Job Title: Improving Ageing in North Somerset (IANS)Manager
Location: North Somerset, UK
Hours: 4 Days  (29.6 hours per week).
Contract: Fixed term for 4 and 1/2 years
Work Pattern: Hybrid working, and the postholder would be expected to work in the VANS office at least 2 days a week. Offices are located in Weston super Mare.

Salary:  Salary £31,000 FTE

Voluntary Action North Somerset
Voluntary Action North Somerset (VANS) is a charity that champions the work of the nonprofit-making sector. Our vision is:
‘A world where individuals and organisations are empowered, and everyone feels connected and engaged.’

Our Mission:
To inspire, lead, support, advocate and influence people to take positive action in creating a more connected, inclusive, and thriving community for everyone.

Our Objectives:

· To advocate and develop leadership within non-profit-making organisations.

· To encourage and develop partnerships and collaborations.

· To create, develop, and strengthen a dynamic non-profit-making sector.

· To develop and grow volunteering.

Purpose of IANS manager role

To oversee the implementation of a 5-year National Lottery-funded Improving Ageing in North Somerset programme.

Key Responsibilities:

1. To oversee the implementation of the 5 years IANS plan and programme, ensuring that key milestones, targets, output and outcomes are met.

2. To set up the IANS delivery group.

3. To line manage the two IANS development workers.

4. To take lead responsibility for the development age champions programme.

5. To oversee the development of the older people’s newsletter.

6. To oversee the development of the annual North Somerset conference for older people.

7. To ensure that older people’s voices are heard at strategic and operational levels, including attending appropriate meetings with key partners and stakeholders.

8. To be a member of the VANS Senior Management Team (SMT) and attend fortnightly meetings.

9. Other duties as assigned to support VANS objectives.

Key Skills and Qualifications:

1. Significant experience in project management, including project planning and monitoring and measuring targets, milestones and outcomes.

2. Ability to produce reports for funders and other stakeholders on IANS progress against targets and outcomes.

3. Significant experience in managing staff.

4. Knowledge and understanding of issues affecting older people.

5. An understanding and commitment to the principles of co-production.

6. An understanding of why some groups of older people are ‘seldom heard’ and a commitment to working in ways that improve this.

7. Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to form and maintain appropriate relationships with colleagues from across different sectors.

8. Strong relationship builder with excellent partnership working and networking skills.

9. Understanding of the entire MS Office suite.

10. Self-motivated, super organised, and able to work under own initiative as well as within a team.

11. Enthusiastic about the project and committed to Improving Ageing in North Somerset.

12. An ability to travel around North Somerset.

Background information for candidates

How to Apply:

To apply for these roles, please send a CV and cover letter setting out how you meet the person’s specifications to [email protected]. The post is hybrid working, and the postholder would be expected to work in the VANS office at least 2 days a week. Offices are located in Weston super Mare.

If you would like to discuss the roles, please get in touch with Kirsty Staunton at 07983 894705 or email [email protected]

Closing date 9 am on the 31st of March

Interviews on the 7th of April 

Voluntary Action North Somerset is an equal-opportunity employer and encourages individuals from diverse backgrounds to apply. We thank all applicants for their interest, but only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

ED monitoring form Equality and diversity monitoring form

 

Community Transport Consultant

Timescale: To be completed by end August 25

Budget: The total budget available for this work is £15,000 inclusive of VAT and expenses.

About VANS

VANS is an independent charity that has championed the voluntary sector and volunteering across North Somerset for over 25 years.

We represent, develop and empower the voluntary community and social enterprise sector in North Somerset to be at the forefront of positive social change and development.

Background to consultancy

North Somerset is a unitary authority in the South West of England bordering onto Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset and Somerset. The council is based in Weston-Super-Mare, the area’s largest town. The district also contains the towns of Clevedon, Nailsea and Portishead, along with several villages and surrounding rural areas. Some southern parts of the district fall within the Mendip Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

North Somerset has 98,000 people over the age of 50 and 52,700 over the age of 65. The population of people over 65 in North Somerset has increased by 22% between 2011 – and 2021 and 33% of these live in rural areas/villages. North Somerset has a particular challenge in that most of its ‘older’ older population live in more rural areas and that the public transport is very poor. Consequently, they find it hard to access support and services which are primarily either in Weston, Clevedon, Nailsea, Portishead or in some cases in Bristol.

In 2024, Voluntary Action North Somerset commissioned a State of Ageing report which can be found here which identified that lack of access to transport is one of the major issues facing older people in North Somerset.

Community Transport in North Somerset

North Somerset has a number of community transport schemes in North Somerset ranging from large scale providers such as Weston & District Community Transport and Nailsea and District Community transport, localised community minibus schemes such as Churchill and Langford minibus society and Wrington mini bus society, and volunteer car driver schemes which are generally focused on transporting people to medical appointments.

Like all local authorities, North Somerset Council faces significant financial challenges and as a result has had to make significant cuts to community transport grants in 24/25.

Following discussions with North Somerset Council, it was agreed that VANS would undertake to develop the skills and capacity of community transport providers in North Somerset initially by employing a consultant funded by North Somerset Council.

Building on the work of the State of Ageing report, the consultant will

· Undertake a full mapping of community transport provision in North Somerset including number and scale of schemes, vehicles owned/leased, number of staff and/or volunteers, number of journeys carried out per year, legal structure, back-office processes e.g. how journeys are booked and any other relevant information

· Hold at least 2 forums for community transport providers

· Identify potential for community transport schemes to increase business opportunities

· Work with community transport providers to get feedback from communities including those who do not currently use community transport and existing customers

· explore potential for collaborative working e.g. around volunteer recruitment, shared back-office working including booking systems to make it easier for customers to access services

· support recruitment of volunteers for community transport schemes

Consultant will be expected to engage with a range of key stakeholders including

· Community transport schemes

· Older people

· Local communities

· VCSE organisations

· North Somerset Council

· Local funders such as Quartet

Due to the complex nature of the work, consultants will be expected to hold at least some meetings face to face in North Somerset

Outputs

· full mapping report outlining the current status of community transport schemes in North Somerset, the views of the people who use them, potential for collaboration and business growth

· 2 x community transport forums

Person specification

· Knowledge and understanding of community transport schemes and the role they play in supporting communities

· Knowledge and understanding of collaborative working around service delivery

· Knowledge and understanding of the issue of ageing in a rural area

· Ability to understand interpret quantitative data

· Ability to capture qualitative data in a meaningful way

· Ability communicate with a wider variety of people and audiences both verbally and in writing

How to Apply:

To apply for these roles, please send a CV and cover letter setting out how you meet the person’s specifications to [email protected]. 

If you would like to discuss the roles, please get in touch with Kirsty Staunton at 07983 894705 or email [email protected]

Closing date 9 am 28th February

Interviews week 10th March 25

Voluntary Action North Somerset is an equal-opportunity employer and encourages individuals from diverse backgrounds to apply. We thank all applicants for their interest, but only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

 ED monitoring form Equality and diversity monitoring form

 

Carers Development Project at VANS

Duration of the project:  April 25 – April 26

Budget:  £29,900 to include consultant time, publicity, venue hire, travel etc

Background

North Somerset Council have developed an ambitious new strategy and implementation plan for Carers. One of the gaps identified by the State of Ageing report that has fed into the strategy was that “there is currently no organisation in North Somerset with the purpose of advocating for the broader needs and interests of unpaid carers”. The full state of ageing report can be found here https://www.vansweb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/The-State-of-Ageing-in-North-Somerset-A4-Landscape.pdf

Discussions with North Somerset Council have identified an opportunity for VANS to host some work initially for a year with a view to;

• Developing adult carer’s voice within the health and social system
• Stimulating the development of a new organisation for carers in North Somerset

The work will be hosted within VANS and sit within the Ageing Well Team, although its focus will be on adult carers, i.e. 18+.

The role will not be focused on service delivery or duplicate existing commissioned work, e.g. Cares Support Service commissioned from Alliance Homes.

Purpose of project

1. To create a carers forum and other mechanisms of engagement with adult carers in North Somerset to a) understand the issues they are facing, b) their ideas for solutions, c) boost the collective voice of adult carer.s
2. To take these issues back to North Somerset Council and appropriate strategic groups, advocating for adult carers as a collective group
3. To support adult carers to advocate on behalf of themselves

Collaboration

This role is a collaborative one and the person carrying it out would be expected to work closely with the Carers Partnership Board, existing carers support services, providers of domiciliary care, Sirona and the 2 Locality Partnerships as well as other appropriate networks and organizations.

Deliverables

• 6 carers forums for carers of adults (18+). This would include working with Alliance Homes carer’s voice but would have a particular focus on reaching carers who are not currently known to services. This would include people who are caring for
  • People with mental health challenges
  • People with learning disabilities
  • Older adults, including those with dementia-type illnesses
  • Adults with physical disabilities or sensory impairments
• Bi-monthly reports to the Carers Partnership Board on issues being raised by carers and any progress on resolution, as well as statistical data on carers attending forums or being in contact with the project
• Attendance at the following meetings
  • – Carers Partnership Board
  • – Locality Boards for One Weston & Woodspring
  • Locality sub-groups, e.g. ageing well, CMHT

H&WB board to report back

Carers consultancy advert