Employment Advice and Guidance Officer

Are you passionate about empowering people with disabilities to live independently? Do you excel at providing clear, compassionate advice that helps individuals make informed choices? If so, we'd love to hear from you.

We are seeking an Employer Advice and Guidance (EAG) Officer dealing with direct payments/personal health budgets to join our dedicated team. In this role, you will provide high-quality information, advice and guidance to people with disabilities living independently across the Hertfordshire area who have been assessed as needing Direct Payments (DP) or Personal Health Budgets (PHB) to support them.

This is a part-time, remote-working role with some travel required to visit clients in and around the Hertfordshire area. You will deliver exceptional customer service across a range of communication channels while demonstrating empathy, patience and an understanding of individual needs.

The working hours are 22.5 per week Monday to Wednesday 9am to 5pm. (FTE £26,091 pa based on 37.5 hours pw)

What You'll Be Doing

As our EAG Officer, you will:

• Engage with DP/PHB holders, including through home visits, to explain direct payments, personal health budgets and their responsibilities.
• Provide clear employer-related advice, helping individuals understand their duties when employing personal assistants..
• Liaise with Payment Services to help resolve queries and find solutions for DP Holders.
• Support individuals to complete relevant paperwork and documentation.
• Signpost customers to appropriate resources, tools and support services.
• Assist DP Holders in calculating and understanding their financial budgets.
• Maintain accurate and robust audit trails, ensuring all customer records are kept up to date within relevant systems.
• Refer DP Holders to Payment Services where needed, ensuring they understand the scope of the service.
• Collate and prepare information for monitoring, reporting and performance metrics.
• Work collaboratively with social care professionals, health teams and other stakeholders, attending meetings where required.
• Identify and report any safeguarding concerns in line with organisational procedures.

About You

We're looking for someone who is:

• Able to travel within the Hertfordshire area as required.
• A confident communicator who adapts their stye to suit different audiences and situations with excellent customer service and numeracy skills.
• Experienced in an advisory role, supporting individuals to make informed decisions.
• Self motivated with the ability to work independently and collaboratively as part of a team.
• Organised with the ability to manage competing priorities effectively

Desirable Experience

• Knowledge or experience of HR or employment law.
• Understanding of health and social care systems.
• Awareness of safe recruitment and retention practices.
• Experience supporting individuals with disabilities, particularly DP Holders.
• Knowledge of direct payments and personal health budgets.

Additional Requirement

Home visits are sometimes necessary. Ideally, you will hold a valid UK driving licence and have access to a vehicle insured for business use. At a minimum, you must be able to travel efficiently to customers' homes across Hertfordshire.

Our values underpin everything we do and are the guiding beliefs and principles of Purple - we are:

• Authentic – lived experience is our most valuable raw material
• Accessible – from corporates to microenterprises, disability organisations to individual disabled people. We support all.
• The experts – humble but knowledgeable in finding solutions.
• Creative – global to local. We develop and deliver innovative approaches to the issues of today.

Purple is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults, children and young people, and expects all employees, contractors and volunteers to share this commitment. All post holders will be subject to appropriate pre-employment vetting procedures and, where eligible, a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service check.

If you require adjustments to attend an interview, please let us know.

Job Types: Part-time, Permanent

Pay: £15,564.00 per year

Expected hours: 22.5 per week

Benefits:

• Bereavement leave
• Enhanced maternity leave
• Enhanced paternity leave
• Work from home

Work Location: Remote