Vision Rehabilitation Specialist Qualified

The Vision Rehabilitation Specialist (VRS) are professionals who are trained to support visually impaired adults, enabling, and empowering them to live the life they choose. They support individuals to develop and maintain the independence and confidence they need to progress in the home, at work, socially and help them to adjust to new situations.

Through personalisation, the VRS work directly with individuals to holistically assess their needs and develop and deliver a bespoke programme of training in skills, wellbeing and coping strategies to empower people to live independently.

Key Responsibilities

Delivery Plan

• Together with the client co-produce an action plan which is tailored to meet individual clients needs and goals to enable progress on their individual Guide Dogs journey and maximise their independence.
• Plan on-going reviews of client progress in terms of the extent to which their desired outcomes have been achieved.

   

• Input and maintain Guide Dogs’ client records within given time frames and ensure our Data Protection policy and Safeguarding policies are adhered to.
• Support the whole region or other regions as necessary.

   

  Personalisation

• Build on the information already gained from initial contact or referral information about a client.
• Use a person-centred approach to organise around the client.
• Identify ambitions and challenges facing each client and their families.
• Together with the client, prepare a plan to deliver outcomes, including facilitating referrals and signposting where required.

   

  Assessment

• Assess the orientation and mobility needs, (including functional vision), capabilities, abilities and skills-gaps for clients seeking to improve their mobility.
• Assess and identify the broader needs and skills gaps of the person to improve their general independence and wellbeing and signpost where necessary.

   

  Client Training

• Deliver a staged training plan (Agreed Training Programme) in line with the specific needs and capabilities related to the customers desired outcomes. Provide information to clients on alternative services and equipment available, as such needs arise.
• Be confident in advising the client on appropriate technologies to support independence and integrate technology into service delivery.

   

  Review

• Regularly review, evaluate and agree client skills progress and outcomes throughout training and adapt and update as required to ensure outcomes are achieved.

   

   

• Work closely with other Guide Dog departments (e.g. CAS, safeguarding etc) to support policies within the organisation.
• Actively scope out opportunities to increase enquiries in line with Guide Dogs strategic aim of increasing reach and providing services to more people who are blind and partially sighted.
• Promote the profile of Guide Dogs.
• Contribute to Fundraising initiatives and work with Legacy, Major Relationships, National and Regional Fundraising Departments to assist in generating income.
• Data management/Compliance/Administration - Keep appropriate records of all work undertaken, either on Guide Dogs’ IS system, or on the system utilised by the relevant partner agency ensuring that all records and information is in line with Guide Dogs policies and procedures.

   

  Supervision and Leadership

• Lead, inspire, train and mentor trainee staff to achieve agreed objectives within available resources.Ensuring practical and theoretical training is provided through continual assessment to deliver training to a safe and competent standard.
• Use technical knowledge and experience working alongside the Technical Training department to observe, assess and coach trainee and provide professional technical expertise. This will include tutoring support in relation to academic assessments and on-going evaluation of their work performance.
• Invest in giving and receiving peer-to-peer support, including attending national, regional and local peer support opportunities.

How to apply 

Further details on the full role are attached below. When you are ready to apply, submit an online application form via this page.

If you would like to have an informal conversation about the role before applying, or require any accessibility support to apply, our friendly recruitment team is ready and waiting to help. Call them on 0118 3540345 or drop an email to [email protected].

As part of your application ensure you provide evidence and examples of how your skills & experience meet the criteria as set out in the attached job description. You will also be asked to complete a few job-specific questions as part of this application process, so please be prepared to write your answers to these questions.

If you want to know more about the teams who work at Guide Dogs, you can find it on our Careers Page

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

Guide Dogs welcomes applications from all sections of the community and actively encourages diversity to maximise achievements, creativity and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or nationality. 

As a Disability Confident Employer, we are proud, whenever possible, to offer an interview to all candidates that meet our selection criteria, and who indicate they wish their application to be considered under our Disability Confident interview commitment. For more details, visit our careers site.

If you are successful you will need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK via our digital ID checking supplier; in addition, we cannot offer visa sponsorship at this time.

Every day is different at Guide Dogs. And no person with sight loss is the same. We work side by side, on our sites and in the community, in schools and on our streets, supporting people to live the life they choose. Our staff therefore also work in different ways to support the delivery of our life changing work.

Safeguarding

Guide Dogs is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children, young people and adults at risk of harm with whom we work. We expect all our employees and volunteers to fully share this commitment.

At Guide Dogs, we believe in fair and equitable hiring practices. A criminal record will not automatically disqualify an applicant from consideration for a position. Each case will be evaluated individually, taking into account the nature of the offense, its relevance to the role, and the time that has passed since the incident. We encourage all candidates to disclose relevant information, and we assure you that it will be handled confidentially and fairly.

Guide Dogs follow Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding the vulnerable people we work with. As part of this, we require a full work history with any gaps accounted for & a minimum of 2 professional referee details fully covering the past 5 years. If you are applying for a disclosure role, please note that you will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check and sign up to the DBS update service.

For high volumes of applications, we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than advertised.