Welfare Officer – Maternity Cover

Location: Futureworks, Manchester City Centre

Hours: Full time (40 hours per week)

Reporting to: Head of Student Affairs

Benefits: Healthcare

Start Date: 1^st July 2024

End Date: 31^st July 2025    

About the role

Our Welfare Officer is the first point of contact for students and works proactively and reactively, providing 1-1 pastoral support to students, advises staff and raises awareness of support needs and issues. The role also includes administrative duties relating to the provision of student support. 

The role requires the post holder to have the skills and experience to engage and work constructively and sympathetically with students with on-going or emerging mental health conditions and all other health declarations to help achieve positive outcomes for students. 

The Welfare Officer liaises with students, programme leaders, partner universities and other external parties to ensure the facilitation of required support alongside accurate and timely flow of information in line with academic regulations, policies and procedures.

The role is based in our Student Advice Centre, which is a student-facing office, so confidence and friendliness is essential.

Usual work hours are Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5.30pm with a 1 hour lunch break 12.30pm – 1.30pm. Alternative hours can be discussed if the position is offered to you. It will be necessary to take part in scheduled departmental & institutional events which may happen during weekends and evenings, such as our annual graduation ceremony, September enrolment events and monthly Saturday open days 11am – 4pm.

About you

You should be organised, empathetic, have the ability to work independently and have the knowledge, skills and empathy to provide and develop excellent support services to our student community. 

You will need to be able to work quickly, accurately and remain calm under pressure. You’ll be expected to plan, organise and complete your own work and work independently, after receiving the appropriate training and with Line Manager supervision, so you’ll need to be good at time management and have great organisational skills, with an eye for detail. We understand that the role can be busy, so you’ll also need to be confident about telling us when you need help to get things done on time.

You should have knowledge of the legal implications of confidentiality; ideally, this knowledge should come from you having previous experience of working in an academic environment.

Although you’ll be working within our Student Services department, this is a stand-alone position, so we need someone who is happy to take on individual responsibility for their role, but also be successful in working as part of a small, close-knit team and supporting other Professional Services staff in their activities. You’ll need to be confident working collaboratively with other staff members to ensure the excellent provision of support offered to our students.

Representative Work Activities

• Provide the main point of contact for the Student Services support and welfare services.
• Provide 1-1 pastoral support and guidance to individual students and recommending appropriate resources, both internal and external.
• Facilitate academic support for students, via liaison with teaching staff.
• Manage a flexible caseload of students.
• Provide guidance to students with learning difficulties, mental health issues and/or disabilities and health conditions.
• Provide administrative support relating to the Student Services department and maintain accurate student records relevant to student support.
• Arrange and take part in enhancement activities and events.

Quality Indicators

The post holder will be expected to have:

• Knowledge of/ experience of working with students with mental health issues.
• Knowledge of/ experience of working with students with autism.
• Knowledge of/ experience of providing 1-1 pastoral support.
• Knowledge of available support for students in Higher Education or an interest in this area.
• Excellent time keeping and time management skills.
• Good interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate at all levels, especially on the telephone and in writing, ensuring effective reporting of a range of information, which may involve the occasional provision of advice and the interpretation of procedures.
• A high level of accuracy in data inputting and maintenance of student records.
• The ability to plan, organise and complete own work activities/tasks and work independently when required.
• The ability to work quickly, accurately and remain calm under pressure.
• The ability to provide accurate and relevant advice in response to specialist enquiries from students, colleagues and other stake holders.
• The ability to complete work on time and to standards agreed with Line Manager.
• The ability to produce and assess straightforward data and information and to identify problems which will be highlighted to others.
• Knowledge of, and adherence to, the organisation’s Safeguarding, Health & Safety and Equal Opportunities policies.
• Knowledge of the legal implications of confidentiality.
• Knowledge, experience and qualifications of Safeguarding procedures and expectations within Higher Education.

About us

Futureworks is a Higher Education provider for the creative media industries based in Manchester City Centre. Our student community is comprised of passionate individuals who aspire to work in the creative industries. Our graduates have gone on to work for BBC, Moving Picture Company, TT Games, Framestore, ITV and Sky Sports amongst many others.

We actively welcome applications from a diverse range of candidates regardless of background, sex, race, religious beliefs, disability, sexual orientation or age. We aspire to be a diverse and inclusive organisation because we believe that diversity brings benefits for our students and staff alike.

Applications should be in the form of a CV and covering letter sent via email to:

work@futureworks.ac.uk (via the ‘Apply’ button above) and addressed to the Head of Student Affairs quoting reference WO120324.