic abuse victim support

Risk assessments (DASH)

Safety planning

Multi-agency collaboration

Trauma-informed practice

Boundaries & safeguarding

Education

IDVA qualification or accredited training

Job description

Are you looking for a dynamic and rewarding role working for an organisation with the feminist agenda at the core of its ethos? Then Advance Charity could be the career choice for you!

Early Help Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA)

Salary: £28,000 - £35,000

We advertise the full salary banding for our roles to provide transparency about what you can achieve in this position with us. The actual salary offered will be within that band, and dependent on skills and experience and whether you are a qualified IDVA.

Location: Brent Civic Centre and other locations in Brent. Please note that you will need to work from the Civic Centre on Mondays, and in other office locations for another 2 days per week. You will be able to work remotely up to 2 days per week.

Hours: 35 hours per week

Contract: 12 month fixed term contract

Internal Applications

If you are an internal applicant you may be able to apply for this role as a secondment opportunity with the option to return to your previous role at the end of the contract. In order to explore this please speak with your existing manager before you apply and contact Talent if you have any questions.

About us

Advance is an award-winning and innovative women-only organisation, established in 1998, providing emotional and practical support to women and girls survivors of domestic abuse and supporting women with short-term sentences to reduce offending. We believe in empowering women and girls to lead safe, non-violent, equal lives so that they can flourish and contribute to the community.

We are a community-based organisation who lead in best practice approaches to supporting women in their local community. We achieve this by being available to meet and support women in local settings and at our women's centres, and by working in close partnership with other agencies.

Our values are to listen and support, to empower and respect, collaboration, innovation, and accountability.

About the role

We are seeking an experienced Early Help Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) to join our Brent CYP Specialist Services. The successful candidate will provide specialist support to victims and survivors of domestic abuse and their children, helping them to increase their safety, wellbeing and access to appropriate services.

The ideal candidate will have a recognised Domestic Abuse/IDVA qualification, or be working towards an accredited qualification, alongside relevant experience of supporting survivors of domestic abuse.

About You

• Experience of working directly with victims and survivors of domestic abuse, preferably within an Early Help, children and families, or community-based setting.
• Experience of completing domestic abuse risk assessments, including DASH assessments where appropriate.
• Strong knowledge and experience of safety planning and developing personalised risk management plans.
• An understanding of the impact of domestic abuse on children and young people and the wider family.
• Experience of multi-agency and collaborative working, including working effectively with social care, health, education, police and other specialist services.
• Experience of co-location, working alongside professionals within a multidisciplinary service to provide timely and coordinated support.
• The ability to identify escalating risk and respond appropriately to safeguarding concerns.
• Excellent communication, advocacy and case-management skills.
• The ability to build trusting and professional relationships with survivors while maintaining appropriate boundaries.
• A commitment to trauma-informed, survivor-centred and culturally sensitive practice.

You will play an important role in ensuring that victims and survivors of domestic abuse, and their children, receive timely, specialist and coordinated support through Brent's Early Help and CYP services.

What we can offer you - Employee Benefits

• A 35-hour working week
• An exceptional 30 days of paid holiday per year (pro rata for part time), PLUS public holidays on top (that’s nearly 40 days paid holiday per year!)
• Additional days off to celebrate International Women's Day, and for religious observance and moving home
• Perkbox - an employee discount platform where you can receive free rewards as well as take advantage of savings on clothes, groceries, travel, leisure and more
• Pension scheme
• Enhanced maternity/adoption provision
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme
• Employee eye-care scheme
• Clinical supervision for front line staff and first line management roles
• Refer a Friend Scheme - £250 for each referral who passes probation
• Organisation wide away days
• One weeks Carers leave
• Career development pathways

Under the Equality Act 2010, we are required to make any reasonable adjustments. If you have a disability as defined under this act and/or have special needs, please email the Talent Acquisition Team via the Advance website and will aim to make the necessary arrangements to accommodate your needs.

Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunities

We are committed to providing equality of opportunity and actively seek to recruit people from groups underrepresented in our current team. We have policies and processes in place to ensure that all employees are offered an equal opportunity in recruitment and selection, promotion, training, pay and benefits.

Safeguarding

Advance is committed to safeguarding and creating a culture of zero-tolerance of harm and expects all staff, including volunteers to share this commitment. We believe all individuals have the right to live their life free from violence and abuse and the right to feel and be safe. We have a suite of safeguarding policies, procedures and practice guidance, accessible to all staff, which promotes safeguarding and safer working practices across all our services and activities. When we recruit staff, we follow rigorous safer recruitment practices, this involves carrying out pre-employment checks including references, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, and identity checks. We ensure all staff undertake mandatory safeguarding training relevant to their role and responsibilities, to empower them to be competent and feel confident in recognising and responding appropriately to safeguarding issues and promote wellbeing.