Involve Team Lead

About the Borough

Found in zone 6 with good transport links in and out of London, Kingston is a vibrant and diverse university town which creates the rich sense of community shared across the borough and its Residents. Kingston boasts an idyllic riverside location, good shopping and great restaurants, as well as a mix of modern and historic town centre. Kingston has lots of open parklands and cycle routes that help connect the district town centres into an enjoyable place to live and work.

We are passionate about working closely with our residents and vulnerable groups to help them maintain their independence and create a balance between support and independent living.

About the Service and Team

The Council is focused on delivering the best possible outcomes for its communities. To do this the Council needs employees who thrive in an agile and networked organisation and who can support continuous improvement within a constructive organisational culture.

The Involve Team Lead is responsible for leading and supporting four part time Learning Disability Peer Advocates to ensure high-quality, inclusive participation and engagement. The role works across the Council to embed accessible, meaningful involvement of people with learning disabilities and people with autism in decision-making, service design, and improvement. This includes supporting and developing the peer advocate team, coordinating accessible communications and Easy Read materials, building strong partnerships with internal and community stakeholders, and promoting inclusive engagement practices across the organisation.

The role reports directly to the Corporate Participation and Engagement Manager in the Communications and Engagement service.

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

Delivery

• Manage the work of the Learning Disability peer advocates
• Provide ongoing support to peer advocates, identifying training needs and ensuring the continuous development of each team member’s skill set
• Conduct regular team meetings to review progress, address concerns, and maintain clear communication
• Provide regular reports on team achievements
• Coordinate and plan requests for Easy Read materials, supporting the Involve team in delivering them effectively
• Provide supervision and support for Interns

• Offer creative solutions to increase the number of people with learning disabilities/people with autism who participate and engage in council decision making processes and development work
• Work with departments across the council to improve the inclusion, participation of residents and communities in activity and improves their access to council services
• Ensure communications are in accessible formats when required in order to promote the independent access of service users to information
• Supporting the Communications and Engagement service to ensure the council ‘hard wires’ community engagement into decision making
• Identify opportunities for partnership working and ways to address shared challenges and priorities together
• Develops the relationship with key strategic and operational partners
• Work flexibly to meet the business and council priorities

Performance

• Works with manager and colleagues to define outcomes, set targets and monitor performance, within a culture of continual improvement
• Supports operational plans to ensure that the resources within the teams are used to best effect and impact

Customers and Partners

• Builds strong internal and external working partnerships to enable the service to be delivered in an outcome-focused and efficient way
• Supports Kingston’s commitment to community cohesion and valuing diversity and social inclusion

Digital/New Ways of Working

• Uses the Google suite and the latest technologies to adopt modern, agile working practices, improve customer service and digital processes.

Equality and Diversity

• Embeds the council's commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring this is at the heart of everything we do and that all voices are represented and celebrated, regardless of background.

The person

In order to successfully deliver the responsibilities of the role, you will need to:

• Have experience of supporting or managing people with learning disabilities and/or people with autism.
• Question and challenge ways of working, with an understanding of the bigger picture in terms of the corporate context and external environment
• Demonstrate agility and adaptability in mindset and ways of working

• Work successfully with key stakeholders within and outside of the council
• Demonstrate commitment to own personal and professional development to meet the changing demands of the role
• Demonstrate innovation and creativity
• Actively engage in positive cross organisational communications and team working
• Communicate clearly, confidently and appropriately with colleagues using the best methods of communication for the task.

• Demonstrate a wider understanding of meaningful engagement and community participation.

Our Stronger Together and STAR Values

At Kingston, we're not just colleagues; we're a community. Together, we have the power to achieve extraordinary things. By embodying our STAR values - Supportive, Transparent, Appreciative, Respectful - we can create a brighter future for ourselves and the communities we serve.

• Supportive of trying new ideas, with the courage to change direction.
• Transparent and connected in all that we think, say and do.
• Appreciative of each other, recognising and celebrating success.
• Respectful of difference and valuing diversity.

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 25-32 days, plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade.
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Three volunteering days per year in Kingston
• Hybrid working (dependent on the role)
• Flexible and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle leasing scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Application Process

Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.

We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and are embracing AI where appropriate, to boost our productivity and streamline how we deliver our Council services efficiently; to provide the best possible outcomes for our residents and communities.
However, we reserve the right to reject applications where it is apparent that AI-generated content has been used in isolation and without personalised responses. At Kingston we value authenticity and are looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate their own skills, experience and motivation for the role that they are applying for and embrace and demonstrate our STAR values.
Here at Kingston we have core values of Transparency and this is to be demonstrated during the application process and completion of the supporting statement and will be further tested at interview and selection stage for those who progress forward.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

As part of our award winning Diversity Programme we anonymise all applications received to reduce conscious and unconscious bias enabling every application to be reviewed on the knowledge, skills and experience shown in your application. We encourage our interview panels to be as diverse as possible (age, cultural, neurodiverse etc.) to reduce bias where possible. We are fully committed to removing barriers and enhancing the diversity of our workforce.

Additional Information

We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough and we strive to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and instil a sense of belonging in our staff. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce, therefore we welcome applications from under represented groups.

To support our workers and their families we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are also proud to be a disability confident employer and guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role. As an accredited London Living Wage Employer all our employees are guaranteed the London Living Wage regardless of their length or type of contract.

The UK has a points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance. Sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case-by-case basis.