Residences Welfare Volunteers Manager

Job description

King’s Residences operates 12 Halls of Residence across London, housing approximately 5500 students every year. Living on site in every building is a team of 2 or 3 Residence Welfare Leads (RWLs). The RWLs are volunteer post-graduate students or staff at King’s who apply to move into the Halls and provide an out-of-hours wellbeing support service to our resident students. The RWL team provides vital welfare support to our students when they need it most, delivering essential comfort, care, guidance and crisis intervention. In 2019, the RWL team won University Team of the Year at the Property Week awards and are sector-leading in operation.  

 

The main purpose of this role is to provide strong and inspiring leadership to the Residence Welfare Lead team. In the 2022/23 academic year, we had 27 Residence Welfare Leads and 4 Senior Welfare Leads. We anticipate the need for team growth in future years due to increasing student numbers and demand for the service. We want to ensure that there is strong stewardship in place through this position to anticipate this growth and to ensure the wellbeing of the RWL team as well as continuing to provide a World Class Service to our students.  

 

This role would be directly responsible for the supervision of the Senior Welfare Leads, who in turn supervise the wider Residence Welfare Lead volunteers. You would be responsible for providing robust management and oversight of the whole team, including leading on annual recruitment, onboarding, training and ongoing supervision of the RWL volunteers in pursuit of the highest performing team possible. This role reports directly into the Residences Wellbeing Manager, who is responsible for overseeing all Safeguarding, Welfare and Conduct matters across the 12 Halls of Residences. 

 

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract 

This is a full-time post - 100% full time equivalent

 

Key responsibilities

Recruitment & Training of Senior Welfare Leads and Residence Welfare Leads (Volunteers)  

•       Ensure an engaging and inspiring recruitment campaign is advertised and promoted annually to attract new volunteers to the team. 

•       Lead on shortlisting and interviewing candidates by building a panel of trained individuals to support with interviewing fairly. 

•       Oversee all administration and logistics for team appointments and allocations. 

•       Develop and run a thorough summer training programme for new RWL recruits, returning RWLs and SWLs. 

•       Conduct ad-hoc recruitment throughout the year as needed to backfill any vacancies. 

 

Line Management of Volunteer Team 

•       Direct line management of Senior Welfare Leads. This includes monthly 1-2-1 meetings, leading on weekly handover meetings and regular Performance Evaluations. 

•       Communicate expectations to team and oversee those efforts. 

•       Responsible for managing under-performance and instances of misconduct utilising the Volunteer Problem Solving protocol. 

•       Ensure an effective team meeting/training framework is in place for the academic year to ensure continuous professional development of the wider team. 

•       Regular review of volunteer Standard Operating Procedures, to ensure they are up to date, effective and in-line with wider College protocols. 

•       Regularly review all volunteer protocols and documentation to ensure it is up to date and meets the needs of the volunteer team. 

•       Ensure the team activities are risk assessed, and this is reviewed regularly and that the team is knowledgeable and aware of the Health and Safety expectations. 

•       Conducting exit interviews as needed to collect important feedback from experienced team members. 

•       Regularly reviewing overall team culture and performance through team feedback, student feedback and colleague feedback to identify areas of strength and necessary improvement. 

 

General Requirements 

•       Adhere to and promote the University’s policies on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. 

•       The ability to self-regulate and self-reflect to maintain robust emotional resilience and personal wellbeing. 

•       Strong sense of appropriate workplace and welfare boundaries. 

•       Engage in regular CPD to ensure knowledge and skill-set are up to date and relevant. 

•       Ensure compliance with Health & Safety and Data Protection Legislation. 

•       Engage in regular training and self-development opportunities, and to stay abreast of best practice, news and trends across the Higher Education landscape in relation to student support, mental health and student wellbeing – especially within the Halls of Residence sector. 

•       Support a culture of compassion, integrity, empathy and inclusivity amongst the Residence Welfare Leads. 

•       Seek regular feedback on delivery of resident wellbeing services from students, team members and colleagues in Residences. 

 

Additional Requirements 

•       A willingness to work out-of-hours occasionally to support with team meetings and trainings. 

•       To visit teams in residential accommodation, or elsewhere, as required. 

•       A willingness to travel to or work from any of the university’s sites as necessary. 

•       Participate in the On-Call Managers rota for escalated emergency incidents on site. 

•       Enhanced DBS Disclosure 

 

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

Essential criteria  

1.       Minimum of 3 years line management experience, ideally with volunteers 

2.       Understanding of inclusive, supportive recruitment processes and procedures 

3.       Excellent organisational skills and the ability to work effectively with a high volume of admin required. 

4.       Able to independently approach problems with creativity and resilience  

5.       Confident interpersonal, mediation, negotiation and conflict resolution skills 

6.       Able to motivate and inspire a team who work across multiple buildings and at opposite working hours 

7.       Experience with developing and presenting training or leading on meetings to a large team 

8.       Empathetic, self-aware and resilient 

 

Desirable criteria

1.       Experience with supervising or managing welfare staff/volunteers 

2.       Mental Health First Aid qualification (or similar) 

3.       Knowledge of Higher Education Institutions and the academic life cycle