JOB VACANCY : Age UK Oxfordshire – Dementia Adviser

February 18, 2025

Role summary

Dementia Advisers (DAs) support people with a diagnosis of dementia, their carers, and families. As a DA, you’ll take a holistic approach to support, encouraging person-centred care and providing timely and accurate information and advice.

DAs signpost and refer to the right support at the right time across a wide range of services. By enabling clients to access support that they and their family need, you will play a vital role in enabling them to live as well as possible for as long as possible in their own homes and remain active in the community.

DAs are primarily home-based; you’ll be taking referrals within a geographical area and from GP surgeries. As a self-motivated initiative taker, you’ll need to be largely self-managing and happy to work alone. In particular, you need to be comfortable working with clients and carers face-to-face via video conferencing, telephone, and also visiting clients in their own homes. You will have the freedom to manage your own caseload, working within the service framework and under the guidance of a Locality Manager and the Head of Service.

Dementia Education Team : Some DAs have time allocated to support a ‘workstream’ to drive service development and to enhance our wider support offer. Four DAs support the Dementia Education ‘workstream’. Over the last two years, they have developed ‘Experts by Experience’ groups made up of service users that have helped us develop and deliver educational sessions for people with a diagnosis and their families. These have been piloted and refined, and we now deliver regular sessions throughout Oxfordshire, and we are keen to increase the number of sessions we can deliver.

If you are interested in helping people understand more about dementia and have good facilitation and presentation skills, there is an opportunity to join the Dementia Education Team, spending up to 50% of your time supporting the delivery of our education sessions.

This is an opportunity to become a part of an innovative and dedicated team who support people on their dementia journey from the point of diagnosis until end of life or a move to a care home.

Job location (usual place of work) : We are recruiting throughout the county; however, we are particularly interested in strengthening our team in South East Oxfordshire – particularly in the Wantage area, and North Oxfordshire, particularly in the Chipping Norton and Bicester areas.

Pay Rate : Salary £13.11 per hour, increasing to £13.64 per hour on completion of the probation period (pay review due from April 1st, 2025).

Applications close : 9.00 am, 10th March 2025

Hours : Part-time 21-28 hours per week. Hours to be mutually agreed.

Contract : Permanent

Ideally, we are looking for someone with experience and lots of skills. However, for the right person, we can offer a training and development programme, with mentoring support from an experienced DA, a structured induction, and a pathway to a level three qualification (as per the Regulated Qualifications Framework).

We are looking for someone able to see beyond the diagnosis, to show empathy, and enable clients to navigate the pathways of dementia care and help them to live well with dementia. We need someone who is comfortable working with older people and with experience of supporting people in a caring or cared-for role, preferably caring for people living with dementia.

We are looking for someone with the ability to listen and understand a client’s needs, good problem-solving skills, and a positive attitude to learning. You will need to be highly organised, able to communicate with a wide variety of people, and able to show empathy and provide support to those facing challenging circumstances.

DAs are asked to take on additional responsibilities to support service development, and we are also interested in hearing from candidates who have complementary skills or experience in providing education and awareness sessions, fundraising, and in supporting social media and websites.

We are a certified Oxford Living Wage employer.

OCVA is a registered charity No. 1108504 and a company limited by guarantee No. 05363946. Registered in England and Wales. VAT registration no. 948566174

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