Pet Welfare Assistant - Off-site Services

Blue Cross; Burford; On-site; GBP 11,000 - 14,000; Part time

Job summary

Blue Cross is hiring a Pet Welfare Assistant for off-site services in Burford. You will manage a defined caseload of pets in foster or Home Direct arrangements, ensuring welfare standards and rehabilitation plans are followed to get pets ready for adoption.

The role emphasises empathetic care, teamwork with foster carers, and clear communication with clients. Night checks and on-site rota duties may apply as part of a small, dedicated team.

Qualifications

• Past experience with domestic animals or in an animal welfare setting.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work with foster carers and adopters.
• Knowledge of basic pet care (medications like flea treatments, etc.) and welfare concepts.

Responsibilities

• Manage a specific number of pet cases in offsite care.
• Ensure welfare standards and rehabilitation plans are followed for pets in foster homes.
• Provide excellent customer service as the public face of Blue Cross at the Burford site.
• Occasional night checks or on-site accommodation duties as rota requires.

Skills

Animal care experience

Communication

Empathy

Job description

Pet Welfare Assistant - Off-site Services

Application Deadline: 16 November 2026

Department: Rehoming & Fostering Services

Employment Type: Permanent - Part Time

Location: Burford

Reporting To: Assistant Manager - Off-site Services

Compensation: £12,488 / year

Description

Contract: Permanent, 18.75 hours per week

Salary: £12,488 per annum (£24,976 FTE)

Location: Burford, OX18 4PF

Closing date: Monday 16th November 2026

Interview date: week commencing 23rd November 2026

We're recruiting a Pet Welfare Assistant for off-site animal care, for our Rehoming & Fostering team in Burford!

At Blue Cross, we're dedicated to providing the best care possible to pets in need. As a Pet Welfare Assistant for our offsite services, you'll play an important role in our mission, ensuring that every pet receives the love, attention, and support they deserve whilst they are in our offsite care.

Set within 200 acres of beautiful Cotswold countryside, our Burford Centre opened in 1990 and provides care for up to 25 dogs, 21 cats, 14 rabbits and other small pets. We also have paddocks and stables that enable us to care for up to 60 horses.

Our dedicated Rehoming & Fostering team, supported by an incredible network of volunteers, helps pets and people across Oxfordshire and beyond. The team plays a vital role in finding loving new homes for pets through both centre-based adoptions and our Home Direct scheme, which allows pets to remain in a home environment while they wait to be adopted. By working closely with adopters, owners and foster carers, the team helps ensure every pet has the best possible chance of finding the right home.

More about the role

Our Burford centre has a wonderful group of dedicated people with varying skills that meld into one team with one mission: to help as many pets as possible. With great facilities, including a woodland, the team are proud of what they can accomplish on a daily basis together.

As a Pet Welfare Assistant - Off-site Services, you will be responsible for expertly managing a specific number of pet cases within the offsite pet care service, these can be rehoming pets in foster or Home Direct service.

You will be ensuring welfare standards are met and that rehabilitation plans are followed and supported for pets in foster homes. As we want to help as many pets as possible, this role will be responsible for ensuring the assessment of pets preparing for a new home in offsite services is completed in the quickest amount of time.

For many, the centre will be the 'public face' of Blue Cross so you will need to ensure that good customer service is at the heart of every interaction. At Blue Cross we are ambitious, and the work carried out by our centres is key in achieving our strategy and ensuring that ultimately, we help more pets and people.

At our Burford rehoming centre, we provide onsite accommodation for pets in our care 24/7. Overnight shifts are usually undertaken by team members who live on site. Occasionally, you will be expected to carry out night checks or stay in on site accommodation overnight when the resident team members are either not working or away for a period of time. These duties are organised on a local rota and shared between all members of the team.

This is a permanent part time role working an average of 2.5 days a week across a 4-week rota:

Week 1: Monday & Tuesday

Week 2: Tuesday & Wednesday

Week 3: Monday, Tuesday & Saturday

Week 4: Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday

If you excel in an environment where you can see the difference you make every day, then this is the role for you. Interested? Then apply and let's work together to see if this is the role for you.

About you

The person will be empathetic, intuitive, and focused on animal welfare, with experience in a similar environment. You can assess pet needs, recognise behavioural signs, and have a basic understanding of medications like flea treatments and diabetes management. Self-motivated and collaborative, you bring practical, creative solutions for the best care outcomes.

Your communication skills are first-class, making you approachable and effective in sharing critical information with fosterers, clients, and stakeholders. You're resilient and emotionally intelligent, able to thrive in emotionally charged situations while supporting both clients and colleagues with empathy.

Knowledge, skills, and experience

• Experience of having previously worked or volunteered with domestic animals or in an animal welfare environment.
• Good experience of recording information and being