Appeals and Disputes Advisor

35 hours per week, Fixed-term 12 months maternity cover

The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) is the leading charity dedicated to creating a world without barriers for deaf children and young people.

NDCS London office

As part of NDCS’s work in breaking down these barriers, the Appeals and Dispute Team support deaf children, young people and their families in getting the support they require to exercise their rights. This may be by supporting a challenge to an EHC Plant or Statement of Special Educational Needs, submitting arguments for reasonable adjustments to be implemented at school or supporting families to submit complaints to the Ombudsman. With the recent reforms in England brought in by the Children and Families Act 2014, and corresponding proposed changes in Wales, and Northern Ireland, there is an increasing need to bring challenges relating to social and health care provision as well.

We are looking for an outstanding and enthusiastic person to join this busy team which has a portfolio including disputes, discrimination claims and challenges of provision in Education, Welfare Benefits, Community Care and Health. We are currently particularly keen to recruit an Education specialist who is able to take on an existing case load of Tribunal cases with good knowledge in at least one other area.

Do you have experience of providing advocacy in a tribunal setting and/or using the Equality Act to challenge decisions? Do you have the excellent analytical communication skills required to meet the challenge of working in these ever changing areas of law and policy? If so we would like to hear from you.

Not only will you be supporting deaf children, young people, and their families but you will be working closely with other services within NDCS as well as external professionals in order to help remove barriers for all deaf children and young people. You will have a particularly strong relationship with colleagues delivering generalist children and families’ support, and with our policy and campaigns colleagues.

For an application pack please ring our recruitment line on 020 7014 1185. Alternatively, you can download an application pack by visiting our website at www.ndcs.org.uk or email recruitment@ndcs.org.uk .

Please note that you will need Adobe Reader 7 or above to complete the application form. This can be downloaded for free if you do not already have it. If you are using an Apple Mac please open and complete the application form using Adobe Acrobat Reader and not the Apple Mac Preview Option.

The closing date for applications is 9am on Monday 9 March 2015

We expect interviews to be held in London week commencing Monday 16 March.

NDCS is aiming to be an equal opportunities employer and is committed to promoting work-life balance amongst its staff.

NDCS is committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and expects staff and volunteers to share that commitment.

The National Deaf Children’s Society is a registered charity in England and Wales (1016532) and in Scotland (SC040779).